【 Chapter 17 – Interwar Period – War College 】
November 4, 1937
Northern Germany, Berlin
I finally arrived in Berlin.
The historic capital of Germany, which has been handed down from the Duchy of Brandenburg, and only ruins will remain at the end of World War II.
The dark red flag with Hakenkreuz is hung all over the rough city area as a whole, which was German sensibility.
It was a daunting and bleak scene worthy of an evil empire, as commonly said in the West.
People seemed more energetic than expected, but it was common to see SS (Schutzstaffel, Nazi SS) swarming along the roadside.
From now on, this is my stage. It would be nice to hook up if I did something really wrong.
And I—
Before the Nazis faced serious problems.
Gee, damn it. During the long Spanish Civil War, not a single letter was sent home!
This body, Dietrich Schacht, was a late child born to his parents eight years after his older sister Cordula was born in 1903.
As he was a late son, he was loved by his parents a little too much, and Dietrich, who had a grandmother and a rich father, was an immature sheep.
After graduating from the prestigious Heidelberg University at best, he fought with his father Hjalmar Schacht and immediately joined the army.
His father, Hjalmar, wanted Dietrich to become a businessman after completing his mandatory military service, but Dietrich was fascinated by Hitler and the nice uniform of the German youth of this time, and tried to be commissioned as an officer.
After that, as soon as he completed the officer training course, he was deployed to Spain, and he had never even exchanged letters with his father, let alone met.
His mother and older sister sent at least some letters at the beginning of the deployment, but Dietrich didn’t even reply to them, so it was soon cut off.
I don’t know if it’s natural for Dietrich Schacht, but I, who was influenced by that memory, did not feel any discomfort at all… I only realized it when I had to go home after returning to Germany.
So, my situation right now is that I am a prodigal son who literally left the house and almost got disowned.
A cold sweat breaks out. In Korea, I still had a good relationship with my mother…
Aside from the problem of being a younger child, it is not easy to connect with an anti-Hitler group full of high-ranking people.
The center of what the SS intelligence service (SD, Sicherheitsdienst) calls the ‘Schwarze Kapelle’ is the so-called ‘von Kleist meeting’ in Germany’s upper-class society.
So, I must maintain a good relationship with my father Hjalmar Schacht, who will be the point of contact with them, but somehow it seems to have been ruined from the beginning.
I swallowed dry saliva and looked at the boutique detached house in the middle of Berlin.
I mean, this is my house, or Dietrich Schacht’s house.
It’s not a townhouse in the middle of Berlin, but a three-story detached house.
In the 21st century, in Korea, there was a luxurious detached house in the middle of Seoul, so there would be no rich man like this… It’s sad that I can’t be happy about it.
“Dietrich…?”
I was thinking about it in front of the door when I heard an unfamiliar but at the same time familiar voice behind my back.
I turned around and saw an elderly German woman standing there with a surprised face.
A German woman who looks more tired than Dietrich remembers.
I tried to say it as softly as possible while engraving my memories as Yoon Sung-il.
“….Mother.”
This woman, Louise Soba, Dietrich’s mother, came running up to me and hugged me tightly.
“You, indeed…. You came back safely…”
Louise— My mother’s sobbing makes my heart sink.
Ah, Dietrich, you damn bastard. This was what you suppose to do, not me…
“…sorry… I’m back.”
My mother, Louise didn’t let go for a long time because she was so worried about this kind of child.
I remembered my mother as Yoon Sung-il and did my best to listen to her story and tell her many things.
Damn, I couldn’t even meet my real mother, even though I wanted to. Damn Dietrich.
My sister, Cordula, was in England with her family.
Come to think of it, my sister’s son had Montagu Norman, the governor of the Bank of England, as his godfather…
What a great family.
But that wasn’t the point.
His father, Hjalmar Schacht, was dismissed from his post as Minister of Economy and Plenipotentiary for Wartime Economics just yesterday.
Such crappy timing.
He was supposed to remain in Hitler’s cabinet as minister without office, but that was only a normal thing.
It could be said that most of the powers of my father, Hjalmar Schacht, have been removed.
When the Great Depression broke out and the world economy shook, instead of his father who caught Germany’s hyperinflation while paying huge reparations from the Treaty of Versailles, the ignorant Göring would start turning Germany into a huge munitions factory just as the Nazis wanted.
In the meantime, under Göring, a drug addict who can’t even work properly, all kinds of Nazi gains and losses were intertwined, and screws were missing here and there.
I was thinking for a while, dealing with my mother like that, and there was a bang at the door.
In Dietrich’s memory, Hjalmar Schacht was an intellectual, calm, and arrogant figure.
The fact that he came home drunk and disheveled gave off an unfamiliar yet somewhat poignant feeling.
Hjalmar Schacht was a person who contributed a lot from the beginning of the Nazis, such as introducing businessmen with whom he had friendships and raising funds for the Naziswhen Hitler and the Naziswere nothing more than minor parties struggling with their activity expenses.
For him, he must have believed that the Nazis and Hitler would be of great help to Germany.
“…Dietrich?”
My father, Hjalmar, opened his eyes wide when he saw me, and immediately shouted.
“You, you immature bastard! After not contacting you for nearly two years, you finally crawled into the house!”
“Ho-honey. The boy who came after a long time…”
As my mother tried to stop him, Hjalmar strode forward and shouted.
