Chapter 94 C
Paulsplatz,
Frankfurt,
Germany,
March 20th 1939
It had been a bloodbath, in a purely rhetorical sense, and Alex felt completely and utterly exhausted. The day had started pretty simply enough, the larger convention was there nominally to discuss the issue of States and the Military, and accept reports from the various spun off sub-committees. The latter part had been done first, and outside of some minor discussions of topics that Alex had not bothered to pay too much attention to, although he had perked up at learning the national flag would be staying as the Red-Black-Gold tricolour with the standard for the Imperial family being left up to the future Kaiser to deal with. The discussions then moved on to the issue of the States within the new framework of the German Empire, and Alex had sat back and let the proposal by Arnold Brecht be brought before the convention, the proposal having been backed by the SPD higher-ups who sponsored Brecht's speaking before the Convention. The reaction to the proposal had been silence to begin with, and then all rhetorical hell had broken loose.
The objections quickly overwhelmed the attempts of the Koch-Weser to control the convention as the benches afforded to the parties that tended more conservative started to yell first, followed quickly Alex noted by
anyone who was there as a representative of Bavaria and most Prussians, with a few Austrians thrown in for good measure too. This included a fair number of the SPD members who represented people from those areas. Members of the SPD front bench tried to contain the outbursts of their own members, and Alex sat nearly silent at the chaos around him, and looked at Wilhelm who, after a few moments, returned his look and very subtly shook his head in a negative fashion. Alex knew then that meant the future Kaiser of Germany was about to renege on his word and not back the proposal.
He wanted to hate him for it, to call him a liar and rip him apart, but as Alex turned, and saw the dumb-founded look in Herbert Frahm's face at the chaos that had just descended, he found he didn't have it in him. Up until now everything in the convention had gone like a carefully managed stage-play, and now the real chaos of charged political wills was unleashed. The rest of the day in the Cathedral had been spent trying to quiet down the SPD defectors and help the other members who wanted to return to a semblance of civilized debate on the issue, and eventually the whole Convention settled down again enough to allow debate of the proposal, and when the first person to speak was Otto Braun, the SPD Minister-President of the Prussian state government, and he used his time to deride and reject the idea, more time was lost again as the Convention again descended into madness.
Eventually Koch-Weser had suspended the whole thing for the day and suspended it for the next day as well, the military had never even come close to being discussed, and all members had left the building to return to their various lodgings. Alex had practically stalked back to the hotel, his only acknowledgement of others as he left being a brief and terse goodbye to Frahm at the foot of the stairs in the hotel. He avoided the elevator today, he needed the walk to help organize his thoughts.
When he emerged onto the third floor, the floor he had rented out purely for his own needs, the place was silent, which was different than how it normally was. Normally it was a hive of activity as people went to and fro organizing information, gathering legal precedents and arguments, basically turning the whole floor into a single human powered search engine designed towards one goal, and one goal only, to help Alex and the SPD get what they needed over the opposition by all legal means. He made his way to the suite that he and Victoria shared, and let himself in with the key and was greeted with a sight he had not expected.
The room was darkened, the light mainly being generated by candles as the curtains had been pulled even though the late March sun was still high enough to give light outside. The small bedside electric lamps were also on, but all they seemed to do was highlight the soft light of the room, and Victoria was seated behind a small table, silver dinner service in front of her.
"I gave everyone else the rest of the day off."
There was no preamble, no greeting, and the tone was a simple declaration.
"And why did you do that Dame Victoria?"
Ever since she had told him about the reforming of the Order of Louise that was being planned by the future Kaiserin, and that she herself was to be inducted in it, he had been calling her "Dame Victoria" at every chance. It was not out of spite over her taking the position, hell, if anything he applauded her doing so. Let the world see her as special as he did, but his own issues with noble titles meant he didn't let it go entirely, and she gave him a look that he knew from long married experience meant she knew he was trying to be funny. Emphasis on the "trying".
"Because Alexander, I happen to have a pair of functioning ears and more than a few of the female staff that work on this floor also report to me as swiftly as they do you and Mordechai. And I could see a bad situation coming as quickly as anyone else over this Prussia nonsense. Though that is still not why I sent them all away."
He just looked at her some more, and she simply pointed at the chair opposite her at the table. He snorted, removed his suit jacket and sat down then.
"Good, I didn't want the dinner to get any colder than it has to."
She said nothing else then, but simply removed the covering from her meal, a simple affair of potatoes in sauce with a side of quiche, and began to eat. Alex continued to watch her for a moment, before doing the same and starting to eat as well. After a few mouthfuls, she lifted a bottle from an ice bucket and poured them two glasses of wine. They simply sat in silence, eating their dinner and drinking their wine until it was gone, and Alex had to admit, he felt much better for it.
"I'm guessing you hadn't eaten since breakfast?"
"No, I had not, the circumstances of the Convention had not really allowed for it."
"That is not good. You can be tetchy without a regular meal."
Alex let out a bark of laughter and looked at his wife.
"Tetchy?"
"Oh yes" she replied, a slight impish smile on her face "I know others tend to instead view it as you having a head like thunder. But I know you well enough to know you are only mildly annoyed then."
