#Root Double -Before Crime * After Days

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[loreweaver-universe]

Part 18 of my first playthrough of Root Double: Before Crime * After Days is up on Youtube! Click here for the ongoing playlist!

[luckydaikon]

[doitsuuu]

[aziraphales-library]

Hey y'all, first off, thanks for the great work you're doing!

I'm looking for Aziracrow fics with like,, one of them as an FBI agent and the other as art consultant or something like that. I already checked if there's anything in a possible art heist tag, I also looked for crossovers with White Collar, which has a similar premise, and I didn't really find anything. Maybe there's nothing, but I thought maybe you'd have an idea :) Thank you!!

Hello! So, the best I can do is fics in which one of them works in law enforcement of some kind, and the other works in either a different department or completely different job, and they work together in some way. Hope this was the kind of thing you're after!...

Containing Seeds of Destruction by feathereddino (T)

Lower Tadfield is a rural, sleepy little village that is trying to be a town. The crimes that Police Constable A.J. Crowley usually responds to are mundane but never evil. His husband, police psychologist Dr. A.Z. Fell appreciates that their combined caseload reflects that banality. That all changes in 2008 with a call about an abandoned baby. Adam Young's surrender will spark a series of events that will impact their village, their careers, and their personal lives.

What Will Destroy You by EveningStarcatcher (E)

London, 1888 Police Inspector Aziraphale Fell forms an unlikely alliance with Reporter Anthony Crowley to investigate the Whitechapel Murders. Can they solve the mystery and stop the so called Ripper before he strikes again?

Tadfield's Finest by angelsnuffbox (E)

The sleepy town of Tadfield is thoroughly shaken by the arrival of DI Crowley. Where barely anything ever happened before, there is now a bustle of low grade criminal activity, and everyone knows where to point the blame. Gabriel thinks he's a bad omen for the town, many others are quick to agree. Meanwhile, Aziraphale from SOCO just thinks he's hot. Ridiculously so.

and salt the Earth behind you by sunrisesinthesuburbs (E)

Detective (well, Profiler actually, not that anyone seems to care) Aziraphale Fell should have dropped his one and only Criminal Informant the moment he realized he was already falling in love with the man. Alas, he's never had good ideas regarding his self-preservation: when Anthony Crowley calls, he always comes. He will always come. If this wasn't already very bad, his feelings are apparently reciprocated and, in the meantime, his unit has to catch the worst serial killer Washington D.C. has probably ever seen. Crowley has no intention of leaving Aziraphale to deal with this on his own; Aziraphale has no intention of letting Crowley do something stupid just for his sake. Ah, if only love could ever be something easy. “Sometimes I wish I’d met you in a park.” Crowley’s hands move lower, down, down until he reaches Aziraphale’s palms and intertwines their fingers. There isn’t a single chance this gesture can fall under the umbrella of ‘plausible deniability’. Though nothing about this sort of impromptu confession could. “A park, uh? Nice.” A squeeze. “I always imagine something like a library. Or a bookshop or, not sure, whatever place is full of books.”

For His Eyes Only by AFrenchFanWriter (M)

Anthony J. Crowley has been an MI6 spy for 10 years, completing successful mission after successful mission under the guidance of his quartermaster, Aziraphale Fell. But this life is starting to take its toll on him as he is getting older; and when, one day, his past comes back to haunt him, Crowley realizes that it might be time for him to hang up his gun and face all the things he has left unaddressed… (Yep, it is basically a James Bond/Q AU!)

On Espionage and Prophecy (or How to Accidentally, but Wholly, Fall in Love With a Soho Bookseller) by RockSaltAndRoll (E)

1941 is the London Blitz and the year that MI5 really comes into its own with the now infamous ‘double cross’ system. The service keep tabs on suspects, root out enemy agents and try to turn them into doubles. Anthony J Crowley is fucking great at this job. He can be sneaky, underhanded and damn ruthless but also charming and kind. It’s what makes him good at turning. Aziraphale is just a regular Soho bookseller who loves his shop and books and good food and wine when he’s approached by a woman claiming to be MI5, wanting to recruit him for espionage. The poor man is too trusting and gets the shock of his life when he’s approached by a charming but dangerous-looking man also claiming to be MI5. Crowley recruits Aziraphale to double cross a double crosser and Aziraphale takes to espionage like a duck to water. Danger, hijinks, and sex ensue.

- Mod D

[minniiaa]

Hehehe, I was hoping you'd like that idea though I don't think I ever saw your puppy Law post, I'll look for it at some point lol

As for the reason behind Law's sudden shift in affection… I didn't think about it until now. I woke up with a mission and nothing more! But now that you mention it, I have formulated a few of my own theories and also have chosen to take one of yours and run, sprint even.

I really like the idea of Law, who's been surrounded by death since he was barely double digits, suddenly gets hit with the weight of mortality. He never got the time for a grieving process, his parents and little sister died while he was trying to survive exactly what killed them and I doubt a 10 year old of any academic achievements could process that by himself. Cora died as soon as he was given a chance, a reason to hope again, Law was beaten and scorned at 13, he was tired but he couldn't bring himself to disrespect Corazone's last wish by allowing himself to die. He lived for years not for himself but for a man who risked it all for him, for parents who never got to see their son become a doctor, for a sick little sister who waited in a closet for her big brother, Law grew up living for anyone but himself because if he did he would find no reason behind it. So while he sits in a secluded corner of the hospital after that day's butcher's bill surpassed yesterday's, his mind slows down to try remembering some of those faces and names he couldn't save but for some ungodly reason all that comes to mind is Lami, Cora, his parents and suddenly the familiarity of death is no longer *just death*. Now it's a crooked smile that would need braces in a few years, grey hair, and that welcomed, looming figure behind him no longer being so tall, but none of that happened and Law, for the first time in 18 years, realizes he was robbed. Maybe it's a bit silly for a doctor to feel the weight of mortality at 28 years old, it's a feeling he needed though, that feeling sending him into an upward spiral quicker than he ever thought possible.

My own first thought, however, involved a play on the interaction between Law and Sengoku at the end of Dressrosa. Law's a surgeon known for having direct correlation with one of the most cruel crime families in the country, and while he has earned the legal trust of the police, one too many of them remember Law when he was that dickhead teen, so Sengoku tries saving as much face he can with his fellow officers by catching Law alone and briefly (Sengoku is holding back a lot) tries to bestow some grandpa wisdom onto him because his boy died for the one in front of him now. Sengoku wishes he could invite Law to his empty home for rice crackers and tea, or maybe coffee, Cora preferred coffee too. Law wants to know the man who raised the one who saved his life. Did Cora get his smile from Sengoku? They could both talk each other's ears off about one man but only Law gets answer before parting ways because above all else, Sengoku wanted Law to know that his son, his Rosinante, did not save him to fulfill a mission or some savior complex, he saved Law because he saw the life in a dying boy's eyes.

