Engelbert Rath was the Chief of Police of Cologne during the 1920s. He was the father of Anno and Gereon Rath, and, while Anno went missing during World War I, Gereon survived and became a policeman in Cologne. Engelbert rose to be Lord Mayor Konrad Adenauer's right-hand man in Cologne, and, in 1929, he had his son transferred to Berlin to find and destroy incriminating films of Adenauer and himself engaged in acts of sexual bondage with prostitutes. On discovering his father's presence in the tapes and then destroying them, Gereon decided to stay in Berlin rather than return home.