Contents
Chapter 25 - The Accordionist
Overview
A young man’s arrival at the Hubermanns’ triggers a flashback to Hans’s World War I survival and his bond with the Jewish accordionist, Erik Vandenburg. Hans’s refusal to embrace Nazism isolates him but his music sustains him. In 1939, Walter Kugler seeks Hans, arranging a secret meeting that will endanger and define the household.
Summary
A young man stands in the Hubermann kitchen at night, key in hand, asking two questions: whether Hans Hubermann lives there and whether Hans still plays the accordion. The scene pivots to the origins of that instrument and the promise behind it.
During World War I, Hans serves uneventfully until a fateful morning when Sergeant Stephan Schneider asks for a man with good handwriting. Erik Vandenburg, a Jewish soldier and Hans’s friend and accordion teacher, nominates Hans for letter-writing duty. The platoon goes into battle without Hans; none return. Erik is killed, and his accordion remains with Hans.
After the war, Hans visits Erik’s widow in Stuttgart, plays her husband’s favorite waltz, and offers help if ever needed. He meets their shy son, Max. Back in Munich, Hans builds a painting business and a family, but Hitler’s rise punishes his refusal to join the Party. Work dries up, and his cautious application stalls amid suspicion.
Hans repaints a vandalized Jewish shop, Kleinmann’s, the morning after a Nazi attack and publicly exchanges “Heil Hitler,” sealing local scrutiny. He is searched by the Gestapo after Kristallnacht but spared, tolerated partly because his accordion playing warms Molching’s gatherings.
On June 16, 1939, while working, Hans is approached by Walter Kugler from Stuttgart. After confirming Hans’s name and music, Walter asks if Hans keeps promises. They quietly arrange a nighttime meeting, linking Hans’s wartime debt to the imminent arrival that now stands in his kitchen.
Who Appears
- Hans HubermannPainter and accordionist; saved in WWI by Erik, inherits the accordion, refuses Nazism, and agrees to a secret meeting.
- Erik VandenburgJewish soldier and accordionist; befriends Hans, saves his life, dies in battle, leaving the accordion and a debt.
- Walter KuglerMessenger from Stuttgart; verifies Hans’s identity and promise, arranging a clandestine meeting in 1939.
- Max VandenburgErik’s son; glimpsed as a child when Hans visits; implied to be the nocturnal visitor seeking refuge.
- Sergeant Stephan SchneiderWWI sergeant whose handwriting task keeps Hans from fatal combat.
- Mr. KleinmannJewish shopkeeper; his store is vandalized, and Hans repaints the slurred door.
- Rolf FischerProminent Molching Nazi; witnesses Hans repainting Kleinmann’s door.
- Herbert BollingerFormer client who pressures Hans about Nazi Party membership as work declines.