Second thought features, get this, living Cora!! I actually don't care much for angst, I want angst the way I want a bandaid on my arm. I know ripping it off is more beneficial but has anyone ever considered that I'm a little bitch? I digress though. Cora is fucking estatic when Law, very begrudgingly, admitted to be seeing someone. Sure Law has been in relationships before, however Law never let him know about said relationships until well AFTER they broke up, so to hear Law talk about his current partner at all automatically has him rooting in this mystery person's corner. The long awaited question finally can be asked, “When can I meet him?”. First of all, how did he know Luffy's a guy, Law hadn't said his name yet, second, never ever in the history of ever. He can't give up though, and Cora pushes Law to introduce him, saying he'll even wait a few months into the relationship so they don't feel rushed. Luffy and Law had been dating for AT LEAST a year at that point. Cora chooses to ignore that in the moment when Law breaks that news to him. Law is, honestly, a little flabbergasted by Cora’s investment in his love life, probably tries joking about showing Cora how to use tinder before it boils down and Law has to genuinely ask Cora why he's being so “weird” about Law's romantic life. Cora… Cora kinda just deadpan stares at Law out of complete shock at the realization that Law is being serious. With a tone akinned to one you would use when explaining to a child why Fido had to go to “the farm”, Cora absolutely dumps everything Law has done that's made him worry since learning of Law's romantic life. He recognized some of the names of Law's past partners, and he recognized them for a reason. It wouldn't have taken much from Cora to make Law realize just how stupid his question is, but Cora also wants Law to know just how special this person is for them to be having this conversation now. Law has always known how special Luffy is in comparison to his past relationships, but he's never had the right words to describe such facts, thanks to Cora of course.

Overall, the idea is that someone/something happens to make Law actually process his life/mindset which in turn makes him see clearly just how much Luffy has always meant to him. I dunno if I properly expressed just how little introspection Law has had to have done for him to break at 28 but my hands hurt from typing so I pass the baton to you in this relay race.

-💫💀💫

Yes, amazing anon! This is my personal favorite of the three (probably due to the expansion of my previous idea). I love your description of Law's relationship with mortality through the deaths of his parents, Cora, and Lami. How he doesn't realize until he's so much older and instead of making him feel downtrodden and even more sad, he almost feels relieved knowing that death is no longer looming behind him. Perhaps he's realizing his own mortality and knowledge that his life can be taken from him just as quickly as theirs. Now that this has finally clicked in his head (he knows it should have years ago he's a surgeon for fucks sake he watches people die everyday) he wants to live his life and love Luffy the way they both deserve to be loved because it could be over tomorrow.

This conversation with Sengoku is something I always wanted to incorporate into one of my stories and will probably do one day when I find the right one. I wish we knew more about Cora and Sengoku's relationship, they are both such fascinating characters and perhaps Law is understanding that Sengoku helped Cora grow some of his more admirable traits, like his desire to do the right thing and his ability to love so deeply. I firmly beleive Sengoku is a good man he just is not on the side of the story that we root for in One Piece and thus we see him as a villain but that's a topic for another day. But yes, the revelation of Cora saving him simply because he wanted to see Law live and be happy is something that can allow Law to truly move on. He's always been worried about making Cora proud and doing something with his life that is of value but maybe he realizes now that all Cora wanted for him was to be happy. Now he has someone in his life who makes him happier than anything in the world and it's high time he makes sure Luffy knows it.

Living Cora is the best and I used a conversation with him in one of my fics to help Law overcome his fears and tell Luffy he loves him so I am on board with this idea fully. Cora's totally invested in Law's love life, he wants him to be happy and knows that his little guy needs more love than even he can give him. He's been quietly watching from the sideline as Law dates and doesn't even tell him. He sees Law was in clearly unfulfilling relationships and he kept his mouth shut because he knows Law needs to experience life and that some people can't find their prince unless they kiss some frogs. However, now he sees the small changes in Law since he's been in this new relationship. He's less angry, he smiles more, he just overall seems more relaxed than Cora's ever seen him even if he is still the same uptight cranky Law. So he wants to meet Luffy not just to get to know him, but to thank him for finally being the person who can make his adopted son happy. As Cora explains how different Law is from Luffy and how he can just see how much he cares for him, Law sees it too. With a little encouragement from Cora about letting himself bask in the glow of this beautiful love he gets to experience and allow it to overtake him, Law finds himself seeing his point. There's no use in trying to hold back anymore, Luffy is already his and he knows more than anything Luffy just wants Law to give him every piece of him in return. So he does. Shout out to Cora for making Law's blockhead ass stop being so stubborn.

I think Law definitely needs SOME intervening person/event he's just a man so set in his ways whose mindset rarely gets changed. He cares about Luffy more than anything but he's never allowed himself to just let go and embrace what it really means to love and be loved. Once he does, there's no going back. :)

[dr-spencer-reids-queen]

The Angel Maker: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.3k

Summary: You still feel guilty for what happened to you and Hotch even though you shouldn't. If you had seen that bomb before getting blasted back, then maybe you wouldn't have so many problems with your "abilities".

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

x

Hotch and Emily headed over there while the rest of the team stayed back to work on the case. It turns out that the unsub wasn't the one who committed the crime, but Shara, the woman you and Rossi talked to. She figured if this killing spree could work for the unsub, then it could work for her.

It's already late, so you'll have to pick this up in the morning. The comment Emily made is stuck in your head for some reason. Why you're upset at this, you're not sure. You're sitting in the conference room and staring at Emily who is outside getting some coffee in the break room. You have a small pout on your face, and Spencer notices this when he enters the conference room.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," you say and look away.

"Is it your head? Are you okay?"

"Spencer, I'm okay. I took my pain meds before we left the hotel, so I'm good."

The rest of the team filters into the conference room while JJ is on the phone with Pen. Penelope is working her magic in trying to find out who this unsub could be. According to her, four hundred and sixty-three children were born in the lower Canaan area between 2006 and 2008, so you'll have to narrow the list a bit more to get accurate results.

One of the letters Spencer decoded says, "I knew even before they told me that the future had taken root", which can only mean that it was the date of conception. The date of that letter was January 7th, 2007, so Pen had to look between August to September of the same year. With that, she came up with nine names, which is a lot more manageable.

