Zürichsee is both a geographic landmark and a measure of distance from the Nazi-ruled capital. During Xavier March’s investigation in Zürich, the lake guides him toward a banker’s villa, surrounds a guarded hotel stay, and briefly suggests the possibility of life beyond Berlin’s iron and granite. Its calm surface cannot remove the danger following him, but it makes that danger—and the difference between the two worlds—newly visible.

Setting and Access

From his room at the Baur au Lac, March studies a city map and locates Hermann Zaugg’s address on See-Strasse, about four kilometers south along the lake’s eastern shore. The Zürichsee is therefore not simply scenery: its curve gives March a practical route into the investigation. The hotel is close to the water, and the lake’s broad expanse appears on his map like a blade thrust into the streets.

The northern rim of the Zürichsee is lined with bankers’ villas. Their high walls, stout gates, and dense screens of trees conceal them from public view, presenting a blank exterior that suits a city used for secret meetings and financial dealings. March approaches this guarded shoreline in a taxi, accompanied by Charlie and followed by two cars carrying Swiss police officers. The lake’s beauty and the houses’ seclusion coexist with the surveillance surrounding the investigation.

March’s Stay in Zürich

At the hotel, a bottle of Glenfiddich arrives with a one-word note asking about détente. Standing at the window with his tie loosened, March drinks whisky and looks across the dark water, where lights reflect from the shore and boats. The scene offers a marked contrast with Berlin: there is no Great Hall, marching band, or uniformed crowd in view. For the first time in at least a year, he is away from the capital’s monumental setting, and the lake makes other cities and other ways of living imaginable.

That reprieve remains temporary. When March leaves the hotel, his suitcase beside him as he waits for Charlie, Swiss police officers remain nearby in their cars. He imagines what a longer stay might have allowed—exploring the lake and surrounding hills, dining in the old town—but recognizes the idea as a dream. Zürichsee opens a view onto another life without making that life available to him.

Image and Narrative Significance

Near the end of the visit, March sees the lake as misty blue and imagines a landscape suited to fairy-tale heroes and sea monsters. The image briefly transforms the setting into a place of possibility, but its pointed contrast with the world he inhabits keeps that possibility out of reach. The lake is beautiful without becoming a safe escape: police surveillance and the demands of the investigation remain present at its edge.

The narrative uses Zürichsee to make political difference legible through place. Berlin is associated with monumental architecture, public spectacle, and uniforms; Zürich’s lake offers open water, lights, and the outline of a different city. At the same time, the walled villas along its shore show that this apparent openness has its own hidden spaces and watchers. The lake thus holds together refuge and danger, freedom imagined and freedom withheld.