It all started in the shipyards

Prologue + Introduction

The prologue

"I'm starting to think that god doesn't exist," she said, looking up rain began to fall, like pearls being dropped from the hands above.

"And if he does, he sure doesn't seem to like me."

Marcus untucked his umbrella from under his arm, and released it, a Roman soldier with his shield against his enemy. He propped it above his head, and simply stared at his sister.

"What do you think, Marcus? Does he really, truly exist? Maybe he exists for you. You seem to have a happier life than me"

"I think that you are simply pathetic. Selfish," he began, as the water soaked into Annette's clothes, but simply bounced off his umbrella, "I cannot believe that my very own sister is a heathen. All young people nowadays only throw the blame of their misfortunes on anyone but themselves. I thought that we had the same mind, Annette, I thought you were like me. I can see now that I am wrong. One doesn't pray, and wonders why god is unsatisfied with her." He turned around and walked into the rain-glazed road. Annette said something that he could hardly hear under the rain, and yet every word was an arrow that hit the target of his ears.

"Then you must be glad I'm not your only sister." He stopped.

"I am."

——

Warnings // Importance: Must read

-Insane amounts of yapping. What can I say? I am an author who has too much going in his mind.

- Religious trauma

- Ships (yes, shipping countries is bad, but it won't be a huge part of the story). Current ships include (TO BE UPDATED AS STORY GOES ALONG):

Austria-Hungary x German Empire

-Death and stuff: what did you expect? This story goes through like three wars for God's sake

-The Third Reich and the Soviet Union

-There is implied... intercourse. It's also between a twenty-or-so year old and an older person, so that might be uncomfortable. I'm not gonna describe it, as it is implied. This isn't a smut book 💀. Of course, history is unsettling, but that doesn't excuse jack. That is also the reason why the book is marked mature

What is this story about? // Importance: Kinda

This is about German history from the fall of the German Empire in 1918, to the reunification of East and West Germany into the Federal Republic of Germany that we know of today.

My credibility isn't so good, I am a GCSE history student, so I know about the Weimar Republic up until the end of the Third Reich, but once we get into post-World War Two, historical accuracy will be shaky. The story is also heavily romanticised (I don't romanticise the bad stuff).

Some countries' personalities are based off people I actually know, because write what you know, right? However other personalities are just made up by what I see fit, which might result in unpredictable behaviour, but hey, that's just like a real country.

I'll try to be unbiased, but if you see a country being portrayed very heavily as either good or evil, if probably for dramatic irony.

Where does the title come from? // Importance: You can skip this if you want 

"The fall of the Berlin Wall makes for nice pictures. But it all started in the shipyards." - Lech Walesa.

One thing I have to address about this is that Walesa was referring to Polish shipyards, something about the fall of communism in the region. Unfortunately, I completely misinterpreted the quote, as it turned out very... direct. I was thinking of something completely different, something that happened seventy one years before the fall of the Berlin Wall - the Kiel mutiny of 1918, which is more relevant to this story, as it centralises around German history, rather than Polish history.

The Kiel Mutiny is where this story will start, so I was excited to have a story title which links to a good quote relevant to the story, but I suppose not. However, it still makes for a good story title, and it goes both ways to what I was thinking versus the reality, so Mr Walesa, I'm sorry. Despite all your numerous efforts and accomplishments in life, your quote has ended up being misinterpreted, and for it has ended up in some country humans fan fiction.

Use of personal names, rather than official country names // Importance: read this if you can

As you have noticed, this story uses actual names rather than the country. That is because I feel strange using countries' actual names. For example, if I ever wrote a story about China, it'd be strange if I wrote: "And then China sat down, and stared intently," it'd be strange, at least in my opinion. I myself cannot read country humans fan fiction without laughing. I mean, anything this fandom produces is laughable, yet sometimes impressive.

So, a list of names should appear each chapter, so if you have goldfish memory as I do, you can just scroll up when reading future chapters. Annette is East Germany, and Marcus is West.

How often will this be updated? // Importance: Only if you care

Perhaps every two weeks or a month, or even faster. It will not be consistent, is what I can say. 

Who are you? // Importance: Only if you want to refer to me in some way

Hi, I'm Mahsuri, call me Su, and I go by he/him.