Chapter 119: White City Summary and Analysis
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
In April 1944, Werner’s unit, led by the hulking Sergeant Major Volkheimer, drives their Opel truck into Vienna, a city that appears white and empty. Volkheimer identifies the city as Vienna, while Neumann Two makes crude comments about its past delights. They sleep in a once-luxurious suite now covered in chicken feathers and newspapers. Werner thinks of Dr. Hauptmann, imagining his Viennese youth spent in intellectual cafés. But Hauptmann is now likely at the front, and the war has stripped the city of its grandeur.
The city commander dismisses them, but a subordinate reports possible resistance broadcasts from the Leopoldstadt district. They circle the area for days, but Werner hears only propaganda and desperate requests for supplies. The war feels like it is unraveling. Neumann Two points out the Staatsoper, and Werner reflects on the futility of building beautiful things—opera houses, music, books—when faced with the world’s indifference. He thinks of Russian prisoners chained to fences and German soldiers with grenades, and wonders why anyone bothers to create.
In the Augarten, while the sun burns away the fog, Neumann One gives the men haircuts. Werner plays waltzes from a state-run station. Volkheimer sits for his haircut, eyes closed during a particularly moving waltz. Werner remembers that Volkheimer has killed over a hundred men, often shooting them in the back of the head while they wore headphones, yet Volkheimer always shares his food and shows a strange tenderness toward Werner.
Werner spots a little redheaded girl in a maroon cape playing on the swings. She reminds him of his sister Jutta. The girl sings a German counting song, and Werner feels a rare moment of pure life and hope. Her mother calls her away, and they disappear.
Later, Werner believes he hears a suspicious broadcast in Swiss German. He triangulates the signal to an apartment building. Volkheimer and the others storm the flat, but they find no radio—only a woman’s room with ornate furniture and a child’s cape on a doorknob. Werner realizes his math may have been wrong; the signal could have reflected off buildings, or his fever might have clouded his judgment.
Suddenly, Neumann Two cries out in the bedroom, and a shot rings out, followed by a woman’s scream and more shots. The unit finds Neumann Two standing with his rifle. On the floor lies the mother, and inside a closet sits the little girl, dead from a bullet to the head. Werner is horrified, waiting for the child to blink. Volkheimer closes the closet door, but the girl’s foot sticks out. He gently tucks it back inside and declares there is no radio. Werner vomits between his shoes on the truck. The chapter ends with Werner feeling the city streets spiraling around him, as if the world is contracting into an all-consuming center.
Key Events
- The unit arrives in war-torn Vienna and searches for resistance broadcasts.
- Werner reflects on Dr. Hauptmann and the futility of art and culture against war.
- Neumann One gives haircuts in the Augarten while waltzes play; Volkheimer shows a rare moment of peaceful absorption in music.
- Werner watches a little girl on a swing—a brief flash of innocence and life.
- Werner mistakenly triangulates a signal, leading the unit to a woman’s apartment.
- Neumann Two accidentally shoots and kills the girl and her mother.
- Werner experiences profound shock and nausea, realizing the randomness and brutality of the war.
- The chapter closes with Werner’s sense of spiraling doom.
Character Development
Werner Pfennig continues his descent into disillusionment. He recognizes the cruelty of the war but is powerless to stop it. His respect for Volkheimer grows, yet he is also repulsed by the violence they commit. The accidental killing of the child marks a turning point: for the first time, Werner witnesses the death of an innocent so similar to his sister, and he cannot rationalize it.
Volkheimer is revealed as a paradox: a ruthless killer who shows tenderness. He shoots men without hesitation, but he ensures Werner is fed, and he closes the closet door gently. This duality complicates his character; he is both a monster and a caretaker.
Neumann Two is impulsive and careless, acting on fear rather than precision. His mistake kills two innocents, and he stands bewildered, unable to understand why they hid.
Neumann One provides a brief moment of normalcy with his haircuts, a reminder of the civilian life he might have had as a barber. His future death in Normandy is foreshadowed.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs
Futility of creation: Werner’s internal monologue during the opera house scene questions the point of art, music, and architecture when war makes everything meaningless. This echoes the novel’s larger theme of light versus darkness.
Innocence destroyed: The little girl in the maroon cape represents purity and life. Her senseless death underscores the war’s indiscriminate cruelty. She reminds Werner of Jutta, linking the loss to his own sister’s endangered innocence.
Seeing and blindness: Werner’s mistaken identification of the antenna reflects the difficulty of truly seeing in a world clouded by ideology, fear, and confusion. The girl’s “moon eyes” staring after death emphasize the failure of sight.
Music as solace and irony: The waltzes played during the haircuts offer a brief respite, but they also highlight the contrast between beauty and the surrounding horror. Music cannot shield the men from what they do.
Spirals and descent: The chapter ends with imagery of the truck tilting and the streets whorling into a spiral, suggesting that Werner is being pulled deeper into moral ruin.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter is a pivotal moment in Werner’s arc. It solidifies his growing awareness that the German war effort is not heroic but corrupt and hollow. The accidental killing of the child strips away any remaining justification for his actions. From this point, Werner begins to question his loyalty and to seek a way out—or at least to disengage emotionally. The episode also echoes the novel’s structure, where small moments of beauty (the girl swinging) are violently extinguished by war.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Werner think of Dr. Hauptmann when he arrives in Vienna?
Werner imagines the Vienna of Hauptmann’s youth as a place of culture, where scientists and philosophers gathered in cafés. This contrasts sharply with the actual ruined, war-torn city. The memory highlights how the war has corrupted everything Hauptmann represented, and it deepens Werner’s disillusionment with the scientific ideals he once admired.
2. What does the little girl on the swings represent for Werner?
The girl represents innocence, life, and a connection to his sister Jutta and his own childhood. Her joyful singing and swinging open a “valve” in his soul. Her death shatters that moment of hope and forces Werner to confront the war’s complete destruction of innocence.
3. How does the mistaken radio signal lead to tragedy, and what does this reveal about the nature of war?
Werner’s triangulation is likely flawed due to signal reflection or his fever. The unit acts on his word without verification, showing how imperfect information drives fatal decisions. The tragedy reveals that war operates on fear and haste, where even a well-intentioned error can result in the deaths of civilians. It underscores the theme that no one—soldier or civilian—can remain untouched by the war’s brutality.