Postmann spilte psykiater

GERT POSTEL German Television interview

He, the trained postman who worked for 18 months as a senior physician, outwitted them all: doctors, lawyers, politicians. He has been released from prison and is now with us, Gert Postel, Germany’s most notorious confidence trickster. Welcome.

Two years ago a joke went round, and not just in medical circles: “Do you have a vacant position for a senior physician, there’s a postman I know…”
Like most jokes this one also had a grain of truth in it. It is based on the true story of Gert Postel who is here with us today.

- Herr Postel, in January 1999 you were sentenced to four years imprisonment and you served part of the sentence. Now you’ve been released from prison on probation. How does a conman redeem himself?

- By writing a book for instance, and the book is on the bestseller list of the magazine Der Spiegel.

- Not anymore…

- It is, again.

- Again? Great. Why the book? Was it intended to be a reflection or revenge?

- The book is really part of the probation programme. I think when the time comes, when I won’t be able anymore to summon up the energy in order to fight off reports in the Deutsche Aerzteblatt (German newspaper for the medical profession), it will be the book which provides the facts and I’ll be better-known.

- Facts? Then I am surprised that you’re here tonight since the book states that at present you were head of a clinic in Odessa.

- Yes, but this is something I cannot elucidate any further because it is unsuitable for public discussion. It is also a bit satirical as the whole book is a rather ironic work. My original intention was to write a book that stood out and was different from the usual True Crime Lit à la Dagobert or Dr. Schneider. And when you write about yourself you run the risk of being too close to the subject-matter. That’s why I decided to use irony as a stylistic device.

- And you started to write in prison?

- The entire manuscript was written in Leipzig while I was awaiting trial.

- You are a trained postman and for one and a half years you worked as a senior physician in a Saxon psychiatric hospital. This wasn’t your first coup but the last one we know of. How did you apply for the job?

- The position was advertised in the Saechsische Amtsblatt and in the Deutsche Aerzteblatt, among others. Thirty physicians and specialists applied for the position and eight of them were short-listed. These eight applicants had to present a paper to the Appointment Board of the Ministry for Social Affairs.

- And what exactly was your lecture about?

- “Pseudology of the Fantastic” or “Compulsive Deception as Enhancement of the Self in Thomas Mann’s exemplary figure of Felix Krull”, from his novel of the same title, The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man.

- I assume you knew the novel by heart (?)

- Yes, I thought that the subject was very interesting indeed. What is more, I was certain that sooner or later everything would come to light and therefore I thought: "What a nice subject-matter…"

- And your paper convinced the Board, or how did you prepare yourself for job-specific questions? Weren’t you worried about it?

- Yes, but my knowledge of psychiatry was in no way inferior to that of the so-called experts. At the hospital I was responsible for further training and qualification and very often I stood there and thought to myself: "Who actually is the fraud, me or them?". For example, I introduced new terminology, terms which do not exist. Right in front of a hundred psychiatrists I talked about the “Bipolar Depression of the Third Degree”. This is a psychiatric term which does not exist and no one asked a single question about it.

- Why not?

- Because to ask would be embarrassing. You would admit to incompetence and in these circles you should rather not.