Julius

Julius’s swagger makes him both a source of momentum and a liability within Lukas’s group: he turns talk into action, but his weapons, impulsive decisions, and appetite for confrontation can put his friends in danger. His arc runs from performing fearlessness to taking a desperate risk for Gino, without resolving the gap between his stated intentions and the harm his choices can cause.

Identity and Social Presentation

When Julius joins Lukas and Gino near the U-Bahn station, Lukas sees a thin boy who carries himself as though he were the broadest person around. Lukas compares his bearing to Tony Montana’s and observes that Julius is blonde in a district he describes as full of foreigners. In Lukas’s view, Julius’s manner invites fights; travelling with him can make his companions targets too. The description establishes the tension at the centre of Julius’s presence: he performs toughness, yet his slight build makes the performance look particularly exposed to challenge.

Julius’s talk is as conspicuous as his walk. He greets the others loudly, then launches into a report about a fight involving Marek’s people and boys from Johannisthaler. The story escalates to a search for Polish youths and a large brawl in which, Julius says, two people were stabbed. Lukas notes that Julius speaks as if he had witnessed the events, but the passage presents this as Julius’s manner of telling, not confirmation that he was there. He moves quickly from dramatic violence back to asking what the group will do, turning alarming news into another opening for action.

Bravado, Weapons, and the Burglary

Julius’s readiness to arm himself appears before the school theft. When the group considers whether to look for more drinks to steal, he says he has a Butterfly knife and CS gas with him. He justifies carrying them as protection in case someone causes trouble, contrasting his response with Lukas’s earlier experience of being beaten. The explanation presents violence as something he expects and believes he must be prepared to meet; it also shows how readily he introduces weapons into an already risky situation.

During the plan to enter their school, Julius produces a lockpick from a box beside his bed and claims he can use it to get into doors, cars, and basements. Sanchez counters with a key ring, and Julius immediately gives the keys his attention, putting the lockpick away. On the night of the burglary, after Sanchez lays out a route through the gate and across the basketball courts, Julius reveals a silver blank-firing pistol tucked into his waistband. Lukas had thought Julius’s earlier talk about it was a joke. The sight changes the stakes in Lukas’s mind: a break-in and theft could now also look like an armed crime.

The group enters by a side door near the seventh-grade area. Lukas is preoccupied with the possibility of a night watchman, cleaners, motion sensors, or cameras; even Julius, whom Lukas associates with a loud mouth, is quiet as Sanchez unlocks the door. In the storage room, the new computers are not immediately apparent. Julius gets frustrated, gesturing around and kicking a box, until Sanchez spots unopened cartons on high shelves—about forty computers and monitors. Julius points out a small step ladder. Lukas climbs up and passes the equipment down, while Julius and Sanchez receive the computers and set them on the floor. Julius is not just the loud advocate of risky schemes: once the target is found, he helps turn the plan into physical work.

The Failed Sale and the Computers at Home

The burglary does not deliver an easy route to money. On the Sonnenallee, Julius paces in front of Sanchez and Lukas and smokes one cigarette after another while the traffic noise and their uncomfortable place on the curb sharpen the wait. Lukas says this is already the fifth shop that will not buy the computers and proposes abandoning the attempt and hiding or discarding the goods. Julius quietly insists they should keep trying, reasoning that not every buyer can refuse. His persistence keeps the trio in motion, but it also prolongs their exposure to the consequences of the theft.

At a computer shop, Lukas claims that the boys are twenty rather than sixteen. The shopkeeper laughs, then points out the suspicious coincidence: a large number of computers have recently been stolen from a school, and three students have suddenly arrived with brand-new machines to sell. Julius is present as the attempted sale collapses under that obvious connection. His earlier confidence in finding a buyer meets a practical limit: the computers are not merely valuable goods but conspicuous evidence of a crime.

Later, Julius tells his friends that his brother found the remaining computers in his room while looking for something. The discovery brought an angry confrontation: his brother challenged what Julius was doing and warned that he would be in serious trouble if the police came to the apartment. Julius claimed that he was storing the machines for a friend who would collect them that day, and says his brother eventually believed him. The lie buys time but creates an immediate problem: the computers must be moved out of his room. Julius proposes either hiding them or trying another sale. Sanchez says the previous buyer had told them not to return, while Lukas considers throwing the computers into the Teltow Canal so they will no longer serve as evidence. The passage leaves the group's next decision unresolved, but makes clear that Julius’s home has become part of the burglary’s risk.

Friendship, Risk, and the Ending

Julius’s most consequential intervention comes in the crisis surrounding Gino. When questioned about what he did, Julius admits that he told Gino to act and obtained Tilidin for him. On the night bus to Klinikum Neukölln, he tries to explain himself to Lukas and Sanchez: he says he wanted to help Gino lose his hesitation and get away from his father, and insists Gino should not be punished because what happened was self-defense. He also says he hopes Gino’s father dies and refers to the danger facing Gino’s mother and brother. These are Julius’s claims about his intention and his view of the situation; the scene gives them emotional force without presenting them as a settled judgment of what his intervention accomplished.

Julius is visibly broken down on the ride. His face is swollen and marked with dried blood, he has tears in his eyes, and he repeats that he only wanted to help. He looks to his companions for belief. At the hospital stop, Lukas reaches out, helps him stand, and puts an arm around his shoulder; Sanchez accompanies them as they enter the bright, quiet reception area. Julius’s earlier performance depended on being louder and harder than the people around him. Here, injured and pleading, he depends on the same friends whose loyalty his conduct has repeatedly tested.

Narrative Role

Julius connects the group’s street-level bravado to its escalating danger. His confident posture and dramatic talk help make violence seem ordinary; his weapons make that posture materially dangerous; and his willingness to keep pursuing a buyer keeps the stolen computers in circulation even after the first failures. Yet he is not defined only by recklessness. His attempt to help Gino is presented through a scene of fear, injury, and dependence, complicating the image of the friend who treats every risk as manageable. The book leaves that contradiction intact: Julius may understand himself as acting out of loyalty, while his methods expose both his friends and himself to further harm.