The drive on the morning of June 24, 1922 from Walther Rathenau's house in Berlin's Koenigsallee in the direction of the ministry took only a few minutes.

On the corner of Erdener Strasse, a cabriolet overtook the foreign minister's open car. A man in it raised a submachine gun and fired.

Maria Wiesner

Editor in the “Society & Style” department.

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Fridtjof Küchemann

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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The biographies, the historical classifications and the literary monument that Robert Musil Walther Rathenau created with the character of the "great writer" Paul Arnheim in his "Man without Qualities" is now joined by a novel: In "10:50, Grunewald" Stephan Abarbanell accompanies Walther Rathenau in his last minutes and reviews stations of his life, encounters of a political and private nature.

How does Rathenau find his way between the tasks in his father's "General Electricity Society", his own professional inclinations and his political sense of duty?

What hostilities does he face as, as he himself puts it, a “German Jewish tribe”?

What does he live for, who does he love?

Most importantly, "Will he get to himself before his killers get to him?"

In our conversation in this episode of the book podcast, Stephan Abarbanell himself formulated the question that should guide his readers through the novel.

A new literature riddle, the solution to May's riddle and the announcement of who won the book we raffled among the correct entries round out this episode.

"10:50 am, Grunewald" by Stephan Abarbanell was published by Blessing Verlag, has 265 pages and costs 22 euros.

Every Sunday morning, the FAZ books podcast alternately publishes talks about books and topics, interviews with authors, readings, literary puzzles and recitations from the Frankfurt anthology.

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