While Rottmann was almost automatically making his observations, the men turned the corpse onto its back. The face, although disfigured by blood, seemed familiar to him. It was unmistakably Dr. Gregor Meusser, the former director of the Mainfränkisches Museum at the Marienberg Fortress, better known to the people of Würzburg as the Würzburg Night Watchman: a character invented by Meusser that had become an integral part of the city's tourist attractions. Every day, Meusser, armed with a spear and lantern, led large groups of visitors through the evening old town in the role of the Würzburg Night Watchman, explaining the sights to them in a Lower Franconian dialect, enriched with historical anecdotes and tales. Now the Night Watchman was dead—and Erich Rottmann, a retired commissioner and wine enthusiast, was on the trail of a mysterious story.