How do you solve a problem like Waldeck?

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Waldeck und Pyrmont​

Waldeck and Pyrmont? This is Victoria. What are you on about? Who ever heard of Waldeck and Pyrmont? He's mad! That's the only explanation.

At the moment thoughts similar to that are almost certainly racing around your head as you digest the title of this piece. I am not mad. Well, not as far as I know and nobody has told me that I am (not recently, anyway!)


Waldeck & Pyrmont does actually exist. Or rather did exist. It was a small principality in the west of Germany sandwiched, somewhat uneasily, between the Westphalia area of Prussia and Hesse-Cassel . Independent before 1836, the 'one province state' soldiered on until 1850 when an agreement was reached with the mighty Prussians for the latter's equally mighty administrative machine to take over the administration of the territory. This was seen as a sensible cost-saving measure for such a small country and the contract was renewable every 10 years. During this time, the state maintained a separate legal identity from Prussia and was not actually officially absorbed until 1929! Today it forms part of the German state of Hesse.


The main urban areas were within the area of Waldeck and consisted of the town of Waldeck in the south; Korbach in the west and Bad Arolsen (the capital) Pyrmont was a smaller enclave situated to the north, near the Pied Piper's crib of Hamelin surrounded by Hanover, Lippe-Detmold, the Duchy of Brunswick and yet more Prussian land!. A search for Korbach on the map will help to explain it's location.

With regard to the game, one might ask why Waldeck & Pyrmont? To which my reply is why not! It might make my attempt to steer Waldeck & Pyrmont through the turbulent waters of empire, colonialism and German unification unique but I'm sure I will still stumble upon many of the problems, trials and tribulations that beset all Victoria players. We shall see!

I have made few alterations to the game mechanics. The province of Korbach has been renamed throughout to Arolsen, given that the latter was the legal and administrative capital (although it was rather small, with an even smaller population!) Many thanks to Jamie550 for his amazing Map Utility. I'm not bigging him up unnecessarily. I just know that I could never have written such a piece of code. I personally feel that it is a very much under-valued and under-utilised tool. It always gives me a sense of achievement to see a different name that I put on the map. Arolsen (nee Korbach) has also been moved to the area of Hessen. Please note that I have not tried to model Pyrmont itself because it is much too small and I cannot work miracles!!

The army of Waldeck & Pyrmont was always considered important in the years before the 'game start date' of 1836. In fact the army was a mercenary unit that was actually hired out to the highest bidder by the principality's rulers! In order to suggest this military leaning and expertise I have given the country the 'Western Knowledge' level rather than the usual German minors' 'Backward Western Knowledge'. I have converted 1 of the 2 farmer pops to soldiers; although this could have been done once the game had begun. I have also created a 1000 strong clergy and a similar number of aristocrats whilst maintaining the original total population size in Korbach i.e. approximately 103,000. all are protestant bar the soldier pop, which remains catholic. Additionally I gave the army a general (randomly generated) to indicate the aforementioned expertise.

All that remains, is for me to take a deep breath, dive beneath the moribund waves of history and see what bubbles to the surface. Wish me luck!

 

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I'm slowly getting the hang of this image adding and uploading mularkey!

This composite screenshot shows the transition from the Prussian province of Korbach to Arolsen the capital of Waldeck & Pyrmont. I also moved the capital icon slightly to make the province less obscured. Again, all courtesy of Jamie550's Map Utility.

For those of you who are patiently waiting for the story to begin. Don't worry, the first instalment is on its way!

 

[Searry]

Most interesting!

 

[Patukov]

Potential

 

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this is a good thing!

 

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Every story has a beginning!

PROLOGUE​

Dawn, accompanied by a louder, more piercing chorus than usual, as if the birds were chattering nosily about the goings on beneath them, offered the pretence of a better light to work in. Dim gas lanterns were of little use, even to those who breakfasted on carrots and other such eyesight enhancing morsels. The city lurking just behind the gated walls was yet to stir but sleep had been surrendered by those now heaving and sweating and swearing and heaving out of sight.

“'Ere Fred”
“Wossat Bert?”
“Wot we doin' 'ere?”
“Wossat Bert?”
“Wot we doin' in this 'ole?”
“Wossat Bert?”
“Why we diggin this bloody 'ole at 5 in the mornin', Fred?”
“'Cos we're bein' paid to dig, Bert”
“I know that. Jus' like I know that we're diggin' this bloke up. Wos 'is name again, Fred?”
“I fink it's Smith, John Smith or summit like that. Be a lot easier if we cud read the gravestone”
“Be a lot easier if we cud read full-stop, 'eh Fred!”
“Yeah, but who is 'ee? I mean its not like 'ee's famous or nowt 'n ee ain't no murderer 'n ee didn't die suspicious like, did 'ee?
“I dunno, do I. I mean I ain't no bleeding mastermind am I?”
“I 'eard 'ee weren’t even English, wos 'ee?”
“Some said 'ee was Dutch or European or German or summit”
Wiv' an English name? Yeah right!”