He snorted at her description, no point arguing the point when he'd only be lying to say she wasn't correct, and instead stood up from the table and began to walk further into the suite. He did it more for the sake of moving than any real purpose, and with nothing better to do he started to remove his shoes.
He had them both off when he started to hear music from where Victoria had moved to the record player that he had brought from home. Well, had shipped up from home really, being obscenely wealthy had its perks at times, and having a record player to accompany you wherever and whenever you wished was one of those perks he took full advantage of. The opening notes of the piano where catching as he instantly recognized the song, and stood up going over to his wife.
"So why did you send all the staff away?"
She looked up at him, and instead simply held a hand out to him as the lyrics started to come from the record player.
"
To ashes, to dust,
robbed of the light,
But not yet,
Miracles wait until the end."
He accepted her hand, and with easy practice she stepped closer to him as his own hands fell into well practised position. There was a lot he missed of what he referred to as his old lives at this point, the weird broken moments before he had woken up so long ago in a Dresden café. But there were many things in the life he had since gotten that he found he loved, and as his body moved in time with the music, and Victoria moved herself in his arms and her own steps, he reflected how two of them that he loved were surrounding him now. His wife, obviously, but the way she flowed as he embraced the other one, the sheer joy and cheer from dancing to music, was enough to make him forget everything else.
They stayed like that, simply dancing to the music until the sound from the record player stopped, he absently heard the tonearm reset on the record player, a simple innovation that had long since been a small thing he'd sent to Siemens to introduce, but his attention was instead focused entirely on the top of the dark haired head of the woman he held.
"The reason" her voice came from the embrace that they still held "was that I know you Alex, and when you have things not go as planned, you react one of two ways. The first, the one that I love and adore, is that you take what has happened and you turn it around. No matter what it is, you ride the change and make it instead serve you in your favour."
"And the other way?"
"Is the one I am seeking to avoid, where you instead bang your head against a brick wall thinking your skull will be thick enough to go through it."
She looked up at him then, and the smile on her lips was irresistible at the comment.
"I think" she said after a moment and their heads separated again "that means I have averted the latter type of reaction?"
"Very much so" he said smiling, he simply couldn't resist not to smile, "thank you so much for this."
"This is only the first part, the second part is to not simply avert the latter, but actively encourage the former reaction. So tell me Alexander Waltz, the Impossible Man, what exactly are we doing next?"
She knew he hated that nickname. Someone who was too clever by half had coined it back during the days when all he had to do was help rebuild the German economy in the wake of Wall Street. She smiled up at him then, knowing that her usage of the name had struck home, and he bowed his head slightly in a fencer's acknowledgement.
He looked away from her then, for a moment and thought,
really thought about all that had happened today, then he looked back at her.
"The Prussian issue needs to be thrown out for now. Whatever the reasoning behind it, right now is not right for it. The party leadership are trying to tackle this issue from above, when the correct way is from below."
"Obviously, but that's not the major issue that has you annoyed right now is it?"
"No, that is that clearly while some of us are being told what to do and expect from Berlin, it isn't being handed out to everyone. Or if it is, not everyone is doing so and failing to tell the
others that they won't."
"And what do you intend to about it?"
He smiled then.
"Fix that, it is the second most important thing I can think of right now."
She smiled back up at him.
"And the first?"
He kissed her again.
***
Herbert was sat amongst the rest of the "third floor creatures". That was the term the rest of the SPD volunteers and delegates referred to them as, as if they were some sort of strange and alien beings that needed to be designated something else. They were huddled around a few benches of the beer-hall that shared the hotels premises, and the mood was dire. They felt like they had walked into an ambush and had failed completely and utterly to see it coming. That the rest of the SPD delegates didn't appear to be feeling much better was only magnifying their negative mood, indeed he had overheard more than a few shouted arguments from those around them to know that their sullen mood was probably one of the most "cheerful" ones around. He didn't truly bother to pay attention to the small conversation going on around him as he sat and sipped from his beer, he was too busy replaying the events of the Convention in his mind. He had seen something, and was still trying to understand it, but his thoughts were interrupted.
"I mean what is even the point of all this anyway then?"
The voice belonged to Ewa Kopeć, she was a woman who was slightly younger than Herbert and came from Silesia. As her name suggested, she was Polish descended and as she spoke sometimes the language she used combined both German and Polish, usually swearwords. She had wound up working on the third Floor due to her background in library studies, although he had since learned she was perfectly happy to not become a librarian in favour of the generous employment offer from the Analytics Division of Waltz Industries that she had received since starting to work here.
Her question got several nods and muttered agreements all around them from those that shared the benches with Herbert. And taking that encouragement she seemed to carry on.
"I mean if those drań are going to just carry on like this, why should we put all the work and effort into this document? So they can just ignore what would be best for the nation for their own petty grievances?"
"It's not petty" Herbert said, and he found himself the attention of the crowd then, but whatever momentary concern that gave him, he ignored it "at least not to them."
"Ah, the Right Hand speaks, please Herr Frahm, enlighten us."
Kopeć's tone was dripping with sarcasm and Herbert tried not to bristle at the way they referred to him. Due to the fact he spent the most time in Alex's company, the others tended to refer to him as Waltz's Right Hand, but if that was the case he'd be up there or off wherever it was that the Kaiser's brother and Mordechai Bresler had gone, not here with them. Too distant to be part of this group, too junior to be part of that group, it was enough to irritate him, and he let that irritation enter into his voice.
