Den Underbara Spegeln

The story opens on an oppressively hot June day in 1950 Berlin, where the streets seem to melt under the relentless sun. Amid the sweltering gloom, the young Lieutenant Wolfgang Schnitler strides into a upscale restaurant, his bright smile and easy gait standing out like a ray of sunshine. He meets his long‑time friend, the merchant Fritz Cramer, for a leisurely lunch, their banter hinting at a deeper purpose behind Schnitler’s unusually buoyant mood.

Schnitler, twenty‑five and still a junior officer, has never found solid footing in his military career and lives on a precarious line of debts. Yet he carries the certainty of an imminent fortune: he is the sole heir to his late uncle’s prosperous chocolate empire, a prospect that keeps bankers eager to advance him large sums. As he confides in Cramer, the promise of this inheritance and the secrets it may conceal begin to shape his every move, setting the stage for a series of unexpected twists in the heat‑soaked capital.