Stupid Luck and Happenstance, Thread III

Kiki has always had issues with her bodyguards because she would ditch them like in the case of the East Station Bombing.
According to stories I have read about the United States Secret Service they would be very happy if the President never left the White House between the time of Inauguration and the end of term there is a reason that Bill Clinton called the White House “The Crown Jewel of the Federal Penal System”.
As for Rauchbier I think that farmers and gamekeepers would be happy with him going after the rabbits and nothing else, and remember he was also professionally trained by kennel master at Kiki’s castle.
 
Bram had apparently piloted landing craft with Kiki’s brother Louis in Korea. Over there you didn’t pass up the opportunity for a freshly cooked meal, so this was a good lesson for Bram to learn.
Shouldn't it be "Gregor (the helmsman) had apparently..... or did i mix something up?
Bram needs to learn about PR work, but seems to be a decent kid. Hopefully we will see him looking back on his time as an aide when he is ansenior officer and recognize how it shaped him.
I greatly enjoy your Story Peabody-Martini.
Keep up the good work.
 
This seems kind of silly, everyone did what they were supposed to do in that incident. Are the guardsmen some of the people who think that Kiki being a decorated combat veteran is all a big act, or is Bran simply misreading the entire situation.
Agreed entirely.
Two possible lines of thought by the guardsmen (who probably don't believe that she didn't know she was pregnant).
If that’s the case they’re being fairly dumb - like, she was fairly plainly not showing, and odds are good that coverage of her pregnancy after she got back made a huge deal of ‘Gott im Himmel, she’s not showing! This is incredibly rare!’ If she’s not showing, and it’s a known fact that women in stressful situations just sometimes don’t menstruate, how was she supposed to know?


Kiki has always had issues with her bodyguards because she would ditch them like in the case of the East Station Bombing.
According to stories I have read about the United States Secret Service they would be very happy if the President never left the White House between the time of Inauguration and the end of term there is a reason that Bill Clinton called the White House “The Crown Jewel of the Federal Penal System”.
Though mind you, TTL’s German royals get more guards than many royals did IRL at the time. IIRC, that was why that guy was nearly able to kidnap Princess Anne - she had one bodyguard whose gun jammed.
 
Though mind you, TTL’s German royals get more guards than many royals did IRL at the time. IIRC, that was why that guy was nearly able to kidnap Princess Anne - she had one bodyguard whose gun jammed.
One key difference, ITTL the NKVD went after the Royal family of Germany directly. Even in OTL they would not have had any qualms about doing that.
 
Rauchbier got lucky that the local Förster did not see him. If he had, it would have been his legal duty to shoot him.
Yep. Rauchbier and Bram were both lucky. Rauchbier wasn't shot and Bram wasn't arrested and charged with poaching.
As for Rauchbier I think that farmers and gamekeepers would be happy with him going after the rabbits and nothing else, and remember he was also professionally trained by kennel master at Kiki’s castle.
No, they wouldn't. Farmers and gamekeepers know and trust their own dogs. Strange dogs are threats to their livestock and/or game animals and, in many countries, it is legal for the farmer/gamekeeper to shoot any unattended or attended dog found on their properties. Especially if it is caught hunting. As for Rauchbier having been trained by a kennel master, so what? How on earth is a local farmer/gamekeeper supposed to know that? Let alone any commands that Rauchbier has been taught. They show up and see a strange dog attacking animals on their land and someone that they can only assume is the owner is letting it? Of course, they'll shoot first and ask questions later.
 
I'm suddenly getting flashbacks to that bit in A Shot in the Dark where, as part of a recurring gag, Inspector Clouseau shoots a crow, then is immediately greeted by a game warden who asks for his hunting license XD
 

ferdi254

Banned
Even a valid hunting license would not help. If your dog is caught catching rabbits by the gamekeeper the only thing that would save his life is that guy being a bad shot. Which they rarely are,

Nevertheless rabbit stewed slowly with tomatoes, onion and olives is a very nice meal.

For bodyguards anyone remembering Helmut Kohl charging after the guy who threw eggs at him (and hit)?

His bodyguards hated that one.
 
