Overview
- Wilder presents the book as a call to resist demagogy and protect democratic norms.
- He says his father served in the Waffen-SS and recalls family life that included Holocaust denial and NPD newspapers at the table.
- The protagonist, Alex von Stein, reflects elements of Wilder’s youth on Fehmarn and later travels in the United States.
- Co-authored with American writer Richard Opper, the multi-layered narrative connects a 1937 setting to the post‑9/11 era without revealing key plot turns.
- The project originated as a ten-episode TV concept in 2016, and any screen adaptation of those scripts is still undecided.