After she sent over the names, your team got to work eliminating them. The Sheriff would know more about these names than you would, so you bring him in to try and help.

"Hannah Dreyfus was in an auto accident. She could barely walk. Shannon Conway moved away when the plant closed a year ago," the sheriff goes down the list.

"Any other names you recognize?"

"No, I'm sorry." The sheriff does a double-take and grabs the paper when he recognizes another name. "Well, this one here sounds familiar but I can't really place it. Chloe Kelcher."

"Chloe Kelcher. That is familiar," Spencer says and grabs the file for Cortland. "She was on the jury."

"That makes sense. She would have been exposed to the case evidence and seen firsthand what he did to his victims. That's when she fell in love with him, sitting across the courtroom every day."

"Well, it's one thing to have a relationship with a killer, and it's another to become one," the sheriff scoffs.

"There might have been an incident that prompted the transformation," Spencer says and looks into Chloe's file. "There's a death certificate here. Microvesicular steatosis. Her baby died at the hospital."

It looks like Chloe is your unsub, so your entire team heads over to her house, but like you assumed, she isn't home. The judge signed the warrant very quickly, so you're allowed to enter her house without getting into trouble. After a thorough search, everyone gathers in the kitchen.

"All right. We all know what the end game is. She's looking for her final victim. She may have already chosen one. Let's tear this place apart and look for anything that might tell us who she's targeted," Hotch says.

You, Hotch, and Derek head toward the bedroom and come across a child's nursery with glow-in-the-dark stars stuck to the ceiling.

"Daddy's watching," you say and point to the stars.

"It must have devastated her to think that she could hold on to Ryan by having his child and then lose the baby. Completing his murders became the only way she could hold on to him."

Something isn't right. The second you entered the house, something felt off about the atmosphere. You pause and look around the room until you see it.

Cortland Ryan is sitting on top of some kind of chest located underneath the window.

"What is it?" Derek asks after he sees the look on your face.

Without saying a word, you grasp the end of the chest. As soon as you open it, Cortland mists away. Lying there inside is Cortland's rotting body.

"That's not the only way she's holding onto him," you gag.

"I assume that's who I think it is," Spencer says when he walks into the bedroom. "I have an appointment book here. There are meetings with Delilah Grennan and Maxine Chandler on the day of each murder."

"Sheriff, have you found her tools or the gun?" Hotch asks.

"Nothing yet."

"She has something for this morning: Faye Landreaux."

"She's a CPA," the sheriff sighs. "She does my taxes. She works out of her home."

"Let's go."

Your entire team heads over to Faye's house. As soon as you get there, you can feel how scared she is and also another energy: the unsub.

"My team's ready. Let's get in there," the Sheriff says eagerly.

"Sheriff, we didn't recover a gun at Chloe's house. We have to assume she's armed."

"So are we."

"If you storm in now, she'll shoot, and she'll start with Faye. We need to be smart about this," you say.

"What do we do?" Derek asks.

"I think you should look for an open window," Hotch takes charge. "Sheriff, I need you to bring all your vehicles around to the front, facing forward with lights off, and I need a megaphone."

The sheriff does what he's told, and Derek creeps around the house to try and find an open window to get inside. Chances are, she's locked all the doors so no one can get inside so Derek's only shot it getting through a window without alerting her.

"Hotch, you won't be able to get through to her," you say.

"No, but maybe you can," he says and hands the megaphone to you.

"Sir, the profile is clear. We won't be able to talk her down."

"No, but we can occupy her. If we're right about the MO, she's left a window open somewhere. Morgan will find a way in. We just need to buy him some time. Hit the lights," Hotch says to the sheriff.

Seconds later, lights flood the front of the house, no doubt letting Chloe know that you're here. You take a deep breath and clear your head.

"Chloe, this is the FBI. We know you're in there, and we know what you're trying to do. I know you think that finishing what Cortland started will bring you closer to him, but first, you should know who he really was. I know you thought you were special, but the truth is, he wrote the same things he wrote to you to other women. I've seen the letters." Hotch hands you copies of the letters for you to read to her. "Dozens read the same lines: 'Without the flesh, there is only the soul. You don't need to touch me to feel the love I have for you.' Does that sound familiar? Cortland wasn't who you thought he was. He was a narcissist, Chloe. He wasn't capable of loving anyone but himself.

"To Carla Kettinger, he wrote, 'Ever since your visit, I am crazed with thoughts of you. Already, you have entered my dreams. Each time you appear to me, I am embraced by a feeling of trust and belief as if I've known you all my life. It's clear to me now that you are my fate. We are destined to be together, and when I am gone, that will not change. I will live on in you. In death, our union will be eternal. All appeals are lost. Possessions matter little to a condemned man, but I cannot leave this world without seeing your face one last time.' 

"It isn't your fault that he made you feel these things, Chloe. It isn't your fault your baby died."

That gives Derek enough time to get Faye out of the house because as soon as you're done speaking, you see Derek usher Faye to safety. Second later, you hear Chloe yell out in anger.

"It's over, Chloe. We have Faye. You have nowhere to go," you say into the megaphone.

Still, she doesn't respond. 

"I think we got some tear gas. I'm assuming it's still good," the sheriff says.

"We're not gonna need it. She doesn't have any place to go."

"Well, maybe she'll do us all a favor and put herself down."

"She's not gonna do that, either. She's not done."

Just then, Chloe comes out of the house with the gun in her hand. All officers and agents draw their guns and point them at her, and she stops at the bottom step of the porch.

"Chloe, drop the gun!" Hotch orders, and repeats himself when she doesn't listen.

"I'm coming to you, baby," she grins at the sky.

She raises her gun to shoot knowing that everyone will shoot to stop her. She goes down in two shots, and you back away in pain from the gunshot. Rossi and Emily rush over to her, but she is already dead. Emily notices blood seeing from her jacket, and she lifts it to see the markings of the final constellation.

If we took her victim from her, then she became the last one.

With the case solved, your team gets ready to head to the airport. Hotch is in the police station finishing up, so everyone is waiting by the car for him.

"Hey, are you okay?" Spencer asks.

"Yeah, just tired," you sigh.

"Did anyone get directions back to the airstrip?" JJ asks when Hotch comes out with his bag in hand.

"This town's only got one road. We'll find it," Derek shrugs.

"Yeah, Morgan doesn't like to follow directions. You didn't know about that?" Emily laughs.

"Yeah, he likes to vibe it," Spencer smirks.

"Okay, smart ass. You drive," Derek says and tosses Spencer the keys.

