Brahms Four

Brahms Four, whose real name was never used, was an agent for the British Secret Intelligence Service operating in East Germany.

Associations
In the association charts, specifically the graphic for Berlin Game, key human source Brahms Four is described simply as put in place by Silas Gaunt. Context for this is provided by Brahms Four being linked to the Brahms Network, operating in East Berlin on behalf of London Central.

Commentary
The ‘Brahms Four’ name is explained by this particular human source being allocated number ‘4’ in the covert network established to transfer his secret intelligence to London Central – with the network itself allocated the name of ‘Brahms’ at random, because the ‘postwar network names are specially chosen to have no identifiable nationality.’ [Berlin Game chap 2]

Despite being German Stations Controller, Dicky Cruyer confirms Brahms Four ‘…is the most carefully protected source we have in Germany…Even I don’t have access to the Brahms Four file.’ Old school tradecraft employed includes that ‘''he works through the mail – always local addresses to avoid the censors and the security – posting his material to various members of the Brahms net. In emergencies he uses a dead-letter drop.’ [Berlin Game'' chap 3]

Nonetheless, the need-to-know principle doesn’t prevent Dicky working to identity the source, as: ‘a secretary or personal assistant to one of the directors of the Deutsche Notenbank…Brahms Four has been feeding us this sort of thing too long to be anything but a clerk or assistant’ [Berlin Game chap 3]. Dicky also mentions that ‘I can’t even get a recent photo of him’ [Berlin Game chap 4] although why he might want a picture, never mind a contemporary likeness, is not clear.

Brahms Four’s high value to London Central is summarised as follows: ‘The Economics Intelligence Committee lives off that banking stuff that Brahms Four provides.’ [Berlin Game chap 3]

The very first person from London Central to know the source, back in the post-War period, was Silas Gaunt: ‘''He’s almost my age…I knew him back when Berlin was Berlin. We shared girlfriends and fell down drunk together.’ Silas provides an insight into the source’s character and possible political leanings then: ‘Brahms Four tried to kill me at the end of 1946…The Russkies came running…Alexanderplatz was in their sector…They made a feeble attempt to pull him away, but my driver and I picked him up and carried him to our car…he’d been watching me for a couple of days. He’d heard rumours that I was the one who’d put a lot of Gehlen’s people in the bag, and his closest friend had been hurt in the roundup…I kept him well away from our people in Hermsdorf, I had access to funds and I sent him back into the East sector with instructions to lie low. He was with the Reichsbank during the war…We were both going to be in a position to help each other in the years ahead…First he got a job with the tax people…When they’d destroyed private enterprise, Brahms Four was moved to…the Deutsche Notenbank…he was a sleeper…I activated him.’ Silas confirms that he ran Brahms Four personally because the source ‘made that a condition''’. Yet when the Englishman was posted away from Berlin, ‘Bret took over from me.’ But Bret Rensselaer admits he maintained the pretence that Silas was still the handler: ‘''Brahms Four related to Silas in a way no newcomer could hope to do. It was better to let him think his stuff was still coming to Silas.’ [quotes Berlin Game'' chap 4]

At the beginning of the trilogies, Brahms Four seemingly wants to cease his covert role and come over to the West – Bret explains that ‘''after last year’s reshuffle he went soggy…Some great stuff still came from him but it wasn’t one hundred percent any more. He began to ask for more and more money too…I think he really wants out this time.’ [Berlin Game'' chap 4]

As ‘one of the few people ever to have seen him face to face’ [Berlin Game chap 3], Bernard Samson has been asked for by Brahms Four. For his part, Bernard explains the deep and longstanding loyalty he feels towards the source who ‘''once saved my life. He’s the one who got me out of Weimar.’ [Berlin Game chap 2] Clarifying ‘that was almost twenty years ago’ - therefore occurring sometime after spring 1963 - Dicky elaborates: ‘Bee Four panicked…He fled. He was near the border…near Thüringerwald, by the time our people intercepted him and told him he wasn’t wanted for questioning by the KGB – or anyone else, for that matter…We gave him some chickenfeed and told him to go back and play the outraged innocent…Names of people who’d already escaped, safe houses long since abandoned … bit and pieces that would make Brahms Four look good to the KGB.’ When Bernard points out that another agent, who had sheltered him, was captured Dicky counters with: ‘We got two of you out. I’d say that’s not bad for this sort of crisis - two out of three. Busch went back to his house…that’s how they put him in the bag’…’So that’s why our field people don’t like Brahms Four.’ ‘Yes, that’s why they don’t like him.’ ‘They think he informed on that Erfurt network?’…’What could we do? We could hardly spread the word that we’d invented that story to make the fellow persona non grata with the KGB.’ From this account, Bernard now knows that ‘there had been a blunder. They’d told Brahms Four to reveal old Busch’s address, then the poor old sod had gone back for his stamps.’ [Berlin Game'' chap 3]

The prospect of Brahms Four being allowed to retire however is meeting resistance from London Central – not only from Silas but from Dicky, who states: ‘I can’t afford to lose him…he’s got to stay there for the time being, and there’s an end to it.’ [Berlin Game chap 3] They speculate over the source’s true motivation for wanting to defect however, given the considerable amount of time he has spent spying, might not Brahms Four by now suspect his original handler (Silas) is retired if not dead?

Fiona Samson later informs Bernard that Brahms Four is feared by Bret and Dicky to have turned paranoid, his requests including: ‘''Can he have a full list of everyone with access to his reports? Do we know there are top-level leaks of everything he sends us?’ [Berlin Game'' chap 4]