Every dossier has its secrets. Here are theirs.
Tap the B wax seal × 3Reveals the family motto in red wax script.
Type B · E · R · L · I · NA red "Berlin Calls" stamp slams down with a confetti shower.
Hover or swipe the coverThe dossier slips under your finger like real paper on a desk.
SOS button (bottom-left, red)Floating panic card — works offline. Tap to reveal U.S. embassy & consulate, German emergency numbers (112 · 110 · 116 117), nearest hospital ER and 24-hour pharmacy in both Berlin and Munich. Every number is tap-to-call. Every address has a one-tap Navigate ↗.
Tap any date in the stripTime-travel through the trip — the page tints, the banner shifts, the mission updates.
Switch tabsA wax-ink blot blooms from your finger.
"I'm a Time Traveler · Unlock"Lifts the After-Dark redactions in The Black Book before race day.
Bib profile pencil ✎Flip a bib, tap the pencil — file your own dossier. Saved on this device.
Crew Lock 🔒 / 🔓 (topbar)Edits, flights, votes and hype are locked. Enter the crew passphrase once per device — the badge flips to 🔓 and stays unlocked. Tap it again to relock.
The Gate · 135-day Brandenburg buildA scale architectural drawing of the Brandenburg Gate that rises one stone at a time across the 135 days between May 15 and race day. Thirteen phases — foundation → six front columns → six back columns → architrave → frieze → cornice → attic wall → Quadriga plinth → chariot → four horses → Victoria → wreath & Iron Cross → final polish. Roughly one element drops in every 1–3 days. First visit each day, the new stone draws itself in with a gold glow. A daily whisper updates beneath the gate ("The first horse arrives, lashed to a cart, eyes covered."). The sky behind tints by trip phase — green (plotting), amber (mission week), red (race), blue (Wiesn). On race morning (Sept 27, 09:15 Berlin), the horses gallop, the chariot wheels turn, twelve gold crew flares light above the gate, and a wax stamp thwacks down: WE ARE HERE. Historical footnotes unlock as related architectural elements are built.
The Constellation Sky · 20:00–05:00 local timeBetween 8 PM and 5 AM, the app gains a starfield. Eighty drifting stars in the background, twelve small crew constellations scattered across the sky — one per runner, deterministic from their name. Tap a constellation → the name appears under it. Race week (Sept 21–26) the constellations brighten; after race day, a tiny medal glows next to each. A short whisper floats at the top of the screen. Hidden until night.
Add to Home ScreenThe dossier is a Progressive Web App. On iOS Safari: tap the Share button → "Add to Home Screen." On Android Chrome: tap the menu (⋮) → "Install app" or "Add to Home screen." A standalone "BM26" icon — green leather tile with a gold B — appears on your home screen and launches full-screen, no browser chrome. Works offline thanks to the Service Worker (cached on first visit).
The Talisman · on the back of every bibSeventeen sacred objects (The Wolf, The Crow, The Bear, The Lion, The Compass, The Salt Coin, The Iron Key, The Lantern, The Cipher, The Hawk, The River Stone, The Old Bell, The Vine, The Locksmith, The North Star, The Wax Seal, The Bone Whistle). Each crew member can claim one as their personal sigil. The entire experience — opening the gallery, browsing, claiming, forfeiting — is locked behind the crew passphrase. Family only. Each talisman has a personality, a km-anchored ritual, and a motto. Forfeit available but visible. Tap the TALISMAN row on the back of any bib (in the Crew tab) → enter crew lock → gallery opens.
The Rehearsal · Today tabRun the race before the race. A 3D night simulation of the full 42.195 km on the real course — 2,400 lights in pace-group colours, the crew in gold with names overhead, Kipchoge's 2:01:09 ghost out front, the Gate at the end. Time runs at 30–300×; tap any runner for their card. Goals come straight from the bibs — file yours in the Crew tab and you take the start line.
The Archive · "Est. '74" topbar pillA scroll-snap time machine through fifty-two years of Berlin Marathon history. Sixteen pivotal years, from the 1974 origins in the Grünewald forest, through the 1990 reunification race (the first to cross where the Wall stood), through twelve world records, all the way to Berlin Mafia 26 in 2026. Each year is a full-screen card with eras tinted differently (Genesis, Reunification, Records, Modern, Mafia). Scroll progress bar at top tracks how far through history you've travelled. The final card is the crew's own race — "to be filed."
Berlin Mafia Daily · BMD topbarA procedurally generated daily newspaper. New issue at 09:00 CET every day. Headlines, news briefs, weather, Mafia Stock Ticker (BIB, GEL, FAITH, FEAR…), classifieds, and Today's Dossier Horoscope — all assembled from templates × crew data × phase × date. Deterministic per date (reload shows the same issue). Use the archive arrows at the bottom of the paper to flip back through past issues all the way to Issue N°001 on May 14, 2026. Unread red dot on the BMD icon when today's paper hasn't been opened.
