In 1926: living at the edge of time - Monoskop

MURDER 161
peatedly infringe on constitutional rights and although their very existence
violates the Treaty of Versailles, which has reduced the German
army to 100,000 men. Even more dangerous than such infractions of
national law and international contract are the Freikorps' internal
(vehmic) executions of former members who are believed to be traitors
or dissenters. It is widely suspected that the agents of these crimes escape
prosecution because they enjoy the secret protection of judges and government
officials. In fact, however, the vehmic murderers cannot be
identified within their own organizations because they mirror-and push
to an extreme-the internal confusion of public institutions. On Thursday,
February 4, the 8 Uhr-Abendblatt publishes excerpts from the trial
of Sergeant Gobel, a member of the Schwarze Reichswehr (Black National
Army). Gobel's testimony makes it evident that even those Freikorps
groups that think they are in control of their members can be
continually surprised and intimidated by other subgroups, which interfere
with their actions and thus expose individual members to the danger
of being held responsible for crimes committed in the name of the
organization. No other writer describes more perceptively than Franz
Kafka the bureaucratic forms that emerge from this chaos in the interactions
between individual, society, and State. The brief letter which K.
receives from the Castle oscillates among various structural patterns and
presuppositions regarding the relation between the authorities and the
addressee: "My dear Sir: As you know, you have been engaged in the
count's service. Your immediate superior is the mayor of the village, who
will give you all the particulars concerning your job and the terms of
your employment, and who will oversee your work. I myself, however,
will try not to lose sight of you. Barnabas, the bearer of this letter, will
report to you from time to time to learn your wishes and communicate
them to me. You will find me always willing to oblige you, insofar as
that is possible. I would like my workers to be contented" (Kafka, 23).
K. suffers from this confusion of hierarchical levels. As if stricken with
a sudden disease, he hastily goes to bed after reading the letter. And
although it does not contain any threat, K. begins to develop strong
symptoms of paranoia:
K. ... began to read the letter again by the light of a candle. It was not
a consistent letter. In part it dealt with him as with a free man whose
independence was recognized-in the mode of address, for example,