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So, is the image for Käthe that 'sado-maso bimbo' picture from earlier, and Diana Quick is Alex? Then, who's Duckie modeled after? I forget. :D

11573.jpg
 
haha, me proud to say me can hit harder than some scratching you have to offer. :p:D

I can hit France thrice in the same AAR. Three timelines, remember...:D

So, is the image for Käthe that 'sado-maso bimbo' picture from earlier, and Diana Quick is Alex? Then, who's Duckie modeled after? I forget. :D

Well, the 'sado-maso bimbo' picture is an idealization of Käthe by good old Duckie, but she's not actually like that. Alix is based on Natalie Dorman and... Duckie is... Duckie is...

daffy-duck_400.jpg


Nice try, Peti, but I'm still working on him...

I actually wish that Duckie is modeled after this Duckie. :p:D

I thought about it, but...


Nice try! :D

3. The more the merrier? :D

The more, but not too "more". Three is enough.

I wonder how that feels like ;)

Cold? :D
 
Why....
why....
why....

Lol, I'm too lazy to form an opinion from the events of the two last update. Sometimes one just receives information, which one tries to absorb, although ones brain simply refuses the handle that kind of weird facts.
Wtf.
 
I'm back after long time, nice to see many nice updates waiting for me. :D
 
Why....
why....
why....

Lol, I'm too lazy to form an opinion from the events of the two last update. Sometimes one just receives information, which one tries to absorb, although ones brain simply refuses the handle that kind of weird facts.
Wtf.

Lucky you, who are not the one creating the movements behind the courtain...

Anyway, point me of some wierd facts, please. To improve my skills, seriously speaking.

Let me guess, Ducky is present in all of them. :D

I'm back after long time, nice to see many nice updates waiting for me. :D

Enjoy them, then!
 
did someone say menage a trois? *subscribed*
 
Chapter 21

First set - The Failure of a Revolution


One of the first acts of Prinz Louis-Ferdinand as soon as he was crowned was, along with those survivors of the old Kaiserreich days, to meet in Postdam's Garrison Church (1) in a ceremony that formally will inagurate his kingdom. The place and date chosen were symbolic. The site was a hallowed one to the kings and army of Prussia, the place where his ancestor, Frederick the Great, was interred. And the timing -21 March, 1945-, was the anniverary of Bismarck's inaguration of the first Reichstag in 1871. All the top military brass along with all of the members of the Hohenzollern family as well of the remaining Royal Houses atended at the event, which had his most dramatic moment when the new Kaiser descended to the vault of the church to pay his respects at the tomb of the old king.

It is said that thus, going back to the glorious Prussian tradition that began with "old Fritz", the fate of Germany's destiny was sealed with the "marriage of the symbols of old greatness and the new strenght".

361px-K%C3%B6nigliches_Monument.jpg

Das Königliche Monument, the resting place of
Friedrich Wilhelm I and Friedrich II

Second set - The Failure of a Republic

Thus, in his first act as Präsident der Bundesrepublik, Prinz Friedrich, had used the scenario of the Postdam's Garrison Church not just to evoke nationalistics sentiment and to associate his government with the past glory of his ancestors and of Germany, but also to prepare his own way to restore the role of the Crown and to make of Germany, again, an Reich with a Kaiser. It was a coup de théâtre, indeed, and one wonderfully done. And if the timing for the Postdam ceremony was selected with an aim, the same goes for the next annoucement, which was issued on 16 March, 2008, when Friedrich, now Kaiser of Germany, said to his nations that Germany had broken his old-time pact with European Union and had signed a new alliance with the United States and the United Kingdom. Not by chance, this day was the day before the traditional commemoration of those who had fallen in the Great War of 1914. Although this moment was still far in the future, it proves how careful was Friederich with the threatical effects of any of his actions. As rock star David Bowie said of him, "he was no politican, he was a great media artist. How he worked his audience!" Even those who disliked him, had to recognised that his "Politik des Bluffs und Theatercoups" was "sehr interessantes Theater" and quite effective, indeed.

ScreenSave84-2.jpg

Third set - The Brown Bolshevik.

