The Gang of Seven - Peter Haase

The Gang of Seven, A post-WWII Novel
Seven young men, randomly thrown together at the end of World War II, live in an abandoned garden shack in a small town in Germany; they use the resources they can muster in order to survive the critical post-war years in their utterly devastated homeland. Stealing, dealing on the black market and smuggling across the frontier between East and West, they prepare for the new reality that emerges with the revival of the German economy.
The Gang is dissolved and separately they integrate themselves into mainstream society. Rocked by intrigue, crime and scandals, they nevertheless reach respectable positions in the new West Germany.
Unsolved murders, defection to Communist East Germany and Soviet Russia, suicide, gambling and prostitution touch the lives of the remaining members of the original Gang. The reunification of the two Germanys in 1990 brings prosperity to some, while others fall into despair or disgrace.
A war of disastrous consequences and the revival of their homeland shaped the lives of the individuals in this novel. In their own unique ways, they each follow their ambitions with varying degrees of success. Bound by early experiences and adventures, a special friendship between them persists throughout their lives.
This story, packed with adventures and misadventures, is the gripping account of a small group of people so real it might have-and probably has-happened in the lives of many who survived the war and its aftermath in the latter half of twentieth-century Germany.