In The Heritage, first published in German in 1978, Zygmunt Rogalla, an elderly Masurian rug-maker from Lucknow - which was once part of East Prussia, now part of Poland - tells his story from a hospital bed.
Siggi Jepsen, the protagonist, is embroiled in the conflict between the totalitarian Nazi government and a creative artist. As a young boy he watched his father, constable of the northernmost police station in Germany, doggedly carry out orders from Berlin to stop a well-known Expressionist from painting and to seize all his 'degenerate' work.
It is the last watch of the lightship that stands at anchor in the Baltic Sea, near the port of Kiel; But on her last watch, her peace is interrupted: her captain, Freytag, takes in three men whose boat has broken down, and with them, their illegal cargo of guns.
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