Fatherland

Xavier March, a homicide detective for the Kripo in Berlin, arrives just after seven o’clock in the morning to Lake Havel. The dead body of an old man floats on the edge of the water. It was discovered by Hermann Jost, a young cadet with the SS training academy. March works with the Orpo, the local police, to check over the crime scene.

March and the Orpo officers pull the body from the lake. They see that a leg is missing below the knee. SS Surgeon August Eisler checks it over. He tells March that it is an old amputation. He estimates that the man has been dead for 12 hours.

As the crime scene photographer takes pictures, March stares into the dead man’s open eye.

March takes Jost to the station to make a statement. He thinks back to a few hours earlier when he received a call about the body. He was called accidentally, as it was his day off. However, when he thought of his colleague, Jaeger (who should’ve gotten the call) at home with his wife and four children, March decided it to just do it himself. He’s divorced, as his wife got increasingly upset with how much time he spent working.