"Because to them either the lines on the map are sacrosanct and shouldn't be touched, or they feel that we do not have the mandate to it right now. The former are a bunch of reactionary blowhards and assholes, the latter are actually
right."
Silence greeted his statement, and before anyone could say anything he continued.
"This convention does not have the mandate to break up the State structure right now. Oh don't get me wrong, I wish it did, we need to reorganize the states, but doing it without the express consent of the people who reside within them? That we can not do. That's a fight that if we try and put our effort into, we'll just be wasting valuable time and effort. So what if we take a big hit over the issue now? Better to accept it will not work and roll with the punch to something more important. We have a nation of millions of people counting on us. Men, women, Catholics, protestants and enough other groups that are counting on us to keep their rights safe guarded that wasting time over lines on a map is ridiculous. Basically, fuck the States, we have more important shit to deal with."
The silence remained when he stopped, and he realised somewhere in his speaking he had stood up as he tried to address the whole group. It lasted for what felt like two heartbeats before Kopeć's voice came from across the table from him.
"You really are spending too much time with the Boss. You are starting to even sound like him."
There was some snickering then, and Herbert tried to ignore the embarrassment as he sank back into his seat.
"But I will say this" Kopeć continued, "you are not wrong."
She held up her stein, and the others joined in.
"To more important shit!"
There was a chorus repeating it and Herbert drank. The mood seemed to have brightened at least.
Excerpt from "Arise from Ruins, A History of Germany in the 20th Century" by Dr Philip Clarke, published by Cambridge University Press:
"
...of course to say that the issue of the make-up of the various German States, and the thoroughly ham fisted attempt to force the issue and change the make-up of Prussia at this time by the SPD nearly caused a political crises in Germany would be understatement. The Wels Chancellorship, which until this point had mostly gone without major crises, indeed the admittance of Austria into the German Empire, instead of being a crises had been a major boon to the governments popularity, was suddenly faced with a strong pushback that came from all sectors including within the SPD itself. The failure to properly consult the SPD representatives at the Constitutional Convention of 1939, however, would in some ways help to prevent a total governmental collapse as due to some deft political maneuvering in Frenkfurt, the blame for the issue could be squarely placed at the feet of the parties senior membership, who in turn managed to spin the issue as them merely presenting the idea, but not
thinking the potential reaction to it out clearly. While some would continue to call for Wels head, he in turn made a number of concessions and deals with his coalition partners to prevent any sort of collapse. That national elections were planned for after the coronation of the future Kaiser also helped, as no one wanted to totally dissolve the Reichstag for what was forecast to be at most two months away just for the sake of this issue.
However while Berlin acted to resolve the issue and save the collective hides of the SPD leadership, in Frankfurt action was taken prevent a repeat of the issue and instead drive to achieve the wider goals of the SPD at the convention without constant oversight of Berlin. Into this stepped a major representative of the SPD old guard, his counterpart among the younger membership of the SPD and, perhaps most crucially, the former head of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold."
Paulsplatz,
Frankfurt,
Germany,
March 21st 1939
There was a definite tension in the room as Alex sat down. Firstly, because this meeting was happening without the express permission of the Berlin branch of the party, but considering there was a minor political fire going on that Otto Wels was needing to deal with, Alex was prepared to ignore that. The second issue was that the two other men he was meeting with were opposed on the main issue that had caused the current situation. Kurt Schumacher was in favour of the planned dissolution of Prussia, Otto Braun was extremely not in favour of it, however both men represented the two bigger parts of the SPD that were here for the convention, and with only one day left before the convention would be reconvened, there was too much on the line to simply let them be divided severely over this issue.
"Otto, Kurt, thank you for meeting me."
Both men nodded in response and waited, which was good, it meant they were at least pretending to listen to what Alex was about to say, and considering there was no-one anywhere near the room they were meeting in, he hoped they would be completely relaxed as they spoke.
"Gentlemen, let me be blunt. We walked into an ambush and barely got out alive, and the reason for it is because instead of making sure everyone here was reading from the same guidelines, Berlin dropped the ball."
He was being very careful to not name names, no need to ruffle feathers unduly, and at this point he was assuming it was a communication breakdown somewhere, not a deliberate action on anyone's part.
"As such, Berlin is now dealing with the aftermath, and we need to regroup and deal with this in the best way possible. That means between the three of us, we need to have a united front on issues that are much more important to
all Germans than simply the future make-up of Prussia."
Kurt's eyes briefly flashed in irritation, but it was gone quickly and he opened his mouth to speak.
"If it were anyone else telling me to leave the issue alone for the "greater good""he quirked his mouth as he said it, clearly making a reference to something Alex wasn't aware of "I would probably instruct them what they could do with themselves. However I know you were in favour of the dissolution of Prussia, so why the change in tune Alex?"
"As I said Kurt, there is more important issues we need to focus on, and a pissing contest over this is only going to allow those that would like positions contrary to our own to capitalize on it."
"You are speaking of the military, aren't you?"
That came from Braun who was looking away from Alex in what seemed to be a thoughtful pose.
