Why Berlin Is the Mecca of Espionage Fiction: A Conversation with Joseph Kanon and Paul Vidich ‹ CrimeReads

Joseph Kanon: One thing led to another. In The Good German, I was really writing about the Allied occupation. That, in turn, led to an interest in how the city finally split and became the epicenter for the Cold War, which I explored in Leaving Berlin. And that, in turn, led to a fascination with the German Democratic Republic (or East Germany/ GDR) which in retrospect seems an Alice In Wonderland kind of political entity- everything upside down.

If you write about Berlin, sooner or later you have to deal with the wall. The Berlin Exchange is set in 1963, after the wall went up and changed everything-including espionage. Before that, with people able to go back and forth, espionage was a kind of cottage industry in Berlin. All the major powers had operations there, with everyone rubbing up against each other. Your question made me think of Willy Sutton, who, when asked why he robbed banks, said, ‘Because that's where the money was.' Why Berlin? That's where the spies were.