Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

So the Emperor is going to Vietnam to celebrate the Tet New Year in 1968...
At least it should be quiet over there except for the fireworks.
 

ferdi254

Banned
A dog will love you no matter what if you just treat it somehow nicely.

Btw you could and can practice medicine without the doctorate in Germany. No legal limits. It just came with the image of the demigod in white that people were expecting their medicine person to be a doctor.
 
Btw you could and can practice medicine without the doctorate in Germany. No legal limits. It just came with the image of the demigod in white that people were expecting their medicine person to be a doctor.

Interesting. I assume you have to pass some sort of examination or competency test before being licensed.
 
Interesting. I assume you have to pass some sort of examination or competency test before being licensed.
While the Doctorate is separate from the Medical Licence, just having an Doctorate in Medicine lends someone a lot of credibility.
Is there a Trope where the NCO is always smarter than the officers?
Bogdan Gajos isn't an NCO. The rank of Kapral in the Polish Army is considered equivalent to Lance Corporal. What that means is that he isn't a green recruit, Bogdan has been around long enough to know when to duck.
 
Last edited:
Yes

 
So the Emperor is going to Vietnam to celebrate the Tet New Year in 1968...
At least it should be quiet over there except for the fireworks.
I’m sure the two Emperors will view the Tet festivities from the Imperial City in Hue. It should be beautifully decorated at that time of year.
 
Bogdan Gajos isn't an NCO. The rank of Kapral in the Polish Army is considered equivalent to Lance Corporal. What that means is that he isn't a green recruit, Bogdan has been around long enough to know when to duck.
Well, before he's showered with too much praise I'd add that he's apparently not been around long enough to "politely suggest" everyone seek cover with his outdoors voice. As would have been appropriate for the first to realize that this is in fact an ambush.
Quietly thinking the right thoughts might make him an intellectual among soldiers but won't earn you medals on its own. He didn't save anyone's life here.
 
The problem for Kiki is that she sees the M.D. as the finish line when it really just another marker on the Road of Life.
Kiki is still very focused on the here and now even if she doesn't think so because Ben is going to propose to her when they both have their doctorates.
Both of them can pretty much write their own tickets but Kiki with her Imposter Syndrome can not understand if she took out her name, titles, and awards out of her resume she would by her own experiences and achievements that she would basically still get any posting that she wants ,
I think that only an outside event will get Kiki out of her internal feedback loop of depression that she is on.
 
Part 111, Chapter 1829
Chapter One Thousand Eight Hundred Twenty-Nine



20th January 1968

In transit, somewhere over Central Asia

It was now tradition that the Royal Family used a factory new airliner from Focke-Wulf-Dornier that was set up for their use for the first six months of its service life. Everyone saw the white plane with Luftwaffe markings, the Imperial Crest on the fuselage and rudder and assumed that it was always the same airplane, they would be wrong though. As soon as they were done with the airplane it would be repainted in Lufthansa livery and delivered to the airline.

Looking out the window of the airplane at the wing and engines grew tedious after the first six hours. Vicky had lost interest in the book she had been reading. It was part of the material that was supposed to be studying ahead of her religious conversion, but all it did was remind her of the cynical reasons for her course of her actions. She could hear the others sleeping around her. All she could do was look with envy at the members of her family who could sleep on an airliner, something that she had never been able to do. Charlotte was sleeping in the seat beside Vicky’s father while Nella and Nan were snuggled together in the seats by the window on the opposite side of the cabin. Vicky’s father was awake, but he was going over the notes that he had taken regarding the greeting of his Vietnamese counterpart when he stepped off the plane in Hanoi. There were also representatives from Laos, Cambodia and Thailand who were going to be present.

The last thing that anyone wanted was a diplomatic mishap. With the continued success of the Cam Ranh Bay Space Center, Vietnam had emerged as the German Empire’s most important strategic ally in South-East Asia. The stated reason for this visit, the start of the Lunar New Year, the Vietnamese Tet Holiday was a pretext for the start of negotiations of a regional trade deal and the continued containment of Chinese territorial ambitions. After the greeting at the airport, they were going to a resort on the South China Sea where they would spend a week acclimating.

“You have the same look on your face as you did when you were a little girl and you wanted to break something” Vicky heard her father say. It took a second for her to realize that he was talking to her.

“Having to care about what other people think is growing tiresome” Vicky said.