"Yes, I am."
"I see, if the discussion about dissecting the strongest pillar for democracy and rule of law in the nation had not been tabled, it would have been the issue of the military to come up next. I guess you had some radical plans for them too? Ones I also was not informed of?"
Alex mentally upgraded the cause of all these problems to a
major failure of communication and took a second to calm himself before answering.
"Yes, but I'm certain at this point we will need to do some hard bargaining all round and change up the proposal a fair amount to get it to pass, now that our friends and colleagues in the convention will doubtless smell blood. After that there is the final clarifications on the return of nobility, which we will
also probably have to now make some concessions on to keep the majority of what we want."
"And what exactly is it that
we want Alex?"
Braun asked again, and Alex fixed him with a firm look.
"The most Republican possible constitution we can while still acknowledging that the democratic will of the people was for some nobility to return. An army who know exactly who holds their leash and that if they
ever try to co-opt the nation again as they did in the Great War, they will fail. A people, who regardless of their ethnic, racial or religious background can be certain that they are entitled to dignity in labour and welfare in times of need. Or has that not been informed to you either?"
He couldn't
quite keep the venom out of his voice at the last sentence, and Braun was staring back at him hard now. The tension between the two was finally broken by Schumacher.
"Well, in that case we need to make certain that our colleagues in the convention know that the issue over Prussia was a temporary fault, not a major weakness. If you two are quite busy growling at each other, I have an idea on how we can spin it and make it work."
Alex turned to face Schumacher, and after an inquisitive look at Braun, nodded for Schumacher to continue.
"Firstly, we need to tackle the public outlook on this. Luckily enough, we can use the Reichsbanner as a blueprint for how."
"What do you mean Kurt?" Braun asked.
"Simple, the agreement of the Reichsbanner was that democracy and rule of law were the most important thing and needed to be protected at all electoral levels. However no-one would accuse us and Zentrum of being the same party, even if we agreed on the importance of democracy and rule of law. We allowed disagreements and discussion of mutually opposed positions, while still sticking to central tenants. Every party does this, of course, just usually not publicly. To the public we spin this as the SPD embracing the spirit of the Reichsbanner and intent of the convention to put forward and debate an idea that, while not universally supported by the SPD, was still worth debating, even if it means the debate reveals it is a
bad idea."
"We eat some crow while making it look like we
wanted to eat crow?" Alex responded and the two other men gave him a look that made him realise that particular idiom was still not exactly well known in German.
"Sorry, I mean we be embarrassed and admit our mistake, but make it
look like we wanted that to be the outcome in the name of fairness, transparency and any other noble sounding thing we can think of?"
Kurt smiled at him then.
"Exactly, we prostate ourselves on the alter of humility, but assure everyone that is what we wanted in the first place. That will mean Otto, that you are going to need to pretend that this was the case from the beginning, and that your response was carefully fore-planned, and not simply a reaction to a surprise proposal. I can get to Brecht and get him to play along."
Braun nodded then.
"I can see that, it will deal with the issues within the party, and to a degree with the public. It will probably hurt our election numbers in the next election, but better to light a candle than curse the darkness. The question is how do we deal with our colleagues?"
"That" Alex said then "is probably where I come in. I still have enough contacts in both that reaching across the proverbial aisle isn't too difficult with Zentrum or the DLP. The DNVP and further right are not going to agree with us no matter what we do, and the DAP are not particularly fond of me, although I think we have some people in the Party they will talk to?"
He addressed the last part at Schumacher who nodded.
"Well then, I can reach out, try and figure out what concessions we can make on certain issues to keep the other Banner parties supporting the changes. If we have that, we can still negotiate to the best of our ability to what we need."
There was nodding all around, but then Braun spoke up.
"However we need to come back on to what
exactly it is that we need to negotiate and push for on the remaining issues, specifically the
major issues. And that will include Prussia in the long term."
"If it is all the same to you Otto" Alex sighed "I'd rather the issue of Prussia wait until later. We can talk, we can plan, and then once the convention is done and the safeguards for all people in Germany in place, then we can go back to trying to kill each other. Deal?"
***
It had been an exhausting day before hand, but the negotiations had worked to a degree. They had needed to talk with individual representatives to get their support, Alex had wound up chatting with the Bavarian representatives as well as his contacts in Zentrum and the DLP. The DLP had been the easiest, the German liberal party was typically in favour of individual rights and restraints on the military, so in return for slightly loosening up objections to some nobility positions coming back, Alex was able to get them on board. Zentrum, and for all the world Alex was grateful that Adenauer or Kaas were not here, the former was sitting in the Reichstag as the next head of the party, and the latter was apparently retiring due to a crisis of faith with regards to the actions of the Papacy. Alex had to begrudgingly respect Kaas for that, although it was
very begrudgingly as he still had not forgiven him for his involvement with getting Alex removed from the Reichsbanner and the
Deutschland issue. But with neither of them here, it meant there was no-one present who actively irritated Alex, and so in return for safeguarding certain Catholic rights, mainly supporting making certain that Catholics and Protestants were seen as equals, an easy sell for Alex and the SPD as they planned for Jews, Atheists and any other form of religious belief or non-belief to be equal too. This meant that as Albrecht and Braun both took to the stage to apologise to the convention for the disruption their actions had caused by bringing forward the Prussia issue for debate, the outpouring of reaction against them had not been anywhere near as caustic as it had the last time. At least, from anyone who didn't fall in with von Papen and Bohrmann, and thankfully von Papen's move to the DNVP years earlier meant he wasn't in a position to throw a wrench in negotiations with Zentrum.
