Character Analysis
Bruno Kreuz vom Meere might be a very sensitive guy on the inside, but luckily we don't see that inside. We only see his outside, which isn't so great, even for a Nazi. He's very much a "foil" to "Hugo Reiss": whereas Reiss seems like he just wants to get on with reading his book, Kreuz vom Meere (KvM from here on) seems to be really dedicated to the rough work of kidnapping and hurting people. What can we say, the man loves his work.
KvM gets described as a "thug" (11.56) (by Reiss) and "a rather dangerous man" (10.25) (by Baynes). And those seem like fair assessments. ''""When KvM plans to attack the Nippon Times Building and kidnap Baynes. Reiss thinks this could cause an international incident, but Kreuz vom Meere just jokes about sending a man to be executed (11.13). Now, this might not be quite fair. After all, we don't get to see Kreuz vom Meere's internal thoughts, which might be as complex as Reiss's. But from all we see, Kreuz vom Meere seems like a dangerous Nazi, much more dangerous than the conflicted Reiss or the powerless "Alex Lotze." So he wins the coveted "Least Favorite Nazi" Award. And, honestly, it's nice to have a Nazi to dislike. Perhaps that's why Dick includes both Reiss and KvM: to show us that not all Nazis are alike.
But KvM also shows us how messed-up the Nazi political system is. As Tagomi notes, KvM is head of the secret police (the SD), locally in San Francisco. And the head of the SD is Heydrich—which means that, while KvM is working to capture Baynes, he's actually working against his own boss's wishes without knowing it (12.216). The technical phrase for that is "crazy messed up."