Before the Court of Heaven - Jack Mayer

Historical Fiction based on a true story.

Germany, after World War I.  Ernst Werner Techow, son of a magistrate, a child of privilege, joins the violent right-wing response to Germany’s defeat. As a member of the para-military Free Corps and the murderous Organization C, he is recruited into a clandestine assassination network trying to bring down Germany’s fledgling Weimar democracy.  These are the seeds of the Third Reich.  Ernst participates in the murder of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, the highest-ranking Jew in the Weimar Republic.

While on trial for his life, Ernst receives an unfathomable offer of forgiveness that jolts his surety in the fascist cause and sets him on a complex and harrowing journey of redemption.  Throughout, he pursues his childhood sweetheart, Lisa.  They are star-crossed lovers, their passion inextinguishable, buffeted by the rising storm of Nazi ascendance.

Before the Court of Heaven, though fiction, is populated by historical figures and accurately depicts events as they unfolded in Germany and beyond.  Animated as historical fiction, Before the Court of Heaven is a cautionary tale for our time and an immunization against recurrence.