So with the issue of Prussia dropped, to much celebration of the far-right, the issue turned to the military.
"We invite Mr Alexander Waltz of Berlin to speak now on the matter of proposals to the military."
Koch-Weser's voice carried easily, and Alex stood to ascend the stage to address the convention as a whole. He and Victoria had run through what he was going to say dozens of times, but he had to admit that he was still nervous. His whole life so far, even though it sure did not feel like it at times, he had been
trying his best to keep the eye of history off of him, now he knew for a fact, it was about to be. Everything else he had done would be of historical interest, but in secondary or niche ways, this was liable to be a lot more than that, and as he moved he tried to keep his mind clear, even his action at the conventions opening was nothing to this. He briefly met Wilhelm's eyes as he walked across the stage, and the future monarch nodded slightly. Alex had been probably using his intermediaries with the future Emperor more openly than before the last day, but he'd needed to be completely
certain that there would be no repeat, and that the future head of state stood squarely behind him on this.
"Your Grace" he opened, nodding towards the Austrian delegation where Archduke Otto sat "Ladies, Gentlemen. I am here, as our honoured chair has indicated, to speak to you with regards to the matter of the military and how it shall function in the new nation we are forging here. We are the people of Germany, we are a peoples who have been fighting wars since quite literally the times of antiquity. Ancient ancestors of ours fought Romans and each other, more recent ancestors fought battles and skirmishes too many to count over the patchwork of claims and holdings that would come to form this nation. We have fought over Religion, Pagan versus Christian, Catholic versus Protestant, Gentile versus Jew, and a hundred variations thereof. We have, by force of the powers that have surrounded us throughout our history, been forced to be at war for more years than we have been without, and all that means that when it comes to war, I am proud to say we are
damned good at it!"
That actually got a half ragged cheer from some of the less perceptive members of the far-right. He couldn't tell who exactly, but it definitely came from there.
"But the issue is, we sacrificed everything towards that ability. Our science and industry were driven only to end life. Our commerce and culture, towards creating an eternal enemy in the latter case, and profiting off of it in the former. We gave up countless treasure, unfathomable toil and far, far too much blood in order to be capable of what we are. There is a younger generation now, one coming to age who I pray
never have to experience as we all did in the Great War, but who I fear will have to do as we did, to pay, to toil and to bleed in service of our nation as those outside our nation seek to destroy us or our allies for simply existing for what we believe. As such, it is an undeniable fact that we require a military to not simply defend ourselves, but all peoples on Earth who simply desire nothing more than what much wiser man than I penned as simply "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." But I can not abide any idea of a return to the way that we were fanatically devoted to the military in the Great War, when towards the end, arrayed against the entire world, we fought on though we had no food, no socks, barely anything but ammunition, and I know as a Stormtrooper I was getting the
best of what we had, never mind the people at home who had needed to subsist on nothing more than turnip and forage. We have struck a good balance with the system in place, and I propose firstly that we adapt, as we have so many things, the system already in place, but acknowledge the new reality in place, that being that the Kaiser shall be the one to hold supreme command of the armed forces, though with that power delegated to an elected official of the Reichstag. However, I propose also an additional two caveats to that, the first being that the holder of the office can only be nominated by the Chancellor, and must pass an approval vote in the Reichstag, and the second being that no individual who has served in the armed forces can, for a period of three years after leaving the active service, serve as the position of Minister for the Armed Forces, and upon assuming such an office would instantly be honourably discharged from any position in the military reserve."
It was a far cry from what Alex had wanted, but it still partly achieved his goal of keeping a buffer between active service and being the elected official who got to call the shots on the military, as well as made sure the power to actually appoint a Minister was in the hands of the Chancellor. He had hoped it would serve as a wider beginning for introducing methods to prevent revolving doors in politics, but it clearly was not meant to be. Even then, as he finished speaking there was sounds of outcry from the benches of the DNVP and further right. He returned to his seat as Koch-Weser called for order, and as he got it, he called for a vote on the proposal. This vote would not be held in secret ballot as other issues had, but instead by a simple count of hands from delegates, and as Alex raised his own hand in favour, and spared a brief glance around, he could see that his negotiations and actions had not been in vein.
"The votes in favour have a majority" Koch-Weser said "as such this convention will adopt the Waltz position on the military. Our next item on the agenda is with regards to the return of usage of noble and chivalric titles. This will be outlined by Mr Luther of Berlin."
