The year is 1961. Angela Wettin is an American heiress working to aid German refugees in West Berlin. Seminarian Michael Dieterich lives in East Berlin. His adopted younger brother, Joseph Werner, a black marketer, works both sides of Berlin. All are in their early 20s.
“The Devil’s Spies,” a thriller by K.C. Sivils opens in Berlin. It is an international flash point. Thousands trying to escape communism leave Soviet-dominated Europe through the then-open border between East and West Berlin. Most are East Germans, but people from many Warsaw Pact nations cross to freedom through Berlin.
Michael, Joseph, and their pastor father, Karl Dieterich, exist in that setting. So does Wolfgang Fuchs a senior member of the Stasi, the East German secret police. All are native Berliners. Angela came to Berlin to establish an identity independent of her industrialist father, Carl. A close family friend, William Sullivan found her a job with a nonprofit helping refugees from communism.
Angela and Michael want to marry. Angela thinks herself independent and sophisticated. Yet she lives off an allowance from her father, and is naively oblivious to 1961 Berlin’s dangers. She wants to marry Michael and remain in Berlin as he establishes a parish, following the footsteps of Michael’s father. Michael wants to marry Angela and flee Berlin—preferably moving to the United States.
Then, on Aug. 13, 1961, a wall goes up, separating the lovers. Michael is trapped in East Berlin. Joseph uses his connections to smuggle one set of messages across the wall; it soon becomes impenetrable, even for him.
Michael is determined to reach West Berlin and reunite with Angela. Joseph realizes the impetuous Michael will likely die trying. Joseph finds a way to reach the west that is relatively safe and allows him to bring Michael and his father, but he needs help.
Fuchs, who has been spying on the westerners in West Berlin (including Angela, whose roommate is a Stasi informer), has a new assignment: stopping escape attempts. He forces Karl Dieterich to become an informant by threatening to imprison his sons.
Sullivan, the CIA’s resident agent in Berlin, has a list of East Germans he wants to bring to West Berlin. He arm-twists Angela into being a diplomatic courier, promising to help Michael. Joseph’s project and Sullivan’s interests merge.
Mr. Sivils sets the mood perfectly. He shows the universal nature of Stasi scrutiny throughout Berlin. He incorporates historical events: border guard Conrad Schumann’s photographed escape, Peter Fechter’s death in an attempt to escape, Gen. Lucius Clay enforcing Allied diplomatic access to East Berlin with M-48 tanks. He provides background by placing readers inside high-level planning sessions, with President John Kennedy consulting with his staff and Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the Kremlin scripting his moves.
“The Devil’s Spies,” builds to a gripping climax, one that keeps readers turning pages until it is reached. With an exciting and entertaining story, it reveals the banality and hollowness of communism. Even Fuchs, a cross between Victor Hugo’s Inspector Javert and C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape, is revealed as a victim of communism.