Part 123, Chapter 2073
Chapter Two Thousand Seventy-Three



16th July 1971

Prague, Bohemia

Ben had told Kiki that she needed to maintain her composure, that it had been a mistake made out of nativity rather than any malice. Ripping Bram apart would not change anything, he hadn’t gotten caught and they had eaten the evidence. Still, he had inadvertently risked Rauchbier. Kiki would have found anything happening to her dog to be completely unforgivable. Fianna had told Kiki that the last thing they wanted to do was discourage a boy showing a bit of initiative and snaring a rabbit or two on the Landlord’s land was time honored tradition where she came from. Especially the part about not getting caught.

Bram had not helped his case any by producing a card that said that he was a Chevalier at Jagdschloss Glienicke, permitting him to hunt on all Crown Lands providing he was doing it in season and observing local custom. Technically, it had not been poaching, but that would have been a bit late for Rauchbier if a local Game Warden had shown up. Kiki had been rather put out when she saw that the card had been signed by her father. Kiki’s rather strong position towards using the position of her birth to get out of sticky situations had come across as she had made it clear to Bram that he had not gotten permission so that made his card a worthless piece of laminated paper. Perhaps she had been a bit too forceful, but experience had taught Kiki letting a subordinate off easy when they messed up didn’t help matters in the long run and Ben had been forced to agree. Fortunately, being on a boat meant that there was no shortage of tasks needing to be done, many of them unpleasant.

That was all well and good, except they ran right into the ultimate example of everything that neither Kiki nor Ben felt might not be the greatest example for anyone who should happen to fall into his orbit. This was in the form of clouds of powder smoke from cannons and flintlock muskets. In the fields north of Prague on the bank of the Vltava River were thousands of men in period dress reenacting a battle. Kiki just wasn’t sure as to which one, judging by the costumes and weapons it looked to have something to do with the Napoleonic Wars. The Meta was signaled to moor at a spot on the bank with other barges, Kiki noticed a platform with a film crew on it filming the “battle” as the set pieces played their assigned roles. The last thing that the film makers wanted was to have a relatively modern craft such as a Motor Barge like the Meta to come chugging across the background and ruining the shot.

Over the last few years Michael had been doing things like this with the Bohemian Ministry of Culture as a part of his drive to be seen as a Renaissance Man, an enlightened athlete or something. While he wasn’t the sharpest tool knife in the drawer, there were plenty of people around him to help with his quest. Mostly it had been in the form of historical interpretation, films, and television in this context. It had created a whole new industry in Bohemia and Michael had been having a whole lot of fun doing it. To Kiki’s complete surprise, Michael had been doing more than just encouraging films to be made, he had a number of acting credits to his name as well. Mostly they were in the form of bit roles like “Officer riding horse in background #3” but he had played the Heavy as a German Mercenary in a scene in the latest Three Musketeers film that was mostly a well-choreographed brawl. It was debatable if what Michael had been doing could actually be considered acting, basically he had played himself. Then he had taken staring actors out drinking and they all agreed that he was a blast to work with. Kiki wondered if that had involved actual explosives.

Kiki and Ben sat on the aft deck of the Meta and watched the actors in their red and blue uniforms march around the fields. There were a lot of challenges in filming wide shots of armies in the field. A battle in the Napoleonic Period might have had a hundred thousand or more men on either side. Finding that many extras would be a real challenge. That was one of the things that Michael had going for him when it came to enticing filmmakers to come to Bohemia. There was no shortage of warm bodies perfectly happy to help make their vision a reality. This was entirely due to the Ministry of Culture’s promotion of a rather slanted version of Bohemian history. One that was far more heroic and triumphant than reality would suggest, and the Bohemians regardless of ethnicity embraced it whole-heartedly. The resulting narrative was a bit problematic. Kiki had pointed out to Michael that it cast many of their ancestors as villains at best. He had just shrugged and told Kiki that everyone was a bloodthirsty tyrant back in the day, that was how they got where they were and why the history books remember their names. Besides that, Michael pointed out, the favorite villains for the Bohemian films to depict were the Austrian Habsburgs and they were actually Swiss. Kiki had no idea if that was true or not. It did make her think that perhaps it was a good thing that Michael lived in an era where he could distract himself with culture and sport. He would have been a bit too good at playing the role of Warrior-King.
 

ferdi254

Banned
In one movie based on „on the beach“by Nevil Shute, in the last scene with some of the last people on earth killing themselves before the radiation gets them....

a large freighter is in the background.
 
