The Dada Killer

**The Dada Killer** is the first chapter of Part 3 of Murder in the Alps, and the ninth chapter overall.

## Synopsis

The magic of a word-Dada-which has brought society to the gates of a world unforeseen, is of no importance to us. Dada was born of a need for independence. A work of art should not be beauty in itself, for beauty is dead. But someone decided to use Dada to proclaim distrust and bitter struggle with morality. The roaring destructive action of the Dada Killer.

## Plot

### September 17, 1933

#### "And we are perfectly capable of an intelligent discussion..."

As Anna walks into the Knef Gallery, she suddenly sees Iris tied up in a chair with Ulli unconscious and on the ground behind her and the gallery now transformed into a walled room with crazed messages against art. As Anna is about to help Iris, a threatening voice suddenly shouts "let sleeping dogs lie, Miss Myers". Anna turns to see who the voice is: it's Oskar holding his gun—he was the Dada Killer all along. After Oskar mocks how long Anna took and notices how Anna doesn't seemed shocked at Oskar's reveal, Anna says that she finally figured it out: only someone like Oskar with the meticulousness and means as a police officer could have been the Dada Killer. Anna then points out how the Dada Killer must have hated Iris and how Iris never told Anna what she argued about in the Cabaret to, in hindsight, the Dada Killer. Oskar responds by saying that Iris, "the patron saint of Zürich artists", refused to give Oskar a second art exhibition, revealing after how the police shut down his first exhibition when Vanessa's criticism, Oskar decided to "create a new Dada masterpiece" by becoming a policeman. Oskar then praises his new work and how it expresses what he hates about this world: "unwed mothers, whores, our crooked 'justice' system, and Dada itself". He proclaims to Iris that he did all of this just for her as "the goddess in your red dress"—his goddess. After Oskar expresses his ecstasy of being back at the gallery, Anna connects the dots that he was the artist "Ozzie Lang" whose exhibition got shut down years ago before agreeing with Vanessa's criticism of his work being "flaming refuse", to which Oskar angrily points his gun at Anna. Anna then asks what Oskar did to Ulli—Oskar says he'll kill him later. Iris then shouts for help to Anna with clear fear before Oskar puts his hand on Iris's cheek and quotes from the Dada Manifesto: "Look at me, dear bourgeoise. The verse became a queen in order to die a little". Oskar looks back at Anna and again points his gun at her, telling her to drop her weapons. As Anna is putting down her gun, she notices Ruben's Korogonza machine is still running and being reused by Oskar for his art piece, giving her an idea on how to defeat Oskar.

Iris calls for help again and Oskar becomes momentarily distracted looking at her and trying to calm her down, quoting from the Dada Manifesto again: "I reassure you, and adore you". While Oskar is distracted, Anna puts on a Dada plate onto one of the moving clips of the Korogonza machine, setting her plan into motion. During this time, Ulli gains consciousness and is about to get up from the floor while Oskar prepares to kill him. Just in time, the Korogonza machine has Anna's plate fall right on Oskar's head, making him collapse on the floor and dropping his gun. Ulli notices the gun and quickly rushes to grab it—as Oskar is fleeing, both Ulli and Anna try to shoot at Oskar but miss. Ulli orders Anna to help Iris while he chases after Oskar. After Anna unties Iris and tells her to call an ambulance, Anna runs outside to try to find Ulli and Oskar. After seeing Oskar driving off in his police car, Anna and Ulli quickly use Anna's car to chase after Oskar, eventually ending with Ulli shooting a tire of Oskar's car, causing him to crash into another vehicle on the street.

Anna and Ulli immediately hurry to Oskar's car with their guns pointed at him as he tries to get out of his car. As Anna threatens Oskar to not move, Oskar mocks that fact as he reveals his injury from the car crash. Ulli tells Anna to keep an eye on Oskar as he calls an ambulance himself, leaving Oskar and Anna alone. Oskar takes the opportunity to try to poke Anna into killing him, claiming that he'll "be known as a genius ahead of his time". After a few moments pass with Anna genuinely considering shooting Oskar for killing all of his victims, including Anna's friend, Anna decides not to shoot Oskar, proclaiming that she refuses to give Oskar any satisfaction. Oskar continues his ramblings to Anna, how "the ending is out of your control" as a writer and how "his greatest work is yet to come", which Anna dismisses. Anna walks away after the rest of the police and an ambulance finally arrives while Ulli offers Anna to drive her home. Oskar is strapped onto his stretcher and taken away by the ambulance driven by two doctors. Everything seems well until later night, the ambulance is now seen crashed into a lamppost and with the doctors killed—the Dada Killer has escaped and left a bloody message: "Dada is not dead"...

## Characters

### Main Characters

* Anna Myers
* Judit Halle
* Sven Lange
* Ruben Lefévre
* Ulli Reiter
* Oskar Havel
* Manu Shreier

### Secondary Characters

* Iris Knef
* Hilda Landau
* Ernestine Kistner
* Dierk Becker
* Natalie Meisner
* Gustav Meisner
* Amy (cat)
* Lulu

### Minor Characters

* Cabaret Rousseau Security Guard
* Silvia Molinelli
* Matt Schwenke
* Homeless Man
* Cabaret Rousseau Bartender
* Vanessa Fiedler
* Wilma Sommer
* Dr. Reimund Kranz
* Marie Paget
* Emiliya Radkov
* Kiki Hag

### Mentioned Characters

* Aldo Molinelli
* Gustavson

## Trivia

* This is the longest chapter in the whole game, being more than the double the usual chapter length of 1-2 hours. However, this is not the longest chapter produced by Nordcurrent for a hidden object murder mystery title as that belongs to Chapter 1 of Murder by Choice.
* The opening monologue on how to make a Dadaist poem that is later mimicked by the Dada Killer in their Dada collage to Anna is taken from famed Dada artist Tristan Tzara's 1920 "To Make a Dadaist Poem".
* Iris' Cabaret Rousseau is likely a parody of Dada founders Hugo Ball's and Emmy Hennings's Cabaret Voltaire in real-life, which opened and closed in 1916 but was recently reopened in the 21st century. Both are cabarets named after Enlightenment writers (Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Voltaire respectively) and are prominent in the Dada movemenet (Rousseau holds Dada performances, Voltaire was were Dada was founded).
* When Gustav is being interrogated, Anna says he will be more famous than "Carl Jung, Emil Jannings, and even Marcel Golaz". In real-life, Carl Jung was an influential Swiss psychiatrist, Emil Jannings was a famous Swiss-born German actor, and Marcel Golaz was the president of the Swiss Confederation.
* The Dada Manifesto referenced throughout the chapter is based on a real manifesto made by Dada artist Tristan Tzara, specifically "Monsieur Antipyrine’s Manifesto" made in 1916, not to be confused with the 1916 Dada Manifesto made by Dada founder Hugo Ball or the other 1918 Dada Manifesto also made by Tristan Tzara.

## Gallery

* Promos
* Notifications

A promotion of this chapter.A blank header of this chapter.

DadaKillerOut.jpg*When art exceeds the canvas bound, the trail it leaves impacts the crowd. Can you keep up with a crazed virtuoso?**One of Eure Tages' workers was murdered. It is of the utmost importance to uncover the truth.*Hospital deaths.jpg*Another day, another death... Are they all victims of this "Dada Killer"?**Another day, another death... Are they all victims of this "Dada Killer"?**Another day, another death... Are they all victims of this "Dada Killer"?**Mark my words-these killings end now. Enough is enough.**The loss of a dear friend is unbearable... It's time to put an end to this.*