Germany: The Thousand Year Empire Chapter 115 115: Return to Germany

The news of the agreent's passage reached Jörg almost at once.

He was not surprised. The outco had been set in motion long before the vote was cast. Now that his mission in the United States had been completed, there was no reason for him to remain any longer.

He had originally intended to spend more ti in Arica. After finishing his inspections of the shipyards in various states, he had planned to continue on to other industrial facilities, observing machine tool factories, steelworks, and related enterprises in greater detail. But the British delegation had arrived earlier than expected, and President Hindenburg had sent repeated telegrams urging his return. In the end, Jörg had no choice but to conclude his work in Arica and finalize his departure with the delegation.

Before he boarded the ship, Dawes ca to the dock to see him off as he always did.

It was the sa harbor as before.

Only the President had changed.

"How does it feel to be President?" Jörg asked.

Because their private relationship had grown genuinely close, the exchange between them no longer resembled formal diplomacy. It sounded more like the conversation of two n who understood each other's burdens.

"A ss, honestly," Dawes said, leaning against the car with a cigarette between his fingers. "Being President is nowhere near as glamorous as I once imagined. To tell the truth, I think being a diplomat is easier. Far fewer worries."

There were no reporters nearby. Dawes smoked while Jörg stood opposite him, chewing on a piece of chocolate.

The chocolate was also one of the little absurdities of his Arican journey. Over the past month, various politicians had sohow concluded that he was fond of it, and so chocolate had beco the default gift handed to him at every occasion. Jack Morgan, who now knew very well what the shipbuilding stocks were about to beco, had been the most generous of all. He had simply sent over an entire box of gold wrapped chocolates as though he were paying tribute to a prince.

"You are not planning to run for re election?" Jörg asked.

Dawes crushed the cigarette beneath his heel and shook his head firmly.

"Good Lord, no. One four year term is already my limit. If I had to do another four years, I would probably beco the first President in White House history to end up in a lunatic asylum."

A long, low horn sounded from the Weimar cruise ship at the pier.

"Once these four years are over," Dawes went on, glancing at the ship, "I may just issue myself an order and beco ambassador to Germany. Frankly, I think Germany, with you there, is safer than the United States."

He lowered his voice and added with open irritation, "At least there aren't lunatics trying to assassinate people every few days."

"President Coolidge's health," Jörg said, thinking Dawes was rely grumbling as usual, "is he recovering well?"

He did not realize that Dawes was speaking only half in jest.

"By the grace of God, he woke up two days ago." Dawes gave a short laugh. "Do you know the first thing he said after regaining consciousness?"

Jörg glanced briefly toward Senna and Lia, who were in the distance overseeing the loading of luggage, then looked back at him. "What?"

"Being President of the United States is a genuinely high risk profession."

Dawes shook his head.

"He says he intends to retire and buy land in New Jersey."

Noticing where Jörg's attention had drifted, Dawes realized he had said a little too much. He patted Jörg on the shoulder and let the mont end there.

"Goodbye, Jörg. You are a good politician, and an even better friend."

He stepped back, and the two n parted.

...

Although Jörg had left the United States, the effects of the shipbuilding agreent did not leave with him.

They spread rapidly instead.

As the first shipyard selected to enter Germany during the inspection period, the stock of the Brooklyn Navy Yard surged almost imdiately. Capital released from the cooling real estate bubble flowed toward the new opportunity with almost predatory urgency. On Tis Square, advertising slogans changed with remarkable speed. The old cry of "Real estate, the only asset that never changes" vanished, replaced by a new refrain:

"Shipbuilding agreent. Cheaper shipping. Lower commodity prices. Higher investnt returns."

Under the deliberate manipulation of Morgan and the other major financial groups who had received word in advance, the agreent was woven together with the promise of cheaper goods, higher returns, and renewed industrial vitality. It was as if simply buying shipbuilding shares would lower the price of daily necessities and open the road to wealth.

The shock was not confined to Arica.

Germany also began to stir.

A wave of speculation rose quickly as many citizens, eager to seize what seed like an obvious opportunity, tried to move money into overseas brokerages. Yet before the frenzy could expand too far, Mandor, already warned in advance by Jörg, moved decisively to curb it. Using the excuse that excessive foreign speculation would endanger Germany's still fragile recovery, he employed administrative restrictions and financial controls to keep the movent within a tightly manageable range.

