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Lothar’s descendant

Rheinbund

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Rotterdam, Netherlands
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Fehrbellin
Rabenau, Eiffelland
25 February 1957

Today was Roman’s funeral. Of course Weber and two of his subordinates, Kriminalmeister Eisenhauer and Schulz, went there, to observe the people attending the funeral. He was on time to see how Mr. Tackler threw Anja Sandmann out. Weber was a bit surprised that Anja showed up here; she didn’t seem really shocked about Roman’s death earlier that week. What kind of relationship was it that she had with Roman? But he was also surprised about Tackler’s vehement way of throwing Anja out. Tackler was known for his anger outbursts, but it could be expected that the man would control himself on the day of his son’s funeral.
Weber asked Schulz to go after Anja. Then he went into the church with Eisenhauer. There they saw the usual funeral visitors: Roman’s parents, his sister, his grandparents, and of course uncles, aunts and cousins. Also Roman’s school class was there, together with their form‑master. Weber and Eisenhauer were looking for people who didn’t belong to the family or the school class, but didn’t see anybody.
That became different at the burial itself. Weber had arranged for a couple of photographers who would discretely take pictures of the people at and near the grave. Anja was there on a distance, but also two other men. And Weber interested himself very much for those two other men. He and Eisenhauer followed those two men to their car. It was a beige Borgward Hansa 2400 with Landsberger licence plates. Landsberger? That reminded Weber of that old car that had been found in the Lahn almost three years ago. The driver of that car was the eldest son of the Duke of Stolzenau. That family still lived at the family castle, in the village of Stolzenau, community Landsberg. Coincidence? Can’t be different. But it was interesting that somebody from that far away was interested in a funeral here.

Weber decided to check the licence plates. It appeared that the owner of the car was a lawyer in Landsberg. C. Weber applied for a warrant for him, Eisenhauer and Schulz to conduct investigations outside the jurisdiction of the Rabenauer police. As soon as he had that warrant, he would travel to Landsberg.


Landsberg, Eiffelland
1 March 1957

Weber parked the Raimer 219 from the Rabenauer police near the house of barrister Bachmann, which also contained the office of the barrister. When he, Eisenhauer and Schulz got out of the car, they immediately saw the beige Borgward they saw at Roman’s funeral.
“At least now we know that there is a kind of a link between this lawyer and Roman’s death, whatever that link may be,” Weber said. He walked to the front door of Bachmann’s office together with Eisenhauer, and rang. Schulz walked around the house to take pictures and do some other investigations.
A woman opened the door for Weber and Eisenhauer, and let them in. Then she showed them into the waiting room, and asked if they had an appointment.
“No, we don’t have an appointment, but we do need to talk to Mr. Bachmann,” Weber said.
“Sorry, but Mr. Bachmann’s agenda is completely full for today. It would have been better if you would have made an appointment,” the woman said.
“Also if we are here for the investigation in a murder case, gnädige Frau?” Weber asked while taking his police ID and his warrant to investigate outside his district out of his jacket’s inner pocket.
“I will ask this to Mr. Bachmann,” the woman said, and left the waiting room.

A few minutes later, Bachmann entered the waiting room.
“Good morning gentlemen. What can I do for you?” he asked. “My secretary told me that you are investigating a murder case. I’m really wondering what makes that I’m involved in it.”
“Good morning Mr. Bachmann,” Weber said. “I have a few questions to you regarding the murder case of the 15 year old Roman Tackler. He was murdered about 10 days ago in Rabenau.”
Bachmann’s face remained neutral. “15 year old you say? How horrible to die at such a young age,” he said. “But how did you end up here? Rabenau is … how far away? Must be around 500 kilometers, if not more. How can I be involved in it?”
“That is a question we ourselves are trying to answer, Mr. Bachmann. Fact is, that we saw two men observing Roman’s burial. They stepped into a beige Borgward Hansa 2400 with licence number LAB DRA 50. Here are some pictures of the car in question.”
Colour pictures were still expensive. Therefore, the pictures Weber showed to Bachmann were in black and white. As a result, the colour of the car was not clear, but the licence plate was. Also the faces of the two men stepping into the car were clearly visible and recognisable.
“That isn’t my car,” Bachmann said. “Somebody must have falsified the licence plates.”
“How can you be so sure that it isn’t your car, Mr. Bachmann?” Eisenhauer asked. “We saw a beige Borgward Hansa 2400 on the parking lot here. Licence plate LAB DRA 50. And with a scratch exactly here.” Eisenhauer pointed his finger on one of the pictures of the car. “Exactly on the same place as here on this picture. Mr. Bachmann. Of course you are not the only owner of a beige Borgward Hansa 2400, but it is highly coincidental that there are two cars of exactly the same brand, type and colour with exactly the same scratch on it. This means that it is your car that we have on the pictures here. And that means that it was your car that we saw in Rabenau last Saturday.”
“Our conversation has ended,” Bachmann said coldly. “Fräulein Brick, could you please lead our guests to the door?”
“Mr. Bachmann, you will help yourself into trouble with this,” Weber said. “Believe me, a barrister in need of a barrister is in a bad situation.”
“Our conversation has ended, Herr Polizist,” Bachmann said with emphasis.

Schulz was already sitting in the car, when Weber and Eisenhauer arrived there.
“I have something nice to tell,” Schulz said. “Those two men from the funeral, I saw them inside Bachmann’s house, sitting at a desk.”
“Good job. Do you have a picture of them?” Weber asked.
“Of course I have,” Schulz said.
“Good. Thank you,” Weber said.
“What did Bachmann say?” Schulz asked.
“Not much. First he said that it wasn’t his car that we saw at the funeral, but when we made clear that it was his car, he threw us out. Something is going on here,” Weber said. “First let’s find out who Bachmann’s clerks are.”
 

Rheinbund

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Restaurant at the Motorway A3, between Köln and Ingelheim, Eiffelland
3 March 1957

“How late is it?” Weber asked to himself while looking at his watch. “8 o’ clock. OK. We will be back in Rabenau at midnight. Who will join me to go to Tackler tomorrow?”
“Why tomorrow? Can’t we do so on Monday?” Eisenhauer asked.

Bachmann underestimated the distance between Rabenau and Landsberg to a large extent. It was not 500 km but about 800 km, at least over the roads. Weber, Eisenhauer and Schulz traveled up North three days ago. They arrived in Landsberg in the morning of 1 March to surprise Barrister Bachmann at his office, and stayed in Landsberg for 2 days. They managed to talk to one of Bachmann’s clerks as well, but that talking wasn’t very informative, either. They stayed in Landsberg for two days to gather information. Of course they also contacted the Landsberger police, but they couldn’t tell much about Bachmann cum suis. The only information they got was that Bachmann was a respected lawyer.
Of course they also went to the financial authorities to ask for which people Bachmann was paying the salary taxes. After combining that information with the archive of the passport office of the Landsberger community, they retrieved the names of the men who attended Roman’s funeral. One of them was Alfred Görlitzer, born in Villach in 1920; the other one was Claus Böhmer, born in a small village near Innsbruck in 1927.
Böhmer absolved his university law study in the beginning of 1955 with the Erste Juristische Prüfung. As per Eiffellandian law, he was not immediately allowed to work as a lawyer after that. He had to absolve a 2 year period called the Rechtsreferendariat, consisting of a practical education in civil law and criminal law at a law‑court (called “Zivilstation” and “Strafstation”), a practical education at a community government and a provincial government (called “Verwaltungsstation”), a practical education at a law firm (called “Anwaltssstation”), a practical law-related education of choice (called “Wahlstation”) and the Zweite Juristische Prüfung, a second exam on legal topics. After absolving that exam, he would obtain the title of Volljurist, and with that immediately accredited as judge, barrister, prosecutor, notary and any other kind of legal office. Böhmer was currently absolving his Anwaltsstation in Bachmann’s law firm. He would start with the Wahlstation in two months.
Görlitzer was a Volljurist. He was an employee in Bachmann’s law firm, but he was not a partner. Actually, Bachmann was the only partner in the law firm.

Due to its oblong North‑South shape, Eiffelland had a quite large variety in climates. The fact that the Northernmost part of Eiffelland was a mountaineous area enhanced that variety. As a comparison: There were quite a lot of threethousanders in Northern Eiffelland, but Bremen in the South needed protection against floods, because it was at sea‑level. The result was, that the Northernmost part of Eiffelland had a cold continental climate, while Bremen and the province Emsland had a somewhat cooler version of the Pelasgian climate. Rabenau was situated more or less in the middle, but had a continental climate as well, although it was a warmer continental climate than in the North.
The result of these climate differences was, that there were still large packages of snow in Landsberg, while the snow had disappeared in Rabenau, and also in the part of Rheinland where Weber and his men had dinner. Actually, it was snowing in Landsberg when the three men left. Here it was still cold, but it didn’t freeze, so it rained instead of snowed.

“I want to know if Tackler or his wife knows Bachmann, Görlitzer or Böhmer, or some relatives of them,” Weber said. “And I want to know that as soon as possible, because I have the strange feeling that going there on Monday will be too late.”
“But then why not going there as soon as we arrive in Rabenau?” Schulz asked.
“At midnight? Wouldn’t that be a bit impolite? No, our questions are not that urgent,” Weber said. “Tomorrow will be early enough.”
“We’ll have to deliver our notes at the police station anyway. Eisenhauer,what if you go to Tackler together with Weber? Then I will go to the police station to make a report of our visit to Landsberg and deliver the photofims to the lab,” Schulz said.
“That is fine with me,” Eisenhauer said.

Weber would have wondered about one of the pictures that Schulz made in front of Bachmann’s office in the evening of 1 March. If he would have known how the Duke of Stolzenau looked like, because that was the man on that picture. He visited Bachmann’s office on that day.


Rabenau, Eiffelland
4 March 1957

Weber and Eisenhauer rang the door bell of the Tackler house, and were shown in.
“Good morning Mrs. Tackler, Miss Tackler , Mr. Tackler,” Weber said. “I have a question to you. There were two men at Roman’s funeral who watched the events from a distance. They didn’t take part in the funeral, they watched it from a distance.” He paused for a moment, and then continued.
“Do you by any chance remember to know or have known a person called Bachmann, Görlizer or Böhmer? Or these three men?” he asked while showing pictures of Görlizer and Böhmer.
Tackler, his wife and his daughter studied the pictures thoroughly. Then they all indicated that they never met these persons.
“Maybe they were friends of him? Or his dealer?” Tackler’s wife asked.
“We are checking all possibillities, also those,” Weber said. “Have a nice day.” And he left the house, together with Eisenhauer.

In the afternoon, Weber and Eisenhauer went to the police station. They had also interrogated Anja Sandmann and the owner of Der Engel. Neither remembered Görlitzer or Böhmer. But the owner of Der Engel told about rumours on who killed Roman. It would have been one of the people who used to work for Rischka.

“Nice story, that it would have been one of Rischka’s people,” Weber said. “Do we know anything about them? Where did they go to?”
“But what do they have to do with a law firm 800 km from here?” Eisenhauer asked.
“Also that is a question we need to answer. More basically, how is that lawyer in Landsberg involved in this?” Weber asked. “I’ll write a letter to the central administration in Trier for information about Bachmann, Görlitzer and Böhmer.”

At that moment, a policeman knocked on the door and came in.
“Herr Kommissar, there is a woman here who wants to report her boyfriend missing,” he said. “The woman says that she is the girlfriend of Klaus Sandmann.”
“Klaus Sandmann?” Weber asked, and started to think. “Verdammt!!! Klaus Sandmann! Anja Sandmann! Verdammt! I totally forgot that Klaus Sandmann was one of Rischka’s people! Schulze, go to Hassloch with a team and arrest Anja Sandmann immediately! Eisenhauer, go to the city hall and check in the population administration if there is a family connection between Claus Sandmann and Anja Sandmann!”
 

Rheinbund

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Rabenau, Eiffelland
4 March 1957

“OK, So Klaus Sandmann left your house yesterday morning. He would also visit you yesterday evening, but he didn’t come. Around eleven, you went to his house. His car wasn’t there, and his house was dark. You have the key to Sandmann’s house, so you went inside. But Sandmann wasn’t there,” Weber said. He was interrogating the woman who came to the police office to report Claus Sandmann missing. She was a woman aged between 20 and 25. She looked better than the usual women of that age coming from Hassloch. Actually much better. How come that she fell for a drugs criminal from Hassloch?
“Correct,” the woman said.
“Did he say anything about an appointment for yesterday?” Weber asked.
“Yes, he he had an appointment in Weissenfels, but he would be back around eight,” the woman said.
“Do you know more about that appointment in Weissenfels,” Weber asked.
“No, unfortunately not,” the woman said.
“OK, that was everything, miss?” Weber asked. He had forgotten the woman’s name.
“Althaus,” the woman said, “Marika Althaus.”
“Thank you miss Althaus,” Weber said. Then he let the woman to the door.
“Oh, one more question, out of curiosity, Miss Althaus. Where exactly do you live in Rabenau? You don’t look like somebody from Hassloch,” Weber asked.
“Actually, I am from Marburg. I work in the hospital here as a nurse,” the woman said. “I met Claus three months ago in a pub, and we fell in love.”
“But what do you know about this man? He is not really the usual kind of husband for a woman like you,” Weber said.
“Nurses are used to the same kind of things as policemen dealing with car accidents or murder cases, Herr Kommissar,” the woman said. “I know that Claus is involved in heavier things than more … conventional men, but I’m not afraid of that. And maybe I’m not the classical woman you would expect from somebody from Rabenau‑Hassloch, but Claus simply does not fall for that kind of women,” the woman said.

At that moment, somebody knocked at the door. It was Eisenhauer. “Weber, the motorway police found the car of Claus Sandmann. Collided with a tree along the A3.”
“With Sandmann in it?” Weber asked.
“The driver was still in the car. Dead,” Eisenhauer said.
At that moment, the woman fainted and fell on the floor.

A few minutes later, Weber and Eisenhauer had brought the woman back to consciousness.

“Oh no. Claus! Dead! Believe me, this wasn’t an accident,” the woman said. “This is a deed of revenge."
“Why do you say so, Miss Althaus?” Weber asked.
“I just realised that Claus mentioned something about Roman Tackler, that kid who was killed two weeks ago,” the woman said.
“What did your boyfriend say him, Miss?” Weber asked.
“Claus said that he killed Roman Tackler. He litterally said: ‘I have killed Roman Tackler, because he was the murderer of Thomas Rischka.’ And now Claus is dead!” The woman burst out in tears.

Weber and Eisenhauer looked at each other. Then Weber asked: “Are they transporting the car and Sandmann’s body to us now?”
“Yes,” Eisenhauer said. “They will be here in two hours.
“OK. Thanks,” Weber said. Then he turned to the woman. “Do you want to be there if your boyfriend arrives here?”
“No. I will go home. I want the last image of Claus that I remember to be the last time I saw him alive,” the woman said.

Four hours later, Weber showed Claus’s mother into the autopsy room. She confirmed that it was Claus Sandmann who was lying on the table.

“Thank you, Mrs. Sandmann,” Weber said and let her out.

Just in front of the main entrance of the police department, Weber said to Mrs. Sandmann: “By the way, earlier today there was a woman here who reported your son missing. She said that she was your son’s girlfriend.”
“My son’s girlfriend? But my son doesn’t have a girlfriend,” Mrs. Sandmann said.
“Congratulations, Weber, for solving the murder of Roman Tackler,” Weber heard. It was the voice of the director of the Rabenauer police.
“For solving the murder of Roman Tackler? That news goes fast,” Weber said. He was stunned.
“Don’t worry about that, Weber, celebrate your success,” the director said. Then he saw Claus Sandmann’s mother. “Good evening, madam,” he said.
“Herr Direktor, this is Mrs. Sandmann, Claus Sandmann’s mother. She just identified her son,” Weber said.
The director put up a concerned face. “My apologies, madam. I am sorry for your loss. It is terrible to loose your child, and it is terrible when somebody dies at such a young age.” Then as soon as polite, he opened the door for Mrs. Sandmann and let her out.

“Weber, Schülze and Eisenhauer are already in my office,” the director said after Mrs. Sandmann had gone. “Can you come with me?”

A quarter of an hour later, Weber and the director entered the director’s office. Indeed, Schülze and Eisenhauer were already there, sitting in chairs in front of the desk. Weber took the third chair and seated himself. The director seated himself behind his desk.

“OK. This is the situation. Believe it or not, I got a telephone call about the Tackler case this afternoon at home. The SKA wants us to stop investigating the murder of Roman Tackler,” the director said. “I don’t know why, and I don’t know why they considered it so urgent that they called me at home to order me to stop this investigation already today. But this is the case. We have to stop it. But now we have a new situation. One of Rischka’s people was found dead along the A3, and we have this statement from Sandmann’s girlfriend that Sandmann was the murderer of Roman Tackler.”
“And I just heard from Sandmann’s mother that Sandmann didn’t have a girlfriend,” Weber said.
“What?” Eisenhauer and Schulze said.
“Calm down, calm down,” the director said while gesturing with his hands to calm down as well. “I have to discuss the situation with the SKA, now that we have a possible suspect. Now I would like to ask you to leave the room for a moment, so that I can perform that telephone call.”

Fifteen minutes later, Weber, Eisenhauer and Schülze were shown into the director’s office again.

“OK. This is what the SKA instructs us to do. The murder of Roman Tackler has been solved. We have the culprit: Claus Sandmann. His motive to kill Roman Tackler was revenge, because Roman was the murderer of Thomas Rischka, who was Sandmann’s boss. This is based on the statement by Sandmann’s girlfriend. Unfortunately, the murderer of Roman Tackler is dead himself now. He died in a car crash. Our investigations of the car wreck will lead to the conclusion that this crash was indeed an accident. Case closed.”
“But according to Sandmann’s mother, Claus Sandmann didn’t have a girfriend,” Weber said. “Furthermore, we don’t have evidence that Roman really killed Rischka. We only have people wo told that he bragged about that.”
“Criminals don’t need the evidence we need for a conviction, Weber. You know that,” the director said. “Roman’s bragging was enough for Sandmann to jump to his conclusions. And for the statement by Sandmann’s mother that Sandmann didn’t have a girlfriend, maybe he had not decided yet to tell his family that he had a girlfriend. Mind you, this love affair started only three months ago. Wouldn’t it be a bit early to announce your relationship to your parent already then? Weber, despite your objections, the case is closed.”
“Because our investigations came too close to someone?” Weber said.
“It would be better to tone down your comments on this, Weber,” the director said. “Situations like this can make or break your career, and remarks like this as well.”

When they were outside the building, Weber started to curse. Then he said: “OK. That was it. The case is closed. We have our culprit. I will go to the Tackler family to inform them.”
“But what are we going to do with Anja Sandmann?” Eisenhauer said.
“Indeed!! We arrested her! Well, we cannot do anything else but release her,” Weber said.


OOC: SKA = Staatskriminalamt
 
Last edited:

Rheinbund

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Rabenau, Eiffelland
6 March 1957

Weber was still angry about the fact that the SKA cancelled the investigations on the murder of Roman Tackler. Mainly because he knew that this sudden cancellation was a cover-up. That alone was a reason to dive into this case even more. The fact that his investigations made someone in the SKA, meaning high in the hierarchy, nervous was alarming according to him. There were two options: Either the director informed the SKA, or that law firm in Landsberg was involved and had a contact person in the SKA. And then Weber would tip on that law firm. Of course the director informing the SKA could have been an option in whichever way, but Weber had the impression that his director’s ambitions were not to become rich but to become boss, out of the same kind of desire why little children wanted to become boss. Briberies by criminals glanced off against such a train of thought. Then the option of the law firm in Landsberg was more plausible, also given the way Bachmann behaved towards Weber and Eisenhauer. Landsberg? Wasn’t that also the community where the castle of the Stolzenau family was? The family of the boy who was found in that car wreck 3 years ago? That case was also stopped by the SKA!
As soon as he arrived at the police station, Weber rushed to his office. He had to write the final report about the murder of Roman Tackler,but he also wanted to write a report about this case for himself.

Weber continued working during his lunch break. He asked Eisenhauer to bring him some lunch from the canteen. But after lunch, he was asked to go to the director’s office. He was thinking about some reasons why the director wanted to speak to him, varying from discharge to a transfer, but the director told him something he would never expect.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Weber,” he said. ‘How are you?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” Weber said. “How are you?”
“I’m fine as well,” the director said. “The reason why I asked you to come here, is the following. You will get a promotion.”
“A promotion?” Weber asked.
“Yes. Actually, you are going to lead a police district,” the director said.
“Well, that is quite a step,” Weber said.
“Yes, indeed,” the director said. “But you and your family will have to move. And quite far.”
“Southern Emsland? Or the Harz?” Weber asked.
“Farther than that,” the director said. “You are going to lead the police force of the community of Westermarkelsdorf, in the west of Fehmarn.”
“Fehmarn?!” Weber said frightened.

Fehmarn is an island in the Kalahari Sea, 200 km eastsoutheast from Helgoland. It is 70 km long and on average 35 km wide. The island is quite rocky and has quite a lot of mountaineous areas, but also many grasslands and some forests. Around 200,000 people live on the island, of which 50,000 in the capital city Fehmarn, which is also the main harbour. The means of subsistence of the island are fishery, olive and citrus fruits growing, sheep farming, and slowly but surely also tourism.
Due to treaty obligations, Fehmarn only hosts a defensive force. There is a regiment from the land army on the island, as well as two fighter squadrons from the air force, and three patrol ships and a few helicopters from the navy. From a geographic and constitutional point of perspective, Fehmarn is part of Helgoland. There is a ferry connection to Fehmarn from Varel and Wittmund in Helgoland, from Lohme in Rügen, and from Bremen in Mainland Eiffelland. Furthermore, there is a small airport near the city of Fehmarn where two‑engine propeller planes for up to 50 passengers can land.

Because tourism is still in the beginning of developing, and still rather uncomfortable, the island is rather quiet. Furthermore, because of the distance from Mainland Eiffelland, the fact that there is not much to do outside the holiday season and that you cannot get to or off the island so easily, the still rather bad telephone connections and the mail travel time, Fehmarn is currently only the dream place to move to for nature lovers.

“Indeed, Fehmarn,” the director said.
“But how is it possible to me to take up a function in the police force of Helgoland?” Weber asked.
“I was thinking that as well, but it appears that there is a formal path to transfer people in‑between police forces, for instance from Rügen to Helgoland, or from Helgoland to Rügen, or between the Mainland and the Autonomous Islands. This path will be used. By the way, this is not my decision. Not that I grudge you a promotion, but it would not be my idea to send you to Fehmarn. However, this idea to promote you to police director and send you to Fehmarn comes from high up in the hiearchy. I was also told that you are obliged to accept it; the alternative is to leave the force,” the director said. “If you accept, you will be expected in Aurich for a briefing on 27 and 28 April, and on your new position in Westermarkelsdorf on 2 May.”
“People want to get rid of me, right?” Weber said.
“I already told you earlier that remarks like this can break your career, Weber,” the director said. “I give you three days to consider this offer. I propose to discuss this further on Friday morning at 9 ‘o clock.”


OOC: And now I finally have names for those three islands [MENTION=16]Engellex[/MENTION] assigned to me 9 months ago: Fehmarn, Borkum and Baltrum.
 

Rheinbund

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23 June 1957
Westermarkelsdorf, Fehmarn, Eiffelland

The island was beautiful. Weber had to admit that. But other prejudices were true: There was nothing to do. There was a cinema, a theatre, three dance halls and 40 cafés in Fehmarn‑Stadt (as the inhabitants of the island called the capital city), and each of the larger villages had a pub that also functioned as a hotel (Weber slept in the one in Westermarkelsdorf during the weeks that he had not found a house yet; the room was clean but urgently needed an overhaul), but that was all.
Radio Eiffelland was broadcasted on the Long Sea Islands. There was a powerful long wave sender in Bremen which sent the signal to Rügen and Helgoland, and from there it was broadcasted over the Long Sea Islands at different middle wave frequencies. The short wave broadcasting from Trier was also received on the islands.
The middle wave gave the best sound quality, although it was still monosound. This wave had some disadvantages though. Due to differences in the ionosphere at night comparing with daytime, middle wave senders had a much larger reach at night than during the day, but this also led to senders interfering with each other. There was an Engellexian broadcaster, for instance, which used the same middle wave frequency as Radio Eiffelland 2 (broadcasting entertainment and non-classic music) used on the Eiffellandian Long Sea Islands, because of which you sometimes heard that Engellexian sender on the background while listening to Radio Eiffelland 2. Senders from Bourgogne and Kashtan were heard on the background of the Long Sea Islands frequencies of Radio Eiffelland 1 (news), 3 (classic music) and 4 (young people). Once there was a heavy thunderstorm line on the sea between Helgoland and Mainland Eiffelland. The result was that Radio Eiffelland could not be received over the long and middle wave, so Weber had the choice between disturbed Engellexian and Burgundian senders, a disturbed sender from Kashtan in a language he did not understand, and the rather bad sound quality of Radio Eiffelland over the short wave (which was not susceptible to thunderstorms). Of course, there was also a local radio station at Fehmarn, but that only broadcasted from seven in the morning until eight in the evening. The same to the radio station of Helgoland.

One of the main means of subsistence on the island was fishery. The result of that was, that the Fehmarners knew many recipes for fish. But Weber hated fish. And meat was extremely expensive on the island. Cattle breeding was limited to sheep and goats, and they were mainly held for milk products. The sheep farmers did not deliver many sheep for meat production. So meat had to be sailed from Helgoland to Fehmarn, or imported from Pelasgia or other countries. In all cases, that had to happen in cooled ships, and that made it expensive.

Crime on this island was different from crime in Rabenau. The typical city problems he saw in Rabenau were absent in Westermarkelsdorf. Instead, he mainly had to deal with poachers, small destructions by youngsters, shoplifting and comparable small crime. The team he led consisted of 15 people, himself included. He had ten police officers and four administrative workers at his disposal. When forensic assistance was needed, he had to ask for assistance at the police department of Fehmarn‑Stadt.
The cooperation with his people did not really go well. He was not part of the in-crowd; he was somebody from outside the village, a Mainlander even. The people in Westermarkelsdorf clearly let him know. Weber realised that it would take quite a lot of time before he would be accepted in this village.

