Review: Mannerheim ja saksalainen suudelma

Mannerheim’s German Kisses

Helsinki City Theatre’s new play Mannerheim and the German Kiss begins on the grounds of Svartå Manor, the Civil War has already ended, but the White butchers are still executing the Reds. The lord of the manor, the richest man in Finland, Hjalmar Linder, is furious about the matter to the commander-in-chief of the Whites, Gustaf Mannerheim, who is also amazed by the situation. Linder’s sister Kitty was Mannerheim’s beloved at the time. Hjalmar Linder did not understand that the workers on his payroll were being killed, even though the Civil War had already ended. Linder wrote about the matter in Hufvudstadsbladet on 28 May 1918 under the title “Nog med blodbad” (Enough of bloodbath), and Mannerheim thought the article was good.

This is the starting point for Juha Vakkuri’s play. The first part deals with the events of 1918 from May to the end of the year, and after the intermission, we move on to the Continuation War. In both of these wars, the Germans played a significant role. After the Civil War, more than 10,000 German soldiers remained in Finland, whom the White Army had called for help in late winter. In the Continuation War, Finland and Germany were allies again.

Mannerheim did not really like the Germans, but since he did not receive any other help, he had to accept the German brotherhood in arms. “German kisses” were given, but Mannerheim gave the kiss of Judas last, when relations with the Nazis had to be severed, even though the President of the Republic, Risto Ryti, had promised Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentropp with his own signature on 26 June 1944 that they would stay together.

The play is excellent. However, this makes Mannerheim merely a superhero with no weak points. In any case, Asko Sarkola in the role of the Marshal is so brilliant that the play draws the viewer in tightly from start to finish. I guess this is some kind of counter-strike to the alternative image of Mannerheim in recent years, in which he has alternated between being an animated gay, a black person and a war criminal.

In the play, Mannerheim is a sympathetic old-time aristocrat who commands. He doesn’t say he watches dreams either, because he can’t command them. Mannerheim does not tolerate unnecessary grinding. When Colonel Aladar Paasonen says something according to intelligence information, Mannerheim asks whether the colonel has something more than just intelligence information. Someone else says that the Soviet Union brought military equipment to the front with 21 trains along the tracks, to which Mannerheim points out that trains always travel along the rails.

Kalle Lehmus, the head of the Headquarters’ Information Department, tries to advise Mannerheim that it would no longer be worthwhile to talk about the War of Independence in the daily orders of the Continuation War, but Mannerheim does not listen to Lehmus. There are many similar situations in the play.

So Mannerheim was full of himself. Already in 1918, he was struck by the fact that when the Germans were needed to help the White Army, he feared that the honour of deciding the war might go to Major General Rüdiger von der Goltz.

Kari Heiskanen has directed the play in the good old fashioned way. There are no unnecessary art choreographies, but if the situation is rigid and formal, it is also made so on stage. The plot of the play progresses with interesting dialogues and the delicious situations that arise from them. One of them is when Colonel General Wilhelm Keitel brings Mannerheim the high-ranking Cross of Merit awarded to him by Hitler; Mannerheim thanks for the honour, but immediately afterwards upsets Keitel when Mannerheim tells him that Finland is breaking away from its alliance with Germany.

The list of people is extensive, including General A.F. Airo, General Erik Heinrichs, Colonel Wilhelm Thesleff, Senate President J.K. Paasikivi, Minister for Foreign Affairs Carl Enckell, Mrs. Anastasia Mannerheim, General Waldemar Erfurth, Colonel General Alfred Jodl and former U.S. President Herbert Hoover.

The actors are absolutely excellent. In addition to Asko Sarkola, Pertti Sveholm, Eero Saarinen, Kari Mattila, Antti Timonen, Matti Olavi Ranin and Matti Rasila are the most visible.

If you can’t see the play, Vakkuri has also published a novel version of the subject with the subtitle “Memoirs that Mannerheim himself did not want to write”.