Excerpt from "en.bablepedia.org/babel/German_nobility#Nobiliary_law_today":
"Contemporary German Nobiliary law is served by a combination of both legal definitions and rights as established by the German Federal Constitution and unwritten traditions [13] that have been established by actions taken during the first two governments following the adoption of the German Federal Constitution in 1939, and reinforced since then through usage [14]. The current legal situation of the nobility in Germany is highly influenced by the periods of the German Imperial Republic (1919 – 1939) and the Republic of Austria (1919 – 1936) the two predecessor states to the modern Germany[15], as such due to both periods of Republican rule that both areas experienced, many rights and privileges that were afforded to the various members of German nobility were ended. This affected all levels of historical nobility, with members of Uradel, Hochadel and Niederer Adel all being equally affected. Indeed the distinctions between the groups were permanently removed in all but academic circles.[citation needed]
The variations of Chivalric orders either introduced or, in some cases, reintroduced fell along State, Federal and Imperial lines. All States, regardless of whether there was a monarch present to head the state, were imbued with the power to award individuals with membership of a State Order, with the Arch-Duchy of Austria, the Kingdom of Bavaria, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Kingdom of Württemberg[16] choosing instead to reintroduce royal orders of the previous ruling families instead.
A Federal chivalric order was established set to reward individuals who, through meritorious service to Germany, earned recognition for actions either in the fields of civil action, military action, scientific discovery or humanitarian service[17]. This is denoted by receipt of the Federal Merit Cross in Gold or higher standard, which is granted by the Reichstag. By unwritten tradition, this also results with the individual being admitted to their States Order as well [citation needed].
The Imperial family maintains three distinct Chivalric Orders, the Order of the Red Eagle, the Order of Louise, and the Order of the Black Eagle[18], with the first two orders being regarded as equal societal standing and granted by the Kaiserin on combination of recommendation by her Chancellor and personal decision[19]. The Order of the Black Eagle is awarded based purely on the decision of the Kaiserin and to individuals who either have offered a great service to Germany, or the Imperial Family[20]. It is regarded as the highest Chivalric order of Germany [says who?].
The rights of nobility that were returned by the German Federal Constitution can be qualified as follows:
- The right to have the title acknowledged by Local, State and Federal Government
- The right for title to be inherited by a successor, (only applicable to individuals of the rank of Ritter (Baronet) or higher)[21]
- Various rights invested by State governments to members of State Orders[22]
- The right to petition to the Kaiser on issues relating to nobility
- The right to receive privileges offered by Local, State and Federal bodies[23]
The issue of property that had been expropriated by the predecessor governments was solved with single one off payments to the few nobles able to demonstrate they had not been compensated before.[24]
With regards to ennobling an individual, above the rank of Ritter, all ennobling require either the approval of the State Government and Chancellor (Graf)[25], the passing of an act of the Reichstag (Landgrave)[26], the direct request of the Kaiserin and two-thirds majority pass of an act in the Reichstag (Herzog)[27] or direct plebiscite of a State with majority in favour (Kurfürst)[28]. Due to unwritten agreement, any request for ennobling submitted to the Reichstag by the Kaiserin or a head of a German State is passed so long as the individual set to benefit is found not to be objectionable on grounds of criminal conduct [citation needed].
Please note the above does not include military orders and their allocation of rank due to military awards being viewed as equivalent to certain chivalric awards, and are directly issued by the Federal government through Military recommendation and command channels.
Since 1939 only five acts to ennoble an individual have failed to be passed in the Reichstag, three were due to presence of criminal conduct found as due process of the act being processed in the Reichstag[29], one failed due to the individual in question dying before the act reached a vote[30], and the fifth failed due to inability to assemble a quorum in the Reichstag due to events in Berlin[31] (See: Sunburst Protests of 1965).
Paulsplatz,
Frankfurt,
Germany,
March 24th 1939
Herbert was following Alex as they returned to the third floor from a lunch recess. Waltz was seeming distracted a bit, but after the very dark mood of earlier in the week, things seemed to have picked up a bit and he was being polite and returning greetings and brief conversations with people as he passed. Herbert meanwhile was handed a piece of paper from Kopeć who gave him a brief smile as she did.
"It's gaining steam" was all she said as she moved on from him then and he looked at the paper hurriedly. The issue of the National Anthem for the nation had been passed to a small sub-committee, who in turn didn't really care about the issue and instead were mostly using it as an excuse to dick about and sample the offerings of the nearest beer-halls, so the issue of the anthem had found a new outlet, public opinion. It had taken a few phonecalls, but soon enough a public poll was collected in Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Hamburg with options for a new national anthem. As Herbert read though, he could see that the idea he, and a few other confederates, had drunkenly settled on earlier in the week was now onto what could be called "Phase 2" as small radio stations, although Deutsche Welle from Berlin had picked it up which meant it was probably about to burst into "Phase 3" soon.
"Something important?" Alex's voice drew Herbert's attention from the paper and he had to fight to contain the attack of nerves he had.
"Ah, no. Just a small side project I'm working on with some friends."
If Alex was intrigued any further, he didn't show it, instead he simply chuckled and let himself into the suit that was his and Herbert followed behind, and as he did, he closed the door. Mrs Waltz was out today, and Mordechai Bresler was back in Berlin, meaning that for the next couple of hours Alex would most likely be alone, and that was good, because Herbert did not particularly want any interruptions.
"Alex" he said, and the older man turned to look at him "can I speak to you about something?"
He schooled his voice to stay neutral as much as he could, though he could almost feel his arms weighing more and his stomach trying to flip as he asked the question.
"Certainly Herbert" Alex said, and waved him towards where a couple of chairs sat together "is it something serious?"