“You could always be like your sisters” Louis said, “Disregarding general opinion and making their own way in the world.”

“If I did that, I would only invite a massive scandal” Vicky replied, “I would hurt everyone I care about in the process.”

“That is why you have made some of the choices that have” Louis said, “You are a lot like Kristina in that regard, always caring about what people who are not necessarily inclined to like you think. It seldom makes either of you happy.”

That gave Vicky pause.

“If you think that and know the truth, how can you be fine with what I’ve been doing?” Vicky asked, “What I am going to be doing?”

“Because I also know that you want a family and that you and Franz seem to be friends” Louis said, “It seems like a way for you to live the life you want without causing the scandal you are obviously trying to avoid.”

It was ironic. Vicky knew that her father understood the reasons for her actions and was supporting her because he thought it was what she wanted. There was a voice in the bad of her head that was whispering that she had wanted him to tell her no.



Near Jassel, Poland

The tactics that Olli had used had worked, but he knew that the Polish Army would adapt in a hurry. Once the roads were cut, the columns were trapped, and their leaders had been picked off the men from the Polish Army had been forced to walk back the way they had come. They had been forced to abandon most of their equipment which had been a windfall for Olli’s side, however he knew that they would anticipate that the next time they came in force. The political leaders of Free Galicia movement had trumpeted it as a great victory, much to Olli’s dismay. He had tried to warn them that it was just a skirmish.

That was why Olli had sent off dozens of letters to every contact he had in the Heer trying to get them to understand the situation here and requesting help. He was trying not make it sound like he was panicking but Olli knew that he was in way over his head. He had returned to his farm and had felt a lot of guilt when he had seen Nele and his children. He was profoundly thankful that he had gotten Conrad into University in Thuringia so that his oldest son wouldn’t get caught up in this mess. Nele had endured his career for years. Living in Posen, Werder, and Zossen where she wasn’t comfortable. Now, he was back to being a soldier. He had started to apologize to her, but she had told that this time was different. The community that they were now a part of, and the farm was hers just as much as it was his. She understood that he was reluctantly having to defend it.
 
Last edited:
Another great chapter :)

Though Vicky seems to be having second thoughts...understandably so, while her marriage would provide cover and would let her have her real relationship and children without scandal, it also means lying about who she is forever... Poor thing :(

Mind you, part of me wonders...would it do that much damage to her family if the truth came out? It’d be a scandal sure, but at the end of the day...she’s got sisters and two brothers, all of whom are straight and one of whom is married with two kids. The succession doesn’t need her, it wouldn’t be the same level of scandal as if the Kronprinz had turned out gay, and I doubt people would be demanding the abolition of the (very popular) monarchy just because one Princess was different. If the truth came out and she just quietly slipped away and lived somewhere away from the public eye...odds are it’d be a media storm for a few months with talking heads yammering at one another, then life would gradually get back to normal.

Hard to know...

Though mind you, news from Poland looks set to eclipse everything else that could happen. This is going to get messy...
 
Vicky should do what she wants with her life and if in the end she doesn't want to marry Franz then she doesn't have to but there will be consequences...

As it has been pointed out before the monarchy exits only until it becomes inconvenient and Kaiser Louis Ferdinand is planning to abdicate in two years but it is not just a simple case of quitting, there is a process that has to go through the Reichstag and IOTL the Social Democratic Party came in to power with Willy Brandt (Herbert Frahm) in 1969.
The members of the SDP in the Reichstag ITTL are Langists or further to the left and may see this as an opportunity to abolish the Monarchy and eliminate titles of Nobility.
I have posted before that for the Anti-Monarchy faction this wasn't a hill to die on but this may be their best chance to do so.
For the German people the Kaiser and his family are very popular but keeping the Monarchy is not the most pressing issue for them and while they may be disappointed that there is no longer a Kaiser but life will go on.
 
It seems to me, Ollie is one of the Germans that would be very happy living in Poland, being part of and contribute to Poland, if the Polish would forget he is German. Same as most of the level headed men would if the Polish would forget they were Jewish/Romany/German/Czech/Ukranian etc. An outbreak of common sense would be nice.
Although it may require an amount of stupid luck or strange happenstance to happen.
 
Vicky should do what she wants with her life and if in the end she doesn't want to marry Franz then she doesn't have to but there will be consequences...

