Please do continue with a slow burn, my patiemce has been well rewarded thus far by a well thought background and character development. As my grandfather fought with Rudolf Maister“s troops I find the story extra interesting.
Der Kampf: The Rise and Fall of the Austrian Führer
- Thread starter Tanner151
- Start date
Publication? Are you getting Der Kampf published? Very nice
Mhmm, that is the plan at least. Fingers crossed that’ll happen.
I was thinking the Austro-Slovene War would be 3-4 chapters but I can already tell you it’ll be longer. As long as I’m making it fleshed out and not drag too much and it is worldbuilding then I’ll have done my job right.
Mhmm, that is the plan at least. Fingers crossed that’ll happen.
Thank you. When I originally envisioned this timeline, I pictured I would get through the Great War in about 4-5 Chapters... it took 18 I believe.
I was thinking the Austro-Slovene War would be 3-4 chapters but I can already tell you it’ll be longer. As long as I’m making it fleshed out and not drag too much and it is worldbuilding then I’ll have done my job right.
Uh, dude? The last update was in March. The OP isn’t exactly making updates every few hours.
Hey, everyone. Apologies for the lack of updates. The last six weeks or so has been absolute madness at work. End of year testing and endless meetings have bogged me down (as has playing an ungodly amount of Warzone).
Summer is right around the corner and I do have an update about 90% done. I’ve hit a bit of a writing lull due to I have so many writing projects that I stretched myself too thin (again).
I write this, my Fulgrimian Heresy, another 40k AU I’m working on, a 40k AU that I joined (Five Ruins), and a historical fiction novel set in medieval Finland. This has led to... burnout, in a way. I know I have so many projects and since I don’t have the time to work on them all as much as I like it kind of shuts me down as a writer, leaving me with zero desire to write for a week or two. I’m working on resolving this. I’ve shelved a few projects and am nearly done with the Fulgrimian Heresy. Der Kampf is also a Multi-year project. This is a long haul project.
I’m thrilled to know people still want this story and have been waiting so patiently. Y’all are the reason I’m still working away on my writing, trying to make Der Kampf as good as it can be.
Next update will be out tonight. Once I get home I’m sitting down and won’t leave my computer until it is finished. Y’all deserve that much.
Summer is right around the corner and I do have an update about 90% done. I’ve hit a bit of a writing lull due to I have so many writing projects that I stretched myself too thin (again).
I write this, my Fulgrimian Heresy, another 40k AU I’m working on, a 40k AU that I joined (Five Ruins), and a historical fiction novel set in medieval Finland. This has led to... burnout, in a way. I know I have so many projects and since I don’t have the time to work on them all as much as I like it kind of shuts me down as a writer, leaving me with zero desire to write for a week or two. I’m working on resolving this. I’ve shelved a few projects and am nearly done with the Fulgrimian Heresy. Der Kampf is also a Multi-year project. This is a long haul project.
I’m thrilled to know people still want this story and have been waiting so patiently. Y’all are the reason I’m still working away on my writing, trying to make Der Kampf as good as it can be.
Next update will be out tonight. Once I get home I’m sitting down and won’t leave my computer until it is finished. Y’all deserve that much.
Just take your time and so on. Don't be afraid to take breaks and come back to it to change plans.
You've given us a gooood timeline. We all really do want this stories, but as always, take as much time as you want!
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Two
Forged in Fire
Marburg an der Drau. German-Austria
Republic of German-Austria
April 1919
Forged in Fire
Marburg an der Drau. German-Austria
Republic of German-Austria
April 1919
“This is ridiculous,” Hitler declared before the Marburg city council.
“This,” said the mayor, “is politics.”
Hitler shook his head, not in denial, but in frustration. He had come before the council to ascertain their willingness to resist Yugoslav efforts in claiming the Klagenfurt Basin.
They had talked of reestablishing the Green Guard or at the very least allowing locals to join the Kampfgruppe, but one councilor, Fedor von Külger seemed hesitant in allowing their young men to join what he had derisively called ‘a pack of rabid wolves.’
True there had been… incidents, specifically involving one of his men and a local married woman, but by and large the city community of Marburg had welcomed them as protectors and good Austrians.
Hitler was about to speak when he heard a piercing whistle that was overly familiar to him, something he had heard in its many variations during the war.
