[AH Fiction] Murder in Hitlerstadt
- Thread starter varyar
- Start date
You're welcome! I'm touched that so many people are enjoying this.
(The lack of mention of Ziska's mother so far is only partially intentional. I'm trying to figure out a good way to work 'she died from cancer a few years ago' into the narrative. Also how to work in the fact that Ziska is a lebensborn baby. She knows it, has since she was a teenager, and it's an accepted thing in this society, I just don't know how to bring it up in a non-clumsy fashion.)
You're one of the best writers on the site, varyar. It would be more surprising if they weren't!
How did Ziska come into this world? Did her mother get pregnant as a young unmarried woman at a Lebensborn center or is Ziska adopted from Lebensborn?You're welcome! I'm touched that so many people are enjoying this.
(The lack of mention of Ziska's mother so far is only partially intentional. I'm trying to figure out a good way to work 'she died from cancer a few years ago' into the narrative. Also how to work in the fact that Ziska is a lebensborn baby. She knows it, has since she was a teenager, and it's an accepted thing in this society, I just don't know how to bring it up in a non-clumsy fashion.)
And far two pessimistic for the German programme. A Megaroc type V2 derivative could have managed sub-orbital flights before 1950.
Short update today, sorry!
* * *
An hour and a half later, Ziska was driven to the edge of despair by the Deputy Minister of the RMRW. He was the worst kind of public speaker – the bore who thought he was a comic genius and had enough power that you had to laugh at his alleged jokes.
It didn't help that she wasn’t drunk but was getting there fast.
Mercifully, the speech finally ended and she was free to make her escape.
Ziska wasn’t the first one to get up to go. She didn’t want to be rude to her father. But she wasn’t the last one to get up to go, either.
After she said good night to Astrid and Otto, but before she could leave the dining room, Herzog was suddenly at her side.
“It was wonderful to meet you,” Herzog said. From the sound of it, he’d had one or two too many, just like Ziska. She found her opinion of him inching up slightly. Then he kissed her on the cheek and it went down again. “Please call me! Here is my number.” He gave her an RMRW business card with his home number scribbled above the work number and address (Leipziger Straße 65, just a few blocks from the headquarters of the RMRW’s parent ministry, the Luftministerium).
Ziska took it with an appropriately serious nod and tucked it away in her clutch purse. “Thank you very much,” she said. “It was very good to meet you, too,” she added, trying to straddle the line between ‘go away’ and ‘oh, you’re so handsome’ without coming across like a tipsy ditz. She wasn’t entirely sure she succeeded. She was absolutely, unequivocally sure that she’d have to fend Herzog off two or three more times before he got the message. And God knows how her father would react to her latest refusal to provide him with another son-in-law.
An hour later, free of red dresses and golden earrings, Ziska bellied up to the bar at Waldkeller, a suitably blue collar establishment on Potsdamer Chaussee. It was just a five minutes walk from Ziska’s house, which was good, because she intended to be in no real condition to drive before the night was over.
And then she walked in.
Monika Kilcher.
Ziska’s heart began to beat a little faster. Again, as when they first met, she felt a little giddy. Not being a teenager, though, and only a little drunk, she managed to embrace her survival instincts and didn’t do more than glance in the blonde bureaucrat’s direction as she walked it. That was fine. That was expected from a cop, really. Then she turned back to her beer, a half-empty mug of Krakauer, and took a good healthy swig of the strong drink. Out of the corner of her eye, she sort-of-saw Monika take a seat at the far corner of the bar. By chance, or maybe not, that put her and Monika right in line of sight of each other – as long as you ignored the bartenders and the taps and all the crap inside the square of the bar.
After a few minutes, Ziska looked up and across the bar, past the bartenders and the taps and all the crap inside the square of the bar, and found Monika looking back at her.
Her heart beat a little faster still and a small, fleeting smile crossed her face. Then she took another drink, rose, and headed for the bathroom.
* * *
An hour and a half later, Ziska was driven to the edge of despair by the Deputy Minister of the RMRW. He was the worst kind of public speaker – the bore who thought he was a comic genius and had enough power that you had to laugh at his alleged jokes.
It didn't help that she wasn’t drunk but was getting there fast.
Mercifully, the speech finally ended and she was free to make her escape.
Ziska wasn’t the first one to get up to go. She didn’t want to be rude to her father. But she wasn’t the last one to get up to go, either.
After she said good night to Astrid and Otto, but before she could leave the dining room, Herzog was suddenly at her side.
“It was wonderful to meet you,” Herzog said. From the sound of it, he’d had one or two too many, just like Ziska. She found her opinion of him inching up slightly. Then he kissed her on the cheek and it went down again. “Please call me! Here is my number.” He gave her an RMRW business card with his home number scribbled above the work number and address (Leipziger Straße 65, just a few blocks from the headquarters of the RMRW’s parent ministry, the Luftministerium).