He unlocks the car, and you're the first one in. The car has a row of seats behind the back seat, so that's the one you take. Spencer sees how much pain you're in, and he looks down at the keys in his hands. He likes driving every once in a while, but you clearly need him.

"Not this time," he says and hands the keys to Emily who takes them with a smile.

He sets his bag in the back before climbing in next to you. After putting both your seatbelts on, you shift and rest your head on his chest. He wraps an arm around you and kisses the top of your head.

You're always able to fall asleep a lot better when it's in his arms.

"The past is our definition. We may strive, with good reason, to escape it, or to escape what is bad in it, but we will escape it only by adding something better to it." - Wendell Berry

x

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[waitmyturtles]

Alright, so I have @lurkingshan talking me down from a ledge on Dangerous Romance, episode 2, because up until the last scene, I was very much hoping that the bullying and chemistry between PerthChimon and MarcPawin was kind of meant to send up past BLs focusing on these themes -- à la SOTUS, which the director of Dangerous Romance, Lit Phadung, had previously done.

But that last scene was a little wild. I have not seen Never Let Me Go, but I understand it was a show that fought between its crime storyline and its romance storyline (cc @lurkingshan), and yeah -- I share the same concerns as Shan.

Before I get to the gun: I'm not yet sure why Kang is so hellbent on causing trouble in school. What's the deal with his obsession with revenge? He's spending QUITE a bit of time on the bullying. Time management, my friend, you're not doing well on these tests. (What is the root of the power struggles at the school? Is it speaking to a story of, say, insecurity about Kang that we'll learn later? I feel like I need a hint more about this impetus before we embark on KangSailom's journey.)

I like that Pim was Grandma's spy. I like that Pim is worried about Kang. (If I were Kang's friend, I'd be worried about him, too!) I LIKE GRANDMA. I want to know more about where Kang's mom is, as I said last week. I want to know why are Sailom and Saifah broke.

Alright, that gun bit. I'll just say, there have to be many other ways (I guess? I don't actually know, I've never bullied people like this before?) to convince someone to tutor your ass, than by waving a damn gun in their face. This felt a bit like jumping the shark to me. (And unfortunately, Shan, @neuroticbookworm, and to a lesser extent, I, have slight PTSD about Perth holding a gun from our Double Savage days, lol.) Whipping out a gun to your high school classmate.... seems quite heightened for a drama in episode 2. And then Sailom hugging Kang after seemed.... inconsistent. It makes sense after getting beat up, but Kang's been nothing but a threat so far, so... make it make sense?

Right now, I am watching this show for the acting (COME AWN, THE "ACTING," WHO AM I KIDDING, I LIKE THEIR FACES, I LOVE THEIR FACES) of Chimon and Perth, particularly because I want to see their chemistry work itself out. Can you imagine -- if their chemistry absolutely clicks, will we be willing to write off this episode? Right now, at least Chimon is too good for this script. Perth is really working the bullying angle. If the chemistry outweighs the script, it'll be a damn shame, because they're clearly still demonstrating great individual acting.

[mariacallous]

One morning in November 2011, two men walked into a bank in the eastern German city of Eisenach, pistol-whipped the bank teller, and stole around $99,000. After local police traced the men to a camper van on the side of a nearby road, gunshots rang out, and the vehicle went up in flames. Police officers found two men dead inside; one had shot the other and then turned the gun on himself. Later that day, after hearing what had happened in Eisenach, a woman about 100 miles away poured gasoline around her apartment and set it on fire before fleeing the scene.

The two men, Uwe Böhnhardt and Uwe Mundlos, weren’t typical bank robbers: Along with the woman, Beate Zschäpe, they formed a trio of neo-Nazi terrorists intent on ridding Germany of immigrants and anyone else they believed would threaten the country’s white identity. And the police’s investigation uncovered far more than a string of bank robberies. Böhnhardt and Mundlos had stolen the money to fund the underground terrorist group they led, the National Socialist Underground (NSU), which had planned and committed a series of murders across Germany while escaping the notice of authorities.

When the revelations about the NSU first emerged, they shook Germany to its core, but the story remains relatively unknown outside the country. Journalist Jacob Kushner’s new book, Look Away: A True Story of Murders, Bombings, and a Far-Right Campaign to Rid Germany of Immigrants, seeks to change that.

“A nation that liked to think it had atoned for its racist past would be forced to admit that violent prejudice was a thing of the present. That sixty years after [Adolf] Hitler’s Nazis led Jews and other minorities to their deaths during the Holocaust, German police were so blinded by bias that they couldn’t recognize the racist violence unfolding around them,” Kushner writes. “The case would compel Germans to acknowledge that terrorism isn’t always Islamist or foreign. More often, it’s homegrown and white. And that in an age of unparalleled mass migration, the targets of white terrorism are increasingly immigrants.”

Told primarily through the perspectives of the victims’ family members and others who proactively sought to root out right-wing extremist terrorism, Look Away is divided into three parts. First, Kushner describes how Böhnhardt, Mundlos, and Zschäpe radicalized in the eastern German city of Jena in the late 1990s. They didn’t come to their views alone: After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Germany saw a spike in the number of asylum-seekers arriving in the country. Those new arrivals were often met with protests and violence, including a handful of high-profile riots and attacks on refugee housing. Jena had a thriving right-wing extremist scene at the time. It was led by Tino Brandt, a kind of double agent: He served as a government informant who was supposed to report on the activities of neo-Nazis while funding his own groups promoting the same far-right ideology.

The second section of the book chronicles how the three extremists spent 13 years planning and executing the murders of 10 immigrants across Germany, all under the noses of German authorities. The murders were only connected and solved after the bank robbery in 2011. Kushner lays much of the blame for the NSU’s decade-long killing spree at the feet of the authorities, whose investigations were guided by harmful tropes—bolstered by the German media—about immigrants being involved in drugs or organized crime.

The firsthand accounts of victims’ families powerfully illustrate just how much police officers’ assumptions about the victims led them astray. For instance, Gamze Kubasik, whose father, Mehmet Kubasik, was murdered in their family kiosk in the city of Dortmund in 2006, explained that she and her mother were interrogated for hours about Mehmet’s supposed illicit activities. “I couldn’t listen to it anymore,” she said. “We felt like criminals.”