Without the censorship of the IOTL Communist governments of Eastern Europe the cultures butterflies ITTL is going to be enormous.
I can see Roman Polanski and Milos Forman among others still going to the United States to make movies but they still are going to make movies in their own country which will be a bit more daring then the ones they will make in America which they will use some of the techniques but adapted for more conventional movies.
I can see also a "friendly" rivalry between King Michael of Bohemia and Queen Marie Cecile of Galicia-Ruthain in trying to be the cultural center of Middle Europe.

As for the Rauchbeir situation as long as the farmer, games keeper, Forrester is not a trigger happy person they would have assessed that Rauchbeir had a collar on (and a nice one at that) was healthy looking, well fed and groomed, was not mindlessly ripping the rabbits apart but taking them to the same spot after each kill, would have taking the time to see what was going on.
At most Baum would have been sternly warned about not getting permission to hunt on the land and as recompense Rauchbeir would have to perform stud service because he is such a good dog with obvious sterling blood lines.
 

ferdi254

Banned
Ejpsan you underestimate thr harshness of such laws. A dog caught in the act of hunting a rabbit has(!) to be shot by the local Förster (game keeper is like translating Beamter to civil servant). If he fails to do so then he (if noticed) will lose his hunting license. No leeway there.
 
It does make me wonder a bit of what the cliches expected from a German actor or character in a film would be in this time line. It's now fifty years since the first world war and there were no Nazis to provide a common shape for cinematic villians. It's also probably not developed the germanic depressive cliche either.

So, would a film German be boisterous, overly friendly and a bit of an ass? The Texans of Europe?
 
It does make me wonder a bit of what the cliches expected from a German actor or character in a film would be in this time line. It's now fifty years since the first world war and there were no Nazis to provide a common shape for cinematic villians. It's also probably not developed the germanic depressive cliche either.

So, would a film German be boisterous, overly friendly and a bit of an ass? The Texans of Europe?
I wonder has that stereotype about stealing the pool loungers continued XD XD XD
 
As for the Rauchbeir situation as long as the farmer, games keeper, Forrester is not a trigger happy person they would have assessed that Rauchbeir had a collar on (and a nice one at that) was healthy looking, well fed and groomed, was not mindlessly ripping the rabbits apart but taking them to the same spot after each kill, would have taking the time to see what was going on.
At most Baum would have been sternly warned about not getting permission to hunt on the land and as recompense Rauchbeir would have to perform stud service because he is such a good dog with obvious sterling blood lines.
Rauchbier's appearance would not protect him and his collar would only serve to identify his owner(s) for prosecution. It sounds as if Germany has similar laws to New Zealand regarding dogs on other peoples property. Here in New Zealand, while the farmer wouldn't mind the dead rabbits (introduced pest species), they definitely WOULD mind a strange dog on their land without permission. They can be, and often are, shot on sight. This is because they scare the animals, which start running, and dogs automatically chase them and often attack them. Most townies do not understand that it is legal for farmers and animal control officers to do this, that they themselves are in the wrong or even that their 'baby' could attack other animals.

As for Bram and his permit, he is still supposed to let the local game officials that he is hunting on that land at that time. This is for the safety of both himself and others, including any dogs he might have. Bram failed to do so.
 
Part 123, Chapter 2074
Chapter Two Thousand Seventy-Four



17th July 1971

Vienna, Austria

Nella and Nan had wanted to come with Charlotte because Vienna was a sort of magical place in their imaginations. A sort of fairytale city. However, as much as Charlotte would have joyfully explored the city of her birth with her daughters this was not meant to be a pleasurable holiday. Her older sister Adelheid was suffering from failing health and their older brother Otto was more interested in keeping up appearances than the actual crisis that Adelheid’s problems represented. That was why Charlotte had been asked in her capacity as a Social Worker to come to Vienna to see if she couldn’t talk Otto into being sensible for once and not for the first time, Charlotte wished that their father had not died a decade earlier.

