Chapter 174: Torchlight Procession
December 20, 1931.
Before Christmas arrived, Berlin's second expansion had already begun to show its outline.
Roads had been widened. Traffic lights alternated between red and green at busy intersections. Traffic police in heavy overcoats stood beneath the winter sky, directing cars, trams, bicycles, and pedestrians with crisp gestures. Along the newly built avenues, towering buildings rose with severe German symmetry, their embedded glass reflecting the pale sunlight with a cold and fascinating brilliance.
On the highways entering and leaving the capital, the Imperial Eagle company's new civilian model, the Victory Eagle, appeared more frequently than before.
That alone was enough to prove that the economy was recovering.
This winter was not especially cold. Only a thin layer of snow covered the rooftops, softening Berlin's hard edges with a quiet white sheen.
For the German people, it was an exceptionally warm winter in every sense.
Austria had merged into Germany. The Czech region had become a German province. Compared with a decade earlier, Germany's territory had nearly doubled. Borders that had once been treated as shackles were being redrawn by force, diplomacy, and national will.
Beyond Europe, the world was changing just as violently.
East Asia, Africa, North America, wars broke out one after another. The frequency of conflict caused the demand for penicillin to rise sharply, which in turn expanded the international influence of the Mark. Fruits from North America, wool from Australia, salmon from Japan, and meat from Brazil gradually began appearing on the tables of ordinary German families.
Meanwhile, industrial products such as firearms, optical sights, cables, radios, and precision instruments were being exported abroad. The pace was still slow, and no fully dependent market had yet formed, but compared with the bleak year of 1929, the situation had improved several times over.
An American economist summarized it in one sentence:
Germany had taken up the baton of international trade with a pragmatic hand.
If the liquidity of the dollar and the pound depended on gold, then the value of the Mark was supported by things that could be touched, measured, and used.
Industry.
Medicine.
Armaments.
A powerful state.
And a young Führer whose ability was almost terrifying.
Unter den Linden had already been completely sealed off on both sides.
After being vetted by the Internal and External Intelligence Department, citizens gathered along the street to witness an unprecedented celebration.
Outside the cordon, a young man who had come from Vienna to Berlin in search of opportunity stared at the blocked avenue and stopped in place.
A few steps ahead of him, another young man several years older carried a travel bag over his shoulder. He looked around the bustling street, then turned back impatiently.
"Hurry up, Karl. If we don't find a place to sleep tonight, we'll be sleeping on the street."
"Don't worry, Hans." Karl craned his neck, trying to see past the crowd. "I just saw a sign by the road recruiting construction workers. If worst comes to worst, we can stay at the construction site for a couple of days."
Then he noticed an old man in a knitted hat standing nearby.
"Sir, is something happening on this street tonight?"
The old man glanced at them and immediately recognized that the two young men were from either the Austrian or Czech provinces. Their accent, clothes, and nervous curiosity gave them away at once.
"You haven't read the newspapers?" he asked with a smile. "There will be a return ceremony tonight. You might even see President von Roman."
Karl's eyes widened.
The old man lifted his cane and pointed toward the cordon.
"Go in while there are still fewer people, boys. Our young president does not enjoy public display. This may be the only chance in your lives to see him face to face."
After saying that, the old man walked away slowly with his cane.
Curiosity took hold of Karl and Hans at once.
They moved toward the cordon. After an extremely thorough inspection, two members of the Internal and External Intelligence Department took their documents, asked several routine questions, examined their travel records, and finally waved them inside.
At that moment, the ceremony began.
All the lights along Unter den Linden were extinguished.
Darkness fell over the avenue.
Then, from the far end of the street, flames appeared.
The Wehrmacht honor guard emerged in black dress uniforms, holding torches in their left hands and the uniforms of fallen soldiers in their right. The yellow red flames illuminated the red, white, and black eagle emblems on their caps.
Behind them, a military band carrying drums began to play The Hohenfriedberg March.
The piece had once commemorated the achievements of the Prussian Fifth Dragoon Regiment. Tonight, it was used to commemorate the German soldiers who had fallen during the German Austrian Czech merger.
The drums rolled through the winter air.
The torchlight rose and fell with the soldiers' steps.
