Chapter 3 in Berlin
June 1863, University of Berlin.
As a son of a top nobleman, Ernst used his father’s connections to attend the event.
Recently, Ernst's schedule has been relatively intensive, but the main focus is on studying economic principles. Other courses are mainly aristocratic etiquette, form, and even religion, which are undertaken by Ernst's tutor.
Coming out with Ernst were his tutor Richard and his servant Tom.
Prior to this, Richard had been responsible for Ernst's early education.
The group first set off from Hechingen to Stuttgart, and finally passed through Bavaria and transferred to a train to Berlin.
A lot of time was wasted along the way because I had to visit acquaintances with nobles, and it took nearly half a month to get to Berlin.
Fortunately, the second half of the trip was mainly by rail transportation, avoiding unnecessary banquets and social activities.
After arriving in Berlin, as a member of the Hohenzollern family, it was natural to visit the Prussian royal family first. Ernst met his uncle William I.
In fact, Ernst met William I when he was a child, but he was very young at that time and could not remember clearly, and he had not yet awakened his past life memories.
As for why there is an intersection, we have to talk about the unique status of Hechingen. Hechingen is the birthplace of the Hohenzollern family, even the Brandenburg Hohenzollern family. He was so prominent that he became the elector of the HRE and strengthened the present Kingdom of Prussia. However, blood cannot be overthrown. The ancestors of the Prussian royal family also came from Hechingen.
The castle where my family lives was actually jointly funded and built by the Prussian royal family, but my family has lived in Hechingen for generations and has never left, while the Hohenzollern family of the Brandenburg line It is impossible to leave Berlin, the center of Prussian power, to develop in the countryside like Hechingen. It is only because of the special nature of the ancestral land that the Brandenburg royal family will fund the renovation of the Hohenzollern Castle in Hechingen. This is the face of the family.
Hohenzollern Castle was actually an early military fortress that was later destroyed during the war. The current Hohenzollern Castle is a new building that was recently rebuilt.
Sometimes the Brandenburg Hohenzollern family will return to Hechingen for a visit. The last time the Prussian royal family sent people there, Hechingen and Sigmaringen formed the new Prussian Hohenzollern. The province was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia. Ernst was born not long ago at that time, so naturally he could not recognize the Prussian prince who visited here.
William I first inquired about Prince Constantine's current situation, and then learned the reason why Ernst came to Berlin. When he learned that Ernst came to study.
William I was very happy. The Prussian royal family has always attached great importance to education. This is a century-old plan that is as valued by the Prussian kingdom as the military.
Now that Ernst’s first stop on his study tour is Berlin, William I is still very happy. This is also a side proof of the development of Prussia’s education in recent years.
Finally, William I welcomed Ernst and promised that he could come to the palace for help if he encountered any trouble.
Ernst expressed his gratitude, and at the same time met other members of the Hohenzollern family, Crown Prince Frederick and William II, the little guy who would stir up the world in the future.
When he first came to Berlin, Ernst often attended gatherings among nobles. This was Ernst's only social activity.
Most of the other time is spent in school or doing physical training. In this era, medical standards are difficult to guarantee, so Ernst attaches great importance to health.
In addition to basic strength training, there is also equestrian and, of course, firearms shooting. Ernst had been exposed to these basic military education before. For the Prussian nobles, this was the foundation of their career.
Ernst also made many friends at the University of Berlin. Although he struggled with his studies and looked stupid compared with these talented classmates, Ernst had a good attitude and did not seek his own success. Compare your IQ to these monsters.
There are also some aristocratic children similar to Ernst who go to school here, but they are older, but the slightly mature Ernst can chat with them.
There are many powerful people in the University of Berlin, but that's the same in Germany. The nobles are more interested in the Military Academy, and there are also competitors like the University of Göttingen and the University of Bonn...
......
"Okay, that's it for today's class, get out of class is over!" the professor said seriously.
The professor put away the teaching tools with an expressionless face and left work without hesitation.
With a tired look on his face, Ernst rubbed his eyes, packed up the notes and books in front of his desk, put them in his handbag, stood up and was about to leave.
Suddenly a voice came from behind: "Ernst! Where are you going to play after school?" Classmate Garrett nudged Ernst with his elbow as he was about to walk away.
"Of course I'm going home, Garrett." Ernst replied.
Jia Lite pretended to be surprised and asked: "Aren't you going to attend the banquet tonight? I heard that Karl organized it and there will be many ladies attending!"
"Jia Li Te, I also "Xiao, don't try to mislead me, and there have been too many banquets and salons recently, so I still want to take a break." Ernst said with a smile and pushed Galit's shoulder with his arm.
"You bastard, you have more dirty jokes than me. I think you are just superficially serious." Garrett danced and used funny moves to "expose" the hypocritical Ernst.
...
In the midst of the fight, Ernst left the school and out of the school gate, Tom was already waiting aside.
"Tom, go to the studio today!" Ernst ordered Tom.
"Yes, young master."
The carriage slowly left the school gate and shuttled through the streets of Berlin, twisting and turning, and stopped in front of a blacksmith shop after some time.
Ernst opened the door and walked into the house. The house was filled with debris, mostly tools, hammers, axes... discarded casually on the ground.
The furnace is burning with flames, the room is filled with the smell of charcoal fire, and solidified molten iron is splashing from the furnace.
The blacksmith shop, of course, is now the studio Ernst refers to. It was rented by Ernst. In addition to the original blacksmith, it now also employs a junior high school student majoring in science and engineering. Ernst interrupted Pete, a junior who was lighting the stove. "Peter, has the thing been made?" Ernst asked naturally.
