31MAY2025
Fehrbellin, Eiffelland
Prince Ludwig’s telephone gave the wake-up signal. It was 7:30 on a Saturday morning. Ludwig had a busy day in front of him. He was the best man at the wedding of Bastian Holzbrenner and Christoph von Weizenburg, so he had to organise the day. He was responsible for the programme, actually for everything. He turned to Jonathan and kissed him on the forehead.
“
Morgen,” he said with a smile.
“
Morgen,” Jonathan replied.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Not really. I shouldn’t take my work home, but when the condition of a nine year old child suddenly deteriorates, it’s impressive. Luckily I saw it on time. Unfortunately at the end of my shift, but that is medicine. I immediately started antibiotics and antivirals, and ordered a blood culture. After that, she improved. Hopefully she makes it. But that was the reason why I came home so late yesterday. She was not the only one who needed extra care; the next shift was already busy. I hope you arranged for a lot of coffee at the wedding.”
“Normally people would be worried about beer and wine rather than about coffee,” Ludwig giggled. “But don’t worry, there will be coffee. Anyway, we have to be at Christoph’s and Bastian’s house at 10, in morning dress. Let’s get up.”
In Christoph’s and Bastian’s apartment in Wilmersdorf, the telephone sounded its wake-up signal a bit later, at 8:00. Both were lying naked under their sheets. Bastian kissed Christoph in the neck.
“
Morgen. Ready for the big day?”
“Absolutely,” Christoph said, “although I think that the things we did last night should actually have been saved for tonight.”
“Why? A good confirmation of why we want to marry can also be provided the night before, I think,” Bastian grinned. “And we can still do it again tonight. Anyway, let’s get dressed.”
At 10am, Ludwig, Jonathan, Bastian’s parents and brother with girlfriend, and Christoph’s sister with husband, Christoph’s father’s brother with wife plus children and spouses were present at Christoph’s and Bastian’s apartment in Wilmersdorf. The men were wearing morning dress, and the women were wearing gowns with hats. The
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arrived, and everybody went to the Evangelic-Lutheran Church in Wilmersdorf for the wedding ceremony. Christoph and Bastian had arranged that that ceremony would count as both the civil marriage and the religious marriage.
It would have been more symbolic if they would have married on the 1st of June, because it was the 1st of June 2011 that they got a relationship. But the 1st of June 2025 was a Sunday, and no marriages are closed on Sundays. So Bastian Holzbrenner and Christoph von Weizenburg married one day earlier, on the 31st of May, and then celebrated into their 14th relationship anniversary.
The formal “afternoon dinner” took place at the wedding venue on the river bank of the Havel, in the afternoon. To honour the fact that Christoph and Bastian are vegetarians, the food was vegetarian. And delicious.
Ludwig not only had to organise things, he also had to speech as the best man. And so he did. It was also his task to read out loud the telegrams of congratulation, and so he did. But he had arranged for one thing. Given Christoph’s history, he anticipated that some of the telegrams of congratulation would not congratulate but insult or threaten the couple, so he asked one of his body guards to screen the telegrams before they would be read out loud. And indeed, there were some insulting telegrams, among others one from a certain Sabine Erpel. The Eiffellandian secret service RND and the
Reichskriminalamt had made it crystal clear to the far right movement to not touch Christoph and Bastian, but verbal insults could not be prevented. Ludwig’s caringness paid out: None of the insulting telegrams were read out.
There is an etiquette rule regarding morning dress and evening dress. One should not be worn after six, and the other not before. Women have it easy with this rule: They just have to take their hats off. But it is different for men: They have to completely switch clothes. Therefore, the complete venue had been rented, so that the men could change there. That also meant that all men had taken an extra set of clothes with them. At six, after the reception, all men went to their rooms to change into tuxedos.
Ferdinand Strauss, Bastian’s boss at the RND, bound to a wheelchair, wheeled to the room where Ludwig and Jonathan changed.
Ludwig and Jonathan hadn’t put on their jackets yet when Strauss wheeled in.
“Good evening, gentlemen,” he said.
“Good evening, Herr Strauss,” Ludwig said.
“All the telegrams you read out were positive telegrams. I had expected some insulting ones.”
“I don’t know if there were, but I had them sorted out. I asked one of my guards to check the telegrams of congratulation and filter out the insulting ones, if any. If Christoph or Bastian will ask about them, we have to be honest, I think, but as long as they don’t ask, they don’t need to know.”
“I understand, Your Highness. Thank you for your caringness.”