Quite soon after he had come to the island, Weber had found a rental house. Since the beginning of the month, he lived there. After he finished work, he cleaned the house, painted the walls and the ceilings, hung up lamps and did everything else he could to turn the house into a nice place to live in for his family. He didn’t know how long he would stay on this island, although he had the impression that the Police Force had sent him here to forget him. In any case, on the longer term, Weber felt that his wife and children would develop the same opinion on the island as he himself had formed. The island was boring, and too far away from life, even for someone who wasn’t from a big city but from a provincial city. That would become a problem for his daughters in ten years’ time. Then at least the house had to be good.

The school year would end next week. Then his wife and children would travel from Rabenau to Fehmarn. First, they would drive to Bremen in the family’s DW Beetle (which was of more use to his wife in Rabenau than to him on the island, also because he could use one of the police cars to drive from home to work), then take the ferry to Fehmarn, and then drive to Westermarkelsdorf. The removal van would do the same. The whole trip would take three days. Because there was only a weekly ferry connection between Fehmarn and Bremen, and there was no daily ferry connection to Wittmund either, the people from the removal company would take the daily ferry from Fehmarn to Bockhorn (a fisher city at the east coast of Helgoland with a ferry connection to Fehmarn), drive from Bockhorn to Wittmund, and take the ferry back to the mainland there. They would be underway for five days.

The only positive thing was that he had received a substantial salary raise. Weber saw no means to spend his money anyway, so he started to save additional money for an early retirement. Or for sending his children to University.
 

Rheinbund

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16 August 1957
Aurich, Helgoland, Eiffelland

The island of Helgoland was in holiday mood. Yesterday was a rainy day, but now it was 33 degrees Celsius again. The sky was cloudless, and the sun burned heavily. Especially at the airport, it was hot. The large area of concrete where the planes were standing for loading or unloading, and to let passengers out or in, seemed to enhance the heat even more. Two years ago, the airport of Aurich was nothing more than a small building and a dusty plane where grass attempted to grow. But then there was a deal between the Government of the Kingdom and the Government of Helgoland: Some old airforce bases would be reopened and in exchange Aurich got a university and a new airport. The latter meaning that the exsisting airport would be modernised. The first modernization consisted of two concrete landing strips where also small jet planes could land, and a large concrete area in front of the airport building where the planes could park for loading and unloading. The second modernization consisted of a complete new airport building, located next to the old building.
The design of the building was a typical 1950s design. The front and the back consisted of glass in a metal frame and were placed a bit to the inside, so that the roof and the side walls protuded at the front and the back. The side walls were made of concrete and didn’t have any windows. The roof was a concrete plate. The building was 300 meters wide, 40 meters deep and 12 meters high. Two meters high capitals on the roof at the front and at the back formed the words “FLUGHAFEN AURICH”. Neonlights in the capitals lighted up red at night.
The new building had been taken into service just before the summer holidays started. This was not really a wise decision. It would have been better if the opening of the new airport would have happened later in the year, at a more quiet time point. The Prime Minister of Helgoland, Godebald Modrow, however, insisted on opening the new airport before the holiday season, so that “the tourists will not be welcomed in that old ramshackle stable any more”. This airport was a matter of prestige for him. He personnally dragged it out of the negotiations with Chancellor Von Seydewitz about the reopening of the old air force bases and the extension of the existing air force bases, something he unofficially still bragged about. Indeed, this new airport was the Prime Minister’s personal prestige object. Luckily for the Prime Minister, the opening of the new airport building went without any major problems.

It was at this airport that Prince Ludwig and the Duke of Stolzenau arrived today. Ludwig arrived to visit his friend Franz Schenk von Bechhofen in the prison of Aurich. The Duke of Stolzenau arrived to visit his people in Helgoland. The plane from Starnberg and the plane from Trier arrived at the same moment, due to a delay of the plane from Trier. They saw each other at the luggage band, but they didn’t exchange a word. Each of the two had a reason to hate the other one.

Half an hour later, Ludwig arrived at the hotel in Aurich. He had taken into account that the plane could have a delay, so his appointment at the prison was on the next day. Today he would drive to Wiesmoor to meet his study friend Jonathan Rosenthal. With his guards of course. That was unavoidable. A disadvantage of the life of a prince was that he was never really alone. But Ludwig did not really have a problem with that, at least not at this moment. The Königlicher Garde did not consist of dumb gorillas, but of people who were very capable fighters and very capable actors, and who were also a good company to people with many interests who like to philosophise and discuss, like almost all members of the Royal Family.

Stolzenau had a room in the same hotel as Ludwig had. That was the place where he met the people he needed to meet on this day. Among others Martinus Schleifer, who was on a holiday in Helgoland. The suite had been rented by one of his body guards, who had travelled to Helgoland with a private boat a few days before.

“This is the situation, Your Majesty,” the Duke of Stolzenau said to Martinus Schleifer, the Nichtsteiner jeweller who called himself Lothar’s Descendant. “Many of my men became members of the CDV. When I play it nicely, I will be able to take over the party. Next year there will be national elections. About 10% of the lists in all the provinces of the mainland will consist of my men. Then by means of preference votes people will make sure that my men will become members of the Staatstag for the CDV. The same for the Staatsrat, although that is a slower process. We have to wait for each and every provincial election to get our men in there. The first test will be the provincial elections in the Rheinland in September.”

The Duke took a sip of his white wine. During Winter, he would drink Gunnish Whisky at moments like this, but not on a hot day during a Long Sea Summer.

“Then after the elections, I will start to destabilise the country. Not with terrorist attacks, but by making the youth addicted to heroin. Once you make somebody addicted to heroin, he will do everything he can to get his drug. Heroin addicts are responsible for a large part of crime in Eiffelland’s cities. That is not a big problem yet, but it is going to be a problem when we make more people addicted to drugs. Then we stand up and present ourselves as the strong men who will save the country. By the way, I will also have myself elected to the Staatstag, over the list of the Harz. In that way, I can take over the Chancellery,” the Duke said.
“But when will I be able to accede to the Throne?” Schleifer asked.
“Don’t worry about that. I expect the current King to refuse his signature under quite a lot of laws that I will make. At a certain moment, he will have done that too often. Then it will be time to put you on the Throne.”

Kriminalkommissar Felix Nikolopoulos had a strong case against the drugs dealer Thomas Bagdanov. The man had an ancestry that was similar to Nikolopoulos’s ancestry: Once there was a Kadikistani called Vladimir Bagdanov, who landed in Helgoland and decided to stay. He married and got children. He passed on the Kadikistani family name, but that was the only Kadikistani aspect he carried over. Meanwhile, his desendants were typical Helgolanders.
As was Thomas Bagdanov, at least at first sight. He was a son of a mathematics teacher at the Gymnasium in Wiesmoor. He went to the Gymnasium where his father was teaching, and obtained the Abitur with the best grades of his year. He had a very fine childhood. Of course his father was not rich, but there was enough money for a comfortable life according to 1920s, 1930s and 1940s standards. Teachers received quite good salaries in Eiffelland, partly to give the job some extra prestige, partly because it was not that easy to become a teacher in Eiffelland. Like for judges, physicians and some other professions, teachers had to absolve a second exam after a period in which he gained practical knowledge. The first exam consisted of testing theoretical knowledge on the subject that the teacher would teach, as well as basic knowlexge on psychology and pedagogy. The second exam tested how the future teacher applied his knowledge in practice. After this exam, the teacher was accredited to teach in his subject. Teachers accredited for teaching at a Gymnasium obtained the title Studienrat.
Despite his happy and joyful youth, Thomas Bagdanov chose an unexpected path, compared with his father, but also with his class mates. Thomas Bagdanov was also a different kind of person than his class mates. He completely lacked any kind of conscience and any kind of sense for good and bad. Thanks to his very high intelligence, he knew what people considered good and what bad, but he didn’t attach any feelings to that, and he was only interested in the matter of good and bad when he could gain benefit from it (or avoid punishments). The complete lack of conscience and the very high intelligence were completed by a very good commercial instinct. And Thomas Bagdanov would sell anything to make money, even products that would harm and eventually kill his clients—as long as he could quickly become rich from it. He didn’t want the comfortable life he knew from his youth; he wanted the luxury he saw in the house of a classmate, whose father was a surgeon. A big house, a big car, expensive furniture, expensive clothes. The fastest way he saw to achieve that was going into the drugs business.
Without any teacher knowing or noticing it, he already started dealing weed when he was still at the Gymnasium. Some of his customers were also schoolmates, but they all managed to keep their weed use a secret for the outside world. And of course they would never betray their dealer. Later on, he started to deal LSD, heroin, amphetamins and cocaine as well.
Realising that he would have to build up his business from scratch again if he would serve in the military, he faked a kidney disease by mixing his urine with proteins, escaped military service and served three years of society service instead. He even managed to arrange that he could serve it completely in Wiesmoor. At daytime, he gardened in Wiesmoor. After his shift, he did his drug dealing work. He even managed to obtain his driver’s licence in those days.
When his mother discovered his drug storage in the cellar, he reacted promptly. He killed both his parents, removed the drugs from the cellar to store them somewhere else, and let the bodies of his parents disappear. He had the luck that he had just turned 21 when he did so. As a result, he could take many decisions himself. A few days before he killed his parents, he had rented an apartment to handle his drugs business from. He was about to move his drugs stock there, but his mother was too early. This was the first time that Thomas Bagdanov killed somebody. He didn’t feel anything about it. His parents were still considered missing.

That was five years ago. Since then, his star rose further and further, until the Duke of Stolzenau approached him for killing the local drugs boss and taking over his market. And that was what Thomas Bagdanov did. Now he was the leader of the drugs scene in Wiesmoor. But not only that. He also did some contract killings for Stolzenau.
Felix Nikolopoulos was the Kriminalkommissar who investigated the murder on the local drugs boss committed by Thomas Bagdanov. Despite the “assistance” of an SKA-officer assigned to the case upon request by public prosecutor Gruber, he found a trace to Thomas Bagdanov, started to investigate, and found some more things. He had to thank his superior for supporting him against the SKA‑officer, who did everything he could to steer the investigations to a dead end. Now he had a clear case to put Thomas Bagdanov behind bars.

But that was not enough to Nikolopoulos. He wanted more. There was something fishy about both the appearance and the behaviour of this SKA‑officer. Who was he? Who sent him and why?

The night before, Bagdanov had been arrested. Now one of Nikolopoulos’s men was checking out Bagdanov’s house to look for visitors. He had to wait until the afternoon, when a Borward with Bremer licence plates stopped in front of the house. A man stepped out (while being photographed by the surveillor), walked to the door and rang. Nobody opened the door. The man walked back to his car, stepped in and drove away. Nikolopoulos ordered to have the licence plates checked. The car appeared to be a rental car, rented at the airport of Aurich by a man called Helmut Robach. Nikolopoulos had this man checked as well.
 

Rheinbund

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21 August 1957
Wiesmoor, Helgoland, Eiffelland

Nikolopoulos opened the envelope from the Staatseinwohnerverzeichnisamt in Trier, the government institution which collected all population details regarding births, marriages, deaths, adresses etc. on national level. The envelope contained copies of population data on all the people called Helmut Robach that were still alive. Five minutes later, Nikolopoulos knew that the Robach he was looking for was not one of the Robachs still alive. Mr. R., as Nikolopoulos started to call him, had used a false identity card. And that false identity card would probably not be used any more. But even funnier, Mr. R. hadn’t come to Helgoland by plane. At least none of the airliners flying to and from Airport Aurich had flown a passenger with the name of Helmut Robach. Why renting a car at the airport when you don’t arrive at that airport? The story became really strange when the ferry companies sailing to and from Helgoland reported that they didn’t transport a passenger called Helmut Robach.
One of the employees of the car rental company recalled that Mr. R. walked to a motorcycle with a Landsberger licence plate and drove away on it after having returned the car he rented. That was two days ago. Unfortunately, the man only remembered the first letter combination of the licence plate (indicating the community where the vehicle was registered), not the rest of the number.

Nikolopoulos more or less knew that Mr. R. had left the island, in whichever way. He did not know that Mr. R. had loaded his motorcycle into the private seaworthy yacht he had used for coming to Helgoland.


28 August 1957
Wiesmoor, Helgoland, Eiffelland

The police department of Wiesmoor was still in turmoil after the escape of the drugs boss Thomas Bagdanov and his men. They managed to access the sewer system of the prison, and escaped from there to the sewer system of Wiesmoor. The police all over the country had been alerted.
Nikolopoulos was furious when he heard about it. OK, Bagdanov was not the only one who had been arrested; at least half of his men were behind bars as well. This meant that the drugs scene in Wiesmoor had received a serious blow. Furthermore, Bagdanov could not show up again very soon, so he would loose his empire. But the feeling that those men would escape their punishments was highly frustrating to Nikolopoulos.
In the middle of that turmoil, Nikolopoulos opened an envelope from the SKA in Trier. The envelope contained a letter. The SKA had compared Mr. R.’s picture with the pictures of people who were reported missing and were never found back (dead or alive). The picture of Mr. R. resembled the picture of Hans Nordländer, a man who was reported missing by his parents two and a half years ago. Hans Nordländer was known as a member of the GEL who managed to escape the mass arrestment of GEL‑members and the dismantling of the GEL in the beginning of 1955. He was still a wanted person because of several murders, maltreatments and assaults for racial motives. The letter also indicated that the Staatsschutz had been notified because of this.


30 August 1957
Aurich, Helgoland, Eiffelland

Helgoland is a longitudinally shaped island. Rügen also has a longitudinal shape, but to a much lesser extent than Helgoland. Both islands have in common that there are mountains in their centre part, mountains partly of volcanic descent. Some of the mountains are close to 3000 meters high, and are covered with snow during large parts of the year. The winterly snowfall partly feeds the rivers in Helgoland and Bergen. In the past, the yearly melting of the winter snow led to poorly controllable floods in early Spring, while the rivers dried up during Summer. Because this also led to problems in the water supply during Summer, the rivers were dammed off during the 1930s, in such a way that a water reservoir was formed by means of capturing the early Spring water flood in a reservoir, and then letting the water off afterwards. Now the rivers flow in a much steadier way. And of course the engineers were so smart to build hydro-electric stations in the dams, partly covering the need for electricity on the islands.

The capital of Helgoland, Aurich, is more or less in the middle of the island, on a large plateau at about 500 meters above sea level. This plateau is a somewhat strange interruption in the mountain chain of the island. Volcanologists think that this plateau is the result of a continuous lava stream out of one or more volcanoes North and South of Aurich. They also think that this plateau used to be a sea strait between the Northern and the Southern part of the island. Luckily for the Helgolanders, the volcanoes on the island all faded out. The same accounts for the volcanoes in Rügen. Geologists consider the volcanoes in Helgoland and Rügen sleeping since more than a million years. Furthermore, continuous seismic monitoring revealed that the earth under the islands is stable.

The holiday season was about to end, but it was still hot in Helgoland. The sun burned from a cloudless hard blue sky on the concrete of the airport of Aurich, while a new Albatros propeller plane from Aurich taxied to its parking lot. The stairs were rolled to the plane, and the doors were opened. The first two passengers to leave the plane were the Staatsschutz agents Schröder and Reim. They worked together on the same case, but were from different departments. Schröder was from the department concerning far right extremism, and Reim was from the department concerning organised crime. In the arrival hall, they collected their luggage and went to the airport buses heading for the city centre and the train station of Aurich.
Their destination was Wiesmoor. They wanted to talk to inspector Felix Nikolopoulos. They had to take the train to go there. Even at the end of the holiday season, it was difficult to get a rental car in Helgoland, so they were forced to take the train to Wiesmoor. Helgoland was not really a densely populated island, but there were railroads. There were two railroads from Aurich to Varel: One east of the mountains and one west of the mountains. In the same way, there were two railroads from Aurich to Wittmund: One east of the mountains and one west of the mountains. These were the main railroads of the island. Along these main railroads, there were several small cities where local railroads branched off to the towns and cities at the coast. Furthermore, there were connections between these local networks, sometimes also over the mountains. Wiesmoor, situated in the Southwest of the island, was the end station of one of the lines branching off of the western main line.
The train trip to Wiesmoor took the two men two hours. The train service in Helgoland was still performed with steam locs. An electrification of the lines was not on the table, but Eiffelländische Bahn was preparing to replace the steam locs with diesel trains. At the station of Wiesmoor, there was a car from the Wiesmoorer police waiting for Schröder and Reim. Ten minutes later, they were at the police office.

Nikolopoulos led the two men to a meeting room, and then took care of coffee and water. Then he seated himself.

“Herr Nikolopoulos,” Reim started. “You probably know why we are here. This is because of the Bagdanov case. We came to you because of the connection between Thomas Bagdanov and Hans Nordländer. We would like to get some more information about this. But maybe it is good to start at the beginning. As you know, Bagdanov killed the local drugs dealer last year to take over the drugs market here. Nothing new at first sight. It occurs more often that a drugs boss is killed by his competitors. But during the last year, we saw a sharp increase in the number of drugs bosses killed by their competitors. At this moment, about a quarter of the drugs bosses in Eiffelland have been killed. Because of this increased frequency, we think that these killings are not incidents on their own, but a planned action by a criminal organisation. And given the large number of killings, this must be a large organisation, and with that potentially dangerous.”
Reim didn’t tell about another problem. In fact Nikolopoulos was the only one who managed to find his culprit, mainly because he ignored the presence of the SKA-officer that was assigned to him. In all other cases, the investigations to these murders by the police had been frustrated by the SKA. This would suggest that there was a mole in the SKA. Or several moles.
‘And now,” Schöder took over,” you found a connection between another field of attention of the Staatsschutz. This Hans Nordländer is a known figure in the far right movement. He was a prominent member of the GEL, and also a very violent member of the GEL. He is suspected of a list of murders and severe maltreatments against Jews, foreigners and homosexuals.” Schröder paused for a moment. “I know that homosexuality is a sensitive subject on this island, but even given the fact that homosexuality is illegal in Helgoland, also here homosexuality is not a legally valid reason for murder or other forms of violence. We have more than enough reasons to get this Nordländer behind bars.” Schröder took a sip of his water. Then he continued. “What concerns us, is a possible link between the drugs scene and the far right movement. We don’t understand this link, because the far right movement is by far not friendly to drug addicts, but both the drugs scene and the far right movement are entities who are not afraid of using violence to solve their issues, and sometimes even prefer violence over other means of solving issues.”
Reim took over again: “You haven’t prepared your official report on the Bagdanov case yet, but you are not to blame for that. The fact that Bagdanov escaped gives this case an open end, at least for now. Furthermore, the timelines for that report have not passed yet. However, we cannot wait for your report. We need all the information you have. And I’m afraid we need it very soon.”
“What I can do now, is giving you my files, so that you can take notes out of them. I can have copies made of them as well, but that takes a few days,” Nikolopoulos said.
“If you can make copies of them, yes please,” Schröder said.
“I will do so. They will probably be ready on Friday,” Nikolopoulos said. “If you excuse me for a moment, then I will collect everything on the Bagdanov case and have it copied. After then, I will return and tell you what I know.”
 

Rheinbund

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20 November 2017
Beach of Westermarkelsdorf, Fehmarn, Eiffelland


Weber saw immediately that the corpse at the beach was someone from one of the poorer Schlammkolk families in Westermarkelsdorf. He only did not immediately recognise which member. One of the other police officers, a Marowski, knew. It was Rudi Schlammkolk, a fisherman working on one of Max Schlammkolk’s ships, and that this was the man who had been reported missing. Weber immediately gave orders to block off a large area around the corpse and to warn the Crime Scene Investigation Team in Fehmarn-Stadt.
Herr Hauptkommissar, is that really such a good idea?” Marowski asked. “This man just fell overboard. It was an accident.”
“An accident? Are you sure? I saw quite a lot of corpses during my career, Mr. Marowski. OK, this is the first corpse I see after it floated in the sea for some time, but it is not the first corpse I see with a smashed skull. We are going to call SpuSi from the city to collect the corpse and investigate it, and we are going to interrogate the crew of the ship Rudi Schlammkolk was sailing on as soon as the ship enters the harbour. We have to find out if this was a crime or indeed an accident. Marowski, you come with me to go to the harbour and inform when that ship arrives.” [1]
Marowski’s face showed a short grimace of fear. He followed Weber to one of the police cars and seated himself on the passenger side.

Weber left a team on the beach to guard the corpse unti the Crime Scene Investigation Team would arrive, and drove to the fisher harbour with Marowski.

While they drove to the harbour, Weber started to talk.

“Mr. Marowski,” he asked. “What was the reason why you became a policeman?”

Marowski wasn’t prepared for this question. Actually, he was quite shocked. He thought he could trace a kind of dissent in his boss’s voice, and didn’t know how to interpret that. He remained silent out of shock.

“Don’t you want to tell?” Weber asked. “That’s a pity. Well, then let me tell why I became a policeman. That is because I can’t stand injustice. Not at all. It is not because I am such a fan of maintaining the rules.No. I am not a rule nerd. But I hate injustice. And that’s why the rules are there: To prevent injustice. And the rules apply to everyone, from the King to the janitor. That is the most important principle behind the Eiffellandian Rechtsstaat. When a crime has been committed on this island, we have to solve it, even if our investigations irritate Max Schlammkolk. And indeed, also Max Schlammkolk has to stick to the rules. This is my attitude, and I expect this attitude also from my subordinates. We cannot close our eyes for the law violations and crimes committed by the Max Schlammkolks on this island. I demand you to understand that, and to act according to that principle as well. We will investigate what happened on that ship, whether Max Schlammkolk likes it or not.”


22 November 2017

The interrogations of the crew of Rudi Schlammkolk’s ship did not lead to any information. Nobody on the ship seemed to know what happened. At a certain moment, Rudi Schlammkolk did not show up for his shift, and his cabin was empty. Then he was reported missing.
The autopsy on Rudi’s body did reveal some things though. First of all that his lungs were not filled with water; he was already dead when he fell into the sea. Furthermore, his corpse showed signs of a fight before his death. The cause of death was a longitudinal impression fracture of his skull, destroying his brains. Furthermore, Rudi’s hair showed signs of long-lasting cocaine abuse, and his nasal bone had been destroyed by “cocaine sniffing rather than the fight at the end of his life”.

Weber drove to the fisher harbour again, to find a visibly irritated Max Schlammkolk there.

“Mr. Weber, what do you want now?” he asked. “You have already interrogated my sailors. They have already told you what they know.”
“I highly doubt that, Mr. Schlammkolk,” Weber said. “Rudi Schlammkolk was murdered.”
Max Schlammkolk frightened up. “How,” he asked.
“His skull was smashed,” Weber said, while noticing Max Schlammkolk’s nervous behaviour.
“But why do you think it was murder? Couldn’t it have been something that fell on his head?” Max Schlammkolk asked.
“No, because that would have led to a different injury,” Weber said.
Max Schlammkolk remained silent for a while. Then he asked: “Mr. Weber, shall I show you around my company for a moment?” Weber agreed. He was suspicious enough to consider Max Schlammkolk capable of mixing his body with fish destined to be canned, so he made sure that no chance to do so would emerge.

At the end of the tour, Max Schlammkolk said: “Mr. Weber, directly or indirectly, 30% of the people living in this part of Fehmarn depend on me and my company for their daily bread. It is essential that I and my people can do our work undisturbed. Damage done to this company will have an impact on this part of the island. Please take that into consideration during your investigations.”
“For me the most important thing is to solve a murder case, Mr. Schlammkolk. I will make sure that your company won’t suffer unnecessarily, but I have to do what I am doing to solve this murder,” Weber said.

Just before stepping into his car, Weber noticed that a ship was approaching the harbour. He decided to observe the ship being unloaded. He drove a route to loose any followers, then drove back to the harbour in such a way that he wouldn’t be seen by Max Schlammkolk or his men. Then he installed himself on the roof of one of the warehouses with his binoculars and his camera. It didn’t take him much time to discover that not only fish was unloaded from the ship. Also a kind of boxes. Contraband? Weber decided to have Schlammkolk and his employees investigated financially.


22 November 2017
Club of fraternity WSC Odysseus
Weissenfels, Eiffelland


Ludwig felt out of place here. He had become a member of WSC Odysseus as part of the family tradition, but he did not feel at home here at all. First of all, he would have preferred to have studied in Trier, like his friends Bastian Holzbrenner and Christoph von Weizenburg. But family tradition forced him to study in Weissenfels. That in itself was not a problem. Weissenfels was a nice city to live in as well. It was by far not a sleeping province town. Whatever happened in Trier, also happened in Weissenfels. And both Trier and Weissenfels were cities with many buildings from the 18th, 19th and first half 20th century, with the business districts outside the city centre.
No, Weissenfels itself was not the reason why Ludwig didn’t enjoy his study time. It was WSC Odysseus, one of the most conservative fraternities in the city that Ludwig had to join—also out of family tradition. All members of this club were descendants from noble families. Mostly from very conservative noble families. Ludwig immediately knew that he should not get out of the closet there, apart from the fact that he was still not officially out of the closet. His homosexuality was a public secret in the Trierer gay scene, and his friends from secondary school knew, but that was all.
In his first study year, he was too busy and he was mourning for Matthias. During his second study year, he started to go out in the gay scene. But not in Weissenfels. He was too afraid that somebody from Odysseus would see him. No, he took his well-maintained Borschel 964 and drove to Lübeck, Lörrach, Weimar, Heibronn, and sometimes further away to Ratzeburg or even Bremen. Often he had adventures in those cities, but nobody in the gay scenes there knew him as Prince Ludwig von Dietz‑Hadamar. He always used his incognito pass, on the name of Ludwig Schwarzbach.
Of course he also drove to Trier from time to time to visit his parents and his friends Bastian and Christoph, who lived together in an apartment in Trier – Prenzlauer Berg. Bastian and Christoph also sometimes visited him in Weissenfels.

Now he was in the club of his fraternity, together with some of the few friends he had there. It was a normal evening at the club: People drinking beer and liquors, bragging about whatever they thought they could brag about (especially women), placing well thought remarks about each other, sometimes people laughed heartily, sometimes a very serious discussion, sometimes a bit of romping, but never a real fight. That was against the rules of the club. Whatever was said to you, you were never allowed to start a physical fight. It was also considered a shame if you started fighting here, because it meant that you were run out of words to make your point, and it was considered behaviour of the lower classes of society.