Thus, having Remer used the Postdam's day to secure his position further, second to none but the Kaiser, and knowing that, being Wilhelm the supreme Warlord, it was the Kaiser who had the eternal loyalty of the army, the new Chancellor began to court the German armed forces and to modernize them, while covering Germany's rearmament with several annoucements and diplomatic surprises that usually sprung on Saturdays, cathching other governments and opposotion off guard and drawing double press coverage, first in the weekend press and then again in the regular Monday newspapers.

It would be, however, in his beginning where we can find the seeds of his final demise. To celebrate his tenous victory, Remer decided to organize a great event, far away from Berlin to avoid that the Kaiser may steal the glory that Remer wanted for himself. So, he selected a place away to link it to his person, so he choose Nüremberg, the last "Reichstadt" of Germany, according to him.

This event was a huge marathon, aimed to thrill Germany, to enrapture her as to slave her to him, and to begin the path to give the new Reichsklanzer a God-like status. However, it failed. It was not due to the lack of effort and matherial used, but of imagination on his part. The gathering should have lasted for seven days, and it included the attendance of almost hundred thousands Germans and foreigners comming from all corners of the Reich and Europe. Alàs, it was a too big display of power with too little imagination. The first day, with the arrival of Remer by air, as though a god from heavens, it began with a crude march of his followers through the city, which started as soon as Remer as stepped out of the plane. It was just the vision of masses of robot-like men, with stoned faces, carrying flags that nobody understood and singing songs that nobody knew.

On the second day, another march followed by an assembly at the Luitpold Hall, a too boring and repetitive ceremony that caused as much as boredom as funny smiles due to the absurdity of the representation, which looked like a Catholic mass with the religious hymns replaced by the Badenweiler March and the Nibelung March. Then the speeches. Well, the speech, as Remer talked and talked for almost three hours, unasailable by weakness. Alàs, his audience wasn't as resistent as he was.

Had been the speech shorter or had it apelled at some unconscious feeling of the audience it may have been different. However, it was just a repetition of what has been already said, an eccletic conglomeration of ideas and ways of thinking taken here and there, so conservative in their true nature that only the emergency of the moment may them look as radical. Theye placed ritual in place of belief, of loyalty rather than conviction, blind faith rather than reasoned understanding. While other politicas tend to offer his followers a vision of better times, Remer just offered struggle, danger and death. The summary of the speech "Better to end with horror than a horror without end", as a French journalist said, not quite impressed by the rally, summarized what most of the unlucky members of the audience felt about the "speech without end".

The following day were a repetition of the marches of the first day, this time by units of the armed forces -there was a very amusing picture of a bored feldmarschall von Fritsch looking at his watch during this event-, which had reluctantly taken part of the event- plus the followers of Remer, along with more speeches and more of everything. As a British journalist summed up, "a lot of speeches, a lot of noise, a lot of boredom, a lot of nothing."

The failure was clear to all, thus the rally was closed on its fourth day. Remer, conscious that his appeal for the heart of the German nation had failed and knowing that his time in power may be shorter than expected, decided to use it as best as he could. He would had not lasted so long as he finally did, had not been for an unexpected help in the form of Adolf Hitler, who had to choose an untimely moment to test the forces of the new government and his own strenght.

interlude2.gif


Interlude​

An official car brought Duckie straight to the building of the Department of Administrative Affairs (DAA) just he had finished the oath ceremony. He was met, to his surprise, on the front steps by his Private Secretary, Bernard von Schwarzerwäldchen. Duckie inmediately liked him, and thought him a likeable enough chap, but for his mania about to call him "Minister" and not "Duckie", despite how hard our good old new minister tried to persuade von Schwarzerwäldchen.

This could be saw when he went to the drinks cupboard and offered a drink to the Minister.
-A drink, herr Minister?
-Duckie, please.
-Mmmh -Bernard said after looking carefully in the cupboard-. I think we have run out of that...
-No, I mean, call me Duckie.
-If it's all the same to you, I'd rather call you herr Minister, herr Minister.

