Inspector Escherich Gets to Work on the Hobgoblin Case

Escherich reports his released suspect to Deputy Inspector Schröder, confident Kluge will eventually lead him to the postcard writer, then carries his statement to Obergruppenführer Prall, who is deep in a drunken celebration. Prall forces him through a humiliating round of toasts, interrupting his reading with repeated demands to start over, before flying into a rage on learning Escherich let Kluge go free. Once the storm passes, mollified by Escherich's argument that a frightened man under surveillance is more useful than one broken by interrogation, Prall unexpectedly awards him the Iron Cross — one meant for Inspector Rusch's handling of Frau Rosenthal. Back at his office, Escherich learns his shadows have already lost Kluge in the crush of the underground; he scrambles to redeploy his men and, tracking down Kluge's estranged wife's neighbour Frau Gesch, bullies and charms her into becoming an unpaid informant on the household, then extracts further cooperation, under threat, from Kluge's factory and Party officials.

Comedy — Prall's drunken toasts, the absurd Iron Cross — sits beside real menace, showing how casually the regime rewards incompetence dressed as diligence while Escherich, contemptuous of his superiors, quietly rebuilds his surveillance network through intimidation and small bribes.