Snow drifted slowly across Berlin, settling in quiet layers along the wide boulevards and iron lampposts that lined the government district.
The city had grown used to winter. It arrived each year with the same steady patience, softening the edges of buildings and muffling the sound of carriage wheels and motorcars alike.
But inside the Reich Chancellery, winter had little meaning.The lights in the upper offices still burned well past midnight. At the center of one such office sat Bruno von Zehntner.
Stacks of documents lay arranged across his desk in neat and orderly rows, each pile representing a different corner of the empire he now helped administer.
Reports from the Kingdom of Lower-Lorraine rested closest to his right hand, their contents still fresh with the urgency of recent integration.
Rail expansion, port reconstruction, and industrial labor reports.
