Question about the trunk lock at the Aveo

Since I don’t have a German manual, I have to try out some unclear things. At the tailgate is a lock where you can plug in the ignition key. What the lock actually has for a function remains a mystery to me after many attempts. I can neither open the tailgate from the outside with it nor close the trunk permanently independently of the inner unlocking. I guess that here is a defective and the lock is therefore without function. Although I have the kalos reference manual, there is nothing from the castle as it should work. Can someone help me because he might have had the same problem?