Page 22

Willi is about 19 here

Berlin

Office intrigue at the Berlin salon: a colleague resigns, the boss's wife confides, and a police report throws suspicion around the staff

Diary page 22

Translated from Willi's German.

...clientele was very popular. It was hard work settling in, and it cost me many a drop of sweat, for privately I was bracing myself to be given notice. But then, quite suddenly, Wagner resigned shortly before Whitsun, and since no new hand could be found I had to stay, whether it worked out or not. Through the bob-cuts I was set to do, and through the goodwill of the mistress, I gained a firm footing. When the boss went away to take a rest at Rochen, the wife, in time, poured out her heart to me. She told me of her unhappy marriage and so on. When the boss came back she pushed through a holiday of her own, and at the same time drew Herr Haase, our head men's hairdresser, into a jealous scene, which however failed miserably. I did not like this move of hers at all, and once she had left and the boss, Herr Saalborn, was really enjoying life with young, fun-loving girls and telling me all about it, my young heart too soon began to long for big-city life. When the wife came back she saw the change in me, and by that I became her friend - chiefly as the marital quarrels went on. Then suddenly a report was made to the police against us. She was quick about it; soon I was suspected, then Haase, then Nehtern; but in the end it was Schorschel, Herr Uhren of Bitterfeld, who was taken to be the culprit.

People: Willi Distel, Wagner, Herr Haase, Herr Saalborn, Nehtern, Schorschel, Herr Uhren

Places: Berlin, Bitterfeld, Rochen

Interesting facts