“Get down!” he shouted, running to the side of the building, placing himself against the stone slab, far from the nearby windows. His men, veterans all, did so the moment he spoke. The city council, however, had been old men since before the war, their knowledge and first-hand experience of battle was either non-existent or long in the past.
The artillery and mortar strikes that began to fall on Marburg shook the city hall, shattering the glass windows, eliciting shouts of fear from the councilmen and a loud shriek from the hall’s secretary outside the chamber. The two policemen situated near the double doors, likely there to watch his Wolves, rushed forward to help the councilmen. By the way they moved, half-crouched, pistols ready to aim and fire showed they too were veterans.
When the artillery subsided, Hitler left the safety of the wall, as did the three men with him. He moved to the mayor, who had a gash on his forehead. An older policeman, a man in his late forties sporting a Kaiser Josef beard, helped lift the mayor to his feet..
“If only there was a city guard to help defend Marburg,” he growled. “Politics,” he spat, before turning away, his Wolves following. Hitler withdrew his pistol, a Steyr-Hahn M1912. He racked the slide as he descended the stairs.
Marburg an der Drau was in a panic. The artillery barrage had not lasted long, yet the city had not seen violence to this scale since Rudolf Maister and his Slovene hounds took the city months ago. And even then, there was little violence aside from Bloody Sunday.
A small girl cowered over the fallen body of a man, tears streaming down her face.
“Papa, papa… please, papa, wake up.”
Hitler knew the man wouldn’t, not with that much blood pooling around him.
A dozen more Wolves moved to his side, having waited in a nearby beerhall. Thankfully none were drunk per his orders.
“Commander, what do we do,” asked one of them, a young man named Jakob from South Tyrol.
“Any word from Olbrecht?” he demanded.
“No, sir,” replied Jakob. “He was outside the city, working near the southern main road.”
Then that meant he faced the Yugoslavs head on... Scheisse!
Hitler’s mind raced, in the background he could hear small arms fire edging closer and closer to the city hall. Smoke was rising from across the city, several fires having broken out.
“Sir,” another Wolf muttered worryingly.
“We evacuate Marburg, make way to our fallback point. There, we assess the situation and act accordingly. You,” he pointed at one Wolf, “you and you,” he pointed to two others. “Find as many Kampfgruppe men as you can, bring them with you to the fallback at Egger’s Farm. And bring any men who are of fighting age and want to defend their city and Carinthia. We’ll regroup there and then can show these Yugoslav bastards the fury of Austrian men.”
The unflinching confidence and certainty in his voice stiffened the men’s wills and the three he had chosen set off, running in different directions of the city to round up any Wolves or volunteers.
“Let’s move,” Hitler said, leading the others towards the western city entrance. As they approached, bypassing screaming crowds and a few dead bodies from the barrage, they arrived, seeing a military car bearing small Slovene flags at the front. Five soldiers stood there, rifles aimed into the dispersing crowd, already three dead men littered the road.
“Their hemming us in like cattle,” muttered Jakob, crouched beside Hitler in an alleyway, daring peeks into the street as three of the Yugoslavs walked down the road, leaving two to stand near the car, ever watchful of stragglers trying to sneak past them..
“Then let's show them that we are not cattle but wolves,” Hitler remarked, taking careful aim with his pistol, waiting for the three guards to walk by their alley. His men spread out in the alleyway, raising rifles and pistols.
The three Yugoslavs marched down in their uniforms, so similar to the pike gray of the Landswehr but dyed a grayish-green color very similar to the German feldgrau he saw on the Eastern Front.
One turned, seeing them and raised his rifle quickly. But not quick enough. Hitler and his men fired until all three men were riddled with bullets and fell down, never to rise. Hitler reloaded quickly, slamming in another eight-round magazine into the pistol. Turning the corner he aimed at one of the other two soldiers. He fired but his aim was just off, instead it clipped the Yugoslav on the shoulder who dropped his rifle and fell onto the hood of the car, blood streaming from the wound. The other soldier was shot by two Wolves, their aim more accurate and the Yugolsav clutched his open belly, dying as the Austrians rushed forward.
“Take their weapons,” Hitler called, his men already gathering the rifles of the five enemy soldiers. The one who Hitler had wounded had crawled into the car, blood staining the interior.
