Brian Roberts (born 1901) was an English linguist and teacher who lived in Berlin in 1931. He temporarily moved to Germany to teach English, during which time he befriended the cabaret singer Sally Bowles, the struggling businessman Fritz Wendel, the wealthy heiress Natalia Landauer, and the baron Maximilian von Heune, and witnessed the growing power of the Nazi Party.
Biography[]
Brian Roberts was born in England in 1901, and he studied the English language at the University of Cambridge before traveling to Weimar Republic-era Germany in 1931 to teach English while pursuing his doctoral studies. He stayed at the same boarding house (owned by Elisabeth Schneider) as the American cabaret singer Sally Bowles and quickly befriended her, and he attended her performances at the Kit Kat Club, where he also befriended the German businessman Fritz Wendel, who wished to learn English from Roberts. Roberts first accepted work translating Cleo, the Whip Lady, a pornographic novel by Ludwig Blattner, who was told by Bowles of Roberts' purported literary genius. At the same time, he became close friends with Bowles, but initially rejected a sexual relationship with her because of three previous disaster sexual experiences he had with women.
Roberts talking with Fritz Wendel
Roberts also earned income by teaching English to the department store heiress Natalia Landauer, who met Wendel and Bowles when she arrived for her lesson while Roberts was conversing with his friends. Landauer proposed that she learn English through social interaction with the trio, and they became close over the course of several outings; at Roberts and Bowles' advice, Wendel seduced Landauer and confessed his love to her. Roberts later met Baron Maximilian von Heune through Bowles, who had met Von Heune when he picked up a piece of laundry she had dropped on her way to the laundromat. Von Heune invited the two of them to his country estate, where he spoiled and courted both Bowles and Roberts, and Roberts soon warmed to Von Heune, with whom he developed a secretive sexual relationship. At the same time, Von Heune assuaged Roberts' worries about the growing power of the Nazi Party, assuring him that Germany would control both the Communists and the Nazis, with the Nazis being used to fight off the Communists. Roberts grew unconvinced of this statement after hearing the young Nazi Egon Braunbeck stir up nationalist sentiment among patrons of a beer garden by singing a patriotic folk song with fervor and persuading the audience, especially the young people, to sing along with him.
Bowles, Roberts, and Von Heune rowing
Upon returning to Berlin, Roberts found that his relationship with Bowles suffered due to her persistent fantasies of becoming a film star "femme fatale", with Roberts remarking that she was just as "fatale" as an "after-dinner mint". Bowles deduced that Roberts was jealous of her love for Von Heune, and she said that Von Heune did not need to teach English for three marks an hour, as he was already rich, and knew more about the world and women than Roberts. Roberts then revealed that he had also been in an affair with Von Heune, causing Bowles to grow angry at their deception. Roberts then stormed out of the apartment, where he angrily berated the Nazi campaigners Ulrich Rödl and Edgar Ganser as they handed out flyers, crumpling up one of the fliers and kicking down their party's flag. In retaliation, the Nazis beat him up, and Roberts was nursed back to health by Bowles, who revealed that Von Heune had left for Argentina and left them 150 marks each, the same sum of what a professional prostitute earned. Shortly after, they attended the wedding of Wendel and Landauer, who had made their relationship work after Wendel revealed that he, like Landauer, was Jewish.
Roberts and Bowles on a picnic
Shortly after, Bowles discovered that she was pregnant, and she did not know the identity of the father. Roberts offered to marry her and take her back to Cambridge with him, and they initially decided to start a new life together. However, Roberts and Bowles gradually discovered that they had vastly different personalities, and Bowles grew disheartened at the thought of herself becoming a bored faculty wife in England and getting drunk at the nearest pub. She ultimately chose to have an abortion, causing a final argument with Roberts. Bowles concluded that she was self-centered, ignorant, and lost in the infantile fantasy of becoming an actress, and she and Roberts came to an understanding that their relationship would not work out. They parted on friendly terms, with Roberts returning to England and Bowles returning to her cabaret career.