Heia SafAARi: A Kaiserreich AAR

Chapter 5

So for the next couple of weeks everything worked fine, Anna’s husband, Erich von Müller, accepted the fact that Pawel was his cousin who was visiting his family. News from the east was still scarce and it was even impossible to sent a telegraph to Gniezno to inform Kazimierz mother what had happened.

Pawel stayed mostly inside the house, reading newspapers and books from the impressive private library of the von Müller’s. A lot of books were about Africa or about naval history, both subjects Pawel knew very little about. Erich von Müller, a man of around 60, heavily built with grey hair and a large moustache, most of the days went to his office where he worked for almost 10 hours a day. Only occasionally did he and Pawel talk to each other. Pawel spent most of the time with his ‘aunt’, maybe once a week they dined together.

It was in early September, during one of those diners that a conversation started between Pawel and his ‘uncle’.
‘Tell me, Casimir, how long are you planning to stay with us ?’
‘Uh, well I don’t know that, uncle.’
‘Hmm, well it must be a boring time for such a young man as you. Reading my books, drinking my coffee, drinking my scotch, eating my food.’
‘Erich !’ Anna said loudly ‘he is family, where is your hospitality !’
‘Hospitality ! I think I have be friendly enough to him for the last few weeks, I am just asking when he is planning on leaving us. I mean he must have a job or something, or haven’t you Casimir ?’
‘I am between jobs, right now, uncle.’
‘Erich, stop interrogating him, that’s not nice !’
Ignoring his wife, Erich von Müller turned to Pawel again.
‘So, your jobless right now, but what can you do. What kind of profession do you have ?’
‘Well this and that, nothing specific.’
‘You sound like a lazy bum, Casimir.’
‘I am not lazy, uncle. I work hard when I have a job. It is just that in these economical hard times not easy to find one.’
‘Hmm, well so if someone offered you a job, you would take it ?’
‘Depends, what it is I guess.’
‘What if I would offer you a job, Casimir, would you take ?’
‘Erich, you can’t demand that from your cousin, now stop this talking and lets return to diner.’
‘Silence, my dear, I just want to know what Casimir would do. There is nothing wrong with having a honest job.’
‘No, there isn’t, uncle.’
‘You know what, Casimir, you go with me tomorrow to my office, there I will tell you what the job is about. You can then decide if you want it or not ?’
‘That sounds great, uncle.’


The Hamburg Africa Shipping Company, was located on a 3-storey building overlooking the harbour of Hamburg. Erich von Müller’s office was on the top floor of the building. The office was huge, with a large desk, full of maps and papers.

‘Have a seat, Casimir’ said Erich as a pointed to an chair opposite his desk and then he started to go through some of the papers on his desk.
Pawel, somewhat nervously sat down and looked around.
‘Who are you really ?’ his uncle suddenly asked
‘Hmm....what do you mean, uncle, I am Casimir, your cousin ‘
‘Well then, who is .......THIS ?’
His uncle held a piece of paper in front of his face, on it Pawel could see an unclear picture of himself and below it he could read.



‘Well.... ?’
‘I don’t know....’
‘You don’t know ? You are this Pawel Szmidt, aren’t you ? I am not a fool you know !’
‘So, yes. I am Pawel Szmidt, but I am not an anarchist and I am not a murderer.’
‘Yes, you are innocent ! Sure, the police wants you for nothing, you liar ! You know I can call the police and hand you over to them.’

Pawel sat backwards and decided to not say anything at all, he had a feeling that if Erich von Müller would want to hand him over to the police, he already would have done so. No, there was something else.

‘What ? You have nothing more to say ?’
‘You are not going to hand me over to the police.’
‘And what makes you think that ?’
‘Because you wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble, if you wanted to do that.’
‘Well you are not stupid, I can give you that. But yes, you are correct. Handing you over could create all kinds of troubles for me. Since you have been staying with me for some weeks now, the authorities will start to ask questions and they would have reasons to investigate into my business and that is something I don’t want’
‘But you still want to get rid of me, so why don’t you just put me on a ship to America and I will be gone for good.’
‘No, that’s to risky, since that is no guarantee that you stay shut and won’t return any time soon. I have something else in mind.’

Erich opened a draw in his desk and took out a piece of paper. ‘I want you to sign this !’
‘What is it ?’
‘It’s a contract, in which is stated that you will join the ‘Afrika’-legion as a volunteer for 10 years. After those 10 years, you will receive a bonus and you are free to go where ever you want.’
‘’Afrika-Legion’ what’s that ?’
‘It is a military volunteer unit for foreigners, from the Deutsch-Afrikanische Freistaat.’
‘You mean, like the French Foreign Legion ?’
‘Yes, something like that. Now, sign here’ and Erich pointed to a line at the bottom of the contract.
‘Why would I want to join this military unit in some faraway place ?’
‘Because you wouldn’t like the alternative !’
‘What’s the alternative ?’
‘I have connections, Pawel, I can make people ‘disappear’, believe me signing this contract is the best option.’
‘Can I think about ?’
‘No, you sign right here, right now. A ship of mine will be sailing for Africa in two hours and you will be on it.’

Pawel started to think quickly, Erich was right the only option was to sign and once he was on that ship to Africa he would have plenty of time to get out of the contract.’
‘Ten years, you say ?’
‘Yes’
‘But the police will still be looking for me.’
‘Well not if you take on a new identity, if you have served your time you will get official papers on your new name.’
‘How do I know that you are telling the truth ?’
‘Ah, well you can’t you just have to trust me. Now are you going to sign or not.’ Erich pushed the piece of paper forward towards Pawel.
‘All right I will.’
‘Ah, I knew you were a smart boy, now what is your name going to be ?’
‘Paul Schmidt’
‘Paul Schmidt, well that doesn’t sound foreign ? Where are you from, Paul Schmidt ?’
‘I am from the United Baltic Duchy.’
‘Smart, all right now sign here and here.’

As Pawel/Paul was signing the papers, Erich took up the phone and called his secretary.

‘Heidi, tell the captain of the SS Norderney that the passenger I had been telling him about his ready to board his ship. And also tell him that he must take all the measures that I told him. Also call in Hermann and Friedrich they will escort the passenger to the ship.’
Paul couldn’t hear what the secretary said back, but he wasn’t surprised by the fact that Erich already had taken measures for his departure before he had even confronted him.
‘What are these measures, you are talking about.’
‘They have nothing to do with you, so they are none of your business.’
The door opened and two large men entered the room, from the look of their clothes it was obvious that they were sailors themselves.
‘Are there you are’ said Erich ‘this is Paul Schmidt, he needs an escort to the SS Norderney. Take him with you and don’t lose him out of sight.’
‘Yes, sir’ said one of the men.
‘Goodbye, Paul !’

The trip to the SS Norderney didn’t take long and Paul didn’t have any opportunity to escape. On the ship he was thrown into a cabin and the door was locked behind him.
‘Why am I locked in ?’ he shouted and started banging on the door.
‘Special orders from the chief himself, you are to be locked into this cabin until we are out on the ocean and at each stop you will be locked in again. Now keep quite or we will have to gag and cough you.’




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