He looked back at Hitler, a ‘man’ who could have been no older than seventeen who gave a hesitant red-toothed smile and raised his good arm.
“Prosim, ne-” Hitler shot him in the head.
“Strip the bodies of anything valuable, not just bullets or rifles.” Hitler looked back into the city, gunfire rising in volume and frequency. He saw dozens of Marburg citizens watching him.
“If you want to live, come with us and fight the invaders. If you want to die, then stay here and accept the consequences of inaction.”
Most of the people, mainly men and women stormed forward, eager to get out of the city. A few, largely the elderly or families with young children stayed, but many came with them. Hitler stopped one of his Wolves.
“Grenade,” he held out a hand. The Wolf took one out of his trenchcoat pocket and handed it to Hitler then backed away, telling others to do the same.
“Leave nothing to the enemy,” he declared to those within earshot.
Priming the grenade, he tossed it into the car on top of the Slovene boy-soldier’s corpse. He quickly backpedaled until he stood behind far enough away. When the grenade went off, it destroyed the car, leaving it a pile of wreckage.
“Forward to Victory!” Hitler called out, his men and many of the Marburg refugees shouting it as well as they fled the city.
+ + +
Carinthia, German-Austria
Republic of German-Austria
April 1919
“Another band of refugees,” Jakob Kuhr said to the second line of Wolf members on guard watch, waving through another handful of civilians that had wandered onto the Kampfgruppe’s perimeter several minutes ago. “Don’t worry, we’re Austrian,” he said in German, “Friendly! Come on, let’s go, hurry!” he whispered hurriedly as a dozen men and women ran, one woman carrying a baby that she kept shushing.Carinthia, German-Austria
Republic of German-Austria
April 1919
Jakob was tired, so very tired. It had been a long day. About ten hours ago everything had gone to hell. The Yugoslavs had attacked Marburg, most of the Kampfgruppe was either dead, captured or scattered across the countryside. It seemed the armistice and the referendum was not enough for the bloodthirsty Maister and his allies. Several thousand enemy combatants, many composed of Slovene militia with a few hundred disciplined and well-equipped Royal Yugoslav Army soldiers at its core, were now taking Carinthia and there was no true force to stop them before they got to Austria proper.
It was luck, or perhaps fate, that the Commander was able to escape to their fallback point, a small farm about ten kilometers away from Marburg. What would have taken only a few hours for the soldiers took nearly double that due to the civilians slowing them down, as well as avoiding a handful of Yugoslav patrols. They had arrived at Theodore Egger’s farm as night approached. Farmer Egger, a man who was sympathetic to the Austrian cause and was a vocal nationalist in the local community, had not only kept Hitler's men supplied with some of his crop but also agreed to become the fallback position in case anything were to force the Kampfgruppe out of Marburg.
The Commander was inside the farmer’s home, talking to Egger and a few other patriotic farmers, some of whom were Slovene, which surprised Kuhr. It seemed that many in the countryside wanted to retain a connection with Austria, if anything for the economic stability and sense of uncertainty surrounding the new South Slav state, even by those the young kingdom had proclaimed to have been created for. Seeing the Austrian refugees safely escorted to the barn where the civilians were being kept, Kuhr turned to go back to his position when he saw six figures emerge from the treeline. Raising his rifle, two nearby Wolf members doing the same, they aimed it at the strangers in the dark.
“Stop! Identify yourself,” he called out.
+ + +
Hitler listened to the Egger and a Slovene man named Mlakar as they looked over a map of the area, noting good hunting trails away from the main roads that the Yugoslavs would be patrolling.
Hitler eyed the Slovene man. He didn’t trust him, not since the moment he had laid eyes on the man hours ago and the Slovene man knew it too. Mlakar had looked Hitler in the eye and said that while he would help in the fight against the Yugoslavs for he had no love for a Serbian-dominated state, he would not be seen as someone less than an Austrian. Hitler, due to circumstances and that most of the Kampfgruppe was dead or captured, swallowed his pride and thanked him for his aid, though it might have come out through clenched teeth.
A knock on the door had everyone reach for a weapon. Hitler pulled out the Steyr-Hahn from its holster, ready to aim if whatever was on the other side of the door was an enemy.
The door opened and a Wolf, Jakob Kuhr from South Tyrol, poked his head in.