It goes without saying that, for a second, Duckie chuckled at that, which brought him memopries of Major Major and Catch-22.

-Then, does that mean that I'd to call you Private Secretary, Private Secretary?

This could have gone on and on and on, but for the timely of the Permament Secretary of the DAA, Humbert Freiherr von Funck.

After exchanging some pleasentries which left Duckie unsure about whether Bernhard or von Funck were patronising him or not, the new Minister annouced them the goals that his department was to achieve:

-You'll have to forgive me if I am too blunt, but that's the way I am. Frankly, we all known that one of the plagues of the modern democracy is bureaucracy. We need to get rid of most of the useless part of it. We are going to streamline this creaking old machine! There are fat too many useless people just sitting behind desks! -Duckie, aware of he had just said, rose from his chair, behind his desk. - We have to get rid of poeple who just make work that is already being done!

-To redeploy them you mean? -said von Funck. - I guess you mean that, or you want to put them out of work. The Unions wouldn't like that, herr Minister...

-Of course I want to reduce overmanning, but... well..., erm...

-Yes, herr Minister?

Then the moment came to check the activities of the Minister for the next days. Cabinet commites, official dinners, official speeches, and, of course, Duckie's own wedding. Among all that activities, where he would find time to implement his government policies, and, then the boxes with the work to fill on his few free time.

By that moment Duckie began to wonder where the Funck he had run into...

humard.jpg

Bernard von Schwarzerwäldchen and Humbert Freiherr von Funck.
In my opinion, they look too British. Are they spies, perhaps?
Should we shoot them? Time will tell...(2)

(1) It goes without saying, of course, that, in this set and in the following one, there was no British air raid on the night of April 14/15, 1945 over Potsdam, so no firebombs hit the church.
(2) Yes, I am I plus my circumstances plus my influences.
 
Chapter 22

Second set - The Failure of a Republic


The first step towards the restoration of the German monarchy had to do with its constitution. After the fall of Syndicalism, the new democratic Germany had created a constitutional document known as the Grundgesetz (Basic Law). By calling the document Grundgesetz, rather than Verfassung (constitution), the authors expressed the intention that it would be replaced by a proper constitution once the time was ripe. Prinz Friederich decided that the moment had come. Carefully explaining their proposal, Fritz and the chancellor, Berthold von Stauffenbeg, laid out their project to the whole German nation: to reinstore the monarchy. It would be done by asking the German nation first, a concept that caused some jokes among many international chancilleries, which found funny the idea of a "democractically elected kaiser".

Grundgesetz_cover.jpg

As it was stated, the Bundespräsident was going to be replaced by the Kaiser. Nothing would be changed. The Kaiser, as head of state, invested primarily various official, ceremonial and representational duties. As a constitutional monarch, the Kaiser would be limited to non-partisan functions such as bestowing honours, and his ultimate executive authority over the German government, the royal prerogative, could only be used according to laws enacted in the Reichstag or within the constraints of convention and precedent. The decisions to exercise Sovereign powers would be entirely delegated from the Monarch, either by statute or by constitutional convention, to Ministers or Officers of the Crown, or other public bodies, exclusive of the Monarch personally, keeping the traditional division of powers as other constitutional monarchies. Limited, then, to non-partisan functions, the monarchy would be the "dignified part" of the goverment.

The general opinion is that the German would reject the idea, thus the national referendum was seen with quite a lot of interest, in Germany and outside. Thus, when the day came (21st March, 2004), the stakes were quite high. In many Länder the questions were twofold. It was not just having the kaiser back, but also the old monarchies. For instance, in Baden-Württemberg had to decide not only about the German monarchy, but also about the return of the House of Württemberg as Dukes Württemberg (as the senior branch of the House of Württemberg became extinct in 1921) and the House of Zähringen as Grand Dukes of Baden. The same went for Saxony and the heir of the former king from the House of Wettin, Bavaria with the Wittelsbach, Hesse with the namesake House, etc. As a foreign observer said, "so many heads, so few crowns".

The referendum was a close thing. As most of the actual Ländern had few to do in common with the former kingdoms, and as most of its inhabitants were quite disconnected about the issue, the final result depended on the charm of Friederich, in the oral skill of Berthold and, above all, on being lucky.

