The impressive Reichstag looked down upon the pomp and ceremony in front of the building. The Director of Protocol, appointed six months earlier by Albert Speer, had kept an eagle eye on every detail of the proceedings. So far everything had gone smoothly.
Speer had sent him to Great Britain for several weeks to learn from the world’s masters in protocols and ceremonies. The knowledge thus gained would then be subtly changed to suit the German temperament and historical aspect.
Today was the first Investiture of the German Order of Merit. There were seven recipients. It was intended that after this, future awards of this honour would be limited to one per year, except in exceptional circumstances.
The seven founding Members were Baron von Altendorf, Hjalmar Schacht, General Rudolf Sieckenius, Professor Kurt Tank, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, and the ex British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax, now retired.
Von Altendorf had proved as much a master of diplomacy as the venerated Otto von Bismarck. All of Europe had benefitted from his unerring guidance in foreign affairs.
Schacht’s work as Economics Minister was well known by all. A lot of Germany’s prosperity could be directly attributed to his steerage of the economy and the country’s finances after the European War.
Sieckenius’ success in his new job had been spectacular. He had also played an outstanding role in China for nearly five years. China’s President, Chiang Kai-shek, held the General in high regard and had awarded him China’s top medal for services to his country. He had also given him honorary Chinese citizenship. It was inevitable that his colleagues would nickname him ‘Chinese Sieckenius’.
Kurt Tank’s brilliant design and engineering work at Focke-Wulf were unequalled in the aviation industry. The Starflight was a world success story. Its eventual successor, the Komet, had all the promise of being another world beater.
Rommel received the award for his unerring direction of the European Alliance since taking over the newly formed organisation from General von Mannstein. The Alliance’s peacekeeping intervention in Yugoslavia was a model operation.
Canaris had worked tirelessly to protect Germany, as chief of the Abwher, Germany’s military intelligence, for twelve years. Information provided by his network had been invaluable to Germany’s Governing Council. And, on many occasions, to its allies.
The sure support and assistance given by Lord Halifax to the peace initiatives of the Germans in 1940 had been of supreme importance in bringing these to a successful conclusion.
These seven men had played significant roles in the creation of the new, post Nazi, Germany. They were deserving recipients of Germany’s highest honour.
The award ceremony was over. The Chancellor had presented each recipient with the scroll of membership, together with the gold star on which was embossed the German eagle. He, together with a ceremonial guard, then escorted them to their own ‘Member’s chamber’ within the Reichstag, and presented them with the key.
Henceforth, only Members of the Order, or their invited guests could enter that chamber. It was theirs for eternity!
This was to be the last Council meeting of the year.
Von Altendorf advised that he had been in communication with the Soviet Foreign Minister about the mooted summit meeting between the German Chancellor and the Soviet leader. Turkey had been suggested as being a suitable ‘neutral’ venue. The date of 20 January, one month away, had been provisionally agreed upon.
The council were well prepared and had already drawn up an agenda for the meeting. The German team would include the Chancellor, the Foreign Minister, and the Economics and Interior Ministers. The Defence Minister would remain behind as acting Chancellor.
The Foreign Minister also advised the council that he just heard that the war in Kashmir between India and Pakistan, which had dragged on for the past year and a half, had finally petered out. While the results were inconclusive, India had ended up with about two thirds of the territory, and Pakistan the remaining portion. Total casualties on both sides were less than thirty thousand. An appalling number but deemed to be insufficient to deter future encounters.
“That, gentlemen, I suspect is the end of only the first conflict between India and Pakistan.
While on the subject of India, I must mention that the more than five hundred independent Princely states that existed when India was given independence, have all disappeared. Every one of them. They were persuaded, coerced or forcibly annexed. Most of them by India. I am not saying that the rule of the Princes was benevolent for their people, I only draw your attention to the self-interest approach of the newly ‘democratic’ nations of the Indian sub-continent, when they see the chance to acquire territory.”
The only other item of note was the mention by the Aviation Minister that the first flight of the new Junkers medium jet bomber was scheduled for February. Any Council member that wished to witness it, was obviously welcome to do so.
The Chancellor closed the meeting and invited everybody to join him for a pre-Christmas drink in the private bar maintained for government use. It had been a good year, let’s celebrate it!
The German-Soviet summit was to be held in what at one time had been an Ottoman noble’s palace on the outskirts of Istanbul. Soldiers of the Turkish Army were swarming all over the place. The unit of Russian special forces guarding the quarters of the Soviet delegation, steadfastly ignored all attempts by the Turks to communicate with them. This had been forbidden by the army’s political commissars.
The German paratroopers were only a little more responsive. The soldiers of all three countries had been exhorted to extreme vigilance. Or else heads will roll!
In what had once been a large atrium, now roofed over and converted into a spacious hall, the actual meeting was taking place. The Soviet leader, Stalin, was an object of great interest, fascination even, to the German delegation. They covertly scrutinised him from the moment they saw him. Here was the world’s most brutal dictator and greatest mass murderer, in the flesh. Unlike his countrymen that were present, the psychotic Stalin held no terror for the Germans. Here, he just looked like a tired old man who sometimes seemed unaware of, or was disinterested in, what was going on around him. Von Brauchitsch privately wondered if he may be suffering from some sort of mental degeneration or fatigue.
On the other hand, Khrushchev, while still obsequies to Stalin, gave the appearance of being the power behind the throne. ‘This is the one to watch’, thought von Brauchitsch. The Soviet Foreign Minister, Molotov, if one looked carefully for the signs, was definitely anxious to avoid opposing Khrushchev. The same applied to Khrushchev’s protégé, Brezhnev, a bear-like brooding figure.
Khrushchev was fifty two years old and born of peasant stock. He had been an enthusiastic supporter of Stalin’s purges. Probably to save his own skin. From 1938 he had governed the Ukraine for a year or so. Ukraine had the second largest economy in the Soviet Union. During his governorship Khrushchev had continued with the Moscow directed purges, forced collectivisation of agriculture on the long suffering and malnourished peasants, and conscripted many of its young men into the red Army.
He had now been a member of the Politburo, Russia’s governing body, since 1939. And it seemed to the Germans that he might be the second most powerful man in the Soviet Union.