,,The secret of politics? Make a good treaty with Russia.”
Otto von Bismarck
,,Das Zweimächtepakt ist unterzeichnet!”
,,The Two-Power pact has been signed”
The words rang through the streets of Frankfurt. Word spread—quicker than the rising butterflies in the poor boy’s chest when he saw the young noblewomen.
Before long, said words reached the public of the two capitals. The two cities from which the newly-formed Reich would govern.
- Maksim Rheinhardt.
- Gustav von Hohenzimmern.
- A treaty that would dictate the world of the future.
Dozens, hell, hundreds.
Hundreds. Hundreds of tiny princedoms, republics, kingdoms, mock-democracies—everything under the sun. All, all with one thing in common. One thing they all shared from their past: They spoke a form of German.
Two. Two powerhouses. One with enough industrial capacity to power the entire continent, one with a royalty so grand that the common man was connected—albeit loosely—to the royal house.
Two powerhouses, two men. Two leaders.
Gustav—god bless his soul—got a letter from a cousin loosely connected by a few generations. He opened it, expecting something completely and utterly worthless.
He opened it, and yet, he received something nice. A card. A card with a shameless lack of decoration. He read it; to himself. To himself, because he wanted to. To himself, despite there being eight guards in the room.
,,Die Bedrohung—unser Königreich. Der Verbündete, den wir suchen.
Niederrheinland kann uns helfen.”
,,The threat—our kingdom. The ally that we seek.
Niederrheinland can help us.”
Such, it happened. A snap of a finger, an angry glare, and he set off. From Berlin, to Rotterdam.
Days.
Days more.
More days.
Some more days.
Von Hohenzimmern arrived.
Von Hohenzimmern arrived, and he did so grandly. Grandly, yet not efficiently.
He got halted—stopped by the armed forces. Under armed supervision, he promptly got escorted to a modest building. Modest, yet grand—in its own way.
Such, it happened. Both parties forgot the initial meeting after a week or two.
Winter rolls around.
Winter, 1890.
Niederrheinland’s harvest fails. Von Hohenzimmern sends aid, further cementing the relations between the countries.
March 1891. Maksim Rheinhardt travels to Berlin, proposing an act to unite all the tiny countries. The act is put on hold.
April 1891. The act is accepted by Gustav von Hohenzimmern. They meet in Frankfurt.
21st of April, 1891. The negotiations begin. The act is nicknamed “Zweimächtepakt”, in-line with the ambitions of both leaders to govern equally.
28th of April, 1891. The negotiations end—the public remains unaware that the negotiations have ended.
1st of May, 1891. The act is made public. Rheinhardt to be chancellor, Von Hohenzimmern to be king. The Reich now exists
2nd of February, 1892. Most of the countries have united into the Reich.
7th of February, 1892. Von Hohenzimmern crowned Kaiser by the Papal States.
12th of February, 1892. Rotterdam called out as capital alongside Berlin.
15th of February, 1892. Local Reichskommissariats (R.K.) form inside the Reich, for ease of governing. E.g. R.K. Rheinland , R.K. Dänen-Gulf , R.K.Weißbergen , etc.
21st of February, 1892. The act, now pact, is finalized. As a token of gratitude from one to another, both Maksim Rheinhardt and Gustav von Hohenzimmern promise that the eldest son or daughter will marry to the other party’s child of the opposite sex.
And somewhere, somewhere in the entire Reich, a young, drunk Polish man now living in R.K. Dänen-Gulf beats up his wife.
Fin.