Some aspects of the investigations verge on the ridiculous. For instance, after Böhnhardt and Mundlos shot and killed Ismail Yasar at his kebab stand in Nuremberg in 2005, German police doggedly pursued the theory that Yasar had been dealing drugs from his stand. They spent a year and around $36,000 of taxpayer money selling kebabs and sodas undercover at a snack bar they had opened to help corroborate their theory, waiting for someone to come up and ask about buying drugs—“But nobody did, because Yasar wasn’t a drug dealer,” Kushner writes. Kerem, Yasar’s son, “couldn’t help feeling that if his father had been a native-born German, his murder would have quickly been solved.”

But Kushner also argues that German society writ large has been complacent in acknowledging the scope of anti-immigrant, white nationalist sentiment after World War II. White nationalism “had never gone away,” he writes. “Similar events that precipitated the Holocaust—pogroms, attacks against Jewish-owned businesses, the expulsion of Jews from their homes—were now happening to immigrants.” Especially in eastern Germany, the 1990s saw the proliferation of neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists, to the point that, in reference to skinheads who committed acts of violence across the east, that period is sometimes called the “baseball bat years.”

The book’s third section covers the NSU trial, which culminated in 2018 with Zschäpe’s conviction on 10 counts of murder and charges for several of the trio’s accomplices. The verdict brought only cold comfort to the families of those killed. “The NSU murdered my father … but the investigators have ruined his honor—they murdered him a second time,” Gamze Kubasik said.

Lest anyone believe that Germany has fully learned its lessons from the NSU affair, Kushner connects it with more recent instances of hate and violence against members of Germany’s immigrant community. The NSU scandal has never fully faded from German public discourse, but after the trial ended, it dropped out of headlines—and was most often mentioned in the wake of other incidents of right-wing extremist violence. In February 2020, a right-wing extremist killed nine people of immigrant background in the central German city of Hanau, targeting two shisha bars in his racist rampage. In November 2022, a 54-year-old man was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for sending threats to politicians, journalists, and other public figures, including Seda Basay-Yildiz, a lawyer of Turkish background in Frankfurt who represented the families of several NSU victims; the letters were signed “NSU 2.0.”

Part of the trouble with eradicating white terrorism in Germany is that anti-immigrant sentiment is alive and well in national politics, too. In January, the German investigative news outlet Correctiv published a bombshell report revealing that right-wing extremists had met in secret late last year to discuss their plans for deporting millions of people of immigrant background, including German citizens. Among those who attended the meeting in Potsdam, just outside Berlin, were high-level politicians from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which holds 77 seats in Germany’s parliament and was polling at 22 percent nationwide at the time. (After the Correctiv report and a spate of other unrelated scandals since its release, the party’s support has now dropped to 16 percent, but it performed nearly five percentage points better in the recent European Parliament elections than it did in 2019.)

These extremists’ plans for “remigration” of those with immigrant backgrounds shed light on the battle lines over who gets to belong in Germany and who doesn’t—and who ultimately decides. To many, they were also a reminder that German authorities have underestimated the threat posed by far-right ideology in a country that prides itself on how it has processed its Nazi history. The Correctiv report prompted widespread backlash among the German population, with millions of people taking to the streets to declare “Never Again.”

Still, the AfD is poised to make gains in three eastern German state elections this fall—including Thuringia, where Böhnhardt, Mundlos, and Zschäpe grew up, and Saxony, where they were based. AfD politicians remain the parliamentary voice of those who would prefer to rid the country of immigrants. “These new neo-Nazis feel emboldened by the rhetoric of a political party that believes Germany has become too fixated with remembering the terror of its past,” Kushner writes of the AfD.

Although Look Away is a German story, Kushner draws connections to illustrate that the failure to confront anti-immigrant, right-wing extremist violence is a problem across Western democracies. The examples are myriad: Whether it led to the slaughter of Black parishioners at a church in Charleston, South Carolina; worshippers at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand; or Mexican American and other shoppers in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, the core ideology that fueled the NSU trio—that of white supremacy—transcends national borders.

That makes the NSU story a warning to the United States as it grapples with its own problems with white terrorism. Terrorist attacks by right-wing extremists have been on the rise in recent years: According to the Anti-Defamation League, such attacks, primarily carried out by white supremacists, killed 58 people in the United States between 2017 and 2022. “The United States will not be spared Germany’s crisis, or its carnage, if we continue to look away,” Kushner concludes.

[ukrfeminism]

3 minute read

Imagine it. You’re at the end of your tether. Perhaps it’s an undiagnosed or untreated mental health problem, or maybe a financial or family disaster has pushed you to the edge. You do the unthinkable and try to end your life. The police are called, you survive. But because we do not have enough mental health beds in this country, you are sent to prison as a “place of safety” or “for your own protection”. 

This is completely legal and happened to six women in three months from May to July 2022. While most of us enjoyed the warmest summer in over 10 years, they were sent to HMP Styal during one of the lowest periods in their lives. This was in addition to seven other women who were sent there solely on mental health grounds.

HMP Bronzefield, another women’s prison, was sent 75 women by the courts between 2021 and 2022, because there were not enough mental health beds in the community. That was more than double the number of women that they received the year before.

The cases above were highlighted by the Independent Monitoring Board’s (IMB) latest report on mental health concerns in women’s prisons, which came out earlier this month. But this awful phenomenon is not a new one. About a year ago, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons reported concerns to the all party-parliamentary group (APPG) on women in the penal system.

At the time, politicians called for a change to laws that give courts the power to remand people in prison “for their own protection” under the 1976 Bail Act (meaning you can be sent to prison if you are considered a danger to yourself, which could include a suicide attempt). 

And now, the the reformed Mental Health Act is set to end the use of prison as a “place of safety” too, which sometimes happens under the 1983 Mental Health Act (this law permits the authorities to put people with severe mental health needs in prison until there is space for them to be admitted to hospital). 

That law change cannot come soon enough. There’s no doubt it will make all the difference for women who are not legally “guilty” of any crimes but find themselves in prison because they are mentally unwell. 

From oversubscribed healthcare and specialist units at HMP Eastwood Park and HMP Bronzefield, to mentally unwell women who are segregated because the necessary support is not available, and prison staff who are struggling because they are not trained mental health professionals, the IMB report makes it clear that prisons are no place for vulnerable women who need mental health support. 

However, the real question is where women with mental health needs will go if they don’t end up in our prisons. Mental health services outside prisons are also oversubscribed. Last year, an 18-year-old woman going through a mental health crisis had to wait eight-and-a-half days in A&E before she got a bed in a psychiatric hospital. Right now, 23 per cent of adults with a mental illness must wait more than three months to start treatment.

To truly break the link between mental health needs and women in prison, we must expand our mental health services on a grand scale. 