"Yes, quite possibly. It is about a suspicion I have."
He sat down and Waltz joined him, before nodding for him to continue, which after a deep breath he did.
"I'm reticent to even mention this, but I find I can't simply let this go."
"It's ok Herbert, if it is something I can help you with, I will." The sincerity in Waltz's voice hurt, but Herbert knew he had to get it over with.
"The issue is this Alex, and I am sorry for being as blunt as I am about to be, but I need to know. Have you been conspiring with the Kaiser-elect?"
Herbert watched the other man's face closely as he asked the question, and it was a quick flash, but he saw that his question
surprised Waltz. Surprised was fine, surprised could be the question was so outlandish as to not possibly be true, then all the suspicions and thoughts that Herbert had could-
"Yes, I have been."
There was no attempt at denial, no guile, no lying. Waltz's face was totally sincere and the sheer honesty of the words hit Herbert like a gut-punch. He tried to recover quickly and stared hard at the older man, but he did not seem to react to the look.
"Why? Of all things
why are you doing that?"
He let the hurt he felt reach his voice. Here was Alexander Waltz, the man that so many viewed as a champion of the Republic, the man who got rich not by exploiting his workers, but by bringing them up with him and helping anyone he could, and now he had been working
with the future monarch to end the Republic?
"Because there are about seventy-five million people out there who were counting on us to keep them safe, and the nation peaceful. And sometimes doing that which is
right means doing the thing you don't want to do, or will be condemned for doing. In the fullness of time Herbert, what my involvement in all this has been will come out, same as it will for the Kaiser-Elect, same as it will for Chancellor Wels and President Jarres. All four of us, and the few more people who got roped into this, will be weighed, judged and condemned as seen fit."
The answer was at once not what he had expected, and still also fit it. An appeal to the greater good, but not one that painted Waltz in the best light.
"The needs of all the people were more important than your own ideals?" Herbert asked, he couldn't help his tone being just a bit drier than he wanted, but his emotions were still controlling him slightly, but as soon as he said it, he wanted it back.
Alex's face darkened, if the emotions Herbert had seen earlier in the week after the Prussian issue had been Alex upset, this was him furious, and Herbert felt rooted to his chair.
"Herbert, because you have been an exceptional worker, and because I see a great deal of potential in your future, I am going to let that slide this one time. But you do
not know me. You have no idea what my past is, what my true feelings are or, most importantly, what standards and ideals I hold myself to. But let me make this plain as day to you, I have only on a handful of occasions let my own desires override my ideals, and it has fucked me over every time. Once, was when I took my wife out to a dance, my
first wife Christina, she was tired that day but I insisted and didn't listen to what
she wanted. That is where she contracted the Spanish Flu that killed her."
Waltz unfurled a finger then, and Herbert felt as if he had been slapped in the face, such was the raw emotion coming from the other man.
"The second time was when I decided to act above my station on an assignment, only sheer dumb luck meant I was not executed by the government for treason. Some day you might get the full details on that, but understand that I fucked up
greatly there. The third time was when I ignored the concern I should have had for my own son and let my need to vent anger and vengeance at the actions of petty men
scare him and my wife. I spent the better part of two weeks living away from my family because I raised a hand and nearly
hit my wife. The fourth time though Herr Frahm, though, this fourth time will interest you."
Herbert wanted to be anywhere else in the world, but he watched as Waltz's anger faltered, and all that was left was a man who suddenly looked
very tired.
"The fourth time was when I let my fear overtake me, and instead of stepping up and running for President of Germany, I decided to stand back and let the Kaiser return instead. Because I made the selfish choice of what
I wanted, we are in all this mess, and it's so much more difficult than anything I expected. Easier, thankfully, beautifully easier in some respects, and thank God for that, but so, so much harder in others. All I want to do is the best I can right now, and what I'm finding is that what I thought was the best and good enough is nowhere near close. Why am I conspiring with the Kaiser-Elect? Because right now I'll cling to anything to not drown Herbert."
Waltz said nothing further, and Herbert didn't feel capable of moving, so they sat there in an awkward, exhausted silence. Herbert still felt a small bit of anger, but it was overwhelmed by his other emotions at all of this, so instead he thought on what Waltz had said to him, and after what felt like forever, but was probably five minutes, he willed himself to stand up.
"I have no actual proof of your working together" he said, and Waltz snapped his attention back to him and watched "this was all built on suspicions that I had. Slips of the tongue you made, looks given, messages sent off to places. But I think we both know that evidence for accusations like this would not be the most important thing in the world."
"No" Alex said "if you went to the right papers, your word alone would be enough."
The silence fell again, until finally Waltz spoke.
"So, will you?"
Herbert looked back at him, and instead of seeing anything else, any of the other things that Alexander Waltz was supposed to be, he simply saw another man, one trying his best, and Herbert made his decision.
"A wise man once told me, that doing that which is
right is not necessarily the thing that we want to do. I want to do what is best by Germany, and if that means I need to accept a reality I don't like, then so be it."
Waltz smiled at him then, it was a slow thing, but one that matched the look of relief on his face.
"Thank you Herbert. I must ask now, do you still wish to work with me? I could get you transferred over to any other party representative you'd like?"