“While your father was cleaning behind the Nazis, you went to the army admiring them! Yeah, do you like bloody battlefields?!”
“…I was in Spain as a volunteer soldier and now I am back in Germany for the general staff course. I’m sorry I’ve been so negligent.”
When I said I was sorry, Hjalmar flinched for a moment, but then looked weary and pointed at the door.
“…get out of here. Bastard…”
It’s not the day.
“I’m sorry again, Father, and Mother. I’ll be in Berlin now, so I’ll visit you often.”
His father, Hjalmar, did not answer, but he could see that his spirit had eased a little.
“Then I’ll get going. Please stay healthy.”
What is this feeling of feeling as Yoon Sung-il, who is having a hard time cleaning up Dietrich’s mess and feeling sad that he is being neglected by his parent?
November 10, 1937
Berlin War College, North Germany
Thanks to my mother, Louise Soba, who caught me on the way out and gave me a huge amount of money as an emergency fund, I was able to adjust to Berlin while spending a few days comfortably in a hotel.
I’m sorry again. No, it’s not my fault…. huh.
And finally, the day came when I entered the War College.
Wearing the uniform of a lieutenant of the German Wehrmacht for the first time… I feel like I’ve become a character in a movie.
It’s a problem because it was the position of villains in movies where the only cool thing was the uniform.
Officers who enter the War College selected those with potential among the junior officer ranks through fierce competition through recommendation and screening.
As a result, there was no such thing as aristocracy or class order, and it was almost meaningless to choose based on their skills and even to serve as a jockey. As a result, the ranks of those who entered were also different.
Lieutenant, Lieutenant, Captain. Anyway, thanks to the push from the Condor Legion, I won’t be pushed down in the ranks here.
Thank you again. The Condor Legion, Colonel Model, Lieutenant Colonel Richthofen, Clement and the company members.
The officers gathered here did not hide their excitement and anticipation. Because graduating from a War Collage and wearing the general staff’s badge was proof that they were the next general, recognized as the best elite in the German army.
Of the people gathered here, only about 10-20% can eventually graduate from the War College and become the General Staff, but…
Anyway, the general staff course was conducted over three years.
In terms of the period, World War II broke out in the middle, but officers who received training in the general staff course did not just sit quietly in school during the war and receive an education if war broke out.
Students from the War College were assigned to the unit to complete the curriculum while conducting actual combat on the battlefield.
It was a historic tradition since Scharnhorst first established the War College during the Napoleonic Wars.
Generals such as Walter Model, Erich Manstein, and Heinz Guderian all participated in various battles during World War I and completed the general staff process.
But more than that.
We were nervous about the person standing in front of the podium.
“Everyone, attention!”
Except for the sound of straightening the posture, silence flows as if breathing was suppressed.
“To His Excellency the Führer, salute!”
“Heil Hitler!!”
The man who received our salute. Both in this present time and in the future. The man with the mustache, who will probably go down in human history forever, smiled as he looked around at us.
“Ah… it’s a great honor to be here with 160 young officers who will be responsible for the future of the German Army.”
Adolf Hitler. There is a real Hitler, not a history book, not a documentary, not a movie role.
“You will be loyal to me and Germany, right? Of course I believe so. As soldiers and as sons of Greater Germany, we must unite and be loyal to Germany.”
It is not the typically frantic and insane speech that we often associate with Hitler, but rather a calm and refined tone that flows out.
“You must love peace, but you must be courageous. You must love peace, but at the same time, you must become a strong soldier. As Germans, you must not be weak, but become strong.”
His calm and refined speech gradually began to show signs of passion. As he spoke, he seemed to become more and more intoxicated with his own fervor.
“You must know what sacrifice is and also know the unyielding way! Someday, we will all disappear, but Germany will never disappear!”
Finally, caught up in his fanatical belief, he began to shake his hands enthusiastically and shout out loud.
“Your bodies belong to me, to our Germany, and your blood is the blood of Germany! The same soul is burning within me and all of you!”
As the top elites of the German military, who had overcome fierce competition and gathered, the so-called officers couldn’t even blink their eyes and couldn’t take their eyes off him.
“The spirit of unity, the great array of which, fills Germany today! I know that you will come closer together and I have no doubt that a united Germany will be before me and you!”
Even me.
I was overwhelmed by the inexplicable intensity of his speech, which was nothing more than totalitarian propaganda.
“As the Führer, I command you, proud sons of Greater Germany, to be loyal to me, be loyal to Germany, be loyal to National Socialism! Give your body, blood, and even your soul if necessary, to fight for the Fatherland!”
Hitler swung his fist and finished the speech with a loud shout.
As he sweated and gasped for breath, the overwhelmed emcee was unable to continue speaking, and everyone, without exception, instinctively raised their hands and opened their mouths to give him the Nazi salute.
“I solemnly swear to God—”
Hitler is looking down on us with a satisfied smile, even though he’s breathing heavily.
“Absolute obedience to Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany and its people, and the supreme commander of German Wehrmacht—”
The young officers, captivated by his gaze, sent their eyes of blind admiration and reverence, and continued with the oath.
“I swear to be a soldier who will be ready to give my life to keep this oath at any time.”
That’s my enemy.
He was the worst dictator in human history, who ruled an era with crazy charisma.
【 Interwar Period – War College 】- End
Thank you for reading!
