East Berlin 2011: The reunification never happened, Egon Krenz has been in power for 22 years, and East Germany is nearly bankrupt. The capital: a dilapidated monstrosity, polluted and dirty from millions of oil engines of the Trabant successor, Phobos. The last chance for socialism: economic negotiations with West Germany and its Chancellor Oskar Lafontaine. But then, a former advisor to Krenz is found murdered—and all evidence points to the perpetrators coming from the ranks of the Stasi. When SPIEGEL reports on this case, it becomes clear: if the Stasi's innocence is not proven, East Germany is finished for good. In the gray, decaying East Berlin, Martin Wegener from the People's Police and his West German colleague Richard Brendel search for the murderers—and discover why the development of East Germany had to be so catastrophic.