When Ludwig wanted to enter the bathroom, he heard some strange sounds out of one of the small rooms that club members could use for dinners or other festivities with a small group. Mostly it was used by the study associations of the fraternity (members who studied the same thing, e.g. all the medical students), who organised small discussion events or dinners for themselves. But now something else was happening there. It sounded like somebody was bashed up, at least given the screams. Suddenly the screams were deadened. Ludwig still heard the victim screaming, but not so loud any more, as if his mouth was kept close. He also heard someone saying “yeah, admit it, this is what you like, you little chicken nugget”. Ludwig decided to open the door. It was locked. He ran downstairs to get the key of the door, ran back followed by some other members who were at the fraternity house, unlocked the door and opened it. He didn’t believe his eyes. Two guys were raping a third guy. More people entered the room, and also saw what was going on. They immediately recognised the victim: First-year student Lorenz von Buckow. They also recognised prominent fraternity member Johannes von Attersee (who was a nephew of the Bishop of Bremen) and quaestor secundus of the senate (second treasurer of the committee of the fraternity) Thomas von Bruchsal.

It took Ludwig some time to find his voice back. Then he screamed: “What are you doing?”
“We are just teaching this little gay fuchs here a lesson. He was looking at our dicks in the bathroom, and we caught him napping while kissing a guy in front of the Extrablatt last week,” Thomas said with a mean grin on his face.
“And that is a reason to rape him?!” Ludwig screamed. He started to boil for anger.
“Wait, you want to lecture us for doing it to a guy?” Johannes asked with a vilain grin on his face. “You, who visit the Lübecker gay scene under a false name?”
Now all the eyes were pointed at Ludwig.
“No, of course he never tells, but this is the real reason why he is always out of town on Saturday night. Ludwig von Dietz-Hadamar, Prince of Eiffelland, number six in the line of succession to the Eiffellandian Throne, has some desires that he wants to hide from the rest of the world. In order to satisfy those desires, he frequents the gay scene during the weekend. Luckily to him, he is a bit smarter than little Lorenz here, makes sure that he is not seen in the gay scene in Weissenfels, and goes to Lübeck instead. Maybe because of the sailors,” Johannes said with a very mean tone in his voice. “Unfortunately to him, he was seen there by some school friends of mine, who didn’t believe that his real name was Ludwig Schwarzbach.”
It was silent in the room, apart from Lorenz von Buckow’s sniffing. Everybody looked at Ludwig and listened to Johannes, who outed Ludwig before a crowd of ten people while standing with his trousers and pants on his ankles. Thomas had already pulled up his pants and trousers again, and Lorenz was also collecting his clothes, but Johannes didn’t even prepare to get dressed again.
“I see in your face that my friends saw it correctly, Ludwig. Gay, number six in the line of succession to the Throne of Eiffelland, and representant of a line of the Hadamar-Wittelsbach family which illegally obtained the Throne,” Johannes said.
“Uh, what?” Ludwig asked sharply. “What are you talking about? Albrecht von Dietz-Wittelsbach obtained the Throne by the will of King Philipp IV. King Lothar VII died without children and without a will, so it was the will of King Philipp IV that had to be followed.”
“You say that King Lothar VII died without children. Well, that is wrong. King Lothar was married, and had a son. And there is still a living descendant of that son of King Lothar.”
“And now you are saying that it is you? Or your father? Or your grandfather?” Ludwig shouted.
“No, it’s not me. It’s not my father, grandfather or any other member of my family, either. But it is a much worthier person to have on the Throne of Eiffelland than your father, who signed for the legalisation of homosexuality on the first day after his crowning,” Johannes said.
“Well, if that law had not been signed, you would not only have been guilty of rape now, but also of homosexual intercourse,” Ludwig said sharply.
“And you would have been in violence of the law as well. What a shame it would have been. A Prince of Eiffelland has to go to jail!” Johannes shouted. “Well, it is still a shame what you do, but at least you won’t go to prison nowadays, thanks to your spineless father who doesn’t want to defend basic rules of decency.”
“One of the biggest violations of the basic rules of decency has just been committed by you,” Ludwig said. “Or are you going to say that you raped Lorenz to teach him how bad homosexuality is?”
“Exactly,” Johannes said with an enormous evil grin. “You phrased it correctly.”
“And we would have done so to you as well, if we would have known two years ago that you were gay,” Thomas said.
“You wouldn’t have got a chance two years ago, and you won’t get a chance now, either,” Ludwig shouted angrily. “When needed, I take it up against the two of you at the same time.”
He looked around the room, and saw and felt the disgust in the eyes of the people watching the scene. He felt that this disgust was not only for Thomas and Johannes, but also for Lorenz and himself. He screamed with a cracking voice: “I take it up against all of you, when needed!” Then he continued to Lorenz with his normal soft voice: “Come Lorenz, I take you to the Universitätsklinikum.”
He took Lorenz, who had taken the opportunity to get dressed again, by the hand, and stepped out of the room. All his movements showed that he was boiling for anger. All the other guys made room for him.
“How primitive, Ludwig, challenging everyone for a fistfight,” Thomas shouted when Ludwig and Lorenz were halfway on the stairs.
“Fistfight? It would have been Taekwon-do from my side. You know that,” Ludwig shouted. “Furthermore, when people apply violence to me, I have the full right to apply violence as well, even according to the mores and rules of the fraternities. That’s why I said ‘when needed’.”
Then he and Lorenz walked further down the stairs. Suddenly somebody ran after them. “Ludwig, Lorenz, wait, I will accompany you,” he shouted. It was Jonathan von Walsrode, son of the Eiffellandian ambassador to Kashtan grandson of the Duke of Walsrode, second-year law student at the Robert Koch Universität Weissenfels.

“Outed by a guy with his pants on his ankles, who just raped another guy. I never thought that catastrophes could occur in such a ridiculous manner,” Ludwig said to Jonathan and Lorenz. Meanwhile, he had found his temper again. They were at the emergency department of the Universitätsklinikum Weissenfels. The Königlicher Garde had taken them there.
The first thing the surgeon, an assistant-doctor in education for traumatologist, ordered when he saw Lorenz’s black eye and heard Lorenz complaining about pain around the left eye and neck pain, was a CT scan. He also fixated Lorenz’s head and neck: “Better safe than sorry; the radiation burden is the smaller evil compared with a missed neck or skull fracture.” Now they were waiting for the results of the CT scan, while the surgeon was calling Lorenz’s parents.

At that moment, the curtain was opened carefully. Franz-Karl von Attersee, the older brother of Johannes von Attersee, the oldest son of the oldest son of the Duke of Attersee, praeses of Odysseus, came in and closed the curtains again. He clearly looked like somebody whose problems had grown above his head. His face was pale. He had a brother who had committed a serious crime, and he led a fraternity which was seriously in trouble.
“Hello Lorenz,” he said. “How is it now? What do the doctors say?”
At that moment, the curtain was opened and closed again. It was the surgeon.
“Hey, now a third face here,” he said. “Mr. Von Buckow, I have good news for you. There are no fractures in your skull, and there are no fractures in your neck vertebrae. We do think that you have some bone contusions, however, and we also think that you have some sprained neck muscles. That may explain your headache and your neck pain. We want to keep you here for a couple of days, however, for observation reasons.”
“That is fine, doctor,” Lorenz said.
“Good. Then I will ask around where there is room for you,” the surgeon said. “Your Highness, Mr. von Walsrode, maybe you can arrange for Mr. von Buckow’s underwear, toothbrush and whatever other things he will need the coming days?”
“I will take care of that,” Ludwig said. “Jonathan, will you stay with Lorenz?”
“OK,” Jonathan said.
“Wait, Ludwig, before you go, we need to discuss something,” Franz-Karl said. “I already suspended Johannes and Thomas from their memberships of the fraternity, effective immediately. Tomorrow I will start the procedure to cancel their memberships. There will be a special fraternity assemblee next week. But there is one thing that concerns me: The name of the fraternity. We must prevent this from becoming public. Therefore, I appeal on you three to not notify the police. We cannot wash our dirty laundry in public. This must remain inside the rooms of the fraternity.”
“And let Johannes and Thomas get away with it?” Ludwig asked. “Well, Lorenz will have the final call. My opinion is that rape is a too serious crime to cover up. Indeed, Johannes and Thomas must be expelled from the fraternity, but that can’t be the only punishment. We are dealing with laundry that has such terrible stains that we cannot wash it ourselves. Look at Lorenz. The surgeon was initially afraid of skull and vertebra fractures. Johannes and Thomas were merciless.”
“Now, merciless? Isn’t that a bit too harsh? In the end, there were only cuntusions and muscle sprains,” Franz-Karl said.
“Don’t talk this down, Franz-Karl,” Ludwig said sharply. “We are still talking about rape. Furthermore, that was only the result of the CT-scan of Lorenz’s head and neck. The doctor isn’t ready with his examinations yet. Indeed, the mores prescribe that everything that happens inside the club stays inside the club, but that mos was not introduced to cover up serious crimes! Justice must be done here, and that is more important than the reputation of the fraternity. Furthermore, I guarantee you that the boomerang will come back to us if we cover this up. Schau! will publish it on the front page in the largest letters possible.”
Schau! will publish nothing if you do what I tell you,” Franz-Karl said. He wanted to continue, but was interrupted by Jonathan.
“Franz-Karl, we are not going to cover your family’s ass. Johannes will go to jail, together with Thomas,” he said, almost screamed.
“Really? Well, fine. Go to the police if you want to. But then I will make sure that Schau! will publish about your homosexuality in the largest possible letters on the front page!”

At that moment, the curtain was opened in a very aggressive way. “Das hab’ich gehört!” Dr. Habil Gustav Graf Von Bernrode said sharply. His eyes sprew fire. “Wer hat das gesagt?I heard that. Who said that?
Ludwig, Jonathan and Lorenz pointed at Franz-Karl.
Du machst dich jetzt aus dem Staub und lässt dich hier nicht mehr blicken, oder ich lasse dich wegen Erpressung und Strafvereitelung einsperren!” Von Bernrode said sharply. You get the hell out of here and won’t show up here again, or I have you arrested for blackmail and obstruction of justice.
Franz-Karl hesitated. “Jetzt, hab’ich gesagt!” Von Bernrode shouted while grabbing Franz-Karl by his clothes and dragging him away from Lorenz’s bed. I said now!

Franz-Karl didn’t know how fast he had to get out of the emergency department. His running was more stumbling than running.

OOC: [1] SpuSi stands for Spurensicherung, the department that investigates a crime scene and takes everything with it that may help solving the crime.
 
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Rheinbund

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15 December 2017
Police headquarters Fehmarn-West
Westermarkelsdorf, Fehmarn, Eiffelland


Was zum Teufel redet dieser Idiot? Ich verstehe wirklich nur Bahnhof,” Weber said. What for the devil is this idiot saying? I can’t understand a word.
He was interrogating a man he had arrested in the fishing harbour of Westermarkelsdorf. To be precise at the terrains of the fishing company of Max Schlammkolk. The approval to raid and investigate Max Schlammkolk’s company didn’t come from Fehmarn, but from Aurich. The case of Rudi Schlammkolk’s murder was closed soon. Everybody covered each other, and the public prosecutor closed the case. Very dissatisfying for Weber, but he didn’t halt the investigations completely. Indeed, the murder of Rudi Schlammkolk would not be solved if nobody at the ship would open his mouth, but those strange boxes Weber saw being unloaded from the ship was enough reason to look further. He started a financial investigation, and found out that some people working for Max Schlammkolk, and also Max Schlammkolk himself, lived a wealthier life than they officially could afford. Fischereigewerbe Schlammkolk did not run well enough to give the financial room for an enormous villa in Fehmarn, a big beachhouse in Bad Hersfeld and a chalet in the most expensive skiing area of Retalia. Each house was permanently manned by a housekeeper, and each house had a Raimer limousine in the garage.
Weber had the feeling that he couldn’t trust anybody in Fehmarn with this information, so he discussed his findings with the Provinzkriminalamt (PKA) of Helgoland, and obtained a search warrant. In cooperation with the tax office and some people from the PKA, Weber and his team raided Fischerreigewerbe Schlammkolk and arrested everybody. Including a man who appeared to be from Gunnland. And that led to problems. Weber had learned English at secondary school, but had hardly used it after then. His English was quite rusty. It was enough to get along in Engellex, but it was by far not enough to make something from the English of a Gunnishman.

“Mr. Weber, maybe it is better to let us interrogate this man. We are used to Gunnish accents,” somebody from the PKA said in a friendly way. Weber happily handed over the task.


19 December 2017

“Mr. Weber, this was a major blow to drug traficking in the Long Sea, And we also captured a Gunnishman who can telll us some interesting information on Duncan McLeish,” Fritz Augstein from the PKA said. “How much do you like it here in Fehmarn?”
Weber told the truth and said that he did not really like it there.
“Shall I see if there is something free at the PKA in Aurich?” Augstein asked.


22 December 2017; 21:00
Motorway A3 Weissenfels-Trier


The A3 was a 1200 km long motorway that connected the Northern border with Lörrach in the South. Because it was lying in the middle of the country, it could be considered the backbone of Eiffelland. It was also the busiest road of Eiffelland, connecting Köln, Ingelheim, Trier and Weissenfels with each other and with Eiffelland’s biggest seaports Bremen and Lübeck. The complete route between Köln and Weissenfels was five lanes per direction; then the A3 continued with four lanes per direction to Lörrach, where it connected with the A2 to Bremen (also four lanes per direction). The A3 Köln-Weissenfels had a 130 km/h speed limit between 6am and 8pm.
At 9pm, the A3 wasn’t that busy any more. The speed limit wasn’t applicable any more, either. There was still traffic, but there was enough room for everyone on this “landing strip for an RRF Schwan”, like some people phrased it.
Prince Ludwig was one of the drivers on the A3 tonight. He was driving to Trier to celebrate Christmas with his parents. And maybe he could meet Christoph and Bastian as well, Litterally driving home for Christmas, although that was not the song that sounded out of the speakers of his Borschel. It was a song by Rosenstolz, a Trierer duo that had become popular over complete Eiffelland. Ludwig had loaded two CDs by this duo into the CD player. That would probably be enough for the 1.5 hour trip from Weissenfels to Trier.
The last month had been eventful. It started with Lorenz von Buckow’s rape. The culprits, Johannes von Attersee and Thomas von Bruchsal, were expelled from the fraternity. Against the wishes of the fraternity and the wishes of his parents, Lorenz reported the rape to the police, supported by Ludwig and Jonathan von Walsrode. But Johannes and Thomas were gone. Vanished. They left the fraternity soon after Ludwig, Lorenz and Jonathan. They did go to their rooms to collect things, but then vanished. The last sign of life was a large money withdrawal from their bank accounts at a cash machine. Nobody knew where they had gone. The whole thing hit the news, including Lorenz’s homosexuality. Schau! showed no mercy. Ludwig didn’t want to know what kind of Christmas Lorenz would have. Gay, and he ignored his parents’ order to not go to the police. Nobledom doesn’t wash its dirty laundry in public. Indeed, but what if the laundry smells so badly that you have to wash it in public? Lorenz felt too humiliated to let this pass, and it was clearly Ludwig’s opinion that a rape could not be dealt with behind closed doors.
Franz-Karl von Attersee tried to take revenge by expelling Lorenz from the fraternity, but Ludwig and Jonathan von Walsrode managed to prevent that by threatening to make that public as well.

But then one problem remained. What was the issue with Johnannes’s story that King Lothar had a son? Ludwig immediately wrote about this to his father, who would find out if that son really existed and if yes, what happened to him. Luckily, the fraternity seemed to have forgotten Johannes’s words about that.

And then there was another issue. Each year in the weekend before the Christmas holidays, a couple of fraternities gave a Christmas concert for which the revenues were donated to charity organisations. Of course the singers and musicians were amateurs, but they were good amateurs. Ludwig was a very good pianist and had a very beautiful tenor voice. Because he was the only one in the ensemble (consisting of only guys, because the fraternities involved only consisted of guys) who could reach the high note at the end of Minuit Chrétien, he sang that song partly solo. And he experienced a déjà vu when he saw that both the Gunnish Queen Julian and Jonathan von Walsrode showed signs of being in love with him because of this song. Three years ago, the same happened to Matthias von Luckenwalde. Now it were two people at the same time. And that while he was still not ready for a new relationship after Matthias. On the other hand, Jonathan was a very nice guy. Did he really want to risk to loose him while he was still trying to get over Matthias?
Both Julian and Jonathan walked to him after the concert. Julian was the first to reach him. She embraced him while saying that he sang beautifully. Ludwig felt very uneasy under Julian’s embracing, and he saw the sight of disappointment in Jonathan’s eyes. Immediately after Julian’s embracing, he whispered into Jonathan’s ear: “We have to talk. Let’s meet at Café Kempinski after the reception.”
Café Kempinski was a café that was part of a five-star hotel in Weissenfels. It was open until 2am, and it was a good place when you had to discuss some things discretely. That was the place where Ludwig told Jonathan that Julian was indeed in love with him but that that love was not reciprocal, that Ludwig was indeed gay, and that he liked Jonathan, but also that he did not feel good with a relationship yet because of Matthias. Jonathan understood the situation, but was clearly jealous towards Julian. Ludwig immediately said about that: “I’m afraid the only way to make her clear that I don’t want a relationship with her is by getting another relationship, but I think it is unwise to overhaste things because of that.”

Ludwig had the feeling that he had handled the situation correctly. The only thing he had to deal with, was finding out for himself if it was betrayal towards Matthias or not to get a new relationship. But was it betrayal, given the fact that he had slept with quite a lot of guys after Matthias? But maybe the fact that those were one-night-stands may make it different; a relationship would be something more serious.

While thinking about these issues, Ludwig drove to Trier, unaware of the little bomb that Schau! was preparing to drop.
 
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Rheinbund

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SPE headquarters
Trier, Eiffelland
24JAN2018


“This is stupid,” Rüdiger Zimmermann said.
Hans-Jochen Rudersbach, still the fraction leader of the SPE in the Staatstag, looked at the nephew of the highest general of Eiffelland. Four years ago, Rudersbach wanted to resign as political leader of the SPE, but nobody was capable or willing at that moment to take over. As a result, he remained the fraction leader until the next elections, giving room for other people to grow into the role of political leader of the SPE. During the years, Zimmermann emerged. At the party convention that decided on the election programme for the coming national elections, he was elected as the successor of Rudersbach as the political leader. He would become the new fraction leader of the SPE after the elections in April. Or maybe even the new Chancellor, although the chances looked bad for that. The polls indicated that the CDV would still become the largest fraction. Von Seydewitz was still on track to become Chancellor again, either by continuing the current coalition, or by forming a coalition with the Sociodemocrats.

Currently Zimmermann and Rudersbach were watching the press conference on television.

“Aschenbach just signed his letter of resignation,” Zimmermann continued. “And Möller as well. This press conference will drag even more people to these protest marches, and probably also more rioters.”

Zimmermann took a sip of his coffee. Then he continued.

“But maybe there is a way for us to gain from this. The hands of the CDV and the FDV are tied, because they are the Government. They cannot start the counterprotest march, because that would be called a government-orchestrated action by those far-right groups. But we can.”

Rudersbach looked up. “Brilliant!” he said. “Do it first thing tomorrow!”

Zimmermann smiled. “We already did. This afternoon. Probably Aschenbach hasn’t received that information yet.”


KPE heardquarters
Trier, Eiffellland
26JAN2018


Heinrich Liebknecht had a problem. He had been ordered by Ivar to disturb the far-right demonstration on Sunday. But how? He could not do it the way Ivar expected from him, at least not on behalf of the KPE. That would be the perfect occasion for the Government to forbid this party. It was not that he was without options, but a heroic appearance of the KPE as Saint George defeating the far‑right dragon would be out of the question. Not only because of legal problems, but also because the KPE was not the massive workers movement it wanted to be. The workers of Eiffelland voted SPE or CDV. The KPE was a party of idealists and highly educated leftwing radicals living in communes or squats.
There were three things that Liebknecht could do, and was doing. The first thing was starting legal proceedings against the approval for the far right protest march. The lawsuit took place on the same day that the approval was handed out, and the Judge read his verdict on the same day as well. The KPE lost, but took the credits for having tried something against this fascist march. Of course the judge was labelled a friend of the fascists, as well as Aschenbach.
The second thing was joining the counterprotest march through Trier‑Tiergarten. A large group of the KPE would join with an enormous lot of red flags. The effect would be that the KPE would hi‑jack the counterprotest march.
The leftwing radicals would do the dirty job. It would disturb the far right march, which would start from the Ostbahnhof and go through Friedrichshain.


Volksunion headquarters
Trier, Eiffelland
26JAN2018


“Of course we’ll be there,” Günther Ziesche, political leader of the Volksunion, said. “There is only one thing I’m irritated about. Why is it somebody from Bergenheim who organises this protest march, and not us? It’s not only the Government who slept during the Christmas coup, it’s also us oversleeping this refugee thing. OK, we did protest against it in the Staatstag, but this protest march should have been organised by us, not by a Bergenheimer. Not only the Government is sleeping, but we are sleeping as well. This has to change.”

He remained silent for some moments. Then he continued.

“The Volksunion will join the rightwing protest march. With banners. But we also have to do something with that other protest march. Patke, are there any people you can contact for disturbing it?”
“Yyyyyes, I have some. But they are young. Not older than 18. I don’t know what they are capable of in front of a cordon of police officers with helmet, shields and batons,” Patke said. “I would prefer to send in the former GEL‑members, but they will be in prison during the march.”
“Hhmmm… Let’s check with Stolzenau then,” Ziesche said. He would also check with the group around Lothar’s descendant, but Patke, his second‑in‑command, wouldn’t need to know that.
Originally, the Duke of Stolzenau closely cooperated with Lothar’s descendant, but the relations between them became more business‑like when Stolzenau became big in organised crime. Ziesche knew about that. He also knew that he was only officially the head of the right‑wing movement in Eiffelland. In reality, Lothar’s descendant and the Duke of Stolzenau called the shots, although the Duke of Stolzenau lost more and more the interest in the far‑right movement.


Trier, Eiffelland
28JAN2018
13:00


After last Wednesday’s press conference of Aschenbach and Möller, the Government had no other choice than showing up with a large police force. The tone of that press conference should have been “we will facilitate the protest marches, but we call upon the organisers to contact us”. But what had been done, had been done. Now there was no way back. All days‑off had been revoked. The police would be assisted by the ASdS (Abteilung Sondereinsätze of the Staatsschutz) and a regiment of the 1st Army (the professional army). The underground and the S‑Bahn on and within the Hundekopf (the area of the city centre that was surrounded by a ring of railways used by the S‑Bahn and the railway company) had been stopped, meaning that the trains contiued to run but didn’t stop at the stations on and within the Hundekopf. The roads to the centre had been blocked. The only way to get inside the Hundekopf and at the protest marches was by using the trains going from outside Trier to the stations Zoologischer Garten and Ostbahnhof. Everybody who used those trains, had to show their identity papers. People without identity papers were refused access to the trains. All the identity papers were photographed. Later on, it would be clear who was at the protest march. People on certain lists were arrested to be released after the protest marches were over. Regular trains that had to pass through Trier rode over the Hundekopf but didn’t stop.

The marches were not allowed to start before 13:00, because of people attending mass between 11:00 and 12:00. The authorities had considered blocking off the city already the day before, but that idea was abandoned; people would not have had an understanding for such a measure. There was a night bus system in Trier that rode every night, and the undergrounds and S‑Bahnen usually upheld a 20 minutes service on Friday and Saturday night until the regular services started again. But on the night before the protest marches, the night services stopped at 5am. The pubs and clubs, normally not limited in their opening hours, were ordered to close at 4am. A group of bar- and clubowners, among them the owners of all the gay bars and clubs, had decided to prepare a lawsuit against the organisers of the rightwing protest march in order to demand a compensation for the lost revenues. This would mean that Anton Hammelsprung would not be allowed to leave Eiffelland on the next day.

A total of 20,000 policemen, ASdS-men and (mainly) soldiers were present in the city to maintain order. They would use both VANs and helicopters to move around. Now the fact that the city consisted of many wide boulevards paid off: Helicopters could manoeuvre in the city without any problems.


Kanzleramt
Trier, Eiffelland
28JAN2018
20:00


Verdammte Scheisse,” Chancellor Matthias Graf von Seydewitz said while looking at the television, together with his Cabinet, the City Council of Trier, the police director of Trier and the board of the Staatsschutz.
After a while, Alfred Rorschach, Leitender Polizeidirektor of Trier, said: “Tiergarten is quiet now, but the fightings around that squat in Frdierichshain are still ongoing.”

What many people feared, from the moment that the far‑right protest march was announced, happened. The marches were attacked. The far‑right march by far‑left groups, the march against the far‑right march by far‑right groups. The police estimated that there were about 800 rioters who attacked the protest marches. There were even counterattackers; rightwing radicals attacked the leftwing radicals attacking the far-right march, and leftwing radicals attacked the rightwing radicals attacking the counterprotest march. About 200 people had been arrested up to now. About 100 people had been taken to hospital; 10 of them were severely injured. Two people had died. These numbers were expected to rise, because the riots around the squat in Friedrichshain were still going on.

All in all, everything had gone quite well. The damage was not really bad. The first fights did not last long; they were only severe. That was the moment that most arrestments took place and the most people were injured. After then, it took quite some time before the city became calm again, but that was due to only small riots which could be calmed down quickly. The problem was, however, that many camera teams focused on the riots, and how the police and soldiers handled the riots. And indeed, sometimes the police and the soldiers reacted harsher than required.

And the riots around the squat in Friedrichshain were also a problem. This city quarter used to be quite problematic because of bad housing, drugs problems and squatting, but during the last ten years the houses had been overhauled and the crime problem had been solved. There was only one squat left, and exactly that squat was in the focus of a group of rightwing radicals now. While the police were trying to relieve the squat, they were attacked by the squatters. So now the police were facing two adversaries at the same time.


Friedrichshain, Trier, Eiffelland
28JAN2018
22:00


The ASdS and the army had to intervene, but now the situation was under control. The army arrested the rightwing radicals while the ASdS entered the building through the roof. Everyone in the squat was arrested. Also the rightwing radicals attacking the squat were arrested. Now there were 300 prisoners, and 130 injured people. The police were amazed about one thing: The young age of the rightwing radicals was extraordinary low. They were almost all around 18. This would become something to investigate.
 