"I will need to think on that Alex. This has been a lot to think about, but I will have an answer for you soon enough."
Paulsplatz,
Frankfurt,
Germany,
March 27th 1939
Alex felt able to relax a bit as the conversational hum in the Cathedral died down a bit. The proposal to keep the previous Constitutions protections of civil rights and liberties, with the protections towards those rights expanded, had sailed through nearly unopposed. The DNVP had voted in favour of the proposal, though considering it had been submitted to the Committee by Einstein, on behalf of a larger multifaith and ethnicity sub-committee probably stuck in their craw more than a little bit. The Convention was starting to wind down thankfully, the final details left to be debated and voted on were minor legal things that truthfully only mattered to members of the legal profession, but Alex was still making sure to get his hands on the best possible notes over them. That was not to say that today had been without some surprises, for example the delegation from Württemberg had announced that their State government had wanted them to mention that they would be holding a referendum alongside the upcoming national elections on whether to return the monarchy. Alex wasn't shocked at the announcement, Württemberg was the one Kingdom that had been playing it safe on whether to hold that vote, and public opinion, seemingly based out of positive memories of the last King, was rather strongly in favour of it. The issue of if they would offer the crown to the last King's daughter Pauline, or her son Hermann was the main source of debate.
He was just starting to relax when Koch-Weser announced that the Kaiser-Elect wished to address the gathered convention. There was a mild stirring of interest at this, but Alex didn't react too much, Wilhelm was as entitled to address the convention as much as anyone else, and he spared a quick look at Herbert instead. The younger man had chosen to stay working with Alex after their conversation the previous Friday, and Alex was grateful for it. He had been completely honest with the young man, though he knew that if Herbert
had tried to make a mess of the whole ordeal, he would have needed to take drastic action, which would have been terrible as the young man was an idealist and a half, and Alex wanted to encourage that, but as he had said, sometimes taking the right choice required acting contrary to your ideals. He still wasn't particularly happy Alex was working in concert with Wilhelm, but then again neither was Alex, so their eyes briefly met as the Kaiser-Elect came forward in an address that Alex, and by extension Herbert, had already been forewarned about.
"Distinguished delegates of this Convention" Wilhelm said "I wish to keep this address brief, but it is with regards to a matter that I feel you should be informed of. In keeping with the sharing of ideals and proposals for the future of this nation, I felt I should make this announcement now in public instead of keeping it quiet until much later. My intention, provided the people of Germany accept this new constitution and subsequently retain their offer of me accepting the position of Kaiser, is that the regal name I shall possess shall be a break from the expectation in light of the hope of a new Germany. Instead of adapting the Regal name of Wilhelm the third, which would remind us all of the horrors of the Great War and the madness that came with it, my intent will be to reign under the name of Friedrich Wilhelm V, a name that will serve also to address the great historical debt of my ancestor for not accepting the will and crown of the German people from the predecessor of this very convention."
There was some applause and light cheering on the matter, Alex stayed seated along with most of the rest of the SPD delegates, but he had been forewarned so schooled his reaction to the announcement in an aloof neutrality. The real reason was that Wilhelm, well Friedrich Wilhelm, and best he get used to thinking of him in that name now, was changing the name was the one he had offered, he wanted to avoid unfortunate association with how Germany had behaved in the Great War with the return of the monarchy. This also meant that the name Wilhelm was no longer going to be given to
any member of the House of Hohenzollern, and if he could have simply gone with "Kaiser Friedrich" he would have, but it was felt that, barring some sort of stupid luck or happen-stance where the more conservative elements would be unlikely to raise a stink over the naming convention, that at least a
vague nod to his ancestors was required in the use of Wilhelm somewhere. This was being combined with the intense negotiations that Louis-Ferdinand had told Alex were going on around their Grandfather. The former Kaiser was ill, and approaching death, where he was to be buried was a matter of some debate as while no-one was in favour of allowing him back into Germany alive, even on compassionate grounds, dead was another matter. Everyone was hoping he'd hold on until after the coronation, so then Friedrich Wilhelm would be in a better position to argue with the Federal government and just get him buried quietly among the sailors graveyard outside Cuxhaven.
Alex's thoughts on the future of both Kaiser's was interrupted as Herbert let out a cheer beside him alongside numerous other voices, especially the younger assistants to the delegates.
"Herbert" he said "what has just happened, I was elsewhere in my thoughts."
The younger man flashed him a smile.
"The sub-committee on the issue of the national anthem reported back. Their recommendation is that the issue be left up to the results of a national radio poll that Deutsche Welle is running."
"Ok, but why are you cheering that?"
"Simple, the choices in the running are Heil dir im Siergerkranz, Das Lied der Deutschen, or the one that is actually winning."
Alex suddenly had a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, but he still felt he had to ask.
"What is the third song?"
"The one that Eugene Reiter wrote for the Olympics, Auferstanden aus Ruinen! It's ahead at roughly fifty-two per cent in a three way competition. Surely he has heard about it? You are a friend of his he must know?"
There was a look of total idealism and hope in Herbert's eyes, and Alex found he spoke slowly and chose his words carefully.
"Herbert, I can assure you, he hasn't a clue about this, but he's about to find out."