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“Christoph, my love, and now also my husband,” Bastian started his speech at the beginning of the evening party. “On the first day we met, you already showed one of your good characteristics: Your generosity. I stood there with completely destroyed clothing after a demo, and you spent 200 Marks to reclothe me. Afterwards, we built up a friendship that eventually turned into a relationship. A relationship that started in a turbulent way. You knew that your father would reject our relationship, but you decided to stand up against him. That perfectly describes your courage. You took the first step, you put your arm around my shoulders in the
H-Zug to Bad Hersfeld, in the evening of Wednesday 1 June 2011, the day before Ascension Day. When I asked about your father, you put an earphone into my ear and played ‘
Fütter deine Angst’ by Rosenstolz. That song will open the ball. We fed our fears for your father and his friends, went through walls instead of doors, went through hell, and came out victorious. We obtained our
Abitur, did our society service, went to study, and obtained our
Magister grades. Now we both are working for a better future of the world. It was at the start of the Ascension Day weekend that we got a relationship; it is during the Ascension Day weekend that we marry. Dear friends, family and colleagues, thank you for joining us on the day that Christoph and I confirmed our love for each other. This is a very important moment in our life together; we are very grateful that you join us in this moment.”
“Bastian, my love, my husband,” Christoph said, “also I refer to the day we met. You showed your protectiveness by guiding me away from the massive fight that demo had turned into. At that moment, I still wanted to live a straight life despite sensing that there was something different in me. It was you who made me realise that I wasn’t into women but into men. It was also you who stimulated me to go the path that would make me happy instead of the path my father wanted me to follow. It led to a very dramatic rift with my father. The last time we saw him was in the court room, when he was sentenced. Wednesday 1 June 2011 was the first day that I started to live a life that would make me happy. A life with you. I have never regretted the step I took on that day, and will never regret it. I also want to take the opportunity to thank Aunt Uschi, Uncle Gregor, Helene and Reinhold for taking Hilde and me up after our father was arrested and technically we had become orphans. Dear friends, family and colleagues, also from my side thank you for joining us on this very important day, the day that Bastian and I confirmed our love for each other. I am extremely happy that you are in our lives. Like now, the Ascension Day weekend of 2011 was hot. Bastian and I were at the beach of Bad Hersfeld then. One song was extremely popular in Eiffelland at that time. It was a song from an artist from New Zeeland, an island in the Gulf of Josepánia. That song will also be played tonight.”
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Neither Bastian nor Christoph referred to Susanne Kretschmar and Heike Leebrick, the couple who asked Christoph and Bastian to donate sperm. Christoph and Bastian, who decided to be responsible, would financially support Susanne and Heike and their children. The house in Wannsee they would live in had partly been bought with Christoph’s assets. Christoph and Bastian would not take part in raising the children though; they considered Bastian’s work at the RND and Christoph’s past with the far right movement too risky for Susanne, Heike and the children. Also the financial support was channelled in a complex way to mask that the money came from Christoph and Bastian.
Ludwig and Jonathan had problems with their marriage wishes and child wishes. The House Rules of House Walsrode were not that difficult to change, but those of House Heidemar were. The last time that they were changed was in 1780, initially against the will of the head of the Segimersche Linie, who was highly indebted and short before bankruptcy. The head of House Heidemar offered to pay off the debts and the dispute was settled.
But the current head of the Segimersche Linie was financially much better off, and with that not bribable. When Ludwig would marry Jonathan, he would loose his rights to the Throne of Lotharingen, and his apanage. It didn’t matter much, Ludwig was number 6 in the line of succession, but it felt wrong. Ludwig’s father, the King of Lotharingen, would love to change the situation, but he couldn’t. The House Rules could only be changed when the head of the Segimersche linie would allow it.
Basically, Ludwig had only one option if he wanted his children to become members of House Heidemar: He had to marry a woman and conceive children with her. And that woman had to be of equal birth, i.e. minimally from a Ducal family. In theory, Ludwig could have secretly married a Princess after which she would have used medical techniques to get pregnant from Ludwig without them having to sleep with each other, but there was no Princess with whom Ludwig and Jonathan had enough of a “click” to raise children with, while Ludwig and Jonathan continued their relationship. So Ludwig had taken the very heavy decision to give up his rights to the Throne of Lotharingen. In theory, however, he would still be eligible to the Imperial Throne. The rules prescribed that only male heads of state and their fathers, legitimate brothers and legitimate sons were eligible for the Imperial Throne, but they did not exclude legitimate sons without succession rights to the Thrones of their memberstates.
In any case, Ludwig’s decision to give up his rights to the Throne of Lotharingen had paved the way for his marriage with Jonathan, and paved the way for conceiving children with a lesbian couple they could share custody with.