Thus, the results were the following ones. Ostpreussen, Pommern, Bavaria, Westphalia, the Rheinland, Braunschweig, the Lower Saxon, Württemberg and Hesse voted "yes" and carried the weight of the final victory of the Kaiser with them. Saxony, Anhalt and Thuringia voted "yes", but quite midly, while Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Baden voted, quite bluntly, "no". In areas like Schlesien, Oldenburg and Waldeck the results were a draw.

ScreenSave98-4.jpg


With a 61.46 % of the Germans backing him, Prinz Friederich was able to ask the Recishtag to pass that amendments to the Grundgesetz (to modify the Basic Law into a more monarchic form -by "dropping" the part that guaranteed republicanism, as Article 20, or Article 79, Paragraph 3, that forbade modifying the mentioned Article 20, for instance). It required a two-thirds majority of both chambers of the parliament, and Friederich won it with hardly no obstacle. Hardly a month later, once the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) ratified that the changes were compatible with the most basic principles of the Grundgesetz and that Germany was to become, again, a monarchy.

_44385115_holocaust11_416ap.jpg
 
Some words about the last update.

I should apology because my knowledge of the Basic Law or Fundamental Law for Germany is quite, well, let's be honest, non-existant -it just consists of what I've been reading in the wikipedia and in the web of the Bundestag-, so, no wonder if I've made quite a lof of mistakes. I know that I have sinned by changing the two articles that cannot be changed even if the normal amendment process is followed, but, alàs, I had to do it. Something in me says that this couldn't be done, but... well, for sake of the AAR, I had to do it.

My apologies to any German that feels outraged.

More...

Well, I hope that nobody feels insulted by the curious result of the referendum to bring back the Kaiser. I've made a mix with the names of the province of the II Reich, the present ones of the Bundesrepublik and, add to that, making sense with the boundaries of our beloved HOI. Thus, if what I've done bears any resemblance to reality, it's not my fault, as I tried to be loyal to reality.

However, my sin is even worse when one takes a look at my painful skills at modifying the screenshots. Well, I'm not Picasso...

The results for each area are based in my own, personal and mad lecture of the results of the German elections of 1912, by the way.

Yes, I'm that kind of freak.

For those Polish readers (hi rob) that suddenly feel themselves Germanized, I can only say: Well, it could be worse. You could find themselves being Russians, uh? :D

And about Alsace-Lothringen and Schlewig-Holstein... well, time will tell.:D
 
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As probably the biggest fan of the Basic law and the judical structure of the Federal Republic of Germany on this board, I can say that I approve.
 
As probably the biggest fan of the Basic law and the judical structure of the Federal Republic of Germany on this board, I can say that I approve.

Are you really sure? :p
Not that I like reading Deutsche Grundgesetz... :D

Imperial flag returning?

Mecklemburg-Schwering, Baden, Württemberg, Schelswig-Holstein shall have no royalty?
Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen and Frankfurt shall become Imperial cities? :p
 
As probably the biggest fan of the Basic law and the judical structure of the Federal Republic of Germany on this board, I can say that I approve.

That means a lot! Than you very much indeed!

Imperial flag returning?

According to the Article 22.2, "the federal flag shall be black, red and gold".

That doesn't mean that, when the moment is ripe, that article can be ammended...

Mecklemburg-Schwering, Baden, Württemberg, Schelswig-Holstein shall have no royalty?

In the original versionof this update, I was going to deal with the kings, great dukes, princes und so weiter of the former Empire. However, as with the Imperial flag, this topic should be dealt when the moment is ripe, in the fullness of time and when all the questions have been properly studied. :D

Lübeck, Hamburg, Bremen and Frankfurt shall become Imperial cities? :p

Read above.:D

All in all, it may be a bit odd having a Kaiser and not the former Reich. We shall see, as, for instance, Baden-Württemberg presents a quite interesting problem, if the old royals are going to be back. ;)

In any case, the federal organization is going to be kept as it is. Just minor changes are going to be implemented.