War
The events and circumstances leading up to the Second World War are in the background of the stories, culminating in the final story “A Berlin Diary” which only contains the image of Berlin in the state of unease in preparation for the war, described as a skeleton of its previous glory.
Mr. Norris as a symbol
Mr. Norris is a symbol of eccentricity that attracts other people. He seems blissfully unaware of the consequences of his actions, but at the same time always finds an escape route. Upon writing the story, the author himself wanted to categorize the character of Mr. Norris as a moral outcast from the perspective of Nazi Germany, whose actions show that he walks the line of moral ambiguity.
“But the pale, serious, upturned faces were not ironic. They accepted without question this urbane bourgeois gentleman, accepted his stylish clothes, his graceful rentier wit.”
After Arthur speaks in front of the communist party William notices that no one in the room shares his ironic, humorous perception of Arthur; they, in fact, take him very seriously.
Possessiveness
The possessiveness as the motif is present in almost all the stories. William feels possessive over Arthur: “I had to admit to myself that my feeling for Arthur had been largely possessive. He was my discovery, my property”. In the other stories this motif of possessiveness towards another human being comes with the characters of Peter and Otto from the story “On Ruecen Island” where Peter, a highly sensitive rich boy feels as if Otto, his struggling friend/psychiatrist, is his property, as a well as the character of Natalia Landauer who claims a possessive ownership of the narrator’s company.
Love
Love is an ambiguity in these stories, mixed in with the materialism and the possessiveness over another human being. Sally Bowles is an example of this where she, more often than not, convinces herself in the idea of love based on her own materialistic needs.
