Müggelhort is the setting of a nighttime gathering where a private party for Pums’s gang and its associates unfolds as both a social outing and an opportunity for Mieze to investigate the people around Franz. Beneath the dancing, drinking, and display of companionship, she is quietly gathering knowledge she hopes will help protect him.

Setting and Occasion

The party takes place at Müggelhort during an outing to Rahnsdorf. Chinese lanterns hang in the garden, and a crowded river steamer departs with a farewell fanfare while the guests remain inside, dancing and drinking until after three in the morning. The details establish the gathering as an organized night out rather than a chance meeting: the gang and its friends have come together for a private celebration.

Mieze’s Hidden Purpose

Franz has refused to bring Mieze to the gang’s social events, telling her that she should not mix with people he regards as disreputable. Instead, she decides to find out for herself who is involved. At the party she is masked and introduced as the partner of Karl the tinsmith, a disguise that lets her move among the guests without being recognized. She dances with Franz once, and the scent of her perfume stays with him afterward, though he does not know who she is.

Mieze sees Pums and his wife, the gloomy Reinhold, and a flamboyant salesman. Her presence is therefore part of a deliberate effort to learn the gang’s faces and associations. Afterward, she leaves by car with Karl; their closeness helps maintain her cover, while her attention remains on Franz and on what she still needs to discover about the people around him.

Narrative Significance

Müggelhort brings the gang’s private social world into view through a scene of music, drink, flirtation, and movement. The festive surface contrasts with Mieze’s concealed objective: she is not simply accompanying Karl or joining the party, but trying to understand a criminal circle from which Franz has kept her apart. The scene also places Franz within her field of observation. She sees the people connected to the attack that threw him from a moving car, and her secret investigation begins to connect the party’s seemingly casual relationships with the danger surrounding him.