"Boss, it's done. See if it looks like this!" After saying that, he found a wooden box from the counter behind him.
Open the lid of the box and take out a metal object from inside, a copper handle with a thin iron sheet sandwiched between two thick iron sheets. This is a T-shaped razor.
As a time traveler, the top priority is of course making money. Although Ernst was born a noble, money is always in short supply. Apart from other things, noble status is not safe. Later, the German Empire was defeated even by the emperor. They all have to step down and flee abroad.
As a noble from a small place, although he has a high status (Hechingen was a marquis before it was annexed, Constantine was a margrave, and now he is the Prince of Prussia, with the same status as a prince), the Hohenzollern Province listens Although he is tall and tall, he is actually not as big as the county where he was in his previous life, and the population is not even 100,000.
In such a palm-sized place, we are not alone in being big. The Sigmaringen next door is obviously more prosperous than ours.
Through historical experience, it is better to use your current aristocratic status to make more money. Even if the empire falls in the future, you will be able to settle down and live in peace without falling into poverty.
Of course, these are all things that happened a long time ago, and Ernst is not too anxious yet. It is more to complete a bold idea that Ernst had in his previous life.
Once a person reaches a certain status, ambition will follow, and the same is naturally true for Ernst.
Ernst, who knew the future situation, was naturally not optimistic about the future of the European continent. Not to mention the future, there was currently a series of wars for Prussia to unify Germany. When he was old, there would be two world wars.
If you insist on staying in Germany in the future, the demise of the German Empire alone will affect you. By then, the German nobles will be lambs to be slaughtered. Even if they have a lot of wealth, they may be deprived of it by the great powers and the republican government. So plan your escape route in advance.
Europe is by no means a good place. This continent is turbulent and full of great powers. Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary are all crowded here. In the future, there will still be interference from the United States and the Soviet Union, so Europe has no future. Now it is. It was the best era in Europe and the best era in Germany.
So where does Ernst want to go? Here I have to go to my previous workplace, Tanzania.
When he learned about the history of East Africa in his previous life, Ernst always had a lot of emotions. As Germany's most valuable colony, German East Africa was simply the chosen place.
It is a pity that Germany was the last to push forward, and German East Africa did not even come to develop urgently, so the empire fell. Of course, it was also related to the fact that the German government did not pay attention to it at that time.
Currently, no country in Europe is paying attention to East Africa. Britain and France have vast colonies, and Germany has not yet been unified. Only the Portuguese have some strongholds on the East African coast, but except for the plains along the coast of Mozambique, the Portuguese have not penetrated deep into the interior of East Africa.
In previous lives, when the Germans invaded East Africa, they did not encounter any decent resistance. The only ones who left their names were the indigenous tribes in Africa.
These indigenous people are still stuck in a primitive tribal society, which can be compared to the barbarism of East Africa.
But for Ernst, wilderness is a good thing. As long as East Africa is slowly developed through immigration, and then the indigenous people in the primitive social system are transferred away, then it will not be easy to build a country in the future. What?
First of all, East Africa did not have any decent resources (it was developed late.), and few colonists paid attention to it.
Secondly, East Africa has a small population and is not as densely populated as the Philippines in East Asia. The colonists cannot squeeze out human value, which also means that the native population is small. Easily evicted, a repeat of what happened in South Africa can be avoided.
Finally, the agricultural conditions in East Africa are good, the land is open and valuable for reclamation, and other conditions are not bad either.
In Ernst's eyes, as long as he could obtain management rights in East Africa, he could establish an independent kingdom as his future retreat.
This kingdom may be inconspicuous in the world, but after the wave of African independence in the future, the country it builds will definitely be able to defeat the surrounding indigenous countries.
Of course, the premise is not to be stupid like the Boers, who want both and want, and finally leave the country.
It's not that Ernst despises him, even if he let a pig go, he might be better than those African "benevolent kings" in later generations.
As for why Ernst felt that he could start a business in distant Africa, in addition to his optimism about Africa's environmental resources, he also had "benevolent kings" like Leopold II of Belgium as role models.
Before the great powers set their sights on the African continent, by creating an established fact and finally using the German flag to win over Austria-Hungary and Germany, we can lay a foundation for the Hohenzollern family overseas.
Of course, the real problem with all these utopias is to make money. Ernst can't even come up with the initial capital for colonization, so he naturally has to use his decades of life experience to make money.
Yes, the T-shaped razor in front of you is the first step. At this time, people were still using straight-handled razors. Ernst was still young and had not reached the age of unshaven hair, but seeing This straight-handled razor also feels painful on the face.
Fortunately, in my previous life, I had seen my grandfather’s old-fashioned razor, which was invented by the American Gillette.
Ernst only remembered a rough idea of this kind of razor, so after coming to Berlin, he asked Peter to reproduce it through a sketch. Now it seems that the preliminary shape is complete.
"Pete, you did a great job. How difficult do you think this razor would be if it were mass-produced?"
Pete looked solemn and answered Ernst cautiously.
"Boss, look!" He said, removing the razor blade, holding both ends of the blade and breaking it. "Crack", the blade broke.
The strength of this thin blade is too low to be used at all. If the strength problem of the blade cannot be solved, it will be impossible to sell it.
Ernst thought for a moment and asked: "Is there any solution?"
Peter said: "Maybe metallurgical experts have a way to ask for help. Another way is through repeated experiments."
"Well, well, on the one hand, you continue to experiment to find solutions, as for the experts I will find a way." Ernst decided to work with both hands to solve this problem as soon as possible.
(End of this chapter)