Rows of figures advanced from the darkness, rigid and solemn, drawing every gaze along the avenue.
Clip clop.
Clip clop.
The crisp sound of hooves echoed from both sides of the central formation.
Honor cavalrymen rode forward, each holding a national emblem flag carved with an eagle in one hand while gripping the reins with the other. Their faces were stern, their posture straight, and the jet black horses beneath them moved with terrifying elegance. In the flickering torchlight, they looked like cavalry appointed by heaven to clear the road before a god.
Then the flames suddenly grew brighter.
Two white horses appeared in the night, strikingly visible amid the darkness.
Jörg sat upon one of them, one gloved hand resting against the saddle. Dressed in the thick black uniform of the Commander in Chief, with gold epaulets on his shoulders, he looked down at the respectful and joyful faces lining the street.
An inexplicable emotion stirred inside him.
This ceremony had two purposes.
One was to commemorate the birth of the new Germany after the German Czech Austrian merger.
The other was to formally appear before the public.
Otherwise, certain tabloids would likely continue calling him the "President in the Radio."
Among the crowd, Karl stared blankly at Jörg on the white horse.
He had known that the president was young. Everyone knew that. The newspapers never stopped speaking about it.
But seeing him in person still startled him.
Jörg's face was melancholic and stern, yet there was no trace of time's erosion upon it. Long years of power had given every subtle smile and every movement of his gaze a kind of indifferent charm, as though he stood slightly above the world even while riding through the middle of it.
In the eyes of the German people, this president who had expanded the territory, stabilized the economy, possessed both virtue and talent, and was almost unnervingly handsome, seemed closer and more real than the God described in the Bible.
The election results had already shown this clearly.
Since the German Austrian merger, Jörg had become an object of national veneration. His personal prestige had surpassed Hindenburg, who had almost vanished from public view, and he had become the sole political figure standing at the center of Germany.
Of course, where there was praise, there would also be slander.
But even his detractors had to admit one thing.
Jörg von Roman was capable.
"Long live the President!"
"Long live the Führer!"
Cheers rose one after another from the crowd.
Jörg's face flickered in the torchlight.
He looked at the hands raised uniformly along both sides of the avenue, then slowly lifted his own.
"Long live Germany!"
His voice carried through the cold night.
"Advance, Germany!"
The slogan that had become a national motto once again sounded along Unter den Linden.
This time, the roar was so powerful that even the flames on the torches seemed to tremble.
The crowd shouted in unison.
"Advance, Germany!"
Karl and Hans stared at the white horse as it gradually passed by.
They stared at that unforgettable profile, at the torchlight, at the black uniforms, at the flags, at the disciplined ranks of soldiers, at the vast emotion pouring through the street like a tide.
Then, almost without realizing it, they were swept into the same feeling.
Karl clenched his fists and shouted with the crowd.
"Advance, Germany!"
Hans followed a beat later, his voice hoarse.
"Advance, Germany!"
As the cheers gradually subsided, the soldiers began to sing Germany, Germany Above All.
Their voices spread beneath the dark sky, solemn and deep.
The song continued until the last torchlight disappeared into the distance.
Only when the electric lights along the avenue came on again and their glow shone across Karl's face did he finally return to his senses.
He and Hans stepped out of the street with the crowd.
On a nearby wall, fresh enlistment posters had been pasted in neat rows.
Karl stopped in front of them.
The poster showed a young soldier standing beneath the imperial eagle, his eyes fixed toward the east.
Karl looked at it for a long while.
Then he turned to Hans.
"Hans," he said quietly, "what do you say we join the army?"
The next day, following Jörg's public appearance, a new policy was passed.
Germany introduced a new presidential system.
Jörg, serving simultaneously as Head of State and Head of Government, formally held the office of President. He now possessed the legal authority to dismiss members of parliament and the cabinet at any time, without requiring a vote.
With this, Jörg's centralized power was no longer merely political reality.
It became law.
On the international stage, opinions varied.
Britain and France made no statement.
Roosevelt, seeking to consolidate German American relations after assuming the presidency, even expressed support.
As for another matter, almost every country sent congratulations.
The President's wedding was to be held at Berlin Cathedral.
.....
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