More than 80 per cent of women in prison told a Justice Inspectorate Survey they had some form of mental health problem (compared with 59 per cent of men). That means people in prison without mental health problems are the minority.

Pavan Dhaliwal, the chief executive of Revolving Doors, a charity that aims to reduce reoffending said: “All evidence points to a clear solution: the end to short prison sentences and instead well-funded, trauma-informed, and personalised support in the community that addresses the root causes of crime.

“Yet, over four years after the Female Offender Strategy’s promise of fewer women entering the criminal justice system and better management of their needs in the community, the Government continues to fall short.” 

Women in the prison estate are some of the most vulnerable and overlooked women in our society. I have heard first hand from a woman who had such a difficult and unstable life that prison was the first place she had any semblance of security. 

I once interviewed a woman in prison with schizophrenia. When I asked her for examples of kindness she’d received from prison staff, worryingly, her best example was when a nurse had let her miss taking her medicine five times so she could get to her prison job on time.

A woman who served time in prison for murder wrote for iabout witnessing self-harm on a massive scale, and group therapy sessions that left her suicidal. She tried to take her own life during her sentence in 2016.

When asked about her experience of prison and mental health, Natalie* said: “When I was sent to prison, I spent 24 hours in a cell and found myself experiencing an anxiety attack. I rang the alarm bell six times, asking to speak to a healthcare professional, but no one came. It wasn’t until the next morning that a prison officer came to find me in my room. I was on the floor and I hadn’t gotten any sleep because of how distressed I was. Things didn’t get any better during the rest of my sentence. In fact, my mental health just spiralled, and I was in an even worse place than when I came in. 

“When you’re having mental health issues before being charged, prison does nothing to help – it just turns your life upside down.” 

This is the truth. Whether they are innocent or guilty, women in prison with mental health needs desperately need so much better than what is currently on offer. The question is whether our Government will do anything about it. 

Natalie* is an alias 

[leafsbabe]

double trouble - William Nylander & Auston Matthews x actress & singer insta AU

actressinstagram

Liked by singerinstagram, austonmatthews and 873.927 others

actressinstagram to my best friend, my soul sister, my partner in (tv) crime

words can’t describe how glad i am to have you by my side forever and always, meeting you on our first set was fate and i can’t imagine my life without you in it, seeing you rock the charts and win awards will always be my second favorite thing beside you being unashamedly yourself while you write the soundtrack of our lives 

view all 15.943 comments

singerinstagram why do you enjoy making me cry

actressinstagram ❤️

actressfan i want to have a friendship like these two so bad

singerinstagram added to their private story

hotgossipmag

Liked by actressfan, singerfan and 250.336 others

hotgossipmag best friends singerinstagram & actressinstagram had a busy few weeks. actressinstagram shared a beautiful tribute for her best friend after singerinstagram‘s latest album dominated the award season, winning album of the year among others. After that the pair was spotted soaking up the sun in the Mediterranean for a few days before heading back to Toronto, where actressinstagram is currently filming, to catch a hockey game. The full breakdown of their latest adventures as well as a full timeline of their friendship are available online. LINK IN BIO

view all 9.106 comments

singerinstagram hi just letting you know that i’m stealing those boat pictures for a post 

singerfan you’re so badass i love you

singerxactress just normal gal pal behavior 

torontoleafs okay but who did they root for

papimatthews me and my friend where sitting a few rows below them but they were definitely cheering for the leafs

singerinstagram

Liked by actressinstagram, williamnylander and 741.853 others

singerinstagram yesterday night a dream came true, thank you so much to the award show for letting me share my newest song while also giving me the opportunity to support my best friend on her big night

view all 22.705 comments

actressinstagram next time i’m bringing you as my plus one again, you’re much more fun than some other people 

singerinstagram don’t lie you secretly liked having them there, i’ll find a way to sneak in next time

hotgossipmag very interested in this mystery person 

williamnylander love the new song

hotgossipmag

Liked by actressinstagram, singerfan and 462.184 others

hotgossipmag Starlet’s secret romance?! After the latest instagram post from singerinstagram the internet is wondering one thing... who is the secret partner actressinstagram was hinting at in the comments? Check out our article online to see who we think would be a great match. 

view all 19.217 comments

leafsgirly i can’t be the only one that has seen Willy Nylander all up in those likes and comments, right? 

actressstan why would he like all of singerinstagram‘s posts if he was in a relationship with actressinstagram ?

lleeaaffss because they’re best friends and usually you like your partner’s friends posts? or maybe he’s just a singerinstagram fan like every other person on the planet ever 

hollywoodgossip she’s been real cozy with the costar of her latest movie, don’t you think?

singerinstagram

Liked by williamnylander, actressinstagram and 861.923 others

singerinstagram prepare for trouble... 

view all 28.133 comments

williamnylander ❤️

actressinstagram simp

actressinstagram as you should be tbh

actressinstagram

Liked by singerinstagram, austonmatthews and 994.216 others

actressinstagram ...and make it double

view all 32.447 comments

singerinstagram why do you get cuddles and i just get gross green juice? 

actressinstagram you’re still my favorite cuddle buddy

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 9

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’ve been counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January.

  TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “So, it wasn’t all for nothing.” Number 9 is…Beware the Gray Ghost!

This is one of the greatest and most renowned episodes of the Animated Series…but as of these recent years, it’s also become one of the most difficult to talk about. In some ways, this episode is even more profoundly impacting now than it ever was before. It’s funny, because the reason(s) for this, I’m sure, will be lost on many future Batman fans; they will never know just how big a deal this episode was when it came out, and how big a deal it is now in this given year. Thankfully, however, those points will not detract from the greatness of this story on its own terms, and a great story is exactly what it is. In this episode, Batman finds out about a series of bombings, committed by a mysterious villain simply referred to as “The Mad Bomber.” He recognizes the crimes as being almost identical, in every way, to the attacks of a fictional villain in a TV series that Bruce Wayne loved dearly as a child, “The Gray Ghost.” To try and solve the case, Batman gets help from the Gray Ghost’s original actor, an aging performer by the name of Simon Trent. Simon has seen better days, as the combo of his typecasting and other personal issues have led to him falling on hard times, and he’s grown bitter about the role that once made him a household name. Batman must find a way to not only stop the Mad Bomber, but reinvigorate Trent’s spirits, as he teams with the Gray Ghost himself to end the crime spree.