“Excuse me, Commander,” Kuhr said, ignoring everyone in the room but Hitler. “We had six men just arrive. They were with Olbrecht’s detail.”
Hitler left the room without hesitation and walked outside where six men, obviously tired and covered in a mix of dirt, sweat and blood, drank deeply from flasks handed to them.
“Where’s Olbrecht? Report,” Hitler ordered, noting with satisfaction the Wolves came to attention as if he were some General Staff officer.
“Thank God we found you, sir.” One said, the side of head covered in dried blood, appearing black in the darkness.
Another, more composed, filled Hitler in.
“We were outside Marburg, working on the road when the attack began. It was chaos, bullets whisking by and shells slamming to the ground. At least a dozen were killed. Olbrecht was trying to mount a defense, have us withdraw back to the city but was captured by the Yugoslavs.”
Hitler hissed in a breath through his teeth. “How many others were captured?”
“Thirty or so, possibly more. Only reason we weren’t captured was because we hid in the bush, feigning as corpses. Once the Yugoslavs went by us, we made our escape. Took hours longer than we’d hoped to get here as their patrols are everywhere. Sorry, sir.”
Hitler resisted raising his pistol and shooting the man, but a corpse couldn’t serve the cause any longer and he didn’t have the men to spare. Instead he plastered a false smile and patted the man on the shoulder.
“Get some food and rest, comrades, you’ve earned it.” As the men were guided to one of the ad-hoc field kitchens, Hitler returned to the others in the house.
“What happened?” demanded Mlakar.
Hitler eyed the man but reined in a sharp retort. Instead, he said, “Some of my men survived the opening attack and brought news. My second-in-command was captured, as were around thirty of my men, held up in the city somewhere.”
Hitler looked at the men around the room with cold indifference.
“I’m going to rescue them.”
To their credit, no one laughed.
Egger looked dazed, blinking rapidly as he processed that.
Mlakar was unbothered. Setting his hands down on the table, leaning over their maps, he spoke seriously. “It will be difficult.”
“Nothing in life is easy. I know this better than most.”
Mlakar raised an eyebrow yet did not remark. Hitler glared at the farmers.
“We need to create a distraction. Tomorrow we need to scout the area, ascertain their strength and watch their patrols-“
“Hey,” said a young farmer, “who made you leader? We need to choose a committee to lead us.”
Hitler slammed his fist onto the table, startling them. “Now is not the time for politicking or mimicking popular sovereignty. Now is a time for action!” Hitler heard the house door open and saw four of his men enter, Kuhr among them, rifles unslung, eyeing the farmers warily. “I am in charge because I have the men, the guns, and the will to carry out what is necessary for victory. I will not hesitate, I will not shirk, and I will win. Can you say the same?”
The farmer went silent.
Hitler took a deep breath and exhaled, his demeanor changing to more welcoming and warm though still commanding.
“Once we have enough information, we’ll sneak into Marburg at night, and reduce the prisoners, taking anything we can from the Yugoslavs and destroying what we cannot bring with. Once our men are freed, we’ll escape and cause the Yugoslavs all manner of hell while the fools in Vienna get their heads out of their asses. Eventually they’ll do something about Maister’s breaking of the armistice and send in the army.”
Or what was left of it after the mass demobilization, Hitler thought darkly.
“If you wish to question my leadership, to challenge it, then do so now or fall in line.”
No one spoke or left, watching the dark haired man of average stature lean over the table of maps and began to bark orders, explaining what was to happen.
No one shirked or derided the former First Sergeant, instead they listened and complied. He was, for all intents and purposes through this crisis, their leader.
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Mhmm, it seemed like something he would do. Gotta make sure I’m showing that though this Hitler is more competent in many ways, he is at the end of the day a monster.
Great see this back. The Battle of Marburg is shaping up to TTL's Hitler's defining moment in the eyes of the Austrians
It will be for sure. This will be something that will be attached to Hitler for years to come.
The way that Hitler thinks and speaks throughout this chapter is really interesting because it shows how his character has changed.
Probably would be about as consequential as Hitler's Jewish superior Hugo Gutmann recommending him for the Iron Cross, First Class.
Those Slovenes and their immediate families will probably be given some kind of free passage outside of Austria, but the rest of the Slovenes won't be so lucky
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