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 on aristocratic etiquette, form, and even religion, which are undertaken by Ernst's tutor.

Along with Ernst came 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 transferred to Berlin via Bavaria.

Along the way, I wasted a lot of time because I had to visit familiar aristocrats, and it took nearly half a month to get to Berlin.

Fortunately, we mainly took rail transportation in the second half of the journey, 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 the reason for the intersection, we have to talk about the unique status of Hechingen. Hechingen is the birthplace of the Hohenzollern family, even though the Hohenzollern family of the Brandenburg family is so prominent that it has become a god. The Elector Luo strengthened the present Kingdom of Prussia, but blood cannot be overthrown. The ancestors of the Prussian royal family also came from Hechingen.

The castle where my family lives was actually jointly built with the Prussian royal family. However, my family has lived in Hechingen for generations and has never left. The Hohenzollern family of Brandenburg has no right to leave Prussia. Central Berlin went to Hechingen to develop in the countryside. It was only because of the special nature of its ancestral land that the Brandenburg royal family funded the renovation of the Hohenzollern Castle in Hechingen. This was 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 would return to Hechingen for a visit. The last time the Prussian royal family sent people there, Hechingen and Sigmaringen formed the new Prussian Hohenzollern Province and merged 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 the first stop of Ernst's study tour is Berlin, and William I is still very happy. This can be considered as side proof of the development of Prussian education in recent years.

Finally, William I welcomed Ernst and promised that he could come to the palace for help if he encountered 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 rest of his time was spent in school or doing physical training. In this era, medical standards were difficult to guarantee, so Ernst attached 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 genius classmates, Ernst had a good attitude and did not seek to compare his IQ with these monsters. .

There are also some aristocratic children similar to Ernst who go to school here, but they are all 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 materials with a blank expression and left work without hesitation.

Ernst, who looked tired, 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 who was about to walk away with his elbow.

"Going home, of course, Garrett," Ernst replied.

Jialit 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!"

"Garrett, I'm still young, don't try to lead me astray. Besides, there have been too many banquets and salons recently, so I still want to rest for a while." Ernst said with a smile and nudged Garrett with his arm. Special shoulders.

"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.

…

Ernst left the school in the midst of the fight, and when he left the school gate, Tom was already waiting for him.

"Tom, go to the studio today!" Ernst ordered Tom.

"Yes, 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 was burning with flames, the room was filled with the smell of charcoal fire, and solidified molten iron was splashing from the furnace.

The blacksmith shop, of course, is now what Ernst calls his studio. Ernst rented this place and now employs a junior high school student majoring in science and engineering in addition to the original blacksmith. 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, he was always in short supply of money. Not to mention other things, his noble status was not safe. In later generations, when the German Empire was defeated, even the emperor had to step down and flee abroad.

As a noble from a small place, although he has a high status (Hechengen was a prince 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 sounds high, but in fact It is not as big as the county where I was in my previous life, and its population is not even 100,000.

In such a palm-sized place, we are not alone in being big. Sigmalingen next door is obviously more prosperous than ours.

Through historical experience, it is better to use the current aristocratic status to make more money. Even if the empire dies in the future, one can still settle down and not be destitute.

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 understood the future situation, was naturally not optimistic about the future of the European continent. Not to mention, there were currently a series of wars in which Prussia unified Germany, and 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 aristocracy will be a lamb to be slaughtered. Even if you have a lot of wealth, you may be deprived of it by the great powers and the republican government, so you must plan your escape 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. Therefore, Europe has no future. On the contrary, now is the best time for Europe. , Germany’s best era.

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 was always filled with emotion. As Germany's most valuable colony, German East Africa was simply the chosen land.

It is a pity that Germany was the last to push forward, and German East Africa did not rush to develop it, 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. However, except for the plains along the coast of Mozambique, the Portuguese have not penetrated deep into the interior of East Africa.

In the previous life, the Germans invaded East Africa without encountering 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, barbarism is a good thing. As long as East Africa is slowly developed through immigration, and the indigenous people in the primitive social system are transferred away, wouldn't it be easy to build a country in the future?

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.

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 that you don't act stupid like the Boers, want both, and eventually 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 The knife also feels like my face hurts.

Fortunately, in my previous life, I had seen my grandfather’s old-fashioned razor, which was invented by American Gillette.

Ernst only had a rough memory of this kind of razor, so after coming to Berlin, he asked Peter to reproduce it through sketches. Now it seems that the preliminary form is complete.

"Pete, you did a great job. How difficult do you think this razor would be if it were mass-produced?"

Peter's face was solemn and he 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 and can ask for help. Another way is through repeated experiments."

"Well, okay, on the one hand, you continue to experiment and find a solution. As for the experts, I will find a solution." Ernst decided to work with both hands to solve this problem as soon as possible.