Grosses Fenster, known in English as the Picture Window, is a tourist lookout above the Havel. Xavier March returns there in clear April weather to retrace the route Hermann Jost took when he discovered a body, making the open, scenic vantage point part of March’s effort to reconstruct the discovery.

Setting and View

The lookout offers a view across eight kilometers of water toward Spandau. On March’s return, the fine weather has transformed the place: what had appeared as a mass of gray the previous day is now a clear panorama. The contrast makes the location legible not only as a scenic destination but as a specific point in the landscape where the body’s discovery can be approached and tested against the terrain.

March’s Return

March parks at Grosses Fenster and follows Jost’s route down a woodland track, taking a sharp right turn and continuing along the lakeside. He repeats the walk twice more, checking the path through successive attempts before deciding he is satisfied. The repeated traversal turns the lookout into a practical investigative reference point: March uses the ground itself to reconstruct how Jost reached the body.

Route to Schwanenwerder

After finishing his inspection, March drives over a low bridge onto Schwanenwerder. A red-and-white pole blocks the road, and a sentry comes out of a small hut with a clipboard and a rifle slung over his shoulder. March presents his Kripo identification, which the sentry studies and returns before saluting him as a Sturmbannführer. The transition from an open tourist viewpoint to a controlled island entrance places the investigation within the guarded spaces of the regime’s capital.