Rheinbund

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Flughafen Trier-Schönefeld
29JAN2018
09:00


“Reisepass bidde — Danke — Biddeschön, jute Reise — Reisepass bidde — Danke — Biddeschön, jute Reise — Reisepass bidde — Danke — Biddeschön, jute Reise …”

The customs‑officer responsible for checking the passports of the outgoing passengers was clearly from Trier, given his accent. As a result, “bitte” became “bidde” and “gut” became “jut”. What he was saying, was “Passport please — Thank you — Here you are, have a safe trip”, and in official German (which was also the German taught at the Eiffellandians schools) he should have said “Reisepass bitte — Danke — Bitteschön, gute Reise”.

“Reisepass bidde — Passeport síl vous plaît — Passport please — Thank you — Here you are, have a safe trip — Reisepass bidde — Danke — Biddeschön, jute Reise …”

This continued until it was Anton Hammelsprung’s turn. Upon the “Reisepass bidde”, he shifted his passport to the customs‑officer, who said “Danke”. But then it was not the “Biddeschön, jute Reise” he heard. The customs‑officer took the telephone, and then he asked a colleague to come over. A few seconds later, a door was opened, and another customs‑officer came out. He asked Hammelsprung to follow him.
In a separate room, Hammelsprung was told that he had been sued by a group of pub and club owners. The customs‑officer apologized and said that Hammelsprung was not allowed to leave the country because of the trial.

The Volksunion helped him with finding a lawyer, and paid the costs. The lawyer was very positive about the trial: “This is just childish behaviour. Those pubs normally close around 6am; most clients leave between 4 and 5am, it is not that much they usually earn between 4 and 6. They’re gonna loose massively, and I will demand a compensation of 5000 Eiffelland Marks for your costs plus your daily gross salary for each day that you can’t work. You’ll be home by the end of the week, maybe even sooner.”

OOC: In real life, the Germans describe the way the customs‑officer talks as “berlinern”, i.e. talking with a Berliner accent.
 

Rheinbund

Established Nation
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
11,808
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Capital
Fehrbellin
8 January 2018
Weissenfels, Eiffelland


This is not the kind of publicity you need when you want to declare your love to a guy, Ludwig thought desparately when looking at the article in Schau! that his father’s office had mailed him. How in Heaven’s name would he explain this to Jonathan? He was definitely not in love with Queen Julian, but he understood why Schau! had jumped to its conclusion. He knew that he was nicked the “angel‑prince” because of his looks, and he also knew that he had disappointed a lot of girls in his life. For the remainder, however, the only things that were true in that article in Schau! were the embracings by Julian. He did regularly visit Schloss Klippenstein, but for the remainder the complete article was a lie. He and Queen Julian did not have a love-affair, and his parents had never been desparate at the thought that he was gay. The fact that he had four definitely straight brothers, of which two already had children, may have played an important role in the fact that his parents accepted his homosexuality, but nevertheless. What was he going to tell Jonathan? And more importantly, what was he going to tell Queen Julian?

Ludwig’s father had decided to ignore the article. The people who believed everything written in Schau! would not believe it anyway if the Royal Family would officially deny the relationship, and Schau! would reply with an even more impertinent article, or send photographers after Ludwig and Queen Julian permanently in the hope that they could back up their claims with more direct evidence (although there was a risk that the photographers going after Queen Julian would eventually meet a Gunnishman who preferred to solve disputes in other ways than with words). Of course a statement would follow later on, when Schau! would continue publishing articles about Ludwig and Julian, but then it would become a joint statement by Schloss Charlottenburg and Schloss Klippenstein.


Trier, Eiffelland

The first week of January was always a bit of strange. It was always a slow week. People had to start up again from two weeks of Christmas and New Year parties. At the Universities, the mid-year exams started. They would last three weeks, after which there was a one-week holiday so that the university teachers could check the exams. Then the second semester of the year would start.

But one thing hadn’t stopped. The special task force of the Staatsschutz that had been formed immediately after Ludwig notified his father about what Johannes von Attersee had said about a possible descendant of King Lothar. Who was this man? How was it possible that Johannes von Attersee knew about him?
In any case, it was a nice little bomb that this young man dropped. Or a couple of nice little bombs. One of those nice little bombs had already been defused. The archives appeared to indeed contain a marriage certificate of at that time still Prince Lothar VII with a certain Lisa Egonstochter, born 7 May 1738. The two married in 1754, but that was in a time when people were considered adults at a very much younger age than nowadays. This marriage was a mésaillance of biblical proportions: Egon Martinssohn, Lisa’s father, was one of the horse grooms in the King’s stables, and Lisa worked in the garden of Charlottenburg (which was a summer palace at that time) as a flower girl.
In the 18th century, the phenomenon “last name” was already widespread in the kingdoms and duchies preceding present-day Eiffelland, but still not legally regulated. Most families had family names, but people in the very lowest social classes (e.g. tenants, wandering artists, gardeners, kitchen servants) were named XXX YYY’s son or XXX YYY’s daughter, so in the case of Lisa and her father Lisa Egonstochter (Lisa Egon’s daughter) and Egon Martinssohn (Egon Martin’s son).
The archives also showed the reaction of King Philipp IV, Prince Lothar’s father and at that time reigning King of Eiffelland. Egon Martinssohn, his wife and all their children were fired, banned from the court and deported to the Harz. The marriage was annulled, also before the Church; the archives did not tell how the King managed to convince the Priest to annul the marriage. Furthermore, there were several documents, among which King Philipp’s will, that excluded the children of King Lothar VII and Lisa Egonstochter from the right to inherit the throne or any property of the Royal Family. And finally, King Philipp’s will clearly made Duke Albrecht von Dietz, the son of King Philipp’s daughter, heir to the Throne of Eiffelland, and to all Royal Properties. This will could only have been overruled by a will of King Lothar VII, but there was no will of King Lothar VII.
The archives also mentioned what happened to Lisa Egonstochter: She died while giving birth to her son; the archives did not mention who the child’s father was. The archives did mention what the son did: He married and got children. And those children married and got children as well. All the descendants of Lisa Egonstochter’s son were tracked, as far as possible with 18th century archives. Much of those archives fell victim to wars, so not everything could be traced back. But the line of the oldest grandson of Lisa Egonstochter could. Apparently this line managed to make a career: One of the descendants had become a diamond cutter, and, therefore, adopted the family name Schleifer when family names became compulsory for everyone. His son became a diamond cutter as well, and also his grandson. And this grandson moved to Retalia, at that time still called Nichtstein. Government officials were trying to get approval from the Retalian authorities to follow the trace into their country.
Also the traces of Johannes von Attersee and Thomas von Bruchsal were followed. But that was more difficult.
The Von Attersee family was already a bit suspect. Ernst-Casimir von Attersee was Bishop in Bremen; he was a very conservative man. The whole family was very conservative, although Johannes was the only one who appeared to be violent. The family, descending from the Serenien Princess Elisabeth, was also known to support Emmeline de Valvoisette, one of the claimants of the Serenien Throne. But nobody in the Von Attersee family knew where Johannes had gone to.
Thomas von Bruchsal’s father, Karl Freiherr von Bruchsal, lawyer in Marburg, didn’t know anything about his son’s whereabouts, either. His professional background as a lawyer doing mainly penal law cases prevented him from being shocked about his son’s behaviour, but he was definitely not a supporter of far right ideas. His younger son, who also studied law in Weissenfels and was also a member of WSC Odysseus, didn’t know anything about Thomas, either. Also the Von Bruchsal family was rather conservative, but they definitely rejected violence, although they were prepared to defend all kinds of criminals before court.


29 January 2018
Trier, Eiffelland


“We know three persons who could stand up as Lothar’s descendant,” Oliver Landauer said. He was as head of the foreign department of the Staatsschutz in a meeting with King Albrecht, Chancellor Von Seydewitz, Vice-Chancellor Kögler, the head of the Staatsschutz Karl-Heinz Farnbach and head of the department for far‑right radicalism of the Staatsschutz Ernst Bartsch. “They are father, son and grandson. The father can be ruled out: He is 78 years old and suffers from far‑advanced Alzheimer’s disease. It remains to be seen if he still knows who he is. The son is Martinus Schleifer, born on 23 March 1964. Like all his ancestors from the end of the 18th century onwards, he is a jeweller and diamond‑cutter. He lives in Altburg. The grandson is Egon schleifer, born 23 July 1990, also jeweller and diamond‑cutter. He works in his father’s jewelry, is married and has a three year old son, Ansgar. His wife is pregnant with their second child.”
“How do you know that these are the people we are looking for?” King Albrecht asked.
“There are quite some Schleifers in Retalia who are at least descendants of Lisa Egonstochter, and maybe also of King Lothar. But these three, or four if you take Ansgar into account as well, descend from Lisa Egonstochter’s oldest grandson, then the oldest son of this oldest grandson, then again the oldest son etc. etc. up to now. They can claim to be the direct descendants of Lisa Egonstochter, and if Lisa’s son is indeed the child of King Lothar, also of King Lothar,” Landauer said.
“Why do you say ‘if Lisa’s son is indeed the child of King Lother’?”, King Albrecht asked. “Is there any evidence that Lisa slept with somebody else than King Lothar?”
“No, but we can’t rule it out. The only way to know it for sure is by means of a genetic test,” Farnbach said.
“A genetic test? Are you sure? It can’t be different that in those 250 years the genes have been so mixed up that a consanguinity between the Schleifers and King Lothar is impossible to show,” Von Seydewitz said.
“Not completely, Herr Kanzler,” Farnbach said. “As you know, the presence or absence of the Y‑chromosome determines if the embryo becomes a boy or a girl. This Y‑chromosome is a genetic constant throughout history and hardly changes. We could determine if Ansgar’s Y‑chromosome is the same as King Lothar’s Y‑chromosome. If yes, he is a descendant of King Lothar. The same to Martinus and Egon.”
“But eh, do we want to know if they are descendants of King Lothar?” Kögler asked. “Wouldn’t it make things more complicated if there is proof that that they descend from King Lothar?”
“On the one hand, yes. On the other hand, it would clear the question once and for all if it becomes clear that they do not,” Von Seydewitz said. “But this is theoretical, anyway. It will be tricky to get genetic material from the Schleifers, and maybe a bit problematic to get it from King Lothar.”
“For the Schleifers, I agree. For King Lothar, it would not be that difficult. The Royal Family does not descend from King Lothar, but it does descend in male lineage from an ancestor of King Lothar. The Y‑chromosome will be the same, and that is the only chromosome we need,” Bartsch said. Unless there is somebody in the line who was fathered by an unofficial lover instead of the official husband, he thought, but I think it will be bad for my career if I say that loudly.
“In any case, I don’t think we can win anything if we perform a genetic test,” the King said, “apart from the fact that we may be a bit more secure about our position in this matter. More importantly, did King Lothar have a will? If yes, where is it? Officially, he died without a will. Furthermore, we didn’t find anything in our archives that could point at the existence of a will of King Lothar.”
“To be honest, I don’t think there is. Maybe there was a will once, but then it is strange that it was not made public. Maybe because people who wanted Duke Albrecht on the Throne hode it from the public, but in that case I would have burned it,” Von Seydewitz said.
“What if the notary didn’t dare to mention it?” Farnbach asked. “Then in theory, that will could still exist. That notary will not have destroyed it, but will have kept it. What did his successor do with it? And the successor of his successor? And the successor of that successor? Etc. etc. I am afraid that we have to take into account that this document can exist. We will have to develop a strategy for the case that it shows up. We have to make sure that we can demask it as a falcification. Or we have to track it down and destroy it before it shows up. But I consider that impossible. We would look for a doument that was created and put into a safe 250 years ago. We can investigate who was active as a notary in Trier during King Lothar’s reign, but then we also have to find out what happened to all those notary offices. How many notaries will there have been? 20? 30? 50? Maybe a notary office was closed down at a certain moment. What happened to the documents then? Did somebody take them with them? It could be everywhere now.”

Everybody remained silent for a moment.

Then Von Seydewitz said: “OK. Let’s concentrate on the Schleifers. Let’s see if we can survey them. In Retalia, but especially when they are in Eiffelland. Let’s also make sure that we follow them whereever they go.”
He looked around the table. Some of the people wouldn’t be here any more in 3 to 4 months. Farnbach would retire soon, and Eiffelland would have a different coalition after the coming national elections. The CDV and the FDV lost their majority in the Staatsrat, so the next coalition would be a different one. Kögler would disappear, and the SPE was stricter in following the rules. Maybe even Von Seydewitz’s own position was at stake.


30 January 2018
Landeck, Eiffelland


Landeck was one of the ski‑resorts in the mountains of Eiffelland. The city had 25,000 inhabitants, but it was large in the sense of city area. It was more a collection of villages along a road than a city; the gaps between the villages were filled with hotels, bars and clubs. From one side of the road through the city to the other side was 20 kilometers. This city was always busy during the winter months, but now it was really busy. The week after the midyear exams at the universities and the other higher education institutes was always a week without classes, so that the teachers could check the exams. The students massively went to the mountains in Northern Eiffelland for skiing during that week.
Also Prince Ludwig. His fraternity traditionally went to a village 20 km away from Landeck, but because his friends Christoph von Wetzenburg and Bastian Holzbrenner were in Landeck, he had decided to visit them and go out with them in Landeck.
In one of the cocktail bars, they met some guys from Gunnland, and had a good time with them. At a certain moment, one of the Gunnish order whiskys for the group and said: “You know, in Gunnland, you are only considered a man if you drink whisky. Wine and beer is for pussies, whisky is for men. Normally the quality of the whiskys served abroad are not that good, but here they have a very good whisky. Let’s switch to the manly drinks.”
“Well, eh, I still have to drive back to my hotel,” Ludwig said.
“Ah, come on, your friends won’t bother if you sleep in their room. Besides, you’ve been drinking diet cokes all night, one whisky won’t harm,” the Gunnishman said. And so they toasted with whisky and took a nip.
But Christoph, who took whisky for the first time in his life, drank a bit too fast, so the whisky burned in his oesophagus. His eyes almost rolled out of his head. Then his face turned red. With his 1.78 meters height, tendinous body and relatively high voice, he already appeared quite delicate compared with Ludwig and Bastian, who were both 1.86 meters tall (and also tendinous), and the three Gunnish guys, who were quite musculous, but now he seemed even more delicate, “Meine Fresse, wie kann’s sein dass ein solcher hochzerbrennlicher chemischer Substanz für menschliche Verzehrung genehmigt ist?” he said with a frightened tone in his voice.
The Gunnishmen laughed heartily, but they also made clear that they didn’t understand what Christoph just said.
“Well, I was wondering how it can be that such a highly inflammable chemical substance is allowed for human consumption. My goodness, a car engine can run on it!” Christoph replied.
“This is indeed a very good whisky, but I must also say that you impose quite harsh challenges upon yourselves in order to prove your manliness,” Ludwig said. Luckily for him, he had already drank whisky once, so he understood that you need to nip it, not drink it.
“Well, if you have to drink this in order to prove your manliness, then from now on I’m a male!” Christoph said. Then he realised that he had been quite rude. He apologised, and said that it was his first time to drink whisky.
It was also the first time for Bastian, but he drank the whisky not as fast as Christoph did, so the results were less severe in his case.
“My goodness, you Southerners are really a bunch of pussies,” the Gunnishmen laughed.
“Ever been on an Eiffellandian motorway, my friend?” Ludwig asked ironicly, referring to the fact that there are no speed limits on most Eiffellandian motorways.

A few hours later, Ludwig walked to his car. After the whisky, he had switched back to diet sodas and mineral water, so the alcohol was out of his body. Before stepping into his car, he checked his mobile and saw a couple of desparate SMS messages from Jonathan von Walsrode. He immediately felt sorry. He texted “Sorry, was in Landeck with friends. Back in 30min.”

Christoph and Bastian went to their hotel room as well. When they arrived there, Bastian took Christoph in his arms and grinned: “In the bar I couldn’t comfort you because of that whisky-attack, so let me do it now.”
Christoph wrapped his arms around Bastian’s neck, smiled and said: “Haha, one thing I know for sure: No more whisky for me.”
“Haha, come here,” Bastian grinned, and then the wo guys started to kiss each other passionately.

Ludwig and Jonathan had had quite an argument about the article in Schau! before the exams started, and also after the exams. They had avoided each other while skiing, which had made Ludwig sad. Now it appeared that Jonathan had been looking for him. Desparately looking for him. Ludwig drove to his hotel at a higher speed than allowed. There he found Jonathan sitting on the step before the hotel door. He was drunk, and cried.
“I can’t stand this situation with you and Julian,” he said. “I can’t stand the idea of you making love to her, and I don’t know what to believe.”
“Come, let’s go inside,” Ludwig said while putting an arm on his shoulder. He opened the hotel door and got in while helping Jonathan. After having closed the hotel door, he embraced Jonathan.
“Please Jonathan, I already told you what kind of magazine Schau! is. They don’t verify what they want to publish, as soon as it sells. The only thing they are doing, is wrting what their public wants to read, even if it’s a lie. You shouldn’t believe Schau!, you must believe me. Julian is a friend, she is not my girlfriend. She can’t be my girlfriend, because I don’t fall for girls. You have to believe me, she is not your competitor,” Ludwig said.
“But why did Schau! publish that article?” Jonathan cried. “That must have been based on something.”
“The only thing they base it on, is two friendlike embracings, that’s all they at Schau! need to jump to conclusions and write a juicy story,” Ludwig said. “Believe me, it’s not Julian I want, it’s you.” Then he gave Jonathan a kiss on the ear.
Now Jonathan really started to cry. Ludwig fondled him over his hair and said: “Don’t worry, everything will be all right.”
A few moments later, Jonathan said: “Ludwig … I have to vomit!”
Ludwig immediately led Jonathan to the toilet and assisted him.


2 February 2018
Innsbruck, Eiffelland


It was Jonathan’s idea to go out together somewhere else than the skiing area. When Ludwig proposed to go to Innsbruck, he agreed. Ludwig arranged a hotel room for two nights. Both brought their rented skis back, packed their bags and went to Innsbruck to go out there. The city appeared to have a large gay disco, so that was where they ended up. They danced, and danced, and danced on the trance music coming out of the boxes. While “But let me tell you now / But let me tell you now / But let me tell you now / You´ve gotta hold that sucker down” blasted over the dance floor, they both took their shirts off. That was something Ludwig did for the first time in his life, taking off his shirt in a club, but it was also the first time in his life that he danced so intensely that he was feeling extremely hot and was sweating everywhere.
It was already 5am when “Had a part-time love but I never fell completely / When you touch me there, ooh you get me reelin', yes you do” sounded through the club. Ludwig and Jonathan went to the bar for a drink. When “If I can't have you, I don't want nobody baby / Girl it's got be you, I don't need no substitute / I need the real thing (Real thing)” sounded out of the boxes, Ludwig and Jonathan embraced each other and started to kiss passionately. One hour later, they were in their hotel room. They shifted the two beds against each other, undressed each other in an extremely fast pace and started to passionately make love.


3 February 2018
Stolzenau Castle
Stolzenau, Eiffelland


Martinus Schleifer was sitting in a chair. He was wearing a ring with a large diamond. All the guests in the room kneeled before him and kissed the diamond. The Duke of Stolzenau had been the first one, then his son followed, and after him Franz-Joseph Herzog von Attersee with his son Franz‑Ferdinand and his grandson Franz-Karl, and after them other people. Also Johannes von Attersee and Thomas von Bruchsal were here. Nobody except Johannes and Thomas knew that Johannes had talked about Lothar’s descendant.
The Duke of Stolzenau had managed to collect a substantial amount of money earned from his criminal affairs. Meanwhile, he was withdrawing from the drugs market but increasing his activities in the human traficking market. He had some principal problems with drug addiction ,but now scrupules about human traficking; he considered the traficked humans inferior to himself anyway.

After the cermony, the meeting started. Stolzenau took the floor.

“Gentlemen, a new era is arriving. The Government’s not-reaction to the Kadikistani intervention in Crotobaltislavonia, Von Seydewitz’s decision to take up those 50,000 refugees, but especially last week’s March on Trier, have awakened the right and just patriotic feelings among the Eiffellandians. This is the moment that we have to push through. With propaganda, but also with more protest actions. This is what we will do.”


OOC: The song text are from:

You must be registered for see medias
You must be registered for see medias

Given the fact that we RP the tech level from 1998-2002, I presumed that I could also RP 1990s music in a club.
 

Rheinbund

Established Nation
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
11,808
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Capital
Fehrbellin
5 March 2018
Weissenfels, Eiffelland


“Sometimes I really ask myself why I’m still here,” Ludwig said to his friends from the fraternity. They were leaving the club of WSC Odysseus, together with some other friends, after a general meeting of the fraternity. “My goodness, what a bunch of narrow‑minded bigots there inside. Why in Heaven’s name did I leave Trier to study in Weissenfels? My friends are almost all in Trier!”
“Tradition, maybe? All the nobles study in Weissenfels,” Florian von Seydewitz, son of the Chancellor and a good friend of Ludwig, smirked.
“I know a noble guy who stayed in Trier though,” Ludwig said. “At least he doesn’t have to deal with a fraternity filled with far‑right bigots.”
“Hey hey, we are not all far‑right bigots. That proposal to ban gays from Odysseus was defeated. OK, the numbers were close, but the majority was against. It is only problematic that the current committee is so narrow‑minded, but we’ll get a new committee in October anyway,” Florian von Seydewitz said. “With a bit of luck, some capable people. And if Franz-Karl proposes some far‑right bigots again, we’ll see that we can form an alternative candidate‑committee. … Well, eh, maybe I’m going to do that anyway.”
“Really?” the others asked surprised.
“Why not? I need to practice a bit for the Chancellorship in 25 years,” Florian grinned.

Ludwig and Jonathan stayed behind when all the others cycled home, and continued to chat a bit.
“You shouldn’t be too harsh on Weissenfels, Ludwig. The city is nice. The only wrong decision we made, was becoming members of Odysseus. That blocks other possibilities we could have here. But on the other hand, only God knows if we would have met each other,” Jonathan said.
Ludwig remained silent for a few moments. Then he said: “I need fresh air after this general meeting. Let’s get out of town this weekend.”
“Where do you want to go?” Jonathan asked.
“Far away. First I thought of Dulwich, but we won’t be able to arrange the tickets and the visa on time. Let’s go to Eiffelland’s northernmost metropolis: Köln,” Ludwig said.


7 March 2018
Trier, Eiffelland


Prenzlauer Berg is a quarter of Trier northeast of the city centre. It is a quarter where many students live, but also a quarter with many young families and many young bachelors. The education level is generally high: Most people have a higher education degree or are obtaining one. It is also a quarter where many gays live, because of a concentration of gay bars and clubs in Prenzlauer Berg.
This is the city quarter where Bastian Holzbrenner grew up, and where he currently lives, together with his boyfriend Christoph von Weizenburg. They fell in love with each other seven years ago, but their start was a bad one. While Christoph fought his father and the far‑right movement as an unofficial spy for the Staatsschutz, Bastian was beaten up by the henchmen of Christoph’s father and had to spend a year in hospital and a physical rehabilitation centre because of that. Now they live together and are still happily in love with each other, although initially the contrast between the two guys was large. Bastian was a left-wing antifascist leaning quite far to the left at the time they fell in love; Christoph was the son of a wealthy man owning a large transport company and the descendant of a family involved in the far right scene.
Meanwhile, both had compromised on their political views, so more or less they had turned into sociodemocrats. Bastian had managed to push through a large part of his environmental ideas, because of which both guys are vegetarians. They are also very preoccupied with their healths, because of which they are very precise on what they eat and drink, and go to the gym three times a week. Christoph also goes to the mountaineering club once a week.
When Christoph’s father was convicted six years ago, his complete fortune of 100 million Eiffelland Mark was seized, except for one million Mark for Christoph and one million Mark for his sister. Christoph and Bastian use that money prudently. They own the apartment they live in (a simple two‑bedroom apartment with car garage, bought from Christoph’s money), have a 15-year-old small car, go out every weekend, wear trendy clothes and go on a holiday twice a year, but they also both have jobs besides their studies. Both guys followed their passions in their study choices: Christoph studies electronics at the Technische Universität Trier, and Bastian studies informatics at the Universität der Stadt Trier.
Bastian is also a well‑known figure in the hackers scene, at least by his nickname. He managed to crack quite a lot of secured networks, and he still does. He is a bonafide hacker though. As soon as he cracks a network, he informs its owner about the leak. He is not in the hackers scene for earning money by blackmailing people, causing harm or stealing documents. He is in the hackers scene for testing networks and making security measures against malafide hackers better.
He carries out his hacking actions at home. He has a very powerful computer for that. Well, actually, a set of computers. Together with Christoph, he designed and built a computer network in their apartment. In the second bedroom, there is a large table with five computers on it. One of those five computers serves as the server; it is also the computer where Bastian can decide to send a certain task to one of the other four computers in the room. Of course, those computers had not been bought in a computer shop; they had been carefully built up by Christoph and Bastian. They bought all the parts based on the best matches between processor, main board, hard disk, floppy drive, CD‑RW drive, graphical card and so on, and built them together. The result was five superfast computers which formed a superfast supercomputer with five screens, five keyboards and five mice together. When it was finished, Christoph said to Bastian: “I think we can consider this our first child.” There is a problem with this supercomputer though: According to Christoph’s calculations, running the supercomputer at the same time as the dishwasher and the washing machine will blow up the main fuse. They have to be careful with switching on energy‑intensive devices when the supercomputer is running. But that is something they consider part of the fun.

The universities in Eiffelland have the policy to invite students with bad results over a longer period of time to the faculty for a discussion on their study results. Also Bastian received such a letter. He didn’t understand why, however; his study results were good. He had an average of 2.2 on a scale from 1 to 6 where 1 is perfect and 6 is very bad. He called the faculty, because he thought it was a mistake, but it was told to him that it was not a mistake. So Bastian went to the faculty to clear things.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Holzbrenner,” the study advisor said. “Come in. I’ll get myself a coffee, do you want a coffee as well?”
“No thank you, but a glass of water would be good,” Bastian said.

