Ralph Wigram

Ralph Wigram, Legat’s former superior at the Foreign Office Central Department, is a Cassandra figure representing failed warnings. He sounds the alarm as early as 1932, when Hitler is just beginning his rise to power, but no one listens to him, missing a potential chance to avert the threat of Nazi hegemony. In Legat’s memory, Wigram is bitterly vindicated when his worst fears come true only a few years later. This pattern is a premonition for the historical events that follow the novel’s end, when the devastation of World War II caused the re-evaluation of Chamberlain’s appeasement policies—a vindication of everyone who warns him throughout the novel that Hitler will not keep his promises.

Von Nostitz and Von Rantzau

Hartmann’s office-mates, von Nostitz and von Rantzau, symbolize Hitler’s effective hijacking of German institutions and traditions. When Hartmann still believes...