Hugo Reiss and Bruno Kreuz vom Meere

Hugo Reiss and Bruno Kreuz vom Meere are the two most powerful German officials in the Pacific States of America, and their relationship is a study in bureaucratic rivalry, mutual contempt, and the corrosive logic of totalitarian power. Reiss, the Reichs Consul in San Francisco, is a cultured, weary career diplomat who values form, discretion, and the smooth operation of his consulate. Kreuz vom Meere, the chief of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) in the PSA, is a heavy-jawed, pock-skinned man with enormous gold teeth and a disapproving scowl, a low-class Bavarian thug who operates from a cover-name headquarters at the air terminal. Their jurisdictions overlap in countless matters—a deliberate policy of the higher-ups in Berlin—and this overlap breeds constant friction. Reiss holds an honorary SS commission as a major, which technically makes him Kreuz vom Meere's subordinate, a fact that rankles him deeply. He chafes at the arrangement, but he can do nothing about it, and the resentment simmers beneath every interaction.

The Nature of Their Rivalry

The rivalry between Reiss and Kreuz vom Meere is rooted in personality, class, and institutional competition. Reiss is an aristocrat of the old school, a man who reads the Frankfurter Zeitung over breakfast, smokes Egyptian Simon Arzt cigarettes, and finds solace in banned novels. He is repelled by Kreuz vom Meere's vulgarity and his habit of barging into the consulate without ceremony. Kreuz vom Meere, for his part, is a product of the SD's ruthless meritocracy, a man who has risen through the ranks by his willingness to do the Party's dirty work. He treats Reiss with a mixture of condescension and suspicion, knowing that the consul's honorary SS commission is a leash, not a badge of honor. When Kreuz vom Meere arrives at the consulate to report that the SD has located the Abwehr agent Rudolf Wegener, he does so with a proprietary air, as if the consul's office were merely a staging ground for his own operations. Reiss listens, his face a mask of professional courtesy, but inwardly he seethes at the SD chief's presumption.

The Wegener Affair and the SD Raid

The Wegener affair brings their rivalry to a head. Kreuz vom Meere has been tracking Wegener, who is traveling under the cover name Baynes, and he has a Kommando squad ready to snatch him from the Nippon Times Building. He informs Reiss that he has notified Kaltenbrunner and that Berlin will likely issue orders for Wegener's forcible return. Reiss, who has no love for the SD and even less for being bypassed, listens with growing irritation. When Kreuz vom Meere asks him to write an authorization for the arrest, Reiss complies, but his mind is already working on how to sabotage the operation. He reflects that the SD cannot get Wegener out of the PSA without his active cooperation, and he contemplates dropping a hint to the Japanese about the Lufthansa flight, or needling them into outrage with a contemptuous smirk. He hates people who go over his head, and Kreuz vom Meere has done exactly that by contacting the Chancery directly. The phone call from Doctor Goebbels, which confirms the SD's authority, only deepens Reiss's resentment. He feels hemmed in, a pawn in a game he cannot control, and his hands shake as he hangs up.

The Raid and Its Aftermath

The SD raid on the Nippon Times Building is a disaster. Kreuz vom Meere's Kommando squad, dressed like violinists or divinity students, attempts to seize Wegener but is met with armed resistance. Nobusuke Tagomi, the Trade Mission official, shoots two of the SD men with his antique Colt .44, killing one and mortally wounding the other. The raid fails, and the SD is left with two dead operatives and a diplomatic scandal. Reiss is summoned to the Kearny Street Police Station and the morgue, where he reads the account of the shooting. He meets with Tagomi, who confronts him directly, declaring, "I personally shot your two SD men." Reiss tries to dismiss the incident as the work of hoodlums unconnected to the Reich, but Tagomi is unrelenting. He accuses Reiss of being complicit in the SD's violence and predicts a bloodbath. Reiss, who had secretly hoped to see Kreuz vom Meere humiliated, finds himself humiliated instead. He leaves the meeting shaken, his cigarette trembling in his fingers.

The Consul's Secret Sabotage and Its Limits

Reiss's secret sabotage of the SD operation is a study in passive resistance. He never openly defies Kreuz vom Meere; he simply drags his feet, hoping to delay the arrest long enough for the Japanese to intervene. He reflects that a little foot-dragging here and there could stall the SD's activities, and he imagines the pleasure of seeing the SD chief fail. But his sabotage is limited by his own cowardice and his fear of the Reich's internal purges. He knows that if he is caught undermining the SD, he could end up in Protective Custody or worse. When he contemplates sending an Einsatzkommando after Hawthorne Abendsen, the author of The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, he quickly abandons the idea, scratching out his notation and burning the paper. He is a man who dreams of resistance but lacks the courage to act on it, and his relationship with Kreuz vom Meere reflects this paralysis.

The Broader Significance

The relationship between Reiss and Kreuz vom Meere is a microcosm of the Nazi state's internal contradictions. Their rivalry is not a clash of good and evil but a struggle between two factions of the same oppressive apparatus. Reiss, for all his culture and refinement, is as complicit in the Reich's crimes as Kreuz vom Meere; he merely prefers to look away. Kreuz vom Meere, for all his brutality, is a loyal servant of the Party, and his loyalty is rewarded with power. Their mutual contempt is a symptom of the regime's dysfunction, a system that pits its own agents against each other to prevent any one of them from becoming too powerful. In the end, neither man emerges victorious. Kreuz vom Meere's raid fails, and Reiss is left to face Tagomi's wrath. Their relationship, like the Reich itself, is a dead end, a tangle of suspicion, fear, and ambition that leads nowhere but to more violence and more suffering.