The Line · ☎ topbar · weekly voicemailsA phone-style voicemail inbox with a multi-character cast: Don Stefano (the boss), Helga (Berlin native, thirty-two years watching runners), Berlin Bureau (automated transmissions), the Accordion Player at km 32, Hans of the Kreuzberg Pace Cult (a rival), Hotel Oderberger concierge, Berlin taxi driver Ackermann, the Späti at Schönhauser 142, the SCC pace group leader Gunther, Klaus from km 38, the Tiergarten Squirrel, Frau Müller from the S-Bahn, the Brandenburg Stonemason, and more. One new voicemail every Friday from May 15 through race week. Anchored narrative beats — Helga's race-week intel, Stefano's taper warning, Hans's challenge — sit on their fixed dates and play on top of the weekly cadence. Tap a missed call to read the transcript with a fake audio waveform. Crew-lock gated.
Caffè Nostra · our thingFull-screen cinematic map of fifty hand-curated Berlin coffee spots — roasters, third-wave specialty cafés, and the iconic stops across Mitte, Prenzlauer Berg, Kreuzberg, Neukölln, Friedrichshain and the West. Search, filter, fly to a neighborhood, hit Story Mode for a 6-chapter tour, toggle the Heatmap, or switch Cinematic ↔ Analysis. Press / to focus search.
The Black Book · merged Berlin intelTwo filters, one Lucky Dip. Category tabs — All · After Dark · By Day — split the pool into speakeasies/bars and weird sights. Energy tabs — Save the Legs · Worth the Walk · Rainy Day · Post-Race — narrow it further. Hit 🎲 Lucky Dip and a slot-machine reel spins, landing on a single pick from whatever you've filtered. Every card has a vote button (Firebase-synced across crew). After-Dark items stay sealed until medal earned on Sept 27 — the "I'm a Time Traveler" override unlocks them early.
Race Pace Card chipsPick a target finish — splits, pace per km/mi, and the whisper line all recompute.
The compass · BerlinAllow location once and the needle points home — distance, bearing, your city.
The Mixtape · Today tabA Spotify playlist embedded directly into the Today tab. Side A · Plotting. Tap play to listen inline, or tap Open in Spotify to fly out to the app and queue it for a long run. New tracks added all the way through race week.
Crew Hotels Map · Crew tabOpen the Crew Hotels Map accordion on the Crew page and tap + Add my hotel — enter your bib name and your hotel name/address. It's geocoded and dropped as a pin on a shared Leaflet map (Firebase-synced, so the whole crew sees where everyone sleeps). Crew-lock gated; pins list below the map with city tags.
The Road to Berlin · crew odometerThe crew collectively runs the distance from DC to Berlin — 4,171 miles — before race day. Tap + Log miles on the Today page (crew-lock gated), enter your bib name and the miles you ran; a gold marker advances along the flight path as the shared total grows (Firebase-synced). Milestones light up en route — Newfoundland, mid-Atlantic, Iceland, the North Sea — each with its own whisper, and crossing one fires a 📍 toast. The leaderboard below shows who's pulling the crew and who's gone quiet.
Meanwhile, in Berlin · living skylineThe strip at the bottom of Today runs on real Berlin time — the sky shifts through dawn, day, golden hour, dusk and night, the sun and moon arc over the Gate, the TV Tower and the Victory Column, stars come out and windows light up after dark. When it's actually raining, snowing or foggy in Berlin right now, the weather falls over the skyline and the dossier cover too (live from Open-Meteo).
Countdown stamps · 100 / 50 / 10 / 1On the real calendar marks — 100, 50, 10 and 1 days to the race — a wax-stamp ceremony fires once per device: the seal slams down, confetti falls, and a WhatsApp share is one tap away. Time-traveling the date strip won't trigger it; only the actual calendar does.
Race Morning · Sept 27 onlyOn race day the Today tab grows a Race HQ panel and a calm Race Morning modal auto-opens at 06:00 Berlin time — the only four things that matter: a live gun countdown, weather right now in Berlin (temp · conditions · wind), the morning cutoffs (bag drop · corral · gun, all TBC), and a one-tap "I'm in my corral" check-in that pings the crew. First time, tap your name to claim your row.
Finish-line ticker · race dayA slim banner under the countdown tracks the crew across the line — "5 of 12 across the line · Mo · Tess · Christie…". Tap "I crossed the line 🏅" once you finish and your name promotes onto the banner (Firebase-synced) — every other crew phone gets a 🏅 toast. Tap the banner to reopen Race Morning.
Cross September 27A red "Medal Earned" stamp thwacks the screen. The Vault unseals.