“He was born Hans Schmidt in the German principality of Waldeck and Pyrmont early in the last century.”

The confident voice echoed and bounced with conviction about the ears of the two illiterate gravediggers incarcerated in the deep, dark, dank rectangle of empty earth that was temporarily now their place of work. Diligent workers they were not, but nonetheless, the intruder offered a welcome opportunity for repose and to waste a little time. The implied invitation was not spurned and in no time at all their spades were transformed into the most natural of rests for a combination of arms, elbows and hands. Glancing up at the shadowy origin of the discourse, they could discern no recognisable details save the outline of a delicate, slender frame silhouetted against the ripening London sky. 'A man who did no real work', thought Bert.

“Wossat, mate?” asked Fred, pretending to have heard nothing of the stranger's statement volunteered without consent.
“Ain't there another German buried round 'ere somewhere?”, added Bert, half asking Fred, whom he knew couldn't answer because he didn't know and half asking the interloper whom he wanted to test.

“That is probably Karl Marx but he is not important”, glossed over the visitor. “Mr Schmidt was very important back in his home country, the owner of a great many confidences and we believe, well, fervently hope, that his coffin might hold the key to unlocking the secrets of Waldeck and Pyrmont over the last 100 or so years. We know what happened but not always why.”

In normal circumstances, one might have thought that Charles de Bunsen, a sometime journalist of dubious reputation, whose nose for a story, or more especially a scandal, was second only to that of a bloodhound, would have been a little more circumspect, but he hazarded an educated guess that he was already leaving the petty, small-minded world of the manual labourers far, far behind. He was not wrong. In the softening light he caught the unmistakable glint of their rapidly glazing eyes, and they, in subconscious acceptance of their mental limitations, heavily lifted their muscular limbs from their ad-hoc wooden-handled stays and with sighs and grunts returned to their toils. Only when their shovels fell silent could the real work begin.

Highgate Cemetery

 

[Enewald]

Marx, what Marx?

Brilliant idea Sir!

 

[Prutenio]

Looks promising, when's the next update?

And if I may ask, in the bottom right of the Korbach->Arolsen image, it shows Korbach in Waldeck colours, but also Goettingen, Osnabrueck and Nienburg. Is this a sign of things to come?

 

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Belated Response

High Guys,

This AAR is going slower than expected but you can blame 2 things - namely; Real Life and Victoria 2. Both are very demanding!!

Most interesting!

Searry - I guess it depends on how long a tiny piece of German land lasts before the Prussians come calling?

Potential

Patukov - Maybe the potential to crash and burn?

This is a good thing

van5 - Yeah, but every good thing comes to an end! Or am I just being a little pessimistic here?

Marx, what Marx?

Brilliant idea Sir!

Enewald - Marx was brilliant if a little before his time. I, on the otherhand, am full of ideas. It's making them work that's the problem. Let's see what we can do with Waldeck.

Looks promising, when's the next update?

And if I may ask, in the bottom right of the Korbach->Arolsen image, it shows Korbach in Waldeck colours, but also Goettingen, Osnabrueck and Nienburg. Is this a sign of things to come?

Prutenio - Next update will follow 30 seconds after this post. Maybe!!

I'm still getting used to the idea of taking screenshots frequently so I may have had to crop from another image. However it doesn't necessarily mean that you have seen the future. You will have to wait for the future to catch up with you!

Many thanks

Stiv

 

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Prologue 2

de Bunsen reclined purposefully against the rigid, heavily-woven fabric of the rather upright back of his reserved 1st class seat and rather thought that it would be of no great surprise to him if all German railway compartment seats were so uncomfortable, so business-like, so ….... German. It felt as if the seat was part of a subconscious, complex machine that surreptitiously kept the deutschefolk erect, tensioned, ready to spring into action; ready to answer the call to do whatever was required maintain order and expand their horizons. All he wanted to do was relax. All he wanted to do was be there; to arrive.

'How', he thought to himself, 'did I end up on a train trundling through the expanse of Westphalian countryside, pleasant though it was, heading relentlessly toward Bad Arolsen. Arolsen, spa town, capital, ridiculously small (why it had not grown as Waldeck and Pyrmont had prospered, he had not a clue), ridiculously important, ridiculously far away from London! Now there was a capital to be proud of. Huge, ridiculously huge. Gigantic, titanic, stupendous. He could think of a host of superlatives to describe his home town but in comparison with Arolsen, simplicity was enough. Arolsen was small; London was well, big. He wondered how many Arolsens he could fit into London. As his mind focused on the new task of computing how much space each Arolsen might take up, his eyes defocused and very quickly refocused on a distant telegraph pole as it menacingly sped unrelentingly towards the train and his carriage in particular. The tall, oppressive, creosoted hulk seemed to gather momentum, as if to charge headlong into his seat but at the last possible moment it veered away and for a moment, a brief hiatus, it appeared to beckon to de Bunsen, as if to say 'I'll get you next time!' and then it was gone, out of sight, past him, into his past; to be placed by another, just as oppressive, just as sinister. de Bunsen fancied that he was sweeping past the vanguard of the Waldeckian Army, parading at regular intervals, just for him. A show of strength, warning him not to dig too deeply into Waldeck's past.

