Chameleon

This book is inspired by real events: Kurt is a good-looking Lutheran boy from the slums of Berlin. An orphan of WWI. He is taken in and raised by a wealthy Jewish couple, Mamma and Papa Kaufmann, who give him not only a loving home, but the best advantages money can buy. Educated at a prestigious gymnasium, where he first discovers his sexuality and love for his best friend Sascha.Amidst the political turmoil of the late 1920s, Kurt is seemingly uninterested by the radicalism of the Bolsheviks and the Nazis. In fact, he hates all politicians equally and trusts none of them. After Gymnasium, Kurt is accepted into the Prussian War Academy as an officer cadet. Over the next two years, Kurt proves himself to be an exceptional cadet and soon comes to the notice of Oberst Count Max von Wallenberg, head of Abwehr Counterespionage, who is impressed by the boy and decides to keep an eye him as a potential counterintelligence agent. Max recognises the growing popularity of the Nazis pose a clear threat to democracy and is resolved to do everything in his power to stop Hitler from becoming Chancellor of Germany.On the eve of Kurt's graduation and commissioning, Papa Kaufmann is gunned down by Nazis outside his office. It's a devastating blow for Kurt, and an epiphany.Max starts the process to recruit Kurt into the Abwehr and Kurt is sent from the academy to the Bavarian Alps to undergo months of gruelling and top secret "special training". When he returns to Berlin as a commissioned Leutnant, he is recruited by the Abwehr. 1932, Max meets an old war friends from the Austrian police, Oscar Schmidt, who has a very interesting story to tell about a male prostitute, blackmailer, art forger and old friend of Hitler's, Philip Beck, back in Vienna when they lived at a flophouse together; a place well known for rent boys. Beck is in Germany and was arrested and detained until Oskar arrived to take him back to Vienna, where he is wanted for murdering his landlord and lover. Only someone let him go and now Beck is on the run.Oskar tells Max that while investigating Beck, he discovered there is a police dossier on Hitler, a dossier that mysteriously went missing in 1923. Oskar tells Max that the dossier was taken by Major Burgamann, head of the Austrian Secret police and contains information that would destroy Hitler's credibility. Hitler's friend and chauffeur, Julius Schreck sends the homicidal maniac Bruno Metz to Austria to find the missing dossier. But the dossier has been taken to safety by Burgamann's secretary Simon Hrach, and the Major suffers a heart attack and dies before Bruno can find anything out. In France, Hrach is hiding out, waiting for his old friend, Marcus Wolff a professional blackmailer from Munich, who has promised to buy the Hitler dossier from him, so Hrach can escape from Europe.The Abwehr's, a step ahead of Bruno Metz, learn that Wolff has a secret address in a boarding house run by a lesbian opera singer, Fräulein Georg, where Wolff's gay lover lives. Max realises that they have to get an agent into the house to intercept the dossier as soon as Marcus Wolff shows up with it. There's just one problem: The house on Türkenstrasse is no ordinary boarding house; the tenants are all gay young artists.Boris, who suspects that Kurt is gay, suggests that Kurt would be ideal for the mission. He even has a talent for drawing, Boris tells Max.In the Türkenstrasse house, Kurt soon falls into the Bohemian lifestyle and falls deeply in love with Wolff's lover, Xavier Knopp, who is autistic. Soon, Kurt will not only have to fight for his own life, he'll have to fight to save the lives of his friends and lover and a deadly and bloody duel ensues that will leave many people dead, and Kurt's true skill as a marksman comes into its own...