German Foreign Office

The German Foreign Office, the diplomatic service of the German Reich, operates in the Pacific States of America through its consulate in San Francisco, headed by Consul Hugo Reiss. As the Reich's official representative in Japanese-administered territory, the consulate manages routine diplomatic functions—greeting German sailors, handling coded radiograms from Berlin, and maintaining relations with the Japanese Trade Missions and the local authorities. Yet beneath this bureaucratic surface, the Foreign Office is a node in the Reich's internal power struggles, where the SD, the Abwehr, and the Chancery vie for control, and where the consulate's formal neutrality masks a deep entanglement in espionage and political intrigue.

Structure and Functions

The consulate's daily operations are depicted through the routines of its staff, including Vice-Consul Herr Frank and Secretary Pferdehuf, who manage correspondence, decode messages, and coordinate with Berlin. Reiss himself is a career diplomat with an honorary SS rank of major, a commission bestowed to make him technically subordinate to the local SD chief, Bruno Kreuz vom Meere—a deliberate policy of overlapping jurisdiction that fosters rivalry. The consulate's functions extend to certifying seamen's papers, receiving messages of condolence, and addressing meetings of businessmen, as Reiss does at one o'clock on the day of Bormann's death. The office is also a conduit for intelligence: when Berlin sends a coded radiogram about a Japanese general traveling incognito, Reiss instructs Pferdehuf to discreetly gather information from the public library, demonstrating the consulate's role in surveillance and counterintelligence.

Relations with the SD and the Abwehr

The Foreign Office's relationship with the SD is strained and competitive. Kreuz vom Meere, the SD chief, frequently bypasses Reiss, contacting Berlin directly and demanding cooperation. When the SD locates the Abwehr agent Rudolf Wegener, traveling under the cover name Baynes, Kreuz vom Meere pressures Reiss to authorize his forcible return to the Reich. Reiss, resentful of being overridden, contemplates foot-dragging to sabotage the SD's plans, but ultimately complies after receiving a direct call from Chancellor Goebbels, who instructs him to cooperate fully. This episode reveals the Foreign Office's subordination to the police apparatus, even as Reiss privately despises the SD's methods and ambitions. The consulate's role in the Wegener affair is further complicated by the SD's raid on the Nippon Times Building, where Wegener is meeting with General Tedeki; Reiss is summoned by the Japanese to address the incident, but he dismisses the SD connection as unproven, preferring to smooth over the crisis.

The Consul's Perspective and Moral Decay

Reiss's personal reflections expose the moral bankruptcy of the Nazi diplomatic corps. He reads The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, a banned novel depicting an Axis defeat, and is disturbed by its power, recognizing the appeal of its imagined world. He contemplates having the author, Hawthorne Abendsen, assassinated, but dismisses the idea as too risky, fearing Protective Custody or worse. His cynicism extends to his own position: he fears being reassigned to a colonial backwater and resents the SD's growing influence. When Mr. Tagomi confronts him after the shooting of the SD men, Reiss attempts to dismiss the incident as a criminal matter, but Tagomi's accusations of impending bloodbath and his refusal to sign the extradition form for Frank Frink reveal the Foreign Office's complicity in the Reich's atrocities. Reiss's final exchange with Tagomi, where he is called "chicken shit," underscores the breakdown of diplomatic decorum in the face of moral horror.

Significance

The German Foreign Office in The Man in the High Castle embodies the bureaucratic machinery of a totalitarian empire, where diplomacy is a tool of power rather than a means of peace. Its functions are subverted by internal rivalries, and its officials are complicit in the regime's crimes, even as they privately harbor doubts. The consulate's interactions with the Japanese, the SD, and the Abwehr illustrate the complex web of alliances and enmities that define the Reich's presence in the Pacific, and its ultimate impotence in the face of larger historical forces. Through Reiss, the novel critiques the moral compromises of those who serve evil, suggesting that even the most routine diplomatic duties are inseparable from the regime's inhumanity.