Sherlock Holmes and Modern Detectives: Radio Feature with Kurtz Detektei Bonn II

Patrick Kurtz, owner of Kurtz Detektei Bonn, appeared on the radio magazine Mephisto 97.6 – Faustschlag discussing Sherlock Holmes and modern detectives – here is the second part. The first segment can be found here on the website of our Bonn detectives.

Genius Detectives on One Hand, Spiritism on the Other?

Arthur Conan Doyle was born in 1859 in Edinburgh, Scotland. While much of the Holmes stories reflects Doyle’s biography, one aspect seems incongruous: Conan Doyle believed in fairies and the supernatural.

 

Maria Fleischhack: “That came after the First World War, because he had lost his brother and his eldest son, and naturally he sought hope that he could perhaps communicate with spirits. His interest in spiritism existed earlier; in the 1880s the occult was very much in vogue. Especially in Britain and London, there were countless séances; people tried all sorts of ways to communicate with spirits. Doyle had an enormous interest; he had previously written many books on the topic and tried to frame it and explain it scientifically. It is said he was always a fan of the irrational, which is fascinating, because he then created Sherlock Holmes, a completely rational character.”

Do Our Bonn Private Detectives Investigate Like Holmes?

“When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth,” Sherlock Holmes states in a 1983 German adaptation. Although the detective is a fictional character, he has influenced the real world. Methods such as securing a crime scene are now standard practice. In Doyle’s time, they were not. Scotland Yard even named a database after the detective: the Holmes Office Large Major Enquiry System, or simply “Holmes.” Otherwise, however, cases are hardly comparable to the day-to-day work of a detective in Bonn, notes Patrick Kurtz.

 

Patrick Kurtz: “We must of course remember that it was 120 years ago, so many methods have since become outdated. Also, our cases are not as mysterious, not as intricately organised as in the stories. Furthermore, it’s mostly not the single effort of a private detective that counts, but teamwork. So in that sense, it is quite different.”

Even Today, Detectives Must Have a Sharp Mind

Detectives still need intelligence and analytical skills, just like their literary predecessor. This is confirmed by Bonn private detective Patrick Kurtz and English studies lecturer Maria Fleischhack. Sherlock Holmes stories reveal a lot about their author, and for this reason, the detective character belongs to Arthur Conan Doyle – even if he hadn’t planned it that way.

 

Maria Fleischhack: “He continued writing stories until 1929, a year before his death. On the other hand, he wrote a foreword to the penultimate short story collection, in which he said he simply no longer liked Sherlock Holmes, that he had to do something else, but eventually reconciled with him and enjoyed it. It was actually like a real relationship with a real person, a kind of ups and downs. Towards the end of his life, he was quite reconciled with his character,” says Maria Fleischhack, lecturer in English at Leipzig University.

 

Information about Arthur Conan Doyle was provided by Christine Warnecke.

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