This was only the economic dinsion.

The political consequences would be even deeper and far longer lasting.

Britain interpreted the agreent as an Arican attempt to thoroughly appease Germany and bind it into a new relationship of dependence, a kind of European colony in all but na. London disliked the developnt, but between Soviet Russia's looming presence and France's growing weight on the continent, Britain still saw value in offshore balance. In the end, although displeased, it chose not to press the matter too hard. It did not linger over whether the agreent might one day help restore German sea power.

France, by contrast, reacted exactly as expected.

Paris denounced the arrangent and demanded that the League of Nations intervene, placing the shipbuilding agreent under League supervision. But the United States crushed that proposal almost imdiately by hinting at increased loan interest rates. The smaller countries within the League had even less reason to make trouble. Everyone could see that Arica and Germany were enjoying an unusually warm phase in their relations, and many of their own economies depended on Arican capital. No one wished to offend Washington for the sake of France's anxieties.

There was, however, one exception.

Poland.

The mont the agreent beca public, Polish newspapers launched into furious denunciation. They claid that the United States was nurturing an uncontrollable future enemy and wrote at length about how the agreent was little more than a disguised step toward the restoration of German naval power.

One of those newspapers eventually found its way into Jörg's hands.

At that mont, he was seated with President Hindenburg in a teahouse, finally enjoying a quiet morning after a week of real rest.

Of course, Hindenburg did not truly understand asian food.

His tastes were still firmly rooted in his own habits. He preferred pastries, at pastes, and richer European fare. Even now, he sprinkled a layer of fine sugar over a cake, took a satisfied bite, and then looked across the table at Jörg with sothing between reproach and amusent.

"You really are a troublemaker, Jörg," he said. "What kind of diplomat goes abroad and returns after another country's President has been replaced? If I were the Arican President, I would have placed you on the diplomatic blacklist long ago."

"Then the Vice President would certainly have treated as an honored guest," Jörg replied at once.

Hindenburg stroked his beard, his cloudy eyes narrowing.

"It is indeed an accomplishnt to secure the shipbuilding agreent," he said, the joking tone fading. "But execution matters more than proposals. Rebuilding the navy is not so simple matter that can be settled with signatures and speeches."

He dabbed at the corner of his mouth, then nodded toward the newspaper in Jörg's hand.

"And what do you think of Poland's attitude?"

Jörg swallowed a shrimp dumpling, set the paper down, and answered calmly.

"They are nothing more than a herd of wild oxen made arrogant by temporary success."

"The reason they resent the agreent is simple. Those sa beasts once tore a piece of flesh from Germany. Now they sense danger. They fear that one day they may be forced to spit that piece of flesh back out. Naturally, they will try to stop that day from ever coming."

At those words, a heavy shadow passed through Hindenburg's expression.

Danzig. The Corridor. East Prussia.

For Germany, they were wounds that never truly closed.

Millions of Germans had been cut away from the body of the nation as though by a surgeon's knife, left stranded like abandoned children, severed from the holand to which they belonged. It was not rely a strategic humiliation. It was a wound of mory, identity, and pride.

So long as East Prussia remained disconnected from Germany, the nation could never truly claim that its humiliation had been washed away. It could never speak honestly of wholeness.

Jörg saw the sorrow in the old man's face.

More accurately, he saw the sorrow of an entire people reflected there.

East Prussia was not simply a territorial question. It was one of those scars that settled so deep in the national consciousness that every German, whether he said so aloud or not, carried it within him.

The tragedy was made worse by helplessness.

Because East Prussia and Danzig stood apart from the main body of Germany, the Reich could not properly protect them. Forced occupations without referendum beca common facts. Two years earlier, Lithuania had seized the l region by force, and that success had only emboldened Poland further. One border dispute after another followed. The line crept forward inch by inch.

And Germany could do little except watch.

Watch as Danzig, which ought to have remained under League administration, slipped more and more firmly under Polish economic control.

Watch as German citizens there were marginalized and pressured.

Watch as a German city was gradually eaten away by another state while Berlin could do almost nothing but protest and rember.

.....

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