The early morning shadows were receding and traffic, both foot and vehicle, animated the city landscape. Berlin’s daytime soul was rising while the Babylonian night, admonished by the austere and conservative, flourishing with youthfulness, explosive sexual freedom, creative thought and expression, receded, sparingly, anxious to awake into its hedonistic daily dive into the city lights again.

Werner pulled back the heavy curtains and peered out onto the street from his second-story bedroom wi...