“OK, I will get one,” the study advisor said. She left the room and closed the door. Bastian stayed seated. He was really wondering. Had his results been exchanged with the results of someone else?
A few minutes later, the door was opened again. It was not the study advisor, however, but a man in a wheelchair who came in.
“Bastian Holzbrenner,” the man said while wheeling in. He closed the door, and continued: “A member of some obscure far left group as an adolescent, luckily not any more. Known to us for some strange actions against far right institutions. On the internet known as Snowstorm228, with a large record of spectacular hacks.”
The man took a pause. Then he continued.
“You don’t know me, but I do know you,” he said. “At least I know who you are.”
“How do you know who I am?” Bastian asked.
“It is my job to know,” the main said. “By the way, we shared the same fate in our lives. But I was not so lucky as you were. You got out of your wheelchair, and nowadays nobody can see that you were ever in it. I am confined to it for the rest of my life. I was hit by a car and broke my back. Also the spinal cord was through. Meanwhile, we know who did it. It wasn’t an accident, but it was a Gunnish criminal.” The man didn’t say that there was an emphasis on “was”.
Bastian was a bit confused. Who was this man, and who was this “we” he referred to?
“My name is Ferdinand Strauss. I work for the Abteilung Computer und Internet of the Staatsschutz. I was also involved in the case of you and your boyfriend seven years ago. I have great respect for your boyfriend, by the way. He may not appear like a typical hero, but he is a hero. I know that he is very afraid of physical violence, he also looks quite fragile, but he took it up against the most violent group of people in Eiffelland by using the skills he excelled in.”
“Thank you. Indeed, he is a very special guy,” Bastian said. “That’s why I’m still in love with him.” He also knew that Christoph could be very fearful from time to time. It was a miracle that he felt safe on a mountain wall.
Strauss took a package out of his pocket. It was a package of nicotine gum. He used to be a chain smoker, but after his direct colleague and best friend Horst Krämer got lung cancer, he immediately quitted smoking. He couldn’t stop his yearning for nicotine, however, so he switched over to nicotine gum. It was something he used a lot. It also prevented him from chewing candy as a replacement for the cigarettes. He took one gum
“I am straight, but I understand what you mean. You are completely right. However, I am not here, and we did not summon you here, to talk about your boyfriend,” Strauss said.
“So it wasn’t the study advisor who summoned me here?” Bastian asked.
“It was, but not because of your notes. There is nothing wrong with them. She summoned you here on behalf of us,” Strauss said. “Because of a hack on our systems, committed by you. Thank you by the way for finding the leak. I was highly amazed about it. I didn’t know about this leak, and while investigating it myself, I found out that it is a hellofajob to find it. Chapeau. There is, however, still a thing you need to learn. It was extremely easy to me to find out that it was you who was behind the hack. If you ever get the idea to test the systems of the Kadikistani secret services, you’ll end up either dead or as a part of Kadikistan’s hacking force with a gun pointed at your temple, even if you are so kind to report the leak to them. And if the Kadikistani used this leak as well, they will talk to you as soon as they find out that it was closed after you found and reported it.”
Bastian frightened up when he heard that. Indeed, he was a masterhacker, but because he considered himself a bonafide hacker, he thought he would not have to think about cleaning up his traces. Until now, when he realised that not only the people behind the network would be interested in him, but also the people previously using the leaks he reported.

“I can teach you how to clean your traces. And I’m willing to do so. But then you’ll have to start working for us,” Strauss said. “Of course on a part‑time contract. You have a diploma to obtain. After that, we can extend your contract.”
Bastian was surprised. And in doubt about what to do. He was hesitant about working for the government. Currently the government of Eiffelland was a good one (although he preferred to see a left-wing coalition), but what if the current government would be overthrown, or Eiffelland would be occupied? He phrased this fears to Strauss.
“We can’t look into the future, Mr. Holzbrenner. One of the tasks of the Staatsschutz is to guard the country against revolutions, and to trace foreign intentions to invade the country. We also help the armed forces with their task to protect Eiffelland and its allies. I cannot guarantee you that Eiffelland remains a liberal democracy. But trying to keep Eiffelland a liberal democracy is exactly what we do. We fight against the forces that want to change Eiffelland for the worse. We fight against left-wing extremism, but also against right-wing extremism. As well as against religious extremism, terrorism, foreign spies and organised crime. If you want to defend Eiffelland’s liberal democracy, you have to join us.”
Strauss paused for a few moments, then he continued.
“I have to warn you that the Staatsschutz sometimes has to make its hands dirty. Sometimes we have to do bad things in order to prevent worse things from happening. That will be something to have to stomach if you work for the Staatsschutz,” he said. “But especially now our work is important. The far right movement is flooding the internet with all kinds of strange news messages to mobilise voters. The march on Trier will have an impact on the national elections next month, and that impact is not a nice one. We will have to fight if we want to keep Eiffelland a liberal democracy. Also because we have indications that the far right movement is up to more than just hi‑jacking the elections. You will probably have seen the polls. The Volksunion and the PCL are gaining votes, at the expense of mainly the CDV and the FDV, but also the SPE is losing votes.”
Bastian took some time to think. Then he asked: “I have to discuss this with Christoph. Can I contact you at a later time point?”
“Of course,” Strauss said. He grabbed a little box out of another pocket of his jacket, took a business card out of it, and handed it to Bastian. “Please take my business card.”


10 March 2018
Köln, Eiffelland


The Lenten Season is a bit of a strange period in Eiffelland. No matter how liberal the country is, it sticks to a lot of Catholic traditions. Fasting during the Lenten Season is one of them. People generally eat only one meal on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, and do not drink alcohol, smoke or eat candy on all the other days between Carnival and Easter. People used to drinking sugar in their coffee or tea leave the sugar out during the Lenten Season. Honey is not eaten, either. Of course, the people really addicted to smoking cannot be held off of their smoking habits and smoke secretly, but that is the only exception.
And there is another exception. The Sundays are exempt from the fasting. Only on those days, people drink alcohol, smoke in public, eat candy, put sugar in their coffee and tea, and take honey. As a result, people going out on Saturday drink non-alcoholic drinks until midnight (soda pops are allowed in pubs, restaurants, cinemas and theatres during the Lenten Season), and then switch to alcohol (because officially after midnight it is Sunday). Of course, nobody of the people going out on Saturday night would make it to Church on Sunday morning, but the Eiffellandian priests read mass on Sunday twice anyway; once at the regular time in the morning and once in the early evening for the people going out. This happens not only during the Lenten Season, but also throughout the year, on all Sundays. Going out on Saturdays is not something limited to the Lenten Season. Going to Church on Sunday evening after having gone out on Saturday is not limited to the Lenten Season, either.

Ludwig and Jonathan went to one of the big gay clubs in Köln. They were already inside before midnight, so they witnessed the local tradition to usher in the Sunday during the Lenten season: The bartenders already accepted orders for alcoholic beverages five minutes before midnight, so that everyone who wished so had something alcoholic at midnight. Then at midnight, a couple of confetti cannons blasted their contents over the dance floor as if it were New Year, everybody yelled “Happy Sunday”, toasted with each other and took a nip of their beverages. Then the party really started.

Jonathan von Walsrode was born on 28 October 1994. He did Abitur two years after Ludwig, but because he had to serve only two years of society service, he went to University only one year after Ludwig. Like Ludwig, he was 1.86 meters tall and had a tendinous body. But his eyes were green and his quarter long hair was dark blonde with a kind of curl in it. He was the younger son of the Eiffellandian ambassador in Kashtan. He himself was also destined to go into diplomatics, like his ten year older brother, who was married but still did not have children. Jonathan did not know that his brother could not conceive any children; therefore, he did not know, either, that he was the hope of the family to continue the line.
Dynastic questions were the last thing he thought about at this moment, however. He danced with the most handsome guy on earth, and this guy was his. The Angel‑Prince, Eiffelland’s most desired bachelor, was his. Not from Queen Julian, but his. The two guys danced and danced, sometimes went to the bar to get drinks, and danced, and danced, and danced. Like in Innsbruck, they took off their shirts because of the heat. Later on, they started an erotic dance with each other. When “Baby, please don't leave me / Keep on dancing through the night / Don't ever lose that feeling / Take my hand and you know / It will be alright, alright, alright” sounded, they left the dance floor and kissed each other while leaning against a pillar. An hour later, while the voice of an Engellexic singer sang “Make me the beat of your heart / Love isn't always the same / You are loved”, Ludwig whispered into Jonathan’s ear: “Gehen wir zum Hotel. Und dann besorg’s mir!
But unlike in Innsbruck, there was somebody in the club with a very small but very good camera. His pictures were extremely sharp. Ludwig and Jonathan were clearly recognisable while they danced shirtless and kissed.


11 March 2018
Stolzenau, Eiffelland


The Duke of Stolzenau smiled his evil smile. He had just opened up his mailbox. One of the mails took quite some time to get in. Eiffelland was very far with rolling out broadband internet, but it was still not covering the complete country. Broadband internet was still not available in Stolzenau, so the Duke of Stolzenau had to connect to the internet through a V56 modem. Therefore, that e-mail with ten pictures took a lot of time to load. But it was worth it. The pictures showed Prince Ludwig and Jonathan von Walsrode dancing shirtless with each other, and kissing. This would hit the news when Schau! would publish it. One good blow to the House of Dietz‑Hadamar. That combined with the many blows to Von Seydewitz and Kögler would shift the polls even more towards the Volksunion and the PCL. OK, it was a pity that the Volksunion was not the only party profiting, but the weaker the CDV, the better.
The Duke mailed back: “Good job. Send the pictures to Schau!



OOC1: The songs:
You must be registered for see medias
.
You must be registered for see medias
.

OOC2: @Engellex, do you agree with it that Kim Wilde is an Engellexian artist from now on?

OOC3: Translation of the German text:
Gehen wir zum Hotel = Let’s go to the hotel
“Und dann besorg’s mir” is a reference to making love. I won’t give more information.
 

Rheinbund

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17 March 2018
Trier, Eiffelland


The new edition of Schau! was hardly in the shops, and the pictures of Prince Ludwig and Jonathan von Walsrode became the talk of the town in the Eiffellandian gay scene. As a result, Christoph and Bastian heard about it as soon as they entered a gay bar this Saturday evening. They were amazed. Somebody described the pictures to them.
“They were dancing shirtless in a gay disco. What a pity that I wasn’t there. They have bodies to die for! Try to get yourself a Schau!
Christoph and Bastian looked at each other for a few moments.
“Ludwig dancing shirtless?” Christoph asked.
“Ludwig dancing?” Bastian asked.
“That guy must be a very special guy when he gets Ludwig on the dance floor, let alone taking off his shirt on the dance floor!” Christoph said. Then he became sad.
Bastian noticed that. He asked: “What’s wrong?”
“Do you remember that Sabine took pictures from us in the swimming pool? And that she spread those pictures among the members of the mountaineering club? Something like that is currently happening to Ludwig, but then on a much larger scale … Luckily he doesn’t have a father with blood lust,” Christoph said [1].
“But he will have to face the world instead of that. The gays are celebrating the news, but large parts of the world will reject him,” Bastian said. “Normally a Royal Prince is destined to go into international diplomacy or international business. And Ludwig has all the skills to go into international diplomacy: He speaks eight languages, including Kadikistani, he is a quiet and calm negotiator, and he knows a lot about law, but how can he use all his skills when international diplomats and international businessmen reject him for his homosexuality?”
“Should we call him?” Christoph asked.
“Maybe he doesn’t know yet that he is on the front page of Schau! But the problem is: How are we going to mention it to him? I don’t want him to think that we call him out of lust for sensation,” Bastian said. “I think the wisest decision to take is to let him tell about it. We won’t adress the topic. He will definitely tell us when he has a boyfriend. But love remains a difficult topic for him. Up to now, all his boyfriends either got scared because of the life in a golden cage, or were sent to a boarding school outside Eiffelland, or were killed. And now he is exposed before the world while dancing with a guy.”


20 March 2018
Weissenfels, Eiffelland


A dark blue Raimer Viro turned before the house where Jonathan von Walsrode was living. Then it parked there, so that the right side of the VAN was facing the pavement. The driver’s door opened, and a man wearing a dark blue suit stepped out. He opened the trunk door, and took a wheelchair out of it. He expanded the wheelchair and rode it next to the shift door on the right side of the VAN.
This VAN had only two rows of seats: One in the front and one in the back. Each row consisted of two seats. One of the seats on the back row was actually a chair on a rod that could shift out of the car. When the driver pushed a button, this mechanism was activated.

The man in this chair was the 94 year old Lothar Herzog von Walsrode, Jonathan’s grandfather. The Duke had end‑stage lung emphysema. He was oxygen‑dependent, and even the smallest physical strain exhausted him. Therefore, he was confined to a wheelchair. He wasn’t able to talk any more, either. Luckily, he still could write, so he communicated by writing. And by typing. The switch from typewriter to computer was not a big one for him, although he used his computer as typewriter only.

When the chair was completely outside, the driver pushed a second button, and another rod came out of the car. The driver connected four belts to the inner part of the chair, and pushed a third button. The Duke was lifted up a decimeter, the driver pushed a fourth button and the chair moved back into the car. Then the driver pushed the wheelchair under the Duke, and pushed a fifth button. The Duke descended into the wheelchair. The driver disconnected the belts, and pushed a sixth button. The upper rod moved back into the car. The driver grabbed the oxygen cilinder from inside the VAN, attached it to the wheelchair, closed the shift door and locked the VAN. Then he rolled the wheelchair to the front door of the house where Jonathan was living.

The Von Walsrode family used to have quite a large land property, but sold that land property long ago. Since then, they were active in diplomatics and invested their money prudently. The family had kept its ducal title.

As a diplomat, the Duke of Walsrode had lived all over the planet. His children were born abroad as well. After he retired, he bought a villa in Trier-Dahlem. It exactly met his wishes regarding his residence: In the city, close to where everything happened, and enough room for him to live. When his lung problems started, the master bedroom was moved to the ground floor and the house was made wheelchair-ready. Meanwhile, his wife, who was ten years younger than himself, got Alzheimer’s disease. She was still nursed in the villa. Luckily, the Duke could afford two nurses, a cook, someone who cleaned the house, a secretary (who was also his driver) and a part-time gardener.

Now he was in Weissenfels to talk to his grandson Jonathan.

The driver pushed the wheelchair to the door, and rang.

WSC Odysseus had agreements with some real estate owners in Weissenfels that the rooms in certain apartments were reserved for Odysseus‑members. The apartment Jonathan shared with two other students was one of totally eight apartments that shared the same staircase. There were similar constructions on other locations in Weissenfels, and some houses were owned by a foundation aimed at maintaining those houses and letting them to students of Odysseus.

When somebody answered the call over the intercom, the driver mentioned his name, said that he was ringing on behalf of Jonathan’s grandfather, and asked if Jonathan could come downstairs. One minute later, Jonathan was downstairs. His grandfather motioned him to come closer. Jonathan wondered; he knew that his grandfather couldn’t talk any more. When his grandfather motioned him one more time to come closer, he came closer. Then his grandfather slapped him in the face, and showed him a paper reading: “Verdammt noch mal, your brother Lothar is infertile. He cannot conceive any children.”
The next paper read: “So the future of the dynasty depends on you marrying and conceiving children. The last thing we can have, is you on the front page of Schau! while acting against all social conventions, um Gottes Willen!”
The next paper read: “Those pictures in Schau! are disgusting! You end that affair! This evening!”
Jonathan was baffled. He didn’t know what to answer.
His grandfather wrote: “I want you to confirm that you are going to end that affair!”
Jonathan said: “No. I can’t.”
His grandfather wrote: “You end that affair, verdammt noch mal! Or I’ll tell your father to strike your monthly allowance!”


21 March 2018
Trier, Eiffelland


A black Raimer R800 with Landsberger licence plates stopped in front of the house of the Duke of Walsrode. Two men stepped out, both in suits. The man at the wheel was the Duke of Stolzenau. The man on the passenger seat was a journalist from Schau! Normally journalists didn’t pay that much attention to their clothes, but the Duke of Stolzenau had told the journalist that he couldn’t show up before the Duke of Walsrode in anything else but a suit. So the journalist wore a suit.
The two men went to the gate in front of the house, and rang. A camera recorded their faces. The intercom came to life. A woman’s voice said: “Hello?”
“Good afternoon, I am the Duke of Stolzenau. I am here with my secretary, Mr. Vogel. Could I please talk to the Duke of Walsrode?” Stolzenau said.
“One moment please.”

Inside the house, the nurse went to the Duke of Walsrode, and told that the Duke of Stolzenau wanted to see him.
“First let’s check if it is indeed the Duke of Stolzenau. I come with you,” the Duke of Walsrode wrote. He knew the Duke of Stolzenau.
The wheelchair he used in his house was an electrical one. The nurse went first, then he followed.
When he checked the image on the screen, he wrote: “The man on the right is the Duke of Stolzenau. I don’t know the man on the left. Let them in, and warn Rädermacher.”

Rädermacher was the type of body guard who combined muscle power, brains, politeness and an immaculate appearance. He was the Duke’s secretary and driver, as well as his body guard. He had a licence to wear a gun, and he had a gun. Normally such a person would become the body guard of a mafia boss, but Rädermacher was glad that he had been able to avoid such employers up to now. He was happy with his current job. The Duke and Duchess of Walsrode were good people to work for. One of the Duke’s nurses was his girlfriend. That was a situation the Duke didn’t have a problem with. Because he managed the Duke’s finances to a certain extent as well, he was in the position to send some funds to other bank accounts. But that was something he didn’t do. He knew that his trustworthiness was his asset on the job market. As soon as he lost his trustworthiness, his career would be over.

While the gate was opened for the Duke of Stolzenau and the reporter of Schau!, Rädermacher walked down the stairs. He welcomed the guests and led them to the Duke’s study. “Your Highness, Mr. Vogel, I have to notify you of the fact that the Duke of Walsrode cannot talk any more. He will communicate with you in writing,” he informed both men.
“Don’t worry Mr. Rädermacher, I already know,” Von Stolzenau said.

After Rädermacher introduced Von Stolzenau and Vogel, Von Walsrode gestured everybody to seat themselves in the sitting area of his study.

Von Stolzenau opened the discussion. “Your Highness, we are here to offer you help,” he said.
Von Walsrode raised his eyebrows in wonder.
“I offer you my help in restoring your grandson’s reputation,” Von Stolzenau said.
Von Walsrode raised his eyebrows a bit higher.
“Also I noticed the news about the affair between Prince Ludwig and your grandson Prince Jonathan. And I sense that you have a problem here. We both know that Prince Jonathan’s chances on closing a good marriage are reduced now. Reduced to a large extent. My idea is the following: We put all the blame on Prince Ludwig. We feed a story to the press that Prince Ludwig put a drug into Prince Jonathan’s drink to seduce him. Then Prince Jonathan’s reputation is saved,” Von Stolzenau said. Because the children of Dukes and Grand-Dukes were also Princes in the Eiffellandian nobledom, Von Stolzenau said “Prince Jonathan” instead of “Jonathan”.
Von Walsrode started to write. One minute later, he showed the paper to the others. “This goes very far. First of all, Prince Ludwig is royal. I am not a fan of turning the Royal Family into an enemy. Furthermore, if we make such a bold claim, we must be able to prove it. The Royal Family already sued Schau! for that article about Prince Ludwig and my grandson. Publishing a story about Prince Ludwig feeding drugs to young men will definitely lead to another lawsuit,” it read.
“I can produce lab values that will serve as proof that Prince Jonathan was drugged,” Von Stolzenau said. “It will be close to impossible to prove that they are false. That lawsuit will lead to nothing.”
Von Walsrode started to write again. He wrote: “Then my problem remains that I don’t want to turn the Royal Family against me. First of all, the Royal Family has much influence in this country. You know that as well. Furthermore, I served the King during my whole working life. Serving the King is what the Von Walsrode family has done since the 19th century. It is what the Von Walsrodes live for. And finally, we will ruin at least Jonathan’s career and possibly also Lothar’s career.”
“You served King Philipp and King Heinrich. You did not serve King Albrecht, and that is the King who allows his son to practice sodomy. King Albrecht, the King you did not serve, closed his eyes when his son seduced your son. And he still keeps his eyes closed. When your family started to serve the Royal Family, they started to serve respectable men. The Kings you served were respectable men as well. King Albrecht is not a respectable man. He doesn’t step in when his sons degenerate. You have no obligation towards King Albrecht,” Von Stolzenau said. “And don’t worry about the careers of your grandsons. Prince Lothar is Volljurist. Prince Jonathan is going to be Volljurist. I will make sure that they get jobs.”
Von Walsrode started to write again. He wrote: “I have a different opinion on my obligations towards King Albrecht. My grandson’s reputation is and remains my concern. We will not cooperate with your plans. I also warn you against carrying this out on your own behalf. If any magazine or newspaper publishes a story about my grandson having been drugged by Prince Ludwig, we will join the Royal Family in the lawsuit. I consider this dialogue ended. Have a nice day.”
Then he took another paper, and wrote: “Rädermacher, could you please show the gentlemen out?”

When Von Stolzenau and Vogel sat in the car again, Vogel started to talk.
“It is a pity that the Duke of Walsrode didn’t want to cooperate,” he said. “It would have been a sensational story.”
“You are right. But I have an alternative for you,” Von Stolzenau said while handing Vogel an envelope. “This envelope contains a couple of photographs of Prince Ludwig with Matthias von Luckenwalde. You can write a story about that.”
“Thank you, but could you please give me some more information on Matthias von Luckenwalde?” Vogel asked.
“Matthias von Luckenwalde was engaged with my daughter. He served on the same ship as Prince Ludwig. That is where they got a relationship. After they were demobilised, Matthias spent a weekend with the Royal Family. Three weeks later, he had to be admitted to a psychiatric clinic. Four months later, he escaped while he was transported to another clinic where he could be treated better, and died during a road traffic accident. Turn it into a nice and juicy story,” Von Stolzenau said.

“Do you think what I think?” Von Walsrode wrote. He showed the paper to Rädermacher.
“I think that the Duke was not interested in Prince Jonathan’s well‑being, but highly interested in damaging the Royal Family, Your Highness,” Rädermacher said.
“I think so too. We have to make this clear to the Royal family, but how? We cannot contact them now because of Prince Ludwig and my grandson. I have to think about this,” Von Walsrode wrote.


21 March 2018
Weissenfels, Eiffelland


Jonathan left Ludwig’s apartment, leaving Ludwig behind in despair. The pressure of his family had been immense. One day after his grandfather left, his father suddenly appeared. He was in Eiffelland because of a meeting with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and went to Weissenfels for a visit to his son. There was also a telephone call from his brother. No matter what he felt for Ludwig, he couldn’t withstand the pressure.

L’histoire se répète, encore une fois [2]. For the second time in his life, Ludwig’s boyfriend was forced into a marriage. He couldn’t blame Jonathan for succumbing to the family pressure. And maybe that article in Schau! had been too much as well. Ludwig had been prepared for a life in the spotlights, Jonathan had not. Only on two occasions during the last months did Ludwig forget that he was somebody in the spotlights instead of just another guy in his twenties. In any case, he was used to seeing his pictures in the yellow press. Luckily he didn’t have to dig through “all that trash” himself; his father’s information office did that. The last article in Schau! went too far. That was really focused on breaking his reputation. Well, Schau! would notice to what that would lead. And this time he would do things differently than he did with Matthias. He wrote an e-mail to his father.


28 March 2018
Staatsschutz headquarters
Trier, Eiffelland


“We managed to get the DNA of the young Ansgar Schleifer,” Head of the Staatsschutz department concerning operations abroad Oliver Landauer said. “Your Majesty, we also compared his Y‑chromosome with your Y‑chromosome. I have bad news. The Y‑chromosomes are the same. And this makes the question whether the will of King Lothar exists very urgent.”

Von Seydewitz’s face became pale. He grabbed to his chest. Verdammt noch mal, auch noch ein Herzproblem? [3]

“Herr Kanzler? Are you alright?” the King asked.

The pain in Von Seydewitz’s chest diminished. He said: “Kill them.”

Everybody looked at him, baffled.

“Kill Martinus, Egon and Ansgar Schleifer. Kill also Egon’s wife and their newborn child, And of course Martinus’s wife and their other children,” Von Seydewitz said.

“Herr Kanzler, isn’t that a bit too drastic?” the King asked. “This means killing about 20 people in one family. That will strike, and raise questions. You can’t massacre a whole family without people becoming suspicious. And they are not Eiffellandian but Retalian citizens. We can’t make a slaughter in Retalia without informing the Government there. Furthermore, there are quite a lot of people who descended from this Lisa Egonstochter. We can’t kill them all.”

“The King is right, Herr Kanzler. Killing the Schleifers will not help us. The far‑right movement will immediately reveal who the Schleifers are. It will not help us in any way. The only thing we can do, is find that will and destroy it,” Head of the Staatsschutz Heinz-Karl Farnbach said.

“OK. How far are you with that then?” Von Seydewitz asked sharply. He was visibly irritated.

“We did research in the archives. Luckily they began to become trustful during the first half of the 18th century. That was something Napoléon didn’t need to teach us. During King Lothar’s lifetime, there were about 200 notary offices where he could have made his will. Ten of them were located in Trier, all others everywhere else inside the Eiffellandian borders of those days. We all tracked them down. Some offices were continued. Some were splitted. Some were ended, resulting in the documents going to other notaries. Some offices were merged. And of course some offices splitted several times, or merged first and splitted again fifty years later. Nowadays there are about 1000 notary offices where this document can be,“ Head of the Staatsschutz department concerning the far right movement Ernst Bartsch said. “But there is one other thing we discovered.”

Bartsch took a sip of his water. Then he continued.

“A law firm in Landsberg started to buy notary offices about three years ago. Each time this firm bought an office, it hired a lawyer for a month and then fired this lawyer again. There are two lawyers who have been hopping from one office to the other in the last three years. Up to now, this firm has created a conglomerate of about 50 notary offices scattered all over the area covering the Eiffelland of King Lothar, so the present‑day provinces Harz, Rheinland, Obereiffel and Niedereiffel,” he said.

The Eiffellandian education to lawyer lasted seven years. The first five years took place at the university and prepared for the Erste Juristische Prüfung. In principle, that exam led to a Master’s Degree in Law, but did not give the right to work as a lawyer. A 2 year period called the Rechtsreferendariat, was needed for that. It consisted of a practical education in civil law and criminal law at a law‑court (called “Zivilstation” and “Strafstation”), a practical education at a community government and a provincial government (called “Verwaltungsstation”), a practical education at a law firm (called “Anwaltssstation”), a practical law-related education of choice (called “Wahlstation”) and the Zweite Juristische Prüfung, a second exam on legal topics. Only after absolving that exam, somebody was accredited to work as a lawyer. He or she obtained the title of Volljurist, and with that was immediately accredited as judge, barrister, notary, public prosecutor and all other types of jobs that needed a degree in Law. In practice, people did follow some additional training on the job after having become Volljurist, although that was not obligatory. But the Volljurist concept was the reason why Bartsch referred to “lawyers” hopping from one notary office to the other, and not “notaries”.

