Volker Kutscher writes of revenge, espionage, doom, lies, and illusions – and of how his heroes fared during the war and in the years that followed.
Berlin-Westend, 1973. A tape, an interview, a surprise: Private lecturer Hans Singer visits 74-year-old retired detective inspector Gereon Rath in a retirement home as part of his research into the Berlin police during the transition between political regimes. The historian is particularly interested in the police murders at Bülowplatz in 1931 – and the two men wanted by the police at the time, who both went on to have stellar careers within East Germany’s state apparatus.
To Rath’s discomfort, the conversation takes an unexpected turn. Singer knows all about his past: about his former colleagues, even his ex-wife. And he’s digging into something Rath is determined not to talk about: events in East Berlin in 1953, with roots that reach back to the Bülowplatz murders more than twenty years before.
