World War II

World War II has no evidenced place in the chronology presented by these passages: none identifies the war, its events, or a wartime setting. The dates that do appear situate the material in Berlin in 1928 and refer back to a 1927 flight, so those markers should not be conflated with the later war.

Chronological Frame

Several passages provide specific markers for Berlin in 1928. A weather notice describes unsettled conditions and temperatures below freezing; another passage places the city’s public life around Rosenthaler Platz and Alexanderplatz. The Alexanderplatz is being excavated for an underground railway, with pedestrians walking on planks and trams crossing the square. These details establish an urban present in the late 1920s, not a World War II setting.

The 1927 Reference

The historical note on Charles Nungesser concerns a flight attempted in 1927, before World War II. Nungesser and François Coli departed in the aircraft L’Oiseau Blanc in an effort to make the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris; the note records that they crashed. This earlier aviation episode is a distinct chronological reference, not evidence of the later war.

Limits of the Evidence

The passages offer no wartime date, military action, or other event that would connect their described scenes to World War II. Even their forward-looking date is limited: during a cold spell on Alexanderplatz, the narrator predicts that the following year, 1929, will be colder still. The evidence therefore supports an account of a prewar chronology only; it does not establish World War II as part of the represented period.