The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

Around noon on Saturday, February 23, 1974, Dr. Blorna and Mrs. Blorna, Miss Woltersheim, Beiters, and Katharina gather at Café Kloog in Kuir for Mrs. Blum’s wake. Erwin Kloog, the café’s proprietor, is a family friend of Katharina’s. Dr. Blorna calls Hach and cancels the meeting they scheduled for that day, explaining that Katharina’s mother had died suddenly. He blames Tötges’s visit for the death. Hach understands and tells Blorna to pass along his condolences to Katharina. And besides, he’s very busy with Götten’s interrogation.

Götten, meanwhile, has spoken of Katharina with affection and not mentioned anything that would incriminate her. Katharina seems to be taking her mother’s death well. Though she considers people like Tötges “murderers and character-assassins,” she acknowledges that it’s just part of his job, as a journalist who works for the type of newspaper the News is.  

After wrapping up at the café, Katharina views her mother’s body at the mortuary. Only after leaving does she begin to cry. She quickly recovers and manages to thank everyone for attending the wake, and she remains “composed” for the remainder of the day. After, when her close friends are gathered in Erwin Kloog’s living room, she opens up about the situation with Sträubleder, explaining how he’d insisted on driving her home after one of the Blornas’ dance parties. He’d forcibly walked her up to her apartment, despite her protests, and continued sending her gifts and trying to make “advances” on her. This is why she didn’t want to talk about the so-called affair with anyone: in truth, they had never even kissed, but she knew that nobody would believe that a woman like her would turn down being with a wealthy, important man like Sträubleder.

Katharina laughs as she describes how grateful was to  finally to put the key to Sträubleder’s country home to good use, though of course Ludwig Götten would have no problem accessing the building without a key. She also confirms that she did help him escape through the heating duct but hadn’t realized how serious a situation it was until the next morning. And she certainly hadn’t realized that her apartment was being monitored.  She’s even glad about Götten being arrested—it means he won’t be able to do anything foolish from now on. She does, however, note how anxious “that Beizmenne” has made her.