“So a law firm situated in a small city high up north in the mountains buys 50 notary offices scattered all over the country. Why that? Why would they do so? And where do they get the money from?” Von Seydewitz asked, still with a tone of irritation in his voice.

“Those are exactly the questions we asked ourselves, Herr Kanzler,” Bartsch said. “The fact that each time these lawyers are sent in for a month and then leave, means with a probability close to certainty that they are looking for something. As soon as this lawyer becomes an employee of the notary office, he or she has access to the safe with important documents, so he can look for certain documents there. The fact that the only connection between all these notary offices is the fact that they possibly have King Lothar’s will in their keeping suggests that this Landsberger law firm is looking for the same thing as we do: King Lothar’s will.”

Bartsch took a sip of his water, and continued.

“The second important question: Where does this Landsberger law firm get the money from to buy all those notary offices? We also found that out. The financial currents go back to Gregor Herzog von Stolzenau,” Bartsch said.

“The Duke of Stolzenau?” the King asked.

“Yes,” Bartsch said. “And the law firm buying all those notary offices is Rechtspraxis Bachmann. And that is a law firm my colleague Graf von Waldeck has something interesting to tell about.”

Ludwig Graf von Waldeck was the head of the Staatsschutz department concerning organised crime. He started to talk.

“About a year ago, a 15 year old boy was found dead in Rabenau. The local police worked on that case for two weeks, and then the SKA stepped in. The official report of that murder case is the SKA’s interpretation of the facts. The police inspector working on that case, Kriminalhauptkommissar Weber, does not agree with the SKA’s interpretation, although he did not officially phrase his objections,” he said [4]

“How do you know that?” Von Seydewitz asked.

“We talked to him. He currently works for the PKA in Aurich, after he was transferred from Rabenau to Fehmarn. He told us that two employees of Rechtspraxis Bachmann attended the funeral of that 15 year old boy. Because of that, Weber and his men decided to go to Landsberg and talk to these two employees. Three days later, the SKA stepped in. One week later, Weber was transferred to Fehmarn. Both Weber and I think that he came too close to Bachmann. Furthermore, we think that Bachmann has some connections in the SKA, and in the top of the police. Gentlemen, I think we have a problem here as well,” Von Waldeck said.




OOC: Notes:
[1] See the thread “Gehen Sie linksum gehen Sie rechtsum”: . This thread played in 2011, with 2011 level of technique.
[2] L’histoire se répète, encore une fois = History repeats, once again.
[3] Verdammt noch mal, auch noch ein Herzproblem? = Damn it, also a cardiac problem?
[4] SKA = Staatskriminalamt
[5] PKA = Provinzkriminalamt
 

Rheinbund

Established Nation
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
11,808
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Capital
Fehrbellin
28 March 2018
Staatsschutz headquarters
Trier, Eiffelland


“So there is a link between Bachmann, Von Stolzenau and the Schleifers, but what is the link between Bachmann and Roman Tackler?” Von Seydewitz asked.
“We have a suspicion. Before he died, Roman Tackler bragged about having killed Thomas Rischka, the uncrowned king of the Rabenauer drugs scene until his death. Roman himself died of an overdose, and that was not a suicide. The official reading of the events is that Roman was killed by Rischka’s people, but Weber indicated that it could also have been the people ordering Roman to kill Rischka. The boy couldn’t keep his mouth shut about his deed, so he could have formed a danger,” Von Waldeck said. “In any case, Thomas Rischka was not the only drugs dealer who died in 2016. Quite a lot of drug dealers died in that year, and this was related to a struggle for the power in the Eiffellandian drugs scene. We have to find out who the people behind the scenes are. Duncan MacLeish’s organisation was not the only party involved in this struggle; it cooperated with another organisation. We think that Bachmann knows more about that.”
“But why is Bachmann both active in the drugs scene and active for Von Stolzenau and the Schleifers?” Farnbach asked.
“Well, maybe Von Stolzenau is the other organisation with which the MacLeishes cooperated. How else would he be able to finance the take-over of so many notary offices?” Von Seydewitz said.


8 April 2018
02:00
Weissenfels, Eiffelland


Let's dance in style, let's dance for a while
Heaven can wait, we're only watching the skies
Hoping for the best but expecting the worst
Are you gonna drop the bomb or not?

Let us die young or let us live forever
We don't have the power but we never say never
Sitting in a sandpit, life is a short trip
The music's for the sad men

The day had been hot, at least compared with an average 7 April in Weissenfels. During the day, the temperature rose to 24 degrees Celsius. It was still 18 degrees Celsius when Prince Ludwig opened the door in the Kronentor of the , the park near the Weissenfelser Stadtschloss. He was still wearing the clothes he wore during the day. He hadn’t changed his bermuda shorts; he hadn’t planned to go out anyway.
Ludwig always paid much attention to his clothes. His clothing style could be described best as chique-sportive. His suits were always dark blue or dark grey. The shirts he wore under his suits were always white. His trousers and bermuda shorts were always dark blue or beige. His pullovers and polo shirts were from a Burgundian brand with a crocodile as brand sign, in the colours wine red, dark green, soft green, turquoise, purple or blue. He never wore vivid colours, apart from fuchsia and mint green. He only wore T-shirts as underwear, and definitely never T-shirts or polo-shirts with prints on them. His shoes were broques, or royal blue sneakers when he wore shorts. He did wear shorts on warm days, but then only bermuda shorts. He only wore swimming shorts when he went swimming, and he only wore sports clothes when he did sport. This was also the clothing style of his brothers, but he was a bit more precise on how to wear clothes. He always wore them perfectly.
Because he was a member of the Royal Family, he had a key to the door in the Kronentor, and the alarm code. As a result, he could enter the Zwinger whenever he wanted, also after the official closing time. And he did so regularly. The Weissenfelser Stadtschloss and the Zwinger were private property of the Royal Family. However, apart from the Royal Apartment in the Weissenfelser Stadtschloss, they were open to the public between 10am and 6pm. The palace was only closed when the King resided in Weissenfels (which traditionally happened on the first Friday of the month). Furthermore, from time to time, the Royal Family used the Weissenfelser Stadtschloss and the Zwinger for festivities, for instance royal marriages, coronations of new Kings, or privately to celebrate Easter. That was also a royal tradition: Christmas was always celebrated in Trier, and Easter in Weissenfels.

Can you imagine when this race is won
Turn our golden faces into the sun
Praising our leaders, we're getting in tune
The music's played by the, the mad men

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever? Forever young


When Ludwig left his apartment, he took a portable music installation and some CDs with him. One of the CDs was from an Eiffellandian band called Alphaville. The music was from twenty years ago, but he liked it. And “Forever young” was the perfect song for his sad mood.
Meanwhile, he had spent four hours lying in the grass of the Zwinger, looking at the stars, listening to the city going out, playing music and watching the moon rise over Weissenfels. It was full moon a week ago, so now it was half moon going to new moon. The left part of the moon was lit. It had a kind of orange colour when Ludwig saw it rise in the east. Meanwhile, the temperature was dropping further. Ludwig started to regret that he hadn’t put on long trousers.

Some are like water, some are like the heat
Some are a melody and some are the beat
Sooner or later, they all will be gone
Why don't they stay young?

It's so hard to get old without a cause
I don't want to perish like a fading horse
Youth's like diamonds in the sun
And diamonds are forever


So many adventures couldn't happen today
So many songs we forgot to play
So many dreams swinging out of the blue
We let them come true

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?
Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever, forever and ever?

Forever young, I want to be forever young
Do you really want to live forever?


Just when Ludwig decided to go back home, his telephone rang. It was Jonathan. He answered the call.
“Hi Jonathan.”
“Hi Ludwig. I just rang at your house, but you aren’t there. Where are you? Can we see each other now? I need to talk to you,” Jonathan said agitatedly.
“Yes of course. I’m in the Zwinger now,” Ludwig said.
“In the Zwinger?” Jonathan asked baffled.
“Yes. It’s Royal Property, you know. I have a key. Shall I go to your place? Or to my place?” Ludwig asked.
“I’m curious about what you are doing in the Zwinger on a Saturday night. I’ll go there. Where do I have to go?” Jonathan asked, still agitated but also baffled about Ludwig spending a night in the Zwinger.
“Come to the Kronentor. I’ll let you in there.” Ludwig said.

Ten minutes later, Jonathan arrived at the Kronentor on his bicycle. Ludwig let him in.

“I’ve just been thrown out of the Downtown,” Jonathan said. The Downtown was the largest disco in Weissenfels.
“Why that?” Ludwig asked.
“Franz-Karl’s cousin Aline pressed herself against me and tried to kiss me. I pushed her away. Franz-Karl immediately went to the bouncers to complain about me, and two minutes later I was outside,” Jonathan said, referring to Franz-Karl von Attersee. “The bouncers didn’t want to listen to me. Verdammt noch mal, I didn’t even push hard. I don’t know why she did it, but the way she pressed herself against me, that was really not OK. This was an assault. If a guy does to a woman what Aline did to me, he is arrested.”
“Well at least you don’t have anything to complain about lack of female interest,” Ludwig grinned.
“Ludwig, please, forgive me. I broke up under family pressure. First my grandfather, then my brother who traveled from Engellex to here, then my parents who came over from Kashtan, and all were yelling at me. Even my housemates at a certain moment. They presented me to one girl after another. But I can’t do it. I can’t make love to a woman. I can’t marry a woman because I’m gay. The thought of making love to a girl disgusts me. It disgusts me since my twelfth birthday. I don’t even want to think of trying it. My family has to solve the dynastic problem in a different way. I can’t solve it. At least not by marring a woman,” Jonathan said. “I know that I can’t be a diplomat when I’m in a relationship with a man, but I don’t care. I never wanted to study law anyway. It is a nice and interesting study, but it is second-choice to me. I always wanted to become a doctor. So I talked to Dr. Von Bernrode, and applied for a study place for medicine, here in Weissenfels.”
Ludwig stared at Jonathan in amazement and concern.
Jonathan took a short pause, before he continued talking. “My grandfather invited me to come to Trier next week. Then I will tell him.”
After a short pause, he asked: “Have you anything to drink?”
“I took a bottle of mineral water with me,” Ludwig said.
“Mineral water?” Jonathan asked baffled. “You go to a park for a picnic, complete with a portable CD player, and the only thing you take with you is a bottle of mineral water?”
“Wouldn’t it be a bit pathetic when I would take a bottle of Alexander Gunn’s here and get drunk?” Ludwig asked.
“Yeah, OK, that would be a bit waif-like,” Jonathan said. “But what are you doing here?”
“Isn’t it a beautiful place, Jonathan? The perfect place to think things over,” Ludwig said. “I’m in the same crisis as you are. Only in my case it’s not my family, but the yellow press. I don’t know why, but Schau! suddenly has it in for me. And not only Schau!, but also the far right scene. I get threat letters. Luckily they are sent to the Stadtschloss here and not to my home address, but those letters are horrible.”
“This is terrible,” Jonathan said.
“I did realise that I could be outed once, or had to come out myself, but I never expected this,” Ludwig said.

The music installation played Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Ludwig and Jonathan were sitting on the ground, with their backs against one of the fountain basins in the centre of the Zwinger.
“I know the family tradition. I know that the Von Walsrodes traditionally study law and become diplomats. But my heart lies somewhere else. Of course chances are small that I will get that study place. I have to be realistic there. I will continue my law study when I don’t get that study place. I’ll find a way to make it interesting. But I want to try at least once if I can get a place for medicine,” Jonathan said.
Ludwig remained silent for a while. Then he said: “I fully understand your train of thought. If your heart lies with medicine, you should study it. It is good that you try.”

Ludwig knew that his father had talked to Jonathan’s grandfather. The outcome of that talking was, that the Duke of Walsrode “would think about the situation”, whatever that would mean. Next week’s discussion could mean two things: Either the Duke had found a solution that would suit everybody, or he had found a girl for Jonathan.
Ludwig’s father had told something else as well. He told that Jonathan’s grandfather had been visited by the Duke of Stolzenau, with a proposal to “save Jonathan’s reputation” by wrecking Ludwig’s reputation in an article in Schau! Jonathan would have to claim that he had been drugged by Ludwig. Jonathan’s grandfather rejected that proposal (which was a sign for a good outcome), but the fact that Von Stolzenau was scheming against Ludwig was bad news. Apparently the Von Stolzenaus still hadn’t forgiven that Matthias von Luckenwalde broke up with Ophelia for Ludwig.

“Jonathan, you’re not only here to talk about your study plans, or to talk about Franz-Karl and Aline. Correct?” Ludwig asked.
“Correct,” Jonathan said. “I am here to ask for forgiveness, and to see if there is still something to repair.”
“I forgive you,” Ludwig said. “And there is still something to repair. But be aware that we have to go through a very difficult situation. It is not only you risking your ties with your family, but also me in the middle of a public mud fight and in the line of fire of the far right scene. The coming months, maybe even years, will become extremely difficult. And even after then, we will have a life in the spotlights. Even without a tabloid having a grudge on me, and even without the threats from the far right scene, my life is completely different from the life of an average twentysomethinger.”
“I realise that very well. Initially I didn’t understand the consequence of living in a house of glass, but now I do. I also realise that we are currently in a very difficult phase of our lives. I can’t say beforehand if I’m prepared for it. We will only know that if we try it out. Let’s see how far we come, Ludwig. Never try, never know. Let’s start repairing,” Jonathan said.
Ludwig wrapped his arm around Jonathan’s shoulder. Jonathan wrapped his arm around Ludwig’s shoulder. After a while, Ludwig got his knees up and covered his lower legs with one half of his jacket. Now he really began to feel the cold.
“I should have put on long trousers before I got here,” he said.
Jonathan started to caress Ludwig’s lower legs. “I am happy to see this pair of supersexy legs though,” he grinned. Then he moved his hand up through a pipe of Ludwig’s bermuda shorts.
“Hey, do you really want to make love here?” Ludwig giggled.
“Why not? The place is perfect. It’s the most beautiful place in Weissenfels. You said it yourself,” Jonathan grinned. Then he started to kiss Ludwig.
“But it’s really too cold to undress now,” Ludwig giggled.
“Don’t underestimate the power of body heat,” Jonathan grinned.
“Well, you definitely heat me up to a large extent, but let’s go to my place. I have condoms there,” Ludwig giggled.


15:00

Johannstadt is a quarter of Weissenfels that lies northeast of the city centre. It started to grow in the second half of the 19th century. Most of the buildings are still from that time. Quite a lot of students live here, because it is close to the Robert Koch Universität and the university hospital. Ludwig also lives in this city quarter, in a three-bedroom apartment that he shares with his older brother Franz, who is close to finalising his study commercial sciences and is running a company developing and maintaining a database system for clinical studies.

Ludwig and Jonathan hadn’t slept. They had continuously been making love from the moment they entered the apartment, only interrupted by eating a large brunch and taking a shower. Franz was away for the weekend with a couple of friends, so Ludwig and Jonathan had the apartment for themselves. The window of Ludwig’s bedroom was open. His bedroom had the window to the South, so it became quite hot there when the sun was shining on the window. Ludwig had just opened the third bottle of white wine. He filled his and Jonathan’s glass, put the bottle in the wine cooler, and laid down in bed again. He and Jonathan embraced each other, and they started to kiss.
After a few minutes, Jonathan said: “Oh, Ludwig, I love you.”
“I love you too, Jonathan,” Ludwig said.
“I hope this day will never end,” Jonathan said, and he embraced Ludwig a bit stronger. They started to kiss again.
Ten minutes later, Jonathan took another condom and said: “Let’s break our Innsbrucker record,” referring to the weekend they spent in Innsbruck at the end of January.


23:00

The room was dark now. Ludwig and Jonathan were lying in Ludwig’s bed. Jonathan was spooning Ludwig. They were still naked. During the day, they hadn’t worn any clothes. Ludwig had only shortly put on a bathrobe to receive the Touyouese food they had ordered over the telephone. At a certain moment, the fact that they hadn’t slept for two days began to kick in. Ludwig offered Jonathan to stay for the night. Jonathan agreed. Then they prepared themselves for the night, and went to bed. Ludwig fell asleep quite soon, but Jonathan was still awake.
This was the life he wanted. A life with Ludwig. Definitely. He wasn’t afraid of his family any more. His father could stop the monthly allowance. So what? He would not be the only student who had to work next to his study. Furthermore, he could request a study loan from the government. Eiffellandian students received a monthly study allowance from the government, for free. Ludwig hadn’t applied for it, but Jonathan had. That monthly study allowance was not enough to cover all the costs; the parents were supposed to finance a part of their children’s studies. But to make it possible that people with poor parents went to university or other forms of higher education, it was possible to apply for a study loan from the government, next to the study allowance. Jonathan was full of self-confidence about the approaching confrontation with his family.
That was not why he couldn’t sleep despite being sleepy. He feared something. He feared that he could lose it all because of another reason. Ludwig’s words about the threat letters began to kick in. What if one of those threaters decided to turn his threats into deeds? And what if that threater would be successful? Jonathan was really afraid of that possibility. He pressed himself a bit stronger to Ludwig’s back.
Then he heard the lock of the front door. Franz came home. Ludwig had texted him that Jonathan would stay for the night, so he was informed. Jonathan heard the door of Ludwig’s bedroom opening. Then he heard Franz whispering: “Ludwig? Jonathan?”
Jonathan decided not to answer. He didn’t want to wake up Ludwig.
Franz whispered: “Gute Nacht,” and softly closed the door. Then Jonathan fell asleep.


OOC: Music:


Alphaville – Forever young.

You must be registered for see medias


Debussy – Clair de Lune

You must be registered for see medias


Regarding the quarter Johannstadt, I loosely base my city Weissenfels on the real life Dresden, but then the Dresden from before the bombardment in 1945. The city quarter Dresden-Johannstadt was largely destroyed during that bombardment. In the 1970s, it was rebuilt according to the usual architecture of that time. I deviate from that by describing Weissenfels-Johannstadt as a quarter containing mainly buildings from the second half of the 19th century.

I am facing a small problem with dating music. The general approach is that we RP according to the tech levels of around the millennium change, because our technological development went less fast due to the absence of a big war like WW II. Should I presume then that one year of technological development in the real world takes 1.5 years in our RP world? Are the RL eighties 20 years ago for us, or longer ago?
 

Rheinbund

Established Nation
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
11,808
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Capital
Fehrbellin
9 April 2018
Oranienburg, near Trier, Eiffelland
21:00


“So finally we have it. King Lothar’s will,” the Duke of Stolzenau said to Düsenböker, one of the lawyers that hopped from notary office to notary office on his behalf.
“Indeed, Your Highness,” Düsenböker said.
“I would love to open it,” Von Stolzenau said. “But are we allowed to do so?”
“Not the testament itself, but we can read the accompanying letter describing which people have to be present when it is opened,” Düsenböker said. “Let’s open that one.”
That letter described that both King Lothar’s sister and Lisa Egonstochter had to be present when the testament was opened. If they were not alive, then their descendants had to be there. If Lisa Egonstochter or her descendants could not be found, then the King’s sister or her descendants would suffice.
“What does this mean?” Von Stolzenau said.
“It definitely means that King Lothar did want to leave something to Lisa Egonstochter or her descendants. But what?” Düsenböker said.
“Do you have a magnifying glass?” Von Stolzenau asked.
Düsenböker gave one to Von Stolzenau, who used it to examine the seal on the testament.
“I cannot see if it was ever resealed,” Von Stolzenau said. “And that’s a pity, because then we would know if it was ever opened.” He remained silent for a while. Then he asked: “Do you have any sealing wax? And by any chance the sealing stamp of the notary who made this document?”
“No. The stamp was destroyed when the notary handed over his practice,” Düsenböker said. “But let me go to my place and get my photo camera. Then we take a picture of it, make a false sealing stamp later on and reseal the document.”
“Good idea, Düsenböker,” Von Stolzenau said. “What are we going to do now?”
“I think it would be best if we leave it here now, unopened. I take the picture, you have manufactured a new sealing stamp, I get some sealing wax and then we open it, read it, close it and seal it again,” Düsenböker said.


14 April 2018
Trier, Eiffelland


Trier has a large underground network (called Untergrundbahn or U-Bahn), but also a network of city trains called the Stadtschnellbahn or S-Bahn. In general, the S-Bahn is situated above the ground, but there is also an S-Bahn tunnel under the city centre of Trier. The same situation applies to the U-Bahn: Most of it is situated under the ground, but the oldest parts of the Trierer U-Bahn is situated above the ground. There is also a part of the line U2 in Prenzlauer Berg that is situated above the ground. To make it more complicated: The station Schönhauser Allee is both an U-Bahn station and an S-Bahn station, but the U-Bahn station is above the ground here and the S-Bahn station under the ground.
The S-Bahn has a typical sound indicating that the doors are going to close. It is a beep at a certain tone level, then immediately a beep at a higher tone level, and finally another beep at the original tone level. The U-Bahn uses a simpler tone to indicate that the doors are going to close: One tone that sounds continuously outside the train and with interruptions inside the train; while the sound is played, the doors close slowly. Before the doors are closed, a speaker announces “Einsteigen bitte – zurückbleiben bitte” (please get in – please stand back). Sometimes this is an automatic recording; then it is a silver-tongued female voice. Sometimes it is the station chief or the driver who announces it; then it sounds like “einsteign biddeh – zurückbleibn biddeh” with the “biddeh” pronounced very quickly. This as a result of the Trierer descendance of most station chiefs and drivers working for the Trierer public transport company.

Jonathan took the high speed train from Weissenfels to Trier around 9am. Ludwig had taken him to the station; they had embraced each other at the platform. When he arrived at Trier-Hauptbahnhof, he went to the S-Bahn platform. A few minutes later, his train arrived. He was a bit disappointed to see that it was a new train. Years ago, during a visit to Trier with his parents, the old trains that had been constructed during the 1930s were still in service, thanks to a design that was very robust and very maintenance‑friendly.
What had stayed though, was the typical low-high-low sound to indicate that the doors would close. He seated himself next to a window to look outside. The S-Bahn drove through the city quarter Moabit and held at two stations before it held at the station Zoologischer Garten. Here he switched to the underground line U9. He traveled two stations to the South, and switched to underground line U3. He had to travel seven stations to Dahlem-Dorf, the underground station constructed as a half-timbered house with a thatched roof, where he took the bus to his grandfather’s villa.


12:30

Up to now, the weather was cloudy. It didn’t rain, but the sky was whitegrey because of a thin layer of clouds. But when Jonathan rang at the gate of his grandfather’s house, the sun started to peak through the clouds.

“Don’t worry, Your Highness. Your father will allow you to date guys,” Rädermacher said while showing Jonathan into the study of his grandfather Lothar Herzog von Walsrode. He used the phrase “Your Highness”, because sons of Dukes are Princes according to Eiffellandian law. The Duke gave Jonathan a hand, and then gave a paper. It contained a printed text. “Read this completely before commenting” was the first sentence on the paper, in large charactes. Jonathan started to read.
The remainder of the text on the paper was: “This is the solution I have for our problem. Lothar is infertile, but Angela is not. What I ask of you, is acting as sperm donor. It is not my intention that you sleep with Angela until she is pregnant. You donate sperm, and that sperm is used in an in-vitro-fertilisation process. Biologically, you will become the father of Angela’s children, but officially Lothar will be the father. Lothar will be transferred to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs for the coming five years in order to make this happen. When this does not work, I have to ask you to find a lesbian couple. You will have to marry one of them, but only pro forma so that you are the legal father of the children. The reason why the couple must be lesbian, is that the woman you will marry will have to agree to it that you have a relationship with a man. But first we try if Angela can become pregnant. I already discussed this with your father and mother, and also with Lothar and Angela. They all agree with this solution.”
Jonathan was in a very happy mood after having read the text. He enthousiastically said: “Of course I agree as well!”
The Duke wrote: “Thank you. I am happy that you agree with this solution. Contact His Highness Prince Ludwig. Let’s hope that his love for you is not over.”
Now Jonathan started to blush. “Well, eh, we are together again since last weekend,” he said with a guilty tone in his voice.
The Duke immediately understood the implication of this message. He was glad that he had found this solution. He wrote: “It is OK. I invite you both for dinner tonight. I can’t expect you to travel back to Weissenfels after dinner, so I also invite you two to spend the night here, and have breakfast with us tomorrow. Call His Highness Prince Ludwig now. Then we will have lunch.”
“Thank you Grandfather,” Jonathan said. He immediately called Ludwig. After he had done so, he went to his grandfather and said: “There is also something else I need to say …”


Weissenfels, Eiffelland
13:00


Ludwig was excited. Jonathan’s family accepted their relationship! He almost danced through his room when he packed a bag. When he realised that Jonathan had gone to Trier without any clothes, he packed a pair of socks, some underwear and a polo shirt for Jonathan into his bag as well. Luckily they had the same clothes size, so it wouldn’t matter if Jonathan wore some of Ludwig’s clothes. Only Ludwig’s shoe size was a bit larger, but that wouldn’t form a problem with the socks. Of course he didn’t forget Jonathan’s toothbrush.
He was a bit unsure about his own clothes. Would a pair of trousers and a shirt be enough, or should he appear in a suit? Jonathan didn’t wear a suit today, so he risked making a statement about that while wearing a suit. On the other hand, the Duke of Walsrode was 94 years old; maybe he expected his more or less grandson-in-law to appear in a suit. Furthermore, Jonathan was part of the family, but Ludwig was not. He decided for the suit; it was easier to take off his jacket and tie when he was overdressed than to correct being underdressed. That was also what he said when Franz was amazed to see him in a suit.
The weather was much better in Weissenfels than in Trier. Also here there was a thin white layer covering parts of the sky, but the blue parts were larger. The sun light was quite strong. It was about 25 degrees celsius. Ludwig put on his sun glasses when he stepped into his car. Franz accompanied him to his car, and said “Viel Erfolg, Brüderlein” (good luck, little brother) as greet. Then Ludwig started his seven years old royal blue metallic Borschel 968, and drove out of the garage.