Much like the later “Legends of the Dark Knight,” this is an episode that essentially pays homage to Batman’s roots, but in a much more subtle way. I guess I can’t go any further without bringing up the big point: the voice of Simon Trent. It’s none other than Adam West: the original 1960s Batman. The creators of B:TAS were huge fans of the original Adam West series, and odes and homages to the show are sprinkled throughout, some more obvious than others. Trent’s character is one of the biggest examples, as his fictional foibles are a sort of exaggerated mirror of how West’s own career and life went after the 60s series ended. It goes even deeper than that, however: the Gray Ghost himself is a thinly-veiled parody of The Shadow, a character I’ve mentioned many times in the past, who was one of the main inspirations for Batman as a character. (The first Batman comic ever made was an outright ripoff of a Shadow story. No joke, look it up.) Even the villain of the piece feels more like something out of the Shadow than your typical Batman tale, let alone the silly sixties. It’s a double-homage, in a sense, to two great influences on the creators of B:TAS.

This is also what makes the episode hard to watch now: Adam West has been dead for only a few years now, yet, and Kevin Conroy’s passing is still even more painfully recent. You can’t watch this episode as a Batman fan without feeling a sort of pang, realizing not only the significance of two of the greatest Batmen in history onscreen together, but the fact that both are no longer with us. In a weird way, though, that makes the episode even more powerful, because of what the whole story is really about: nostalgia. The way nostalgia effects all three of the main characters in the story – Batman, the Gray Ghost, and the Mad Bomber alike – is a BIG part of this story. Trent is someone who tries to shun the past, who feels pained when he looks back, and has to come to terms with the fact the world has changed, and he has to change, too. He’s haunted by the role that made him once iconic, while also dealing with the issue of being seemingly obsolete, no longer sure of who he is or what his life has truly become. The Bomber, meanwhile, is the opposite extreme: without giving away who it is, it’s someone who clings TOO CLOSE to the past, and to the things they loved in youth, and that obsession drives them to toxic self-destruction, not to mention acts of cruelty and spite. It’s probably not a coincidence that Bruce Timm, one of the show’s creators – a fan of the 60s series – plays this character; a sort of self-parody in the form of the world’s most unsettling fanboy.

It's Batman himself who shows the value of nostalgia and the balance of where it needs to fall: he clings close to his past, as we know, and the Gray Ghost character and series is revealed to be no exception. But he doesn’t allow these things to rule him or destroy him. For people who grew up with Kevin Conroy and Adam West alike, this episode shows just what made both of them such special actors, and reminds us of why both of their respective takes on Batman were so interesting, while also providing a fascinating story that combines all kinds of tonal elements to create an intriguing and entertaining tale. But above all, it serves as a lesson in the dangers and the values of what we keep close in our memories. I think it’s fair to say that everything about this episode – it’s actors, it’s inspirations, and the series it hails from – will be a treasured, nostalgic memory for many years to come.

Tomorrow we move on with Number 8! Hint: “But they share my unique face! Colonel Whathisname has chickens, and they don't even have moustaches!"

[loreweaver-universe]

Part 17 of my first playthrough of Root Double: Before Crime * After Days is up on Youtube! Click here for the ongoing playlist!

[luckydaikon]

[jubileemon]

Helluva Boss: Moxxie's Struggles

Background and Family

Moxxie has endured a life marred by trauma and neglect. His father Crimson is a domineering crime lord in the Greed Ring of Hell, who harbored disdain for his son's sensitive nature. This contempt manifested in emotional and physical abuse, as well as an attempt to forcibly marry Moxxie off for financial gain, disregarding his existing marriage to Millie. On the other hand, Moxxie's mother was a saint and showered him with love in his early years, but her untimely death left him without a nurturing figure during his formative years.

Moxxie's Relationship with His Peers

In his adult life, Moxxie's interactions with colleagues and acquaintances have been far from supportive. He frequently endures ridicule and disparagement from his boss, Blitzo, and co-worker Loona. Even Millie, his wife, often fails to defend him against these attacks. This consistent pattern of belittlement and exclusion has only exacerbated Moxxie's need for approval and acceptance, leading to a deep-seated sense of isolation and a lack of platonic relationships.

Moxxie's Behavior in "Unhappy Campers"

Moxxie's actions, as frustrating as it is, makes a depressing amount of sense when you consider the circumstances of his life. From childhood to early adulthood, he was kept isolated and under Crimson's thumb, which implies that he had no friends growing up, with the only person showing him genuine affection having been killed by his father when he was barely out of toddlerhood. In the present day, he receives the lion's share of verbal and physical abuse and humiliation from Blitzo, Loona and other people alike, not to mention that his in-laws clearly don't like him, but just tolerate him for Millie's sake. In other words, even after meeting Millie, he's clearly not received much in the way of platonic love and appreciation in his life.

Having been controlled and isolated by his father, Moxxie's desperate craving for approval and affection led him to adopt a "popular girl" persona in a misguided attempt to gain popularity and make Blitzo proud. This persona, however, clashes with his true nature and fails to resonate with those around him, further damaging his self-esteem.

Identity and Self-Worth

Moxxie's struggle to be himself is rooted in a lifetime of rejection and a lack of appreciation for his genuine qualities. His affinity for theatre and movies may have influenced his decision to emulate the "popular girl" archetype, a trope he mistakenly believes will earn him the admiration he so desperately seeks. His jealousy towards Millie's natural ability to be loved for who she is only shows his own insecurities and the negative impact of his past on his self-perception.

He even doubles down on trying (and failing) to act like a teenage girl despite it clearly not working out for him. Why doesn't he change tactics or even try to be himself when he sees that it works wonders for Millie?

Well, it's not like he's received much in the way of appreciation for being himself before, has he? And while it doesn't excuse or justify his behavior, it might explain why he gets jealous of Millie instead of happy for her: He sees her effortlessly blending in and becoming loved by all simply by being herself whereas he seems to end up becoming a pariah or a punching bag no matter where he is and what he does. It must've done a number on his self-esteem

Acceptance and Character Development

The effect of Moxxie's traumatic upbringing and ongoing mistreatment is a severely undermined self-esteem. His inability to receive validation for his true self has left him in a state of constant overcompensation, which often leads to further alienation and ridicule. This cycle of seeking approval and facing rejection has become a defining struggle in Moxxie's life, influencing his actions and relationships.

Despite the adversity he faces, Moxxie's quest for acceptance and validation is a poignant reflection of his resilience. His experiences, while heartbreaking, provide a deeper understanding of his character and the complexities of seeking self-worth in a world that has been consistently unkind.

Despite his job as an assassin, Moxxie is a demon who shows a high level of empathy and sensitivity. This contrasts sharply with the ruthless nature of his colleagues and the infernal setting of Hell. Moxxie's reluctance to harm the innocent and his moral compass often make him the target of ridicule and abuse, both from other characters and the enitre universe itself.

