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Streseland

Yes, it was interesting to have the character that most readers would normally automatically feel sympathetic towards, proving to be the most unapologetic Nazi. However, in my life I have found that those too young to be alert to social mores reveal the most about the true beliefs prevalent in the family. I am sure you have also found that only the young and the old announce their ages proudly to anyone they encounter. Ortlinde has an alter-ego in the fantasy novel, 'The Necropolitan', I was writing around the same time.
 
I read it, and really enjoyed it. Good combination of political thriller, spy thriller and alternate history. I also found the presentation of the Nazis, out of power but still incredibly dangerous, as really interesting.
 
The big buildup of I Can't Believe It's Not The SA in the woods and Hitler lurking. Uh oh. Our man once vaguely hoped the Nazis would do something big enough to bring a hammer, looks like he's really going to get his wish...

Trudi going from laughable to full-on mask-off revelling in murder is a gutpunch too. "Oh, right."
 
Charles, that scene involving T proved to be important. In many ways she embodies Nazism, in that, yes, it could appear 'acceptable' and 'reasonable' on the surface and did to many people across the world for a very long time. However, even before the war, we know they were doing horrendous things, that those paying attention picked up on, even if they were not listened to.

The thing about T is that while she may seem laughable to us, she is a true believer and everything she does and say comes from her strong convictions. I have been watching Babylon Berlin recently and it reassured me that it was right to show fanatics in the Weimar period who really lived in a different mental world to people around them.
 
TTSV was Treue Turn- und Sportverband, i.e. 'Loyal Gymnastic and Sport Club'. In actual history, almost immediately at the end of the First World War, German veterans' and paramilitary groups concealed themselves as gymnastics and sports clubs, so I followed that pattern in the novel.

There were genuine gymnastic and sports clubs which were not 'fronts' for political/paramilitary groupings. The gymnastic and sport combination was pretty common in genuine German(-speaking) history. The Schweizerischen Arbeiter-, Turn- und Sportverband [Swiss Workers' Gymnastic and Sport Club] was established in 1922 out of bodies dating back to 1874 and is still in existence. Bochum Turn- und Sportverein [Verein more meaning 'union'] was an actual football club formed in 1924 from a sport and a gymnastic club combining. The Charlottenburger Turn- und Sportverein dates back to 1858 and is still running. Otterbach, and Itzling which is in Austria, have similarly named groups nowadays. The Arbeiter-Turn- und Sportbund [Bund is more like 'federation'] existed 1898-1933; the Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund was a far larger organisation in East Germany, 1957-91.
 
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