Petrol station along the A3
14:00


When Ludwig returned to his car after he had paid for the petrol he just tanked, there was a little boy standing before the left door and looking inside his car.
“Moritz, come back,” he heard. It was the father of the little boy.
“Don’t worry, Sir, I understand. I did the same when I was your son’s age,” Ludwig said.
“Nice car, by the way. How old is it?” the father of the boy asked.
“It’s seven years old,” Ludwig said.
“Really? It looks like it just came out of the showroom. Did you repaint it recently?” the man asked.
“Not at all. But I am very careful with it, I don’t save money on its maintenance and I have a parking place in a garage for it,” Ludwig smiled. “I have to be careful with it. Several people put a lot of effort into building it for me. That is something I have to show respect for, despite the fact that I paid money for it. The only way to express my respect is to be careful with it and to take much care of it. Apart from that, it is the last Borschel that looks like the iconic 901. In a couple of years, I want to keep it as a vintage car. But now I have to go, Sorry. Have a nice day, Sir. Moritz, have a nice day.”
“Thank you Sir, you too,” Moritz said.
“Same to you, Sir, thank you,” Moritz’s father said.
When Ludwig drove away, the man said to himself: “The kid is a spoiled brat, but he is a good spoiled brat.”


Trier-Dahlem, Eiffelland
15:30


Ludwig was a careful driver. He sticked to the speed limits where there were speed limits, and he had never ignored red traffic lights, not even by accident. On the Eiffellandian motorways, however, he did not really know limits. He pushed his car to the maximum whenever possible. At least he used to do so. After he got a relationship with Jonathan, that changed. He mostly limited himself to 160 km/h, and only drove faster when he really had the motorway for himself or when he needed to accelerate to let someone else pass. This was partly because he wanted to spare his car, but mostly because he didn’t want to take risks because of Jonathan. As a result, the trip Weissenfels-Trier took him some more time than it used to take him.
Ludwig turned into the street where Jonathan’s grandfather lived. He halted before the villa, stepped out of his car and rang. The gate opened. Ludwig went to the front door, which was opened by Jonathan. The two guys embraced each other intensely. Rädermacher indicated that Ludwig could park his car inside the gate, so he did. Then Jonathan introduced Ludwig to his grandparents, to the nurses and to the cook. At a certain moment, Jonathan’s grandfather wrote: “Your Highness, I cannot take off my jacket, because it will exhaust me too much. But you feel free to take off your jacket and tie.”
“Thank you, Your Highness,” Ludwig said, and he took off his jacket and tie.


17:00

“Your Highness, I understood from Jonathan that you play the piano and that you sing. Can you play something for us?” the Duke of Walsrode wrote.
“Of course I can, Your Highness,” Ludwig answered, and he seated himself behind the piano.
Moments ago, the Duke had written down that the piano in his villa had accompanied him over the world, because his wife used to play it, even until a couple of months ago. Now she didn’t play any more. The Alzheimer had proceeded too far. The Duke had the piano tuned from time to tim though.
They had seated themselves in the living room, where the piano stood. Jonathan’s grandmother was also in the living room. She didn’t recognise anybody in the room, not even her husband though. A quarter of an hour ago, she had said to Jonathan: “You know, you look like my husband. You wear your hair differently, but for the remainder you look exactly like my husband.”
Ludwig decided to play a piece by Mozart first. It was the piano sonata number 16. Then he played and sang “Immer wieder geht die Sonne auf” by the Carinthian singer Udo Jürgens. After that, he played some songs he knew from the 1940s, the period in which the Duke and the Duchess were young. He saw that the Duke and Duchess were moved by the music.
After dinner, he played mainly classic music, among others the Piano Sonata No. 8 by Mozart, the Nocturne opus 9 no 2 by Chopin and the Impromptu no 3 by Schubert. But he also sang and played an Engellexian song from the 1970s: “Border Song” by Elton John. “It’s a shame that the Engellexians closed their borders, but at least we still have their music,” Rädermacher said after that song was over.
The last song Ludwig sang and played was “Halt mich” by the Eiffellandian singer Herbert Grönemeyer.


23:30

The Duke of Walsrode looked at Ludwig and Jonathan when they climbed the stairs to the guest room at the first floor. Then he turned his face to Rädermacher and started to write.
“I made two young people very happy today. And not only that. I also saved the dynasty and made a woman happy because she will have children. This was a good day,” he wrote.
“You made one of those two people happy for two reasons, Your Highness,” Rädermacher said.
“Prince Jonathan will not follow the footsteps of the Von Walsrodes and serve the nation. Instead, he will serve humanity as a doctor when he gets the study place. Maybe that is even better. Furthermore, family traditions, although worth to uphold, are not there to curtail family members,” the Duke wrote.

“Oh, Ludwig, you were fantastic,” Jonathan said when they were in the guest room.
“You were also great, Jonathan,” Ludwig smiled. “We both made a good impression.” He embraced Jonathan and went through his dark blonde curly hair. “Oh, Jonathan, I’m so happy,” he said. The first horde had been taken.


15 April 2018
Trier-Dahlem, Eiffelland
08:00


The weather turned out to be fantastic when Ludwig opened the curtains. He went to the bed again and kissed Jonathan awake. Jonathan opened a drowsy eye. “Good morning,” Ludwig said with a smile.
“Good morning,” Jonathan replied sleepily. “How long have you been awake?” he asked while stretching.
“Just two minutes. I just opened the curtains,” Ludwig said.
“Oh that’s why you’re wearing pants and t-shirt,” Jonathan said. He himself was still naked.
“Come, we have to shower,” Ludwig said with a smile. Jonathan came out of bed and put on his pants and t-shirt as well. Then they went to the bathroom.

Breakfast with the Duke and Duchess of Walsrode contained a dramatic moment. The Duchess started to refuse food. The Duke indicated the nurses not to force it to her. After breakfast, Ludwig and Jonathan went to Mass with Rädermacher, the Duke and Duchess, the two nurses and the cook. After Mass, Jonathan, Ludwig, the Duchess, the two nurses and the cook waited outside while Rädermacher and the Duke were discussing with the priest about giving the Last Sacraments to the Duchess. It was clear to them that the last phase of the Duchess’s disease had started.


12:00

Ludwig parked his car on the parking lot of the Museuminsel, an island in the Spree with a lot of museums, but also the Trierer Stadtschloss and the Hofkirche. He and Jonathan had an appointment with Christoph and Bastian at their apartment at 2pm for a late lunch, and then at 6pm at Schloss Charlottenburg for dinner with Ludwig’s parents. After then, they would go back to Weissenfels. But now Ludwig wanted to show the Pergamonmuseum, the museum in which a complete Pelasgian city from 2500 years ago had been built up, to Jonathan, after the latter had indicated that he wanted to see it again.
Jonathan spent almost his complete youth outside Eiffelland. At age 16, he went to a boarding-school for expat children in Trier, so he knew the museums, but he considered the Pergamonmuseum so impressive that he wanted to see it again.


14:00

“Welcome,” Christoph said with a smile when he opened the door. “Lunch is just ready, although I have to say that it is breakfast for us. We went out last night.”
“I already understood that that would be the case before we made the appointment,” Ludwig smirked. “Normally we would have loved to join you, but we had other obligations. Let me introduce to you: Jonathan von Walsrode, my boyfriend. Jonathan, let me introduce you to Christoph von Weizenburg …”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
“… and to Bastian Holzbrenner.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
Christoph and Bastian were vegetarians, so the lunch/breakfast was vegetarian, too. Ludwig and Christoph shared a passion: Cooking. Christoph had arranged a fantastic meal, that they ate on the balcony. They talked about lots of things, among others about their studies, the events seven years ago, and the fact that Bastian currently had a part-time job at the computer department of the Staatsschutz. “Of course I cannot tell much about it, but it is a nice job to do, and I am happy that I can contribute in assuring that the Volksunion and the KPE don’t become too powerful,” he said about it.
Of course also Jonathan’s life as an expat child and his years at a boarding-school in Trier were talked about. During those talkings, Jonathan confessed that he was deflowered by Ludwig: “I’m interested in guys since I was twelve, but never gave in to that, because I didn’t want to damage my future career as a diplomat. On the other hand, girls disgust me so much that I didn’t approach them and kept them off at parties. I did so at boarding-school, during military service and at university.”
“But then there was that triggering moment,” Bastian grinned.
“Indeed, when Ludwig defended a guy at the fraternity,” Jonathan told.
“OK, we heard about that,” Bastian grinned.
“Were the guys who did this ever found?” Christoph asked.
“No, never, unfortunately,” Jonathan said.
“What a history,” Bastian said. “Why are you still members of that fraternity? Or maybe even a better question, why did you ever become members? Weissenfels has more than enough other possibilities to enjoy yourselves, or to become active in student life. And the fact that I say that as born and raised Trierer tells something. Even if it has to be a fraternity, there will certainly be fraternities where the people behave in a normal way.”
“The problem is family tradition,” Ludwig said. “You know that my family is very liberal, but Odysseys was something they insisted on. You are right though, I never felt at place there.”
“But you also have to take into account that they are not all reactionary dumbheads. The only problem is that the reactionary dumbheads are the loudest,” Jonathan said. “And maybe things are going to change. The son of the Chancellor is also a member of Odysseus, and he is gathering some people to challenge the candidate board proposed by the current board. The guy has the same character as his father, and the same political views. If he gets elected, things will change.”


23:00

The head lights of Ludwig’s car lit the asphalt of the A3. He and Jonathan left Trier about an hour ago, after having dinner with Ludwig’s parents. They were on their way back to Weissenfels. Ironicly, at a time point that Jonathan’s grandfather considered so late that he invited Ludwig and Jonathan to stay for the night. Or maybe the reason was another one. He didn’t receive visitors that often.
The weather was good the whole day, until it became cloudy in the evening. It was still warm, but it became that humid type of warmth that predicted thunderstorms. Now the news reader mentioned thunderstorms in the weather forecast for Niedereiffel and Sauerland. “Whow, indeed, I just saw a lightning in the rear view mirror,” Ludwig said.
“Really?” Jonathan asked.
“Yes. Luckily far away,” Ludwig said.



20 April 2018
Oranienburg, near Trier, Eiffelland
21:00


“We have the seal stamp, we have the sealing wax, let’s proceed,” Von Stolzenau said. He broke the seal and opened King Lothar’s will.
“Hear hear. King Lothar wanted to leave the Throne to Lisa Egonstochter’s oldest son, if he could be found within a year after his death. Otherwise the Throne would have to go to his sister’s oldest son, Duke Albrecht V von Dietz-Hadamar, Duke of Sauerland. We know that the Duke acceded to the Throne two months after King Lothar died, so we can assume that no effort was taken to find Lisa Egonstochter’s son. And that means that Duke Albrecht V von Dietz-Hadamar illegally acceded to the Throne, and that King Albrecht III von Dietz-Hadamar is illegally sitting on the Throne. That would not have led to problems if Lisa Egonstochter died without a son, but her only child was a son. So the Schleifers are indeed the legal heirs to the Throne,” Von Stolzenau said.
“The will was not followed. Why not? Because it was never opened? Or because it was opened but then people decided to reseal it and pretend that it wasn’t there? I don’t think that that happened. The generals were very eager to put Duke Albrecht on the Throne, so they would have destroyed this document when they would have known its contents. So we must assume that it was never opened. Why not? Because the notary didn’t dare to mention it, for whichever reason? Or because he had forgotten about it? I think the former. You don’t forget that the King comes to you to make a will. Anyway, that is not important. The only thing that is important, is that it exists. Fact is that it was not followed. The reason why it was not followed is not important. Indeed, the Hadamars illegally succeeded to the Throne. The only caveat would be, that the King will claim that this document is a falsification. So we have to prove that it is real,” Düsenböker said.
“What should we do now to make Schleifer’s claim real?” Von Stolzenau asked.
“We have to offcially open this document in front of the descendants of Lisa Egonstochter and the descendants of King Lothar’s sister. It doesn’t make a difference which descendants though,” Düsenböker said.
“Good. Thank you. We invite Ferdinand von Weidenbruck, Prince Leopold’s son. And of course His Majesty Martinus I,” Von Stolzenau said, referring to Martinus Schleifer. Prince Leopold was the King’s uncle. In order to avoid confusion about who is part of the royal family, a descendant of Royal Princes but not of the Crown Prince got the choice to either take Wittelsbach or his or her mother’s family name as his or her own family name. Prince Leopold’s son had chosen his mother’s family name.


OOC: Songs:

Udo Jürgens – Immer wieder geht die Sonne auf

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Elton John – Border Song

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Herbert Grönemeyer – Halt mich

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Mozart – Piano Sonata No 8

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Mozart – Piano Sonata No 16

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Chopin – Nocturne opus 9 no 2




Schubert – Inpromptu no 3

 

Rheinbund

Established Nation
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
11,808
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Capital
Fehrbellin
4 May 2018
Oranienburg, near Trier, Eiffelland
19.00


Notary Berenstein was not happy with his job any more. His old boss had taken the opportunity to retire when this law firm from Landsberg offered a good amount of money. Since then, strange things happened. First, this Düsenböker whom he was forced to hire. Then since last week, these armed people whom he had to tolerate. Now he was sitting here with an old document in his hands. The document appeared to have lied in the safe of the notary even before Berenstein’s former boss had taken over the notary 30 years ago. Düsenböker had pointed him at the presence of that envelope, and had indicated that it had never been opened. It appeared to be “the will of King Lothar”. The enclosed letter indicated that the notary had to find out if a lady called Lisa Egonstochter had a son, and that this had to be done within a year after the death of King Lothar. Düsenböker told that he knew the descendants of Lisa Egonstochter’s son. It was a Retalian family called Schleifer.
Now a Retalian man named Martinus Schleifer sat in front of his desk, next to Ferdinand von Weidenbruck, Prince Leopold’s son. Schleifer had an enormous documentation making clear that he was indeed the descendant of Lisa Egonstochter’s son. Ferdinand von Weidenbruck was here as descendant of Duke Albrecht V von Dietz-Hadamar, the later King Albrecht I of Eiffelland. Berenstein broke the seal, opened the envelope and started to read aloud.
After having done so, Berenstein said: “Well, gentlemen, I don’t know what the consequences of this document are. I’m afraid there are no consequences. The notary who kept this document under his custody had the duty to find the son of Lisa Egonstochter within a year after the death of King Lothar VII. If the son of Lisa Egonstochter, or his descendant, could not be found in that year, the Throne of Eiffelland would go to the eldest son of King Lothar’s sister Charlotte, Duke Albrecht V von Dietz-Hadamar. King Lothar VII died in 1784. Now it is 2018. Mr. Schleifer, we are not one year furher, but 234 years further. The Throne passed legally over to Duke Albrecht V von Dietz-Hadamar.”
“There is one thing you overlook, Herr Notar,” Schleifer said. “Duke Albrecht V was crowned two months after King Lothar died. This means that nobody even tried to find Lisa Egonstochter’s son. And that makes the accession to the Eiffellandian Throne of Duke Albrecht V unlawful.”
“It depends, Mr. Schleifer. Duke Albrecht V acceded to the Throne as per the will of King Philipp IV. It was the duty of the notary who kept King Lothar VII’s will under his custody to find Lisa Egonstochter’s son, and then invite him and Duke Albrecht V for the opening of the will. I don’t know any reason why that notary didn’t do so, other than that he had simply forgotten that he had this will under his custody. I consider that an extremely unlikely situation; you don’t forget that the King comes to you to make his will. Another option was that he was forced to keep it closed, but why did the people forcing the notary not to open it not destroy it then? Something very strange has happened in 1784, but I don’t know what exactly. I don’t know what you intend to do with this will, but the chances are close to zero that you will get King Albrecht III off the throne by means of a lawsuit based on this document,” Berenstein said.
“Even losing that lawsuit will fit with our plans, Mr. Berenstein,” Schleifer said with a villainous smile. “Don’t underestimate the power of framing.”

Ferdinand von Weidenbruck was a bit surprised about the events here. Two weeks ago, he received a letter from this notary in Oranienburg. He was invited for the opening of the will of King Lothar VII. That was surprising. People had always presumed that King Lothar died without a will, and suddenly his will emerged on the surface. But why was it he who was invited for the opening of this will, and not the King himself? Then he was offered 10,000 Eiffelland Mark in 100 Mark notes. Money he could use. A former mistress was blackmailing him, and now he had the money to hire a Gunnish hitman and have her killed.

Düsenböker and one of the gunmen made an enormous heap of photocopies of King Lothar’s will. On top of that, the will was put under the plate of a scanner. A scanner? The office did not have a scanner! But then it appeared that the scanner was attached to a laptop. A laptop? Oh wait, it was Düsenböker’s laptop. And apparently his scanner as well. Berenstein didn’t know it any more. But he was told by these gunmen not to leave the building until he was told that he could leave.


5 May 2018
Oranienburg, near Trier, Eiffelland
06.00


The gunman shook Berenstein’s shoulder. “Mr. Berenstein!”
Berenstein frightened up. He had fallen asleep in his office chair.
“King Lothar’s will is safe now. You can go home,” the gunman said.
Berenstein tried to stand up.
Gottverdammte Scheisse!” he growled. His complete spine hurt from the atlas to the sacrum. “Tell this damned Düsenböker and this damned Bachmann not to order me again to do something like this, verdammt noch mal!” he growled to the gunman. After another series of curses, he had managed to stand up. While continuously growling a cascade of curses, he shambled to his car. Meanwhile, the sky was becoming light in the east.

The first thing he did when he reached home, was calling the police. The officer thought that he was either making a joke or going insane (“King Lothar’s will? What are you talking about?”), but he made a note in the system. Mainly because it is an offence in Eiffelland to fool the police with fake messages.


5 May 2018
Stolzenau, Eiffelland
06.00


The Duke of Stolzenau put King Lothar’s will into his safe in his office at Schloss Stolzenau. That was the only place he trusted. The safe could withstand two hours of fire, there was a high and thick wall around his estate and he had several armed guards. Stealing the will from Schloss Stolzenau would require the deployment of a Special Forces unit.
A week ago, he was at the funeral of the Duchess of Walsrode. Of course, the Royal Couple and the Crown-Princely couple attended the funeral as well; they traditionally attend funerals of Eiffellandian Dukes and Duchesses. Prince Ludwig was also there, however. His name wasn’t on the card, but he sat next to Prince Jonathan in the church. Apparently, the Duke of Walsrode had approved that. The Duke of Stolzenau understood the sign very well. Well, fine, he had enough ammunition to blow up the Royal Family’s reputation. He didn’t need the Von Walsrodes.
He didn’t need the majority of the people for his plans anyway. He knew that 30% of the people is enough to let a revolution succeed. And that 30% is relatively easy to get. There is always that 5% of the people that is chronicly dissatisfied and cannot be satisfied in whichever way. When that 5% is not handled well enough, or when its dissatisfaction is stimulated enough, it can get another 25% behind its case. It shouldn’t be that difficult to achieve that.


5 May 2018
Potsdam, Eiffelland
11:00


It took a while before the computers had coupled Berenstein with the last notary office bought by Bachmann. But then things went fast. Staatsschutzhauptkommissar Christian Schröder was called at home, and he immediately called his colleague Staatsschutzkommissar Mirko Antopoulis. Then he rushed to his car and spurted to Antopoulis’s house. Together they spurted to Berenstein’s house in Potsdam. When they rang the doorbell there, Berenstein’s wife opened.
“Good morning Mrs. Berenstein. Staatsschutz,” Schröder said while he and Antopoulis had their badges in their hands. “We would like to talk to your husband.”
“I’m awfully sorry, but my husband is asleep at the moment,” Mrs. Berenstein said. He came home from the office at seven this morning. Then he made a phone call, took two paracetamols and went to bed.”
“He made that telephone call to the police. We are here because of that. Could you please wake him up? This is important,” Schröder said.

Berenstein indicated that his back hurt too much to get down, so his wife showed Schröder and Antopoulis into the bedroom.

“Good morning Mr. Berenstein, my name is Christian Schröder, Staatsschutshauptkommissar. This is my colleague Mirko Antopoulis, Staatsschutzkommissar. First thank you for your telephone call to the police this morning. We have some questions to you about it,” Schröder said. “You said that you were forced to open and read out a document from the 18th century that was indicated as the will of King Lothar VII.”
“Yes, that is correct,” Berenstein said. “Of course I don’t know if that document is real, but it said that it was the will of King Lothar VII.”
“I don’t know if you are barred by your professional secret to talk about its contents, but could you tell us what was written in it?” Schröder asked.
“Sorry, but it is of utmost importance to us to know that,” Antopoulis said.
“Well, the will stipulated that after the death of King Lothar VII the notary had to look for the oldest son of a woman called Lisa. I forgot the last name If he could find that son within a year after King Lothar’s death, that son would be the next King. Otherwise the Throne would have to go to the Duke of Sauerland,” the notary said. “The strange thing is, that this will was never opened. I don’t know why.”
“Do you by any chance know where this will is at this moment? Is it still in your practice?” Antopoulis asked.
“No, it is not. My colleague Düsenböker took it with him. He was accompanied by four people with weapons,” Berenstein said. “And that is also the reason why I came home so late. There was also an armed man who kept me in the office until the document was ‘safe’, as he called it. AUW, my back! I fell asleep behind my desk last night. Now my whole spine hurts!”
“You had to read this will aloud to some people. What are the names of those people?” Schröder asked.
“The first man was Martinus Schleifer, a man from Retalia who showed documents indicating that he was the descendant of Lisa’s eldest son. The second man was Ferdinand von Weidenbruck, the King’s cousin, representing the descendants of the eldest sister of King Lothar,” Berenstein said.
“Do you know by any chance how this document landed in the safe of your notary office?” Antopoulis asked.
“I wouldn’t know, to be honest,” Berenstein said. “But quite a lot of strange things happened after the firm was taken over. First, we were forced to hire this Düsenböker, and then we got these armed guards in the office. Probably because of this document.”
“Thank you Mr. Berenstein, you helped us a lot. I have to tell you that the people you were confronted with are dangerous. We will arrange for personal protection for you and your family. I think it would also be wise to call in ill on Monday. Your back is a good reason for that,” Schröder said. “Until that personal protection has arrived, we will stay here. Can we use your office here for a moment?”
“Of course,” Berenstein said. “By the way, Antopoulis, that is a Pelasgian name. Are you from Pelasgia, Mr. Antopoulis?”
“No, I’m from Helgoland, Mr. Berenstein. There are quite a lot of people with Pelasgian family names there.”

“Where do you think this document can be?” Schröder asked when he closed the door of Berenstein’s home office. Now he was alone with Antopoulis.
“I don’t know. It could be Rechtspraxis Bachmann, but Stolzenau’s castle is also an option,” Antopoulis said.
“I think so too. And I also think that we have to use the extraordinary powers we got for this case,” Schröder said. “I will call the ASdS in Starnberg to have them raided Rechtspraxis Bachmann and Stolzenau’s castle.”


05 May 2018
Stolzenau, Eiffelland
21:00


One of Von Stolzenau’s guards opened the gates of a large dog kennel. Ten bloodthirsty Dobermanns ran out. Inside the wall around Schloss Stolzenau, there was also an inner fence. At night, the dogs guarded the space between the inner fence and the outer wall. The inner fence was there to prevent the dogs from falling into the canal around the castle.
Mist!” the ASdS agent spying on the house spitted. “Getting into a well-maintained medieval castle unnoticed is already difficult, but those dogs will detect us as soon as we get over the first wall. Mist!
He took his telephone to call Schröder, and informed him that raiding Stolzenau Castle would require a military operation. Schröder cancelled the operation.


06 May 2018
Landsberg, Eiffelland
04:00


The orders were clear. It had to look like a burglary. And the ASdS made it look like a burglary. The whole office of Rechtspraxis Bachmann was turned upside down. Safes were cracked, closets were opened, desks were investigated for hidden spaces. But nothing was found.


06 May 2018
Trier, Eiffelland
08:00


“OK, nothing was found in Bachmann’s office. This means that King Lothar’s will is currently in Von Stolzenau’s house, which is a well-maintained medieval castle for which we need the RSK [1] to storm it,” Schröder said. “So we cannot storm it and make it look like a burglary. We cannot even storm it and make it look like the Trivodnian mafia or a Gunnish criminal clan storming it. Antopoulis, we have to inform Farnbach about this. He will have to decide on further actions.”
“But we have a serious problem here, Schröder. Von Stolzenau is leading an armed group of people with the aim to get the King from the Throne,” Antopoulis said.
“Indeed. We have to keep our focus on him, whether we can get this will or not,” Schröder said.


OOC: Note: [1] RSK = Regiment Spezialkräfte, the special forces unit of the Eiffellandian army.
 
Last edited:

Rheinbund

Established Nation
Joined
Oct 30, 2006
Messages
11,808
Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Capital
Fehrbellin
13 May 2018
U-Bahnhof Rosenthalerplatz
Trier, Eiffelland
07:30


“Eeiinsteign biddeh … Zurückbleibn biddeh.”
Samuel Brezynski, who just changed trains from the U8 to the U11, seated himself near a window of the underground to Marzahn. The doors of the underground coach started to close while the continuous beep from outside and the interrupted beep from the inside sounded. Three guys rushed to the door of the coach Samuel was sitting in, pushed them open and got in.
“Zurückbleibn!!!!” the station chief barked. The doors closed again.

Samuel Brezynski was a 20 year old Jewish refugee from Crotobaltislavonia. He lived in a refugee shelter in Trier-Marzahn, together with his parents and sisters. Currently he was learning German, and he followed an education as plummer. He had already followed such an education in Crotobaltislavonia, but his diploma was not recognised in Eiffelland; therefore, he had to follow some additional courses. Last night he went out with a couple of friends. First they went to the Motzstraße, but left there soon when they discovered that that street was part of the Trierer gay-scene. Then they went to the large club Metropol at the Nollendorfplatz.
At a certain moment, Samuel saw how three guys molested a girl. He tried to stop them, but then the other guys pushed him back. A glass collector saw that and notified the guards. The three guys were thrown out. The girl thanked Samuel, and started to talk with him. Shortly after, they went to the girl’s room in Kreuzberg. Samuel’s friends stayed in the Metropol for some more hours.
Now Samuel was travelling home from the girl’s room in Kreuzberg. The night had been extatic. Samuel was still enjoying the sex. Her screams were extreme when she came, and Samuel made her come three times. They had exchanged telephone numbers. Samuel would see that he would show up with flowers once in the coming week.