Throughout the series, Moxxie undergoes a journey of personal growth, learning to carry out his duties as a hitman with less hesitation. Despite this development, the show continues to use him as a comedic foil, subjecting him to physical harm and emotional trauma.

His competence with firearms and his successful missions with his wife Millie indicate that he is a valuable member of the I.M.P. assassin team, despite the frequent setbacks he faces. Moxxie's background as a former mob prince and his aspirations as a musician add layers to his character, suggesting a depth beyond his role as the 'punching bag' of the show.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Wassily Kandinsky, ‘Untitled’ (1928) :: [Robert Scott Horton]

* * * *

Imogen Savage: Housed in a 19th-century listed mansion that stretches skyward into spires, the Grisebach auction house gives off the disquieting charm of a German fairytale castle. Outside runs Fasanenstrasse, a leafy street of galleries and skincare boutiques in one of Berlin’s chicest corners. On December 1 2022, Marcin Król, the Polish consul in Berlin, climbed the steps to the building for the evening sale beginning at 6pm. A number of impressive modern artworks were on offer, including a sought-after self-portrait in oil by Max Beckmann. But it was Lot No 31, “Untitled”, a little pink Wassily Kandinsky watercolour from 1928, that had Król’s attention that evening. Król was not at Grisebach as a buyer. Earlier that day he had sent the auction house a message demanding it stop the sale of the Kandinsky. In the hours since, representatives at Grisebach had reviewed the legal status of the artwork and its right to be sold by Inga Maren Otto, a German billionaire and philanthropist. Their decision was clear. They would proceed. At 4.40pm, Król took to Twitter, quoting the message he’d sent to Grisebach. “Withdraw[ing] the painting from the auction,” he wrote, “[was] the only correct and moral action in this situation . . . The provenance/history of the painting stated [in the catalogue] is clear . . . the painting has ownership markings indicating its origin from the National Museum in Warsaw. [It has been registered] from the Polish side in Interpol’s database of stolen works of art.” He finished the thread with an update: “The auction house has not yet stopped selling the work. As of 4.50pm.”

Król watched on a TV screen in the corner of an anteroom as the auction began. Lot No 31 eventually appeared on the screen. Flattened by the glowing pixels, the original aqueous colours took on neon tones. There was a faint scribble underneath in Kandinsky’s handwriting. After a flurry of bids, more than doubling the upper reserve price, the hammer came down. Afterwards, Król posted a photo to Twitter with a solemn summary of what he had witnessed. It read like both the beginning and the end of an art-crime story: “Grisebach sold Kandinsky’s watercolour [“Untitled”] for €310,000. The painting was stolen in 1984 from the National Museum in Warsaw.” Then the Berlin police showed up at the auction house, in response to a report of a stolen artwork being sold on the premises. Król’s message that day was, said Grisebach in a statement issued after the event, the first they’d learnt of the theft.

I heard about the auction of the Kandinsky watercolour some weeks later. I was intrigued by this little work on paper, the size of which is hard to gauge when viewed online. A cluster of geometric shapes and coloured washes not much bigger than a postcard, it’s not a famous piece and was never supposed to be. The personalised dedication at the bottom provides a clue as to its original, more intimate context. Through Król’s media offensive, I began to imagine the painting in its previous lives. A valued artwork can do this; move through history like a time traveller who has seen it all, changing hands, changing walls, changing in value, picking up a few marks and scuffs, but remaining, on the surface, itself. It’s easy to forget that many of the works of art we see today have somehow weathered revolutions, wars and genocide. During and after the second world war, art collections dispersed like breadcrumbs in the mouths of sparrows. Since that time, art dealers and auction houses have continued to sell these works, right up to the present day, with values soaring.

As I began to trace the Kandinsky’s journey, I discovered the story had deeper roots than even Król had imagined. The watercolour wasn’t stolen once but twice. Having survived the Nazi party’s confiscations of modern art in the 1930s, it languished in a depot in occupied Poland before travelling back and forth across the world via private and public sales as the lines between black market and art market blurred postwar. As the trail grew more convoluted, my questions multiplied. How was it possible, I wondered, that a piece of art that we know was once stolen from a major European museum could now be sold, perfectly legally, by an important German auction house? And who, in the chain of ownership spanning nearly a century, is the rightful owner of Lot No 31? In his Dessau studio in 1928, Wassily Kandinsky sat before a small sheet of thick paper. He drew in ink, a balance of precisely placed interlocking semicircles, triangles and floating circles, with a more irregular snakelike mark through the centre. Then he dragged his paintbrush across some watercolour pans, applying the colours to the interior of the shapes in blues, yellows and reds, and washing the surround in pink. The watery paint pooled in different areas, variegating the intensity of the colour where it settled. Then it dried, locking the painting into position. At the bottom, in pencil, the artist wrote: “Meinem lieben Otto Ralfs, herzlichsten Glückwunsch, Kandinsky I IV 28” [“To my dear Otto Ralfs, Happy Birthday, Kandinsky, 1 April 28”]. It was a gift, made for his friend and patron on the occasion of his 36th birthday. Kandinsky’s studio was in a row of identical semi-detached houses located in a pine forest at the edge of town, where artist-professors lived and worked. This was the vision of Walter Gropius, founder of the influential modernist art and design school the Bauhaus, who designed the Dessau “Masters’ Houses” in 1925 to fit his concept of gesamtkunstwerk, or total artwork. Kandinsky lived at No 6, next door to the Swiss-German artist Paul Klee. The day I visited earlier this summer, the sunny weather was heating the pines, filling the air with the same calm, sweet smell that Kandinsky, then in his late fifties, and the younger Klee would have breathed as they sat drinking tea together in the garden.

Inside, the thick, shiny paint was fresh from recent restoration work, distracting the senses from conjuring their presence. The artists’ studios, the largest rooms in their carefully designed houses, shared a wall. From the front, an enormous horizontal window frames the central focus of the house, the parallel studios in which they worked, taught and held salons: Kandinsky on the left, Klee on the right. Otto Ralfs and his wife Käte bought their first works by Klee when they visited the Bauhaus in Weimar in September 1923. After that, their lives changed completely. The couple didn’t have a lot of money. He worked as an insurance salesman and owned a shop in his hometown, Braunschweig, in northern Germany. She was a paediatric nurse. But they were among the first people to see the value in the art being produced at the Bauhaus. At one point, they had the largest collection of Klees, and the second-largest collection of Kandinskys after Solomon R Guggenheim.

[Financial Times]