The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum is a novel by Heinrich Böll, published in 1974 in German. Drawing on the tense political climate in Germany at the time, it uses a documentary style, written as if it were a report, but also incorporating an unreliable element.

The book begins with a declaration of sources for the report, and then offers blunt, journalistic details about newspaper reporter Werner Tötges, killed at the hands of Katharina Blum. Tötges was killed in Blum’s apartment, and Blum wandered around the city for some hours before presenting herself to Walter Moeding of the police at his home to confess to the crime. Moeding is kind to Katharina, advising her not to speak on her telephone, as it might be tapped. He goes to Katharina’s apartment with police officers and discovers the body of Tötges. Adolf Schönner, a colleague of Tötges, is also found shot dead some distance away. Initially, it is assumed there is a connection, but this is stated up front to not be the case; Schönner’s murder was a separate and unrelated matter entirely.

The report then goes back in time four days, tracing the chain of events that led to the murder, beginning with Blum’s meeting with the suspected terrorist and criminal Ludwig Götten. The report then stresses that the goal is not to explore the low nature of the violent crime, but rather the higher considerations, specifically how a brutal murder can be understood through the motivations of the perpetrator.



Katharina, born to a poor family, does well in school and is industrious, getting domestic work with neighborhood families. When she graduates, she secures a position as a maid, while attending a graduate school to earn a degree in home economics. Her reputation as a domestic is sterling, and she is offered a position by the Blorna family as a live-in maid, but she turns it down, valuing her privacy and independence. The Blornas make a revised offer that includes assistance in buying a condominium for herself, and Katharina accepts. Katharina marries Wilhelm Brettloh, but the marriage is a disaster and ends in divorce.

Katharina attends a party thrown by her friend and godmother, Else Woltersheim, where she meets Ludwig Götten. Katharina, unaware that Götten is a wanted criminal charged with murder, takes him home and sleeps with him, falling in love. The next day, the police arrive at her apartment. Katharina helps Götten escape just before they break her door down and search her apartment. The police take Katharina into custody and bring her to the station for questioning.

Katharina’s arrest is witnessed and photographed by Werner Tötges, a journalist working for the tabloid newspaper Die Zeitung. Tötges begins investigating her life. As Moeding warned, Tötges does, indeed, listen in on her phone conversations. He interviews several of her former employers, her ex-husband, and her mother, who is in the hospital and who dies shortly after the stressful, argumentative interview. Tötges writes a series of articles that paint Katharina in a very bad light, claiming she is a loose woman who has destroyed marriages and pursued money, as well as a communist sympathizer and criminal accomplice of Götten. Tötges does this by twisting and misrepresenting the words of many of Katharina’s friends and former employers, using their statements out of context. Tötges publishes an article linking the Blornas to Katharina’s supposed terrorist activities, accusing them of being communists themselves.



The police search Katharina’s apartment and discover an expensive diamond ring and an anonymous love letter. They press her to reveal who wrote the letter and gave her the ring, but she refuses. Katharina thinks no one would believe she was in a relationship with Alois Sträublender, a well-known politician, even if she admitted to it. Sträublender had given Katharina a key to his house so she could meet him there at will. Katharina gave the key to Götten, telling him to go hide there. When the police learn this, they go there and arrest Götten.

Katharina becomes despondent. Her life has been destroyed—her career is over, her friends are distancing themselves from her out of self-preservation, her mother has died, and her personal life is in shambles. Blaming Tötges, she seeks revenge. She contacts Tötges, inviting him to her apartment. When Tötges arrives, he is imperious and smug about his control over her. Tötges suggests Katharina sleep with him, making it clear how he views her. This is the final straw for Katharina, who shoots Tötges several times. She then goes to Moeding’s house as recounted at the beginning of the novel.