As the last Emperor, Charles I had been forced by his circumstances to be pragmatic in order to save what was left of his family’s fortunes after the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Otto had rather different perspective. He had grown bitter over what he saw as a lost inheritance and what he saw as the external meddlers who had been happy to allow Austria-Hungary to break apart through inaction at best. He pointed to how the German Empire had absorbed Bohemia, Slovakia, and now Galicia-Ruthenia. Which were all former Provinces of Austria-Hungary.

Though Otto had never said anything to Charlotte, she was certain that if he had had any say in the matter at the time, he would have forbidden her marriage to Louis Ferdinand. Otto was rather outspoken about how Louis’ grandfather, Wilhelm II, had been at the forefront of those he personally considered responsible for the misfortune that had overtaken their family following the end of the First World War. The odd thing was that it was true, Wilhelm II had been everything his detractors claimed he was, and he had profited handsomely off the destruction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yet that was leaving out some important details, Wilhelm had not been acting alone and there had been reasons why he had not acted to save his former allies. Germany had its own internal problems similar to Austria-Hungary, in the form of revolution and famine. There was also the separate peace that their father had attempted to negotiate with the Triple Entente when he had assumed the throne at the end of 1916, a betrayal that the Germans would have eventually acted upon had it not been forgotten in the rush of events that led up to the White Peace at the end of 1917 and Treaty of Paris a year later that formally ended the war. That peace had come too late for Germany’s allies, both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Ottoman Empire had collapsed in the months that followed. By the time Charlotte had been born, the Habsburg Empire was just a memory.

Years later, after Charlotte had married Louis, she would learn the Wilhelm had not forgotten, not for an instant. News of Austria-Hungary’s demise had supposedly been met with restrained jubilation and private gloating. That was actually a shocking level of restraint by Wilhelm. If Charlotte had to guess, that was entirely because it was late in his reign, and he had lacked the energy to have it be a public spectacle by that point. Not that Otto needed to know that. It would just drive his desire to further drag out the tricky negotiations for what had been dubbed the European Project in an entirely foolish effort to diminish the Germany.



Silesia

“Why?” Ingrid asked intently.

Manfred had no idea if she understood that was a question much less understand the answer. Still, it made her unique among his children and grandchildren. Beyond the first few words that all children learned with their parent’s encouragement there was always a word that caught their fancy. Memorably, Helene’s had been “No” followed by “Mine.” With Albrecht, Sonje, and Caecilia it had been the other way around. Oddly, Lothar had become obsessed by his own name, repeating in constantly.

Ingrid’s word of choice was “Why?” and Manfred wondered if it said something about her nature. Earlier that day, he had heard in the news that Jacob von Schmidt had died, though after all these years few had been aware that he was even still alive. He had never known the Grand Admiral personally, knowing him only by reputation. He knew that Jacob had been a singular genius of the sort that only came along perhaps once in a generation. Manfred knew that Jacob could have made himself obscenely wealthy. Instead, he had joined the Navy and had served the Empire to the best of his abilities. It was something that Manfred found respectable. As often happened, when Manfred heard about the passing of one of his generation, he tended to read up on them.

Supposedly, Jacob had spoken German, Latin, and Hebrew by the time he was the age of four, having memorized the Torah. That was an extraordinary accomplishment. The question that Manfred was left wondering was at what point did his family know what he was? Were there small differences? Seeing Ingrid this afternoon, Manfred wondered if it was a small difference like asking “Why?” where other children might say “No!”

Then Ingrid walked over to Rust who was laying in his favorite spot by the window and asked the dog “Why?” before snuggling up to him. Rust was tolerant of her, having Ingrid around him since she had learned to walk. Manfred still knew to keep a close eye on them. It was a reminder that Ingrid was an ordinary little girl even if her life up until now had not been ordinary.
 
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German Jewish admiral that was the nightmare of navies worldwide.
There is considerable irony in Jacob Schmidt's identity. It felt right that the man who was absolutely key in winning the Second World War ITTL be someone who would likely have been totally unknown in OTL and worse, would have been at the top of the list of those deported east to a tragic fate.
 
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