Hanser

Clemens Böckmann | Was du kriegen kannst | Hanser | 416 Seiten | 24 EUR

One of the novel's four mottos, prefaced on the first page, reads: "To be a poet is to move people to change their lives." It comes from the German writer and anti-fascist resistance fighter Günther Weisenborn. After the last page, one wonders, apprehensively, in which direction this change should lead, in view of the fate of Uta Lohner, who as a young mother in the GDR, wanted a good life and worked as a "honey trap" for the Stasi. To this end, she spied on men whom she initially slept with out of lust, later for gifts and finally for Western currency. In addition, the Stasi paid its "unofficial collaborator" with GDR marks, loans for furniture or the renovation of her dilapidated apartment. Her clients were businessmen, tourists, workers, diplomats or politicians from the "enemy West". There were also opposition figures and criminals that Uta Lohner targeted, as well as chance acquaintances she picked up in bars.

Another motto of the novel comes from Friedrich Engels. According to the philosopher and revolutionary, prostitution would disappear with the "transformation of the means of production into social property", i.e. in "actually existing socialism", so that "monogamy would become a reality - even for men". 
We don't know much about whether Marx, Lenin or Engels paid for sex or what they would have thought of the GDR. We do know that communism has destroyed itself. The prevailing economic system is capitalism. Prostitutes need no longer operate in secret - on the contrary. With students publishing articles detailing their frivolous and lucrative experiences as luxury escorts, it can be said that prostitution has reached the heart of society.

Clemens Böckmann studied in Kiel, Leipzig, Lisbon and Tel Aviv. He works as a filmmaker, editor and author for Deutschlandfunk Kultur and various newspapers, among others. Since 2019, he has been looking after the estate of the poet and ski jumper Alvaro Maderholz.

So, back to the question: how should people change their lives after reading this novel? The first thing that comes to mind is a truism. You have to become more aware of where you are. On a straight path, master of your own destiny? Or at a fateful fork in the road, after which there is no turning back? Or already on the wrong track, leading straight to hell? For Uta Lohner, this meant psychological manipulation (gaslighting) by the Stasi, rape by clients and commanding officers, abortions, loneliness, prison and severe alcoholism.

Uta Lohner's tragic fall from the comfortable double beds of luxury hotels into a bottomless pit is made worse for the reader by the fact that she is not a fictional character. Her name is the pseudonym of a real woman who recounted her life story to Leipzig author Clemens Böckmann.

Is she a likeable character? Yes! And no! The honesty, ruthlessness and lack of compassion with which she looks back on her life certainly induce sympathy. Her pursuit of pleasure, however, and the deceit she employed to spy on and incriminate suitors, friends and neighbours leaves a bitter aftertaste.

In any case, Uta Lohner is an unreliable narrator in the best sense of the word. In other words, a narrator whose "life confession" tells you a lot about sex work and life in the GDR, but whose veracity you sometimes doubt. 

Clemens Böckmann has not simply retold the life story of his enigmatic protagonist. Instead, he has assembled magnificent, literary chapters with excerpts from original Stasi files that authenticate, supplement, deepen or even contradict the narrative. Almost all names and locations have been redacted with black bars. On the one hand, to protect the victims. On the other hand, because Uta Lohner could not be given a "victim file", since as an unofficial Stasi employee, she was also one of the perpetrators. Clemens Böckmann has done an excellent job of portraying this see-sawing between victim and perpetrator.

Towards the end of the novel, Uta Lohner tells her own story - we hear her in her own words. Some of these passages read like transcripts of audio recordings. There are also sections in which Uta Lohner and Clemens Böckmann discuss their joint book project and visit places that have played an important role in their lives.

Following and knitting together these different narratives initially requires some patience, especially as Böckmann has not always arranged them chronologically. Sometimes it takes a few sentences before you can place the particular voice and period. But anyone who commits to this narrative principle will be richly rewarded. What's more, the book's enormous impact and pull are due to the fact that the novel is free of moral judgments and banal psychological explanations.

What You Can Get is a rollercoaster ride through the life of a sex worker and a gripping portrait of the GDR, whose most dangerous enemy was not the capitalist West, but its own citizens.