Schöneberg, Fuggerstrasse, Bear-axis Thursday mid-day

WOOF opens at 22:00. The deliveries come between noon and one.

The owner stands outside in the sun. He waits. He smokes one Pall Mall. He does not check his phone.

Plaid-flannel rust-on-brown, open over a Henley. Levi 501. Doc Martens 1460 black. Buzz-cut grey scalp.

A Karabiner-clip hangs from the left belt-loop. The brass is worn smooth at the curve. Thirty-seven years carried in one position.

A black Lederband on the right ring-finger. The leather has bleached at the knuckle. He keeps it.

I cross the street. I ask if he was at the Mister B Berlin opening summer 1991. He looks up. He says: Crew, ja.

We talk for twelve minutes. He is a Tischlermeister. He has a workshop in Reinickendorf. He builds shelves and bedframes and the occasional coffin for friends in the Berliner Lederverein.

Three coffins this year so far. He does not soften the number.

A younger Bear comes out of Café Berio thirty meters down at Maassenstrasse. Mid-thirties, full beard trimmed dark-brown, Carhartt Detroit jacket. Cub-body, not Bear-body.

He nods at Manni from across the street. Manni nods back. They have not spoken in six weeks. The nod is enough.

The spirits truck pulls up. Manni stubs the Pall Mall under his boot. He carries the first case of Jim Beam in himself. His back does not bend.

The Lederband does not come off when he lifts.

Berlin Tag-3 of the Voll-Sprint. Field-Book BER-2026-Q2 cohort intersects this walk at BER-020 (Manfred Hellbusch, 61, Tischlermeister, Leder-89-survivor) and BER-022 (Café-Berio Cub, mid-thirties, Tech-plus-Holzwerkstatt-hybrid).