Dusseldorf Such a secret was very seldom made about a book. Usually, journalists get insights in advance when they want to write a review. Not so with “Still awake?”, the new novel by bestselling author Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre. The publishing house Kiepenheuer & Witsch was probably worried that lawyers could prevent the book if content leaked out in advance.
The book, told from the point of view of an unnamed author, is about an equally unnamed but large tabloid television station, its CEO, whom the writer repeatedly refers to as “my friend”, and the station’s editor-in-chief, the employee harassment and allegations of abuse of power.
It is unmistakable that these are Springer-Verlag, Stuckrad-Barre itself, Döpfner and Reichelt. What is striking is the vehemence with which the author and publisher counteract this impression. At the premiere reading on Wednesday evening, the 48-year-old deliberately emphasized the fictitious nature of his work: “There are so many imaginary people in this book – it’s unbelievable.”
In an interview with “Spiegel”, Stuckrad-Barre also asserted that he would “never write a book” about Reichelt. Both of them can’t get along. However, the author said meaningfully: “A novel can be truer than reality.” When asked by the Handelsblatt, Stuckrad-Barre did not want to comment.
No new details on the Reichelt case
The only fiction in the book is probably the note printed before the table of contents be, the novel was “in parts inspired by various real events”, but “a completely independent new work”. But every hint, scene and chat history point to Springer, Döpfner and Reichelt. Any reader will understand that.
The book was traded in advance as a roman a clef. After reading this can be stamped as successful marketing. There may never have been a more authentic picture of the Axel Springer publishing house in a book. But if you are looking for details that are still unknown, you will be disappointed.
Stuckrad-Barre’s work lacks new details about the Axel Springer publishing house.
(Photo: dpa)
For observers, the book reads like a documentation of press reports from previous years. The work is not a literary treat either. The almost 400 pages seem too long, there is no clear arc of suspense, the characters are sometimes only drawn in a pale way.
However, the author succeeds in ingenious individual observations and scene descriptions. He creates the image of a megalomaniac CEO who is interested neither in the content of his station nor in the digital things in which he invests so much money. The company’s supposed values are being preached, but it’s really only about its value, he writes.
>> Read more: “Our last hope is the FDP”: Springer boss Döpfner under pressure after published emails
Stuckrad-Barre has good insight into the Springer publishing house, having worked there for ten years. He has received and continues to receive calls from employees who tell him about the abuse of power. He was once one of Döpfner’s closest confidants.
The writer himself became part of the New York Times report that brought down Reichelt. It quotes a private SMS from Döpfner to the author, in which the Springer boss is said to have described Reichelt as the last and only journalist in Germany who was still bravely rebelling against the “new GDR authoritarian state”.
rebellion against the boss
Stuckrad-Barre, a chain smoker, is known for books like Solo Album and Panic Heart. His new novel begins with how a relationship of trust develops between a trainee and the editor-in-chief. The young woman feels flattered by the attention of her boss, they have lunch in his office and make an appointment for the evening.
How far such relationships go becomes apparent shortly thereafter. The first-person narrator is shown a short message sent at night: “Fucking air conditioning, come and warm me up. body to body. NOW,” the editor-in-chief wrote verbatim. The SMS begins with the words “Are you awake?”.
The former “Bild” editor-in-chief has been criticized.
(Photo: imago images/Jörg Schüler)
This is how Stuckrad-Barre titled his work – an allusion to Reichelt. The former “Bild” editor-in-chief wrote such a message to a young colleague in the middle of the night. In the “Spiegel” the author rejects such connections, “Still awake?” is “a classic of SMS communication”, he says.
In the novel, the first-person narrator encourages the boss to do something about it. “For him, I thought, such events in his company could cause great difficulties.” But the head of the group dismissed it: he couldn’t take action on the basis of anonymous allegations, the employee might also be to blame.
In fact, Stuckrad-Barre is considered to be the key whistleblower in the compliance proceedings that Springer had against Reichelt. In his novel, Stuckrad-Barre describes how more and more employees rebel against the editor-in-chief and how much the TV station sticks to him despite the allegations and even intimidates colleagues who want to testify against him.
Expected bestseller
The novel impressively shows how difficult it is for employees who flirt with their boss and gives a lot of space to the topic #MeToo. “In terms of employment law, this is a shitty minefield,” it says literally. It was “so crazy what alleged victims have to consider in order to be credible”.
Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre: Still awake?
Kiepenheuer & Witsch
Cologne 2023
384 pages
25 euros
If they weren’t howling or screaming, no one would believe you. “And if you’re howling and screaming too loud and bleeding too dramatically, then you’ve probably set a trap for the poor man and hurt yourself and all that.”
At the end of the novel – as in the true example of Springer – there is not a complete enlightenment or even a cultural change. “Everything was back to normal, if not worse,” the author writes. The victims are also in the same situation as in the beginning. The first-person narrator, who initially appears as a savior, is disillusioned at the end: “We did what we could – but they were just able to do what they did.”
Do Springer and Reichelt now want to take legal action against a work in which they are not named and yet each side deals with them? The publisher left an inquiry unanswered, Reichelt lawyer Ben Irle announced that he would examine legal action.
>> Read here: Springer boss Döpfner apologizes after radical statements
One thing is clear: Kiepenheuer & Witsch is expecting a bestseller, with an initial print run of 160,000 copies. When asked, the bookstore chain Thalia described the work as a “strong novelty”, but top titles had definitely had even stronger sales figures in the past.
“Customs of our time”
In addition to documenting sexual exploitation, there is a second story in the book that deals with the end of the friendship between the writer and the corporate boss. At first, such a friendship seems “not at all conceivable” because “my very pleasant friend and this riot jerk” are also friends.
In the end, the first-person narrator even blocks contact with the boss, calling him an “ex-boyfriend” from then on. Here, too, there are parallels to reality: because Stuckrad-Barre felt that the Reichelt case had not been dealt with properly, he became estranged from Döpfner – and blocked his contact.
Author Stuckrad-Barre has blocked his contact.
(Photo: dpa)
“Still awake?” tries to draw a “moral portrait of our time” far beyond the TV station and the media industry, as the publisher rightly promises. The work complains that abuse of power in society is often hushed up – or not recognized at all.
The last chapter takes place in a luxury hotel in Los Angeles, where both the real writer and the first-person narrator regularly stay. A journalist who wants to report on the abuse of power at the hotel says it’s impossible not to have noticed. “It was here, every day, omnipresent!” The first-person narrator replies: “No, we didn’t notice anything.”
More: The entire editor-in-chief of “Bild” has to go