The German Wife

Kelly Rimmer’s The German Wife, published in 2022, is a historical novel that follows two timelines from the first-person perspectives of two women directly affected by World War II. Sofie Von Meyer Rhodes is the wife of a German scientist who reluctantly cooperates with Nazi plans to develop rockets as weapons. She and her husband make many moral compromises during the war, and they avoid prosecution after the fall of the Nazi regime only because of her husband’s expertise when he’s recruited into the US Project Paperclip, a program that seeks to bring German scientific and technological talent to the US. Lizzie Miller is a Texas-born American woman who is married to one of the organizers of Project Paperclip. The novel follows both women through their experiences in the war and after in Huntsville, Alabama, exploring themes related to The Subtle Role of Women in World Events, The Impact of War on Family, and The Difference Between Intentions and Actions. Rimmer is well-known for her careful research. Her novels The Things We Cannot Say and The Paris Agent similarly address moral issues relating to British spies during WWII, and her novel The Warsaw Orphan was a New York Times bestseller and tells the story of a woman who risked her safety to rescue children from the Warsaw Ghetto.

This guide refers to the 2022 Graydon House hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of death, child death, death by suicide, mental illness, racism, and religious discrimination.

Plot Summary

Sofie Von Meyer Rhodes arrives in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1950 to join her husband, Jürgen, a German rocket scientist who is working with the US government as part of Project Paperclip. Narrative flashbacks show that before the beginning of World War II, Jürgen is simply a teacher and scientist, but the Nazi Party forces him out of his teaching job and financially coerces him into a job building rockets for the government. Initially, he and Sofie hold out hope that he will be primarily developing technology for space flight, but as the Nazis progress in their terrifying initiatives, it becomes clear that the rockets are only weapons designed to silently kill enemies as quickly as possible. At the beginning, Sofie and Jürgen live with their dear friend Mayim, a Jewish woman whose family has lost all their wealth following WWI. They support her, and she helps with the household responsibilities, especially the care of the children. As time goes by, however, Jürgen’s position makes it unsafe for Mayim to stay with them, and she flees their home and eventually the country. Sofie watches as her children are radicalized by Nazi propaganda in schools, and eventually their eldest child, Georg, is killed in combat at the end of the war. Their daughter Laura rejects Sofie and Jürgen in favor of the Nazi agenda. Sofie and Jürgen both try at various points to resist the Nazi government’s escalating demands for their participation, but when the regime threatens their children, they acquiesce.

When Sofie arrives in Huntsville, she is met with suspicion and anger from both the German immigrants and the Americans. There is a rumor spread that Jürgen was an officer in the SS, which is true, but he only consented to join when they threatened his children. Henry Davis (brother to Lizzie Miller), who has post-traumatic stress disorder from his experience in the war, stalks the Rhodes family and terrorizes them, but the local police do nothing to help.

The narrative shifts back in time to describe Lizzie’s early life. She grows up on her parents’ farm in rural Texas with her parents and brother. When the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl arrive, Lizzie’s family slowly loses all their financial stability. A massive dust storm kills Lizzie’s mother, and Lizzie’s father subsequently dies by suicide. Henry and Lizzie lose the farm and travel to El Paso, where Lizzie eventually finds work, but Henry struggles both with his pride and with burgeoning signs of mental illness. Lizzie meets Calvin Miller at the hotel where she works as a waitress and housekeeper, and they become friends. He helps Henry enlist in the military, and Lizzie marries Calvin to help him in his career in the military, where he serves as an aeronautical engineer on Project Paperclip—a US effort to recruit the best scientists and engineers from Nazi Germany. Henry is deployed to Germany and is scarred by the death of his best friend and the horrors he sees when liberating the Buchenwald concentration camp.

When Calvin and Lizzie move to Huntsville, Lizzie has to become more involved in the controversial project using German scientists to advance the space race in her role as Calvin’s wife. Henry has struggled following the war and moves into their garage apartment. At a picnic to welcome the wives and children of the scientists, Lizzie and Sofie have a confrontation about Sofie’s involvement with the Nazis and the comparison between Southern segregation and Nazi antisemitism. Henry becomes obsessed with Sofie and Jürgen—stalking them, taking notes on their actions, painting the word “Nazi” in front of their home, and eventually breaking in and stealing photographs from Sofie. Lizzie tries to downplay Henry’s growing paranoia and delusions, but she finds herself increasingly worried about her brother.

One morning, Henry peers through Sofie and Jürgen’s bedroom window. When Sofie screams and Jürgen gives chase, Henry shoots Jürgen in the abdomen in the backyard. Sofie is initially suspected of attempting to kill her husband and is held for interrogation. Lizzie discovers the extent of Henry’s fixation. Initially, she gets Henry out of town and tries to cover for him, but when she’s told that Sofie is a suspect, she gives the police the evidence of Henry’s involvement. She struggles to decide how best to protect her brother, but a visit from Sofie convinces her to tell the truth and advocate, rather than trying to take responsibility for the crime herself.

Jürgen survives and recovers, and Henry is tried for the shooting. Henry is found not guilty by reason of “insanity” and sentenced to mental health treatment for an indeterminate period. Lizzie and Calvin divorce following Lizzie’s realization that she has no romantic feelings for Calvin. Lizzie moves back to her family farm, planning to bring Henry home when he’s released from the hospital. Sofie receives a letter from Mayim and discovers that she survived Auschwitz and the death march and is now in Washington, DC, happily married with two daughters. That realization allows Sofie to begin to move beyond the war and into the future with Jürgen and their young children Gisela and Felix.