Samuel left the U-bahn at the station Springpfuhlstraße. This was the area where he lived: Concrete 10-floor flat buildings along a wide boulevard. The middle of the boulevard was a large strip with all kinds of bushes. Originally the road was designed with a tramway in the middle, but then the Trierer community decided to replace all tramways in Trier with buslines.
He didn’t notice that the three guys who jumped into the U-Bahn earlier came after him. His thoughts were too much occupied with the images of Karin’s naked body to take note of his surroundings. Only when he felt the grab on his shoulder did he realise that he was followed. He immediately recognised the guys: They were the guys from the Metropol.
“Sooooo … You fucking Croto Jew dare to tell us what we can do with our girls and what not!” one of them said. Then he punched him in the stomach.
“And then you fuck her with your cut prick!” the second guy said, and kicked against his knee. Samuel screamed loudly when one of the collateral ligaments ruptured. He fell to the ground, his lower leg in a strange position next to him.
“Let us tell you one thing, you fucking Croto! Even with an Eiffellandian pass, you’re not an Eiffellandian, so you keep your hands off of our girls!” the third guy said while kicking Samuel in the face. Samuel felt how the bones around his eye splintered. “And another thing, we do with our girls whatever we want, even if you Crotos don’t like it! CLEAR?” One more kick in Samuel’s face. Now it was a row of teeth that was shattered. Samuel lost his consciousness. “CLEAR?!!” the guy shouted one more time, and kicked Samuel in the stomach. “FUCKING CROTO JEW, ANSWER ME!!!” the guy screamed, and kicked Samuel in the balls, once more in the stomach and again in the face.
“Hanno, leave it, he’ll surely know by now,” one of the other guys said. They left, not caring for Samuel’s condition.

A quarter of an hour later, Samuel was found by a man walking his dog. But he was already dead at that moment.


17 May 2018
Weissenfels, Eiffelland
18:00


It was warm in Weissenfels. The temperature rose to 26 degrees celsius, and the skies were cloudless. Ludwig opened the door for Jonathan. They would travel to Trier together on the next day to celebrate Whitsuntide with the Royal Family at Jagdschloss Glienicke. It would be the first time for Ludwig’s brothers Friedrich, Johann and Wolfgang to meet Jonathan as Ludwig’s boyfriend. Tonight they planned to go to the cinema together.
“Come in,” Ludwig said. “I have some shirts to iron, but let’s go after that.”
Although he officially still lived in his room in another part of the city, Jonathan spent quite a lot of time at Ludwig’s place. Basically, they spent the weekends together, and sometimes Jonathan slept at Ludwig’s place on weekdays.
Ludwig was so precise on his clothes, that he even ironed his polo shirts and sports clothing. Furthermore, his shirts always had the perfect folds. While he ironed the last shirt, Jonathan approached him from the back, embraced him, kissed him in the neck and shifted this hands under Ludwig’s shirt. Ludwig giggled “hey, I have to finish this shirt,” but pressed himself against Jonathan’s body.
A few minutes later, the shirt was ready. Ludwig put it over a shirt hanger and hanged the hanger in his wardrobe. Then Jonathan approached him from the back again, embraced him, kissed him in the neck and put his hands under Ludwig’s shirt again. Ludwig pressed his body to Jonathan’s body, and laid his head in Jonathan’s neck.
“Ludwig, Ludwig, Ludwig,” Jonathan said, and kissed Ludwig in the neck.
“Always the same with you and your clothes,” Jonathan said. Kiss in Ludwig’s neck.
Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas,” Jonathan said. Kiss in Ludwig’s neck.
“And that while you don’t wear any clothes at the most important moments of your life,” Jonathan said. Kiss in Ludwig’s neck.
“And when are those most important moments then?” Ludwig giggled.
“When you’re born … And when you’re making love,” Jonathan grinned, and placed a long‑lasting love-bite in Ludwig’s neck. Within seconds, they undressed each other and started to make love.

Ludwig was lying on his belly on his bed. Jonathan was lying partly on him. Ludwig placed a kiss on Jonathan’s arm, and then started to giggle.
Warum lachst du?” Jonathan asked. {size=1]Why are you laughing?[/size]
Jonathan, du bist ein Witzbold,” Ludwig giggled. {size=1]Jonathan you are a joker.[/size]
Danke, ich lieb dich auch,” Jonathan said, playing to feel insulted. {size=1]Thanks, I love you too.[/size]
Ludwig places a series of kisses on Jonathan’s arm. “Dein Humor ist nur einer der Gründe, dich zu lieben,” Ludwig smiled. {size=1]Your sense of humor is only one of the reasons to love you.[/size]
Ludwig turned on his side, embraced Jonathan, started to kissed kiss him passionately, squeezed him fiercely and turned him on his back. Then they started to make love again.


18 May 2018
Weissenfels, Eiffelland
00:00


La Pinta is a gay cocktail bar in Weissenfels. The people coming to this bar are mainly students and young professionals. Erwin, a beautrician who always wears club-outfit and is not really bright, is one of the regulars in this bar. Tonight he was extremely happy. He saw an extremely handsome and musculous guy, and melted away. He approached him and started to talk to him. The man’s name appeared to be Tobias. Within ten minutes, they were kissing intensely. This night would be exciting!
But then he heard an enormous noise. A group of people raided the bar. They started to kick and bash the people on the terrace and in the front part of the bar. A panic emerged, and the people ran into the back part of the bar. Suddenly Erwin saw a light blonde guy kick two of the raiders against the chests and one in the face. It looked like the blonde guy flew. The other raiders retreated a bit. The blonde guy looked extremely hard at the raiders and said: “I warn you that I’m a blackbelter in Taekwon-do ... Normally I have to say that before the fight begins, but you didn’t leave me the time to do so.”
Erwin heard one of the raiders say “let me pass” to his friends. The blonde guy himself was slightly taller than the average Eiffellandian but not really musculous. The raider who moved himself forward was a giant, however. He was two meters tall and packed with muscles.
“So you are a blackbelter in Taekwon-do. Which Dan-degree?” the giant asked.
“I am second Dan,” the blonde guy said sharply, without a sign of fear in his face or voice. Amazing, because the giant seemed to be able, and eager, to break him into many pieces.
“Interesting … I am fourth Dan … in Kyokushin Karate,” the giant said.
Click! “And I have a licence to kill,” somebody said sharply. He had a gun in his hand. Erwin heard three more clicks. There were three more men with guns. One of them was Tobias.
Königlicher Garde. Ihr seid verhaftet. Hände hoch. Kniet nieder,” the first man said sharply to the raiders. The raiders started to kneel down. “Schneller!!” the man shouted when the raiders didn’t kneel down fast enough. When they were all on their knees, the man said sharply: “Jetzt legt euch nieder, auf dem Bauch.” The raiders laid down on their bellies. “Ich warne euch, eine Bewegung, und wir schiessen,” the man said sharply, warning that he would shoot when the men moved.
Erwin heard police sirens. Two more men came in, with a couple of straps in their hands. “Sorry for the delay, but three of them tried to escape. We captured them outside,” one of the men said. They bound the hands of the raiders together with straps. The police arrived. The men with the guns and the men with the straps identified themselves with passes. After the police took the raiders with them, Erwin went to Tobias and embraced him.
“Oh, Tobias, you were a hero,” he said.
But Tobias suddenly appeared to be someone else. He gently moved Erwin’s arms from his body. “I’m awfully sorry, Erwin, but I’m straight,” Tobias said.
“Straight? How come that you started to kiss me then?” Erwin asked. He was completely baffled.
“I am a member of the Königlicher Garde. I am here to protect His Highness Prince Ludwig. But it is part of my job to do so while being ‘a part of the crowd’, so to say. We have to be there, but the people should not know who the Prince’s guards are. Otherwise somebody who wants to kidnap the Prince immediately knows who to take out. That also means that we have to appear as gays when in a gay bar. Tonight you were part of my disguise. Sorry that I abused your feelings, but the conversation went into such a direction that I couldn’t refuse you without blowing up my disguise,” Tobias said.
“But you definitely liked it, otherwise you wouldn’t have kissed this way,” Erwin said, not completely understanding the situation.
“Sorry, but I was playing a role. I completely understand that there are guys with feelings for guys, and I don’t have problems with that, but kissing and making love to guys is definitely not my thing. However, I swore an oath to protect the Royal Family, so if I have to sacrifice my sexual preferences to do so, I do so. I would even have made love with you for that, no matter how much that would disgust me,” Tobias said.
“Then those raiders definitely came too early,” Erwin said.
Tobias started to laugh. “For you, yes. For me, they came perfectly on time,” he laughed.

“Your Highness, we have to leave now. Our disguises have been blown up,” one of the guards said to Ludwig.
“I just paid our bills, Herr Feldwebel. From my point of view, we can leave,” Ludwig said. Then he saw Jonathan cry. “Oh, one moment,” he said. He took Jonathan in his arms, and asked: “What’s wrong?”
“That giant could have broken you into pieces,” Jonathan cried. After some moments, he continued: “I know that it is part of your security protocol that you defend yourself as well, but why didn’t you leave it to the guards this time? … Ludwig, I don’t want to see you killed by a murderous giant.”
Ludwig fondled Jonathan over his hair. “I’m sorry, Jonathan,” he said. After a few moments, he said again: “I’m sorry.” He himself stood a bit shaky on his feet as well. He hadn’t shown any fear, but he did feel the fear. Kyokushin Karate is the most severe form of Karate. A second Dan Taekwon‑Do is no match by any means to a fourth Dan Kyokushin Karate.
“Do you know what went through my mind? What could have happened if those guys would have caught you? I don’t want to see you die in the hands of a couple of murderous mobbers, either. That’s why I stepped in,” Ludwig said. He started to cry as well. “Why do people hate us so much?” Ludwig asked.

He did fear that those mobbers would kill Jonathan. Despite the fact that there was room for a lover in his life again, the trauma of seeing your lover being murdered had not completely disappeared from him.
Apart from that, he couldn’t have done anything else tonight. The men he knocked down were heading towards him and Jonathan, so he had to act. If he wouldn’t have acted, the guards would have had to shoot to free him, with all risks attached. And after he acted, all the hatred of the raiders was pointed at him. No retreat was possible at that moment. It could have been better though if the guards would have stepped in earlier. He would discuss that in the evaluation of the events tomorrow.
But he couldn’t share these thoughts with Jonathan. He had done the right thing, but Jonathan wouldn’t understand. Maybe later, but not now. It was clear that Jonathan didn’t have a notion of what to do in a situation like this one. Apart from the Royal Princes, Eiffellandian young noblemen were not streetwise at all with respect to handling groups of drunk angry people. Children of noblemen and captains of industry were usually trained on what to do in the case of a kidnapping, but only the Royal Princes got extensive security trainings, including martial arts. Part of the security training was learning about the group dynamics in an angry and aggressive group of people, especially when those people were drunk. As a result, the Royal Princes knew what happened on the street, although that was not completely the same as being streetwise.

Ten minutes later, Ludwig, Jonathan and the guards left the bar. Erwin looked at them, especially at Tobias. Then he said to the bartender: “Give me a Silas Keith’s. I need it now.” The bartender gave him one. He drank it in one shot. Then he started to talk.
“So Prince Ludwig was here. The angelprince himself,” he said.
“Man, the whole pub was talking about that from the moment they came in. It is amazing that you didn’t notice earlier,” one of the other guests said.
“Well, I was in a conversation with someone,” Erwin tried to defend himself.
“Indeed, in a very intense conversation with one of Prince Ludwig’s guests,” somebody laughed. “You were hoping that the guy would nail you, and then he appears to be straight!”
“Yeah, please do remind me of that,” Erwin said.
 

Rheinbund

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Location
Rotterdam, Netherlands
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Fehrbellin
23 May 2018
U-bahnhof Adenauerplatz
Trier, Eiffelland
22:00


There was one thing Joseph Yezernitzky couldn’t get used to in his new home country: The fact that men kissed each other in public as if they were in a relationship. Disgusting. That didn’t happen in his old home Crotobaltislavonia. Well, maybe it did happen, but then behind closed doors. Unbelievable that Eiffelland was so tolerant towards homosexuality. And a shame. Of course he was thankful for the fact that Eiffelland took him up after he had to flee from Crotobaltislavonia, but this homosexuality thing was something terrible. Something filthy.

This evening, it was too much. He had been refused for a job, he had just been refused by a girl (“Hände weg, du Scheisskroto” (get your hands off of me, you fucking Croto)), and now these two guys in the underground who continuously kissed each other. At this underground station, he had to change trains from the U1 to the U7. While getting out of the underground coach, he saw the gay couple getting out as well. They happened to go to the same platform as he did. When the two started to kiss again, Joseph lost his rag. He went to the two gays and hit them both in the face. Both guys fell on the floor. Then he started to kick them.
But suddenly he felt someone pulling him away from the gays. Then he himself got a punch in the face. He couldn’t open one of his eyes any more. He saw with his good eye someone who was short for an Eiffellandian. The brown hair, brown eyes and slightly tanned skin of this guy were also a bit atypical. But despite his lack of length, the guy had quite some strength in his arms, and a pretty good punch.
The guy grabbed Joseph in his hair. Then he started to talk. In perfect German with a slight Trierer accent. “Now listen to me. I know that you’re from Crotobaltislavonia, and I don’t mind. But when you attack gays just because they’re kissing each other in public, you’re violating exactly the principles because of which we let you flee from your death and allowed you into our country. I don’t mind if you have a problem with two guys kissing each other, but leave them alone. Understood?”
Joseph said: “Yes.”
Then the guy let Joseph go, walked back to his girlfriend, and wrapped his arm around her. He had just done something he wouldn’t have done seven years ago. Not that he never was a fighter; actually, he was a fighter, and still practiced kickboxing. Seven years ago, however, he would not have started to fight to defend two gays. He used to be a member of the far right movement, but was thrown out of it years ago. Afterwards he began to change his views. His name was Reinholdt Weizenburg. He had to leave the "von" out of his name due to his distance from the current Baroness of Weizenburg. Nowadays he was a second‑year student at the Technische Universität Trier, just like his gay cousin.


24 May 2018
Villach, Eiffelland
22:00


The 17 years old Vassily Porotkin was a Crotobaltislavonian, but he wasn’t a Jew. He fled his mother country because of a different reason. He was gay. When the Jews flew Crotobaltislavonia, he took the opportunity, ran away from home and flew the country amidst the stream of Jewish refugees. When the Eiffellandians started to take up refugees from Crotobaltislavonia, he immediately applied for a place in Eiffelland, and got one. Now he was living in a youth shelter in Villach, and followed classes to obtain the Abitur. Because he was still a minor, the Villacher Jugendamt had assigned him to a guardian. He wanted to study here in Eiffelland. Biology. After that, he wanted to do something in ecology.
But now he walked to the bus with his boyfriend Sepp. The local gay rights association organised a bar evening for gays and lesbians under 27 years old every Thursday evening. Vassily was allowed to go there, but had to be back in the youth shelter before half past ten. He would have rebelled against such a rule back in Crotobaltislavonia, but he wanted to stick to the rules here. He was too thankful for the chances he got here, and for the fact that he could avoid working camps in Crotobaltislavonia. That was also the reason why he hadn’t made love to Sepp yet. Sepp wanted to, but he was still 15, and Vassily thought that the age of consent was 16. But Sepp would celebrate his 16th birthday tomorrow. Vassily was invited for the party, and they would go on a biking tour outside Villach together on the next day, after their weekend jobs. Sepp’s parents knew about their relationship, and didn’t have a problem with it.

“Hey, Schwulis!” Vassily and Sepp frightened up. They looked backwards, and saw four big guys. Vassily and Sepp knew very well that they could not hold hands or embrace each other in public. Villach was a different city than Trier, Köln, Weissenfels, Ingelheim, Bremen and Lübeck with that respect. So in public they just behaved like two friends.
“We saw you leave that gay rights thing together. Are you going to have sex at home?” the largest one said.
“Leave us alone,” Sepp shouted.
“Why should we, Schwuchtelchen?” the guy asked. The four walked towards Vassily and Sepp. They ran away, but were outrun by the four guys. The largest guy grabbed Sepp by the hair, and slapped him in the face.
“Now let’s get one thing clear, Schwuchtelchen. I am the one giving the orders here. Not you,” he said. Then he punched him in the stomach.
“Hey, stop it!” Vassily shouted. He tried to loosen the guy’s hands from Sepp, but failed. The guy was too strong. Instead, he grabbed Vassily in his hair, and pulled his head backwards. Vassily kicked the guy in his balls. Immediately he loosened his grip on Vassily and Sepp. They tried to run away, but were stopped by the other three.
Verdammt noch mal! Scheisskroto!” the largest guy screamed. He walked to Vassily and Sepp. “I’ll take care of the Croto, you three take care of the other Schwuli!” he screamed. He grabbed Vassily by the hair again, and stomped him in the stomach.
“So you come here to seduce Eiffellandian young boys, huh?” the guy screamed. Then he gave Vassily another stomp in the stomach. Vassily saw how Sepp fell to the ground while he was molested by the other three. Sepp’s head made a very nasty smash on the ground. Then Vassily lost consciousness.

When the bus arrived, the four guys fled away. The bus driver halted the bus, ran out, and found both guys unconscious. He immediately notified the police, called for ambulances and notified the bus company that he would stay until the ambulances arrived.

“We are still operating him. Sepp has an epidural bleed and a cheek bone fracture. Originally we were afraid of a basilar skull fracture, but fortunately that did not happen,” a doctor said to Sepp’s parents. Sepp and Vassily had been taken to the University Hospital by helicopter. “Unfortunately, it is too early to say anything about the outcome. What we can say, however, is that these guys were extremely brutal. Sepp is extremely heavily injured.”
“Is he going to make it,” Sepp’s mother asked.
“I can’t tell at this moment. Sorry, but it is too early,” the doctor said.

“We are still operating him. Vassily has several abdominal bleeds and several rib fractures. Luckily the rib fractures did not perforate anything,” another doctor said to a representant of the Jugendamt. “Unfortunately, it is too early to say anything about the outcome. What we can say, however, is that these guys were extremely brutal. Vassily is extremely heavily injured, and Sepp’s situation is even more severe.”
“Is he going to make it,” the representant of the Jugendamt asked.
“I can’t tell at this moment. Sorry, but it is too early,” the doctor said.


28 May 2018
Staatsschutz headquarters
Trier, Eiffelland


“Where does it come from, this sudden increase in violence against gays, Jews and foreigners? Did a new GEL emerge?” Von Seydewitz asked.
“No, that is not the case. Of course shortly after King Lothar’s will emerged, we got that obscure organisation that honours Martinus Schleifer as Prince-Regent of Eiffelland, but that organisation is not big enough to consider a new GEL,” director of the department of rightwing extremism Bartsch said. “These outbursts of violence are not organised by an organisation, but seem to emerge spontaneously. Something that also happened earlier, even during the times of the GEL, but now it happens far more often than before. It looks like this March on Trier has a larger impact than we originally anticipated. It does not stop at a sudden increase in popularity of the PCL and the Volksunion.”
“This sounds badly. Apparently we have an increasing number of people who agree with far right ideas but don’t set up an organisation. This is far more difficult to tackle than the GEL. As soon as we knew who were the members of that organisation, we knew whom to follow and whom to arrest. But now we don’t know it any more, because we don’t know who they are,” Von Seydewitz said.
“Well, they don’t set up a GEL, but sometimes they do organise themselves. For instance, the raid of La Pinta in Weissenfels was discussed in a chatbox beforehand. We managed to crack it and track down all the people in that chatbox,” director of the computer department Joachim Moers said.
“That is indeed another question I have. Was this raid pointed at Prince Ludwig?” Von Seydewitz asked.
“No, it was not. That raid was solely motivated by hatred towards gays in general. It was a typical case of wrong place wrong time,” Bartsch said.


25 May 2018
Headquarters of the Villacher police
Villach, Eiffelland


“The Staatsschutz delivered us the mobile phone data. There were five mobile phones at the location where Sepp and Vassily were mobbed at the moment the mobbing took place. All five are prepaid models. One of them belongs to Sepp,” Kriminalhauptkommissar Schmidt said.
“Prepaid. So no phone subscriptions, and no contracts,” Kriminalkommissar Pocher said.
“And no names,” Schmidt said. “But I already have an idea. We ask the Staatsschutz to supply us the equipment to follow these phones. At a certain moment, we find out where these guys live. And then we have names.”


29 May 2018
Headquarters of the Villacher police
Villach, Eiffelland


“So we have them all. And we linked them to the crime,” Schmidt said. “The only problem is to find out who did what.”
“I also have good news from the hospital. Sepp and Vassily are conscious again. They will make it. And more importantly, they will be able to identify the four,” Pocher said.
“Then we have enough to put them behind bars for five years,” Schmidt said.


Villacher University hospital

“How do you feel, Vassily?” Schmidt asked.
“Badly,” Vassily said. “Exactly because this was the reason why I fled Crotobaltislavonia. If this kind of things also happen here, then why did I flee?”
“I completely understand your feelings,” Schmidt said. “Believe me, I hate it that I couldn’t prevent this. But not complete Eiffelland is like the persons who attacked you. The majority of the people here are like Sepp’s parents. And there is a difference between this country and Crotobaltislavonia. Here a gay can go to the police when he is harrassed or molested, and the police will help him. We did everything we could to find the culprits. And the public prosecutor will demand seven years imprisonment for all four. Believe me, the Eiffellandian police are there for the good‑willing and law‑abiding people. By the way, we are arranging for extra police surveillance for the surroundings of the gay rights organisation in Villach, so that people can go there safely, and can go home from there safely.”


6 June 2018
Trier, Eiffelland
20:00


“After the King appointed all the Ministers and State Secretaries, the new ministers went to their respective ministries to sign for the hand-over of the duties. Chancellor Dr. Stephan Röpke went to the Ministry for Economic Affairs first to hand his duties as Minister of Economic Affairs over to Minister Dr. Habil. Ariel Rubinstein, and then he went to the Chancellery so that Chancellor a.D. Graf von Seydewitz could hand his duties over to him,” the television speakers in the living room of Günther Ziesche told.
Ziesche’s face started to form an evil grin. “Leb wohl, Von Seydewitz,” he said. “Du bist von der Bühne verschwunden, aber die Volksunion ist noch da. Und ich auch. Du bist so stolz weil du die GEL ‘zerlegt’ hast, aber das war ein Pyrrhussieg. Du wirst noch sehen dass die Volkswut sich nicht ‘zerlegen’ lässt.Farewell, Von Seydewitz. You disappeared from the stage, but the Volksunion is still there. You are so proud of having ‘dismantled’ the GEL, but that was a Pyrrhic victory. You will see that the popular anger can’t be ‘dismantled’.
 

Rheinbund

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23 June 2018
Stolzenau Castle
Stolzenau, Eiffelland


This time the crowd was larger than the previous time. But the ceremony was the same. Martinus Schleifer was sitting in a chair, wearing a ring with a large diamond. Now it was a ring he had made himself, but he was convinced that it would be the Lion Ring soon. The Lion Ring, part of the Crown Jewels, only to be worn by the King of Eiffelland. But now it was still the ring he made. All people present kissed his ring. Then the speeches started.

“Gentlemen,” Schleifer started, “We have good news. What we already knew, we now know for sure. We obtained King Lothar’s will, which indicated that he wanted to pass the Throne of Eiffelland to the eldest son of Lisa Egonstochter. We will start the campaign to depose the imposter king right away.”


15 November 2018
Stolzenau Castle
Stolzenau, Eiffelland-Retalia


The campaign had started promising. But then the war started, and nobody was paying any attention to the news about King Lothar’s last will. Yet another reason for Von Stolzenau to hate the Communists. This war had delayed his plans for three months. And of course he wasn’t ready for the new elections. He needed at least a year of propaganda to turn the people against the Royal Family and the CDV. Well, at least one thing had changed positively. Ferdinand Jung was a pupil of Von Seydewitz, but his political career was over. Maybe he could go back to his submarine. It remained to be seen what kind of man the new political leader of the CDV, Roland Rheinfeld, was. Economicly, he was clearly a pupil of Dr. Röpke. Also in the litteral sense of the word: As a student, Rheinfeld followed classes from Dr. Röpke at the Universität der Stadt Trier. On the other hand, Rheinfeld had the flair Von Seydewitz had as well. It remained to be seen to what kind of Chancellor the combination of Von Seydewitz flair and economic teachings by Dr. Röpke would lead


26 November 2018
Köln, Eiffelland-Retalia
21:00


Hey Kölle, do ming Stadt am Rhing, he wo ich jroß jewode ben. Do bes en Stadt met Hätz un Siel. Hey Kölle, do bes a Jeföhl.

The 19 year old Michael Wurms didn’t expect to hear this song from the stage at the Christmas Market next to the Kölner Dom. He would rather expect it during Carnival, or in one of the pubs. But he heard it now, at the Christmas Market. It was a song in Kölsch dialect, a song in which the city was lauded. The translation of the chorus was: “Hey Köln, you my city at the Rhine, here where I grew up, you are a city with heart and soul, hey Köln, you are a feeling.” The band Höhner played it on the stage where the Christmas Market was officially opened two hours ago, after having played some popular Christmas songs.
In June of this year, Michael absolved the Gymnasium, the highest level of secondary education in Eiffelland‑Retalia. Now he was serving his two-years society service at one of the hospitals in Köln. When that was over, he would go to University, probably here in Köln. But now he was at the Christmas Market, together with his girlfriend.
In three weeks time, he would have to vote again, for the third time in his life. The last two times, he had voted Grün, but now he didn’t know what to vote. Also he had made an analysis of the war, and that analysis led to a conclusion that was negative towards Grün.
But now he was at the Christmas Market. He decided to buy a Lebkuchenherz (cake in the form of a heart) for his girlfriend.


30 November 2018
Rügen, Eiffelland-Retalia


Eiffelland-Retalia was still part of a space program cooperation with Bourgogne. As a result, Eiffelland had a rocket launching site in Rügen. Today a rocket was launched from here. It contained a satellite that was described in the media as a weather satellite, but it was a spy satellite. During the war, Eiffelland and Retalia had lost all their spy satellites; they had been destroyed by Rurikgrad Pact missiles. Now it was time to launch new spy satellites. The one launched today would be the first of a series.
 
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