As it has been pointed out before the monarchy exits only until it becomes inconvenient and Kaiser Louis Ferdinand is planning to abdicate in two years but it is not just a simple case of quitting, there is a process that has to go through the Reichstag and IOTL the Social Democratic Party came in to power with Willy Brandt (Herbert Frahm) in 1969.
The members of the SDP in the Reichstag ITTL are Langists or further to the left and may see this as an opportunity to abolish the Monarchy and eliminate titles of Nobility.
I have posted before that for the Anti-Monarchy faction this wasn't a hill to die on but this may be their best chance to do so.
For the German people the Kaiser and his family are very popular but keeping the Monarchy is not the most pressing issue for them and while they may be disappointed that there is no longer a Kaiser but life will go on.
TTL though, the Hohenzollerns aren't just nostalgia candidates for the good old days before the First World War but the heads of state who have shared the joys and sorrows of the German people over an additional half century of increasing German prosperity, success and prestige. Oh and modernisation and increasing living standards. I suspect that the Helmut Schmidt wing of the SDP is probably gathering a lot of traction these days. People aren't that poor and have increasingly high living standards. Yes, they want a more egalitarian society in the sense that they want better opportunities for their kids but the TTL Hohenzollerns have made the British and Scandinavian transition. I think the average German voter's reaction to any proposal to abolish the monarchy would be "But what on earth for? The Kaiser and the Crown Prince are doing a good job...[suspicious glare]...You're not one of those ***** Jacobins are you?"
 
Vicky should do what she wants with her life and if in the end she doesn't want to marry Franz then she doesn't have to but there will be consequences...

There'd be consequences for her, yes, but for the rest of the family... brief embarrassment and being asked a lot of questions, then back to normal. Sooner or later depending on what else is happening in the world - not saying it'd happen now but as an example, if Vicky broke off the engagement now and the truth came out... Most people would be like 'Scandalous...but what about Poland!??'

As it has been pointed out before the monarchy exits only until it becomes inconvenient and Kaiser Louis Ferdinand is planning to abdicate in two years but it is not just a simple case of quitting, there is a process that has to go through the Reichstag and IOTL the Social Democratic Party came in to power with Willy Brandt (Herbert Frahm) in 1969.
The members of the SDP in the Reichstag ITTL are Langists or further to the left and may see this as an opportunity to abolish the Monarchy and eliminate titles of Nobility.
I have posted before that for the Anti-Monarchy faction this wasn't a hill to die on but this may be their best chance to do so.
For the German people the Kaiser and his family are very popular but keeping the Monarchy is not the most pressing issue for them and while they may be disappointed that there is no longer a Kaiser but life will go on.

Ehhhh...doubtful. Largely because:

TTL though, the Hohenzollerns aren't just nostalgia candidates for the good old days before the First World War but the heads of state who have shared the joys and sorrows of the German people over an additional half century of increasing German prosperity, success and prestige. Oh and modernisation and increasing living standards. I suspect that the Helmut Schmidt wing of the SDP is probably gathering a lot of traction these days. People aren't that poor and have increasingly high living standards. Yes, they want a more egalitarian society in the sense that they want better opportunities for their kids but the TTL Hohenzollerns have made the British and Scandinavian transition. I think the average German voter's reaction to any proposal to abolish the monarchy would be "But what on earth for? The Kaiser and the Crown Prince are doing a good job...[suspicious glare]...You're not one of those ***** Jacobins are you?"

This.

Also, abolishing the monarchy would not be something that you could just do in the Reichstag. It'd need a popular referendum, and while people might be shocked by Vicky...I doubt it'd overshadow all the good stuff the monarchy have done. Not to the point of voting to abolish them anyway.

Especially not if after a hypothetical truth coming out, Vicky basically officially left the family and went off and lived somewhere as a commoner. Like, behind the scenes and quietly she still sees the family, still keeps in touch and they quietly pay her an allowance, but officially it looks like she's gone. Conservatives would think the Kaiser had disowned her and would nod approvingly (and would probably sigh about what the poor man must be going through), other people would...well, out of sight out of mind ;)

It seems to me, Ollie is one of the Germans that would be very happy living in Poland, being part of and contribute to Poland, if the Polish would forget he is German. Same as most of the level headed men would if the Polish would forget they were Jewish/Romany/German/Czech/Ukranian etc. An outbreak of common sense would be nice.
Although it may require an amount of stupid luck or strange happenstance to happen.

Very true on all counts. Unfortunately, politics often shows common sense to be in short supply.
 
Top