Nur-ellen in the world of Brithenig (was Re:Nur-ellenuniverses)

Jörg Rhiemeier wrote:

> > > According to Padraig's post, there was a German Empire which seems to me
> > > to have caused trouble *there* as well even if they weren't Nazis.  So
> > > perhaps the German borrowings exist in Nur-ellen *there* as well?
> > >
> > So it appears.  No one has wandered across the Channel that far to find
> > out yet.
>
> [...]
>
> So, among others,
> I had the idea that Bismarck's reunification of Germany never happened,
> but the country splintered into about half a dozen separate nations in
> the 17th century, each having promoted their dialect to the national
> language.
Actually, in the 17th century *here*, there were about *300* different
independent de facto sovereign states in what we now call Germany.  When
Napoleon came along, he reduced this number to about 30, abolished the Holy
Roman Empire, and established the German Confederation in its stead.  By 1871,
when the Empire was established, Prussia was already constituted about 62% of
the Empire's population.

> > On other issues the idea that Great Britain could move from union to
> > federalism within its parts in a European Union led me to introduce the
> > Federated Kingdom *there*, possibly accompanied by a pro-Europe
> > sentiment.  (Although the idea that the Europeans there still work off
> > stress by beating up their neighbours could be an interesting one :)
>
> The fact that there is still a Kaiser in Germany does not necessary mean
> that Germany is still an aggressive, militarist country.  The Kaiser
> might by now be a mere figurehead, like the kings of Scandinavia, while
> it is a smoothly functioning democravy entertaining friendly relations
> with all its neighbours.
I suspect that it might well have gone that way in the Real World had
it not been for Kaiser Wilhelm II's complete political incompetance. After
all, Bismarck had introduced modern social-welfare style legislation, and
his successors might have moved later for more political loosening.

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Tom Wier   |     "Cogito ergo sum, sed credo ergo ero."
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