Herr Reinicke

Herr Reinicke is a trusted teacher who approaches Lukas about the stolen school computers and tries to enlist him as an informant. His decisive significance lies in the contradiction between his familiar, friendly public manner and the racism that shapes his appeal: instead of relying only on what the school knows about the theft, he asks Lukas to listen for information because Lukas is the only German student in his class.

Identity and Introduction

Herr Reinicke is one of the school’s trusted teachers. When he finds Lukas while police are still at the school, he says he has been looking for him and asks to speak after the first lesson because the matter is important. His expression is unusually serious and his manner unusually terse; Lukas remembers him as someone who is normally talkative, smiling, and friendly. Herr Reinicke looks between Lukas and Sanchez as he makes the request, giving the encounter an air of deliberate scrutiny before he has explained what he wants.

The Interview About the Theft

In his office, Herr Reinicke initially makes small talk over coffee, asking whether Lukas already drinks it. The uncomfortable chair leaves Lukas shifting in place, and the casual exchange only delays the reason for the meeting. Herr Reinicke eventually states plainly that the stolen computers and Lukas are the subject. Lukas begins to sweat, and the telephone ringing on the desk makes him flinch. Herr Reinicke briefly lifts the receiver and puts it down without taking his eyes off Lukas, but the phone rings again, forcing him to answer and send Lukas to wait outside.

Lukas sinks to the floor beside the office wall while he waits, resting his head on his arms. When Herr Reinicke returns, he apologizes for the delay and notices Lukas sitting there. Lukas says nothing and stands up, telling himself to remain calm and not to disclose anything; he expects Marco to find a way to handle the situation. Herr Reinicke resumes the interview at his desk, saying he wants to get directly to the point before Lukas misses more class. He asks what Lukas has to say about the stolen computers and watches him without blinking. Lukas denies knowing anything, says he knows only what appeared in the newspaper and what the police told the students on Monday, and begins to tremble before sitting down.

An Appeal Built on Prejudice

Herr Reinicke presents the stolen classroom key as the reason he believes the perpetrators must be students from Lukas’s class: a teacher’s key was taken while teaching there. He adds that students hear more gossip than teachers and says he and Lukas need not pretend otherwise. Then, after checking the closed doors, he leans across the desk and recasts the investigation as a matter of ethnic solidarity. He claims that immigrant students will protect one another, says Germans must do the same, and singles Lukas out as the class’s only German student. The appeal does not follow evidence identifying Lukas as a witness; it follows Herr Reinicke’s assumption that shared nationality makes him a useful ally.

He reinforces that assumption with a xenophobic account of the school and its neighborhood. Although he says he does not live there, he complains about being surrounded by people with immigrant backgrounds and labels the area Klein-Istanbul. He treats the school’s high proportion of immigrant students as an explanation for its daily problems, presenting the computer break-in as the culmination of that supposed pattern. His brief laugh and headshake accompany a generalization that transforms an investigation of a specific theft into a condemnation of a whole community.

The Informant Request and Its Immediate Aftermath

Herr Reinicke tells Lukas that he does not expect him to have answers immediately. Instead, he asks him to keep his ears open in class and report anything he hears. He calls catching the culprits a matter of time, but says that the sooner it happens, the better; he frames the work as a personal concern, insisting that the students should be shown that Germany has rules and laws. His language becomes openly demeaning as he contrasts those rules with a racist caricature of people from elsewhere. The invitation to inform is therefore inseparable from his prejudice: he is not merely asking a student to pass on relevant information but trying to recruit him through an asserted division between Germans and immigrant classmates.

After checking his watch and seeing that it is already quarter past nine, Herr Reinicke writes a note allowing Lukas until 9:20 so that he will not have to rush back to class. He hands it to him, escorts him to the door, tells him to endure the situation, and gives him another strange wink before closing the door. The practical note restores Lukas to school routine, while the wink leaves the encounter marked by the conspiratorial alliance Herr Reinicke has tried to create.

Narrative Role and Significance

Lukas leaves the meeting shocked by Herr Reinicke’s remarks. He recognizes that, apart from the stolen key, the school seems to know no more than it did on Monday. He also sees the immediate advantage in Herr Reinicke’s prejudice: teachers who share that outlook may not believe students whose account of Lukas’s involvement comes through Taner. But Lukas finds the advantage disturbing, calling the situation unfair and disgusting even as he hopes the other teachers are not like Herr Reinicke. The scene thus makes the investigation’s uncertainty run in two directions: Lukas fears what the school might discover about him, while the reader sees that Herr Reinicke’s own assumptions can distort whom the school believes and whom it suspects.