The party lasted until four the next morning. It was really dancing into the day of their relationship anniversary. Everybody celebrated Christoph and Bastian and celebrated the freedom that Eiffelland offered. The alcohol flew freely. The only persons who remained sober, were the ones who had to drive and the ones who didn’t want to drink for other reasons.
Both Ludwig and Jonathan limited themselves on their alcohol intake. They had taken half a glass of white wine during the fish dish and half a glass of red wine during the meat dish. And then at the start of the ball a glass of champaign. Ludwig wanted to keep his thoughts clear, because he was the ceremony master. Jonathan didn’t feel well, so he kept his alcohol intake limited as well. Apart from the two half glasses during the afternoon dinner and the glass of champaign, they sticked to coffee and mineral water, where Jonathan drank a more coffee than Ludwig.
The sky in the east was already lighting up when the party ended and the guests went home, but Ludwig and Jonathan still had work to do. It was 5am when they walked to their car.
“Ludwig, could you please drive? I am really tired,” Jonathan said.
Ludwig looked at Jonathan with a concerned look. “OK, I will drive,” he said.
Christoph and Bastian were a bit tipsy when they entered the hotel room after the wedding party. From there, they would go on their honeymoon trip to Natal the next day. They wrapped their arms around each other and kissed.
“Oh, Bastian, I am so happy,” Christoph said.
“Me too,” Bastian said. He kissed Christoph on the nose. “I love you, Christoph.”
“I love you too, Bastian,” Christoph said.
Then they started to kiss again. Christoph loosened the bow tie of Bastian’s tuxedo. Bastian did the same with Christoph’s bow tie. Then they took off each other’s jackets and each other’s shoes, and started to kiss again. Then, while kissing, they loosened each other’s suspenders, dropped each other’s trousers, removed each other’s vests, opened each other’s shirts, took off each other’s shirts, shifted down each other’s pants. Then they embraced each other tightly while still kissing. They moved to the bed, and dropped on it. They took off each other’s socks and started to make love.
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It was noon when Ludwig and Jonathan woke up. They had fallen asleep in each other’s arms the night before, wearing only their pants.
The first of June was not only the day at which Christoph and Bastian got a relationship, it was also Ludwig’s birthday. Ludwig had chosen not to have that mentioned at the wedding—that had to be Christoph’s and Bastian’s moment. He had also shifted his holiday party by one week, because he anticipated that he would be too tired after the wedding. But Jonathan wanted to pay at least a bit of attention to it.
Jonathan gave Ludwig a kiss on the nose. “Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag.” Ludwig wrapped his arms around Jonathan. “Danke.”
“I have a proposal,” Jonathan said. “I prepare breakfast for you, and then let’s eat it in bed.”
“Proposal accepted,” Ludwig said with a smile.
Jonathan kissed Ludwig on the nose again, went out of bed, prepared breakfast, grabbed the birthday present he had bought, and took everything to bed.
Ludwig is a lover of piano music. He himself plays the piano, and also has a very beautiful tenor voice, fit for both classic and modern music. He has a lot of classic sheet music, mainly from Mozart, Chopin, Schubert and Rachmaninoff. But his collection of modern piano music is limited. Jonathan had found some sheet music from a Yorckish artist and a Yorckish band: Elton John and Supertramp.
When Ludwig unpacked it, he exclaimed “Oh Jonathan, thank you!” and covered Jonathan's face with kisses.
After breakfast, they went to the piano. Ludwig chose to play and sing “Tiny dancer” by Elton John first. Then he played and sang some other songs, while Jonathan was sitting next to him.
After a few songs, Jonathan put his arm around Ludwig’s waist and placed a kiss in Ludwig’s neck. “I love it so much to see and hear you perform, Ludwig,” he said. Ludwig placed a kiss on Jonathan’s curly hair. “Thank you for your birthday present,” he said. Then he embraced Jonathan.
Jonathan kissed Ludwig on the mouth and said: “We celebrated Christoph and Bastian yesterday, let’s celebrate you now.”
Ludwig giggled a bit, and answered Jonathan’s kiss. They went back to bed, rolled each other’s pants down, and started to make love.
“Oh, Ludwig, you’re the love of my life, I love you,” Jonathan said two hours later. He was lying on Ludwig.
“Jonathan, you’re my forever love, I love you,” Ludwig said, and pressed Jonathan to his body. They started to kiss again.
“Let’s stay in bed all day long,” Jonathan said. Ludwig answered with a kiss. They started to make love again.
OOC: H-Zug: Hochgeschwindigkeitszug, i.e. the high-speed-train.
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