Anyone who takes enough effort to do their research will find a few examples of artistic licence. For example, the water pump outside the city hall, which Chief Inspector Stave leaned against, was not erected until 1950. The sell-off of silver and jewellery by auctioneer Herbert Nattenheimer in the Winterhude Fährhaus restaurant actually took place in October 1947, rather than the spring of 1948. George Orwell's Animal Farm was broadcast by NWDR as the radio play Just like Animals in July rather than June of 1948. The anonymous accusation Stave read in Department S is genuine in both content and grammar. The accused transit operator, however, is an invention. The casino in Travemünde only got its licence back in 1949.
Several venues mentioned, unsurprisingly, have vanished without trace. Nothing remains of the Ley huts on Langenhorner Chaussee. The house at 23 Lerchenstrasse with its miserable little apartment no longer exists, although the Schiller theatre opposite remains a derelict monument. The Ohlendorff villa with its park is still there in Volksdorf. (It really was a British officers’ club and yes, on more than one occasion a gentleman did ride through it on horseback.) The Jewish cemetery in Jenfeld remains as a little-noticed witness to a culture all but extinguished.
The Reimershof has been rebuilt after the serious wartime damage. You can still get a good view of the office building from the bomb-scarred tower of St Nicholas church — except that today you can get to the top in an elevator, at no risk to life or limb.
The Forger Page 28