Ziska took it with an appropriately serious nod and tucked it away in her clutch purse. “Thank you very much,” she said. “It was very good to meet you, too,” she added, trying to straddle the line between ‘go away’ and ‘oh, you’re so handsome’ without coming across like a tipsy ditz. She wasn’t entirely sure she succeeded. She was absolutely, unequivocally sure that she’d have to fend Herzog off two or three more times before he got the message. And God knows how her father would react to her latest refusal to provide him with another son-in-law.
An hour later, free of red dresses and golden earrings, Ziska bellied up to the bar at Waldkeller, a suitably blue collar establishment on Potsdamer Chaussee. It was just a five minutes walk from Ziska’s house, which was good, because she intended to be in no real condition to drive before the night was over.
And then she walked in.
Monika Kilcher.
Ziska’s heart began to beat a little faster. Again, as when they first met, she felt a little giddy. Not being a teenager, though, and only a little drunk, she managed to embrace her survival instincts and didn’t do more than glance in the blonde bureaucrat’s direction as she walked it. That was fine. That was expected from a cop, really. Then she turned back to her beer, a half-empty mug of Krakauer, and took a good healthy swig of the strong drink. Out of the corner of her eye, she sort-of-saw Monika take a seat at the far corner of the bar. By chance, or maybe not, that put her and Monika right in line of sight of each other – as long as you ignored the bartenders and the taps and all the crap inside the square of the bar.
After a few minutes, Ziska looked up and across the bar, past the bartenders and the taps and all the crap inside the square of the bar, and found Monika looking back at her.
Her heart beat a little faster still and a small, fleeting smile crossed her face. Then she took another drink, rose, and headed for the bathroom.
Faeelin
Banned
You should look up what a small part of the American economy international trade was until fairly late.
Well USSR was behind USA technological, but only a few year and China are still behind, but it have done well nearing Western technology. Germany starts on a higher level than those two and doesn't run a planned economy.
Hm good point, yes USA was pretty much self sufficient until the 60ties. Yes so the American economy will likely follow OTL pattern until then. I still hold on the early space program used significant German know how, USA needs to develop on their own in TTL.
The thing is in this world its ended up one. In the last story the four year plans had ended up being the same as the Soviet 5 year plans which does suggest a fall in the private sector occurring. Further the NAZI'd did have a thing for trying to make unworkable projects work. The Anglo-American NAZI war by CalBear highlights this when looking at how much money Hilter would have wasted on the Norten brothers flying wing project
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...american-nazi-war.140356/page-10#post-3103175
When practically is being flown out of the window I don't think Germany can long term keep up especially with Himmler managing to succeed Hilter in TTL.
The Nazi had a thing overly complex Technology, but in the it sounds like you expect every project being like that, and the German government ignoring the lack of resultats for decades after decades. USSR was to large extent able to keep up technological even with their broken economy and pseudo Scientific beliefs. I fail to see why Germany should do worse than USSR.
Whilst I don't expect every project the problem is that projects it might have effected their moon mission given what
Von Braun's initial plan was https://repository.si.edu/bitstream...ufeld--WvB and LOR.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y.Futher with the USSR after Stalin and China after Moa was the party getting more power and in the Reich to me it looks like the traditional position of Fuhrer still has all the power and their ability to effect scientific discovery based on patronage I believe is more harmful then what the Soviets had (can't comment on the Chinese). And I believe Himmler as Fuhrer would have had a very serve impact upon German science given what he was into OTL.
Himmler as Führer will lead to a lot of weird shit get funding, but no country function like a game a civilization. Yes some scientist will push their pseudo scientific bullshit, at the same time most other scientist will roll their eyes and continue with what they're working with. But we can go down the road you suggest, but in that case there's 3rd Reich or Hitlerstadt at the time of the story, because it would not be stable enough to survive.
I suggest people look into how GDR functioned, even with communist believers in charge, the Russians had to force them step for step to adopt a planned economy. The 3rd Reich have to deal with all the old actors of Germany, a lot of people with their own agendas, which the Führer can't just murder for giggles. Yes they can't get away with being too personally opposed, but they will be able to keep the society going even when the Führer get a weird idea.
There is no such thing as paranoia in Naziland. People are out to get you.
The USSR functioned even with imbeciles like Lysenko destroying agriculture and biology.
Faeelin
Banned
I don't read it personally as tat backwards; the analogy I used was OTL Russia in 2017, although that might be a little too optimistic. But Russia shows that having primary education and some great universities isn't enough, no?