Ulteriori informazioni
In 1949, the year of the Berlin airlift and the founding of the two post-war German states, Elisabeth Kusian (nurse, black marketeer, morphine and methamphetamine addict, and pathological liar) garroted and dismembered two people in a mini crime spree. Her actions both fascinated and terrified the public – how could this woman, a nurse, commit such a violent act?
West Berlin detectives attempted to run an efficient investigation under new democratic rules. Their East Berlin counterparts, newly structured along Soviet lines, employed their restricted resources to solve the case and prove the advantages of their socialist system. Both tried to use the investigation to demonstrate their distance from the Third Reich and build a brighter future.
Based on the true story of Elisabeth Kusian,
Death in the Rubble explores shifting identities, evolving gender expectations, post-fascist politics and norms, and the violence lurking beneath a city struggling to redefine itself.
Sommario
Table of Berlin Police Ranks
List of Figures, Images, and Maps
Acknowledgments
Prologue
1. Who Was Elisabeth Kusian?
2. The Seidelmann Case
3. The Murder of Doris Merten
4. Building the Case: Berlin’s Police Departments Investigate Elisabeth Kusian
5. Finalizing the Case: Berlin’s Police Departments Finish with Elisabeth Kusian
6. The Trial of Elisabeth Kusian
Conclusion
Bibliography
Info autore
Richard Bodek is a professor of history at the College of Charleston.
Riassunto
Set against the shattered landscape of post-war Berlin, Death in the Rubble follows a nurse battling addiction who murders her victims to buy gifts for her lover – a married police detective.