He had not dug too deep thus far. Only 6 feet to be precise, 6 feet of London clay. 6 feet of hallowed Highgate Cemetery turf, topsoil and beyond. Well, actually he had not soiled his hands on such consecrated soil. That odious, putrid task had been left to the unintelligent, ignorant, itinerant gravediggers, but they had done their job well enough. Hans Schmidt has been less helpful though. His coffin had been empty. Sure, his bones were there. It was his coffin after all, but precious little else. Johannes Schmidt was in no mood to give up his tawdry little secrets too readily, too easily. A cursory search of the remnants of clothing had revealed nothing, except the occasional worm or burrowing beetle that had strayed too far from the life-giving earth.

All had seemed lost; time, money, not to mention a little matter of the illegality of opening coffins without authority, when a ray of sunlight had permeated the depths of the freshly excavated hole. Not an actual shaft of light, more a shard of light...and dark glass. Fred or it might have been Bert had clumsily allowed the coffin lid to slip from his clumpy, sausage-fingered grasp as he was manoeuvring it back into its once long held position. Gravity had pulled it toward an abrupt corner of the casket and a sound not unlike the sound of a window pane fracturing had emanated from below. A period of stillness, fearful stillness had ensued. Had anyone heard the commotion? The lack of subsequent activity 6 feet above their heads had suggested otherwise. Burt or it might have been Fred, 'they all look the same, these workmen', thought de Bunsen, had gingerly turned over the lid, lest he should disturb anything else, that might then have shattered the tender silence once more. Screwed to the underside, approximately opposite where the corpse's head might have laid had been a piece of flat, darkened glass, now cracked in three by the actions of butterfingered Burt. Once the fragments had been safely passed up to de Bunsen (not that he cared one jot for the well-being of the workers more that he had wished no further mishap to befall the artefact he was now taking possession of) he had been quickly able to ascertain that he was now holding a glass plate negative. By a degree of contortion, balancing and perseverance he had been able to manipulate the pieces together accurately enough to view the negative against the cool sun that still held sway and draped the cemetery in its half-light. He had nicked a finger, he thought, although it could just have easily been his palm, against a deceptively smooth, dangerously smooth edge of one of the newly broken portions. The only clue had been the warmth of the liquid that delicately seemed to trickle down his upper arm but it hadn't hurt and there had seemed no imminent rick of death by blood loss. His gaze had left the issue of his wound and following the expanse of his forearm had quickly reached the Picasso-like concoction that was the negative sandwiched between his fingers, arm and elbow. Peering through the tainted, scratched and be-speckled he had fancied that he could just make out the outline of a large, grand building. The sort of building that meant something to someone. If so, what had this meant to Schmidt. Meant so much, that he had had it buried with him. Fastened to the coffin in such a way that he might see it always, through his dead eyes, through the empty sockets where those eyes once were, for infinity or at least until the judgement day, whichever came sooner mused de Bunsen.

- The 3 pieces of the glass negative put together by de Bunsen in order to make a print -

Daylight and the British Library had been of little assistance in solving the conundrum and so, with some reluctance de Bunsen had crossed the channel and had now found himself sat bolt-upright on a German seat in a German carriage on a German train bound for a German city looking for a German building (he surmised the origin of the latter but it seemed somewhat self-evident). He now knew what it felt like to be an Englishman abroad. This was not going to be fun he thought to himself. He was not wrong.

 

[Enewald]

That is why Englishmen so often go with the army boys abroad.

 

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Hi stiv, great idea +rep
I live in this area, around 10 km away from Korbach and Waldeck, so maybe I could help you with some fact about the history, countryside and so on.

 

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Update Soon - ish!

Enewald -

That is why Englishmen so often go with the army boys abroad.

Although I was born in England (Waterloo in fact) my parents are Australian and Swedish - so the army boys are safe! Dunno if my girlfriend likes uniform though - I must ask her!!

OrdoTeutonicus -

Hi stiv, great idea +rep
I live in this area, around 10 km away from Korbach and Waldeck, so maybe I could help you with some fact about the history, countryside and so on.

Thanks OrdoTeutonicus. I might well take you up on your offer. I didn't realise it but I used to work in Soest which isn't very far away at all.

For all of you who are waiting desperately for an update. One will be posted as soon as I can. I'm on holiday from work for 2 weeks form Sunday so I'll try and get something done!

Many thanks

Stiv