What is happening in this world of 1964 where Germany is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Great War and its victory over France?
While the world is far different geo-politically, we've concluded culturally it is very similar to our own 1964 with most of the same forces at work.
After all, this 1964 still had a great depression, America still had a major war (in the Pacific). Germany finds itself fighting a few colonial conflicts while it maintains a an Eastern European alliance against Russia, though the threat of Armageddon does not loom as this world has no nuclear weapons.
Our protagonist is at his favorite watering hole (enjoying tea and a piece of cake) watching a television program, in this the BBC's new history of the Great Pacific War, when some long haired, ill-kept youth walk in. Naturally our protagonist is miffed.
His new neighbor enjoys art as well, but much to the dismay of our neo-classical influenced protagonist she enjoyed the modern work of Jackson Pollack and other abstract expressionists. Yes, we've giving ourselves a crash course in art.
Don't even get him started on the music, those damn long-haired kids from Liverpool...
William Stroock (as in Stroock's Books)
Showing posts with label 1964. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1964. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Monday, March 20, 2017
The Austrian Painter's 75th Birthday: The World of 1964
So in the Austrian Painter's world Germany defeated France in 1914 and Russia in 1916. There has been no Great War as we think of it.
What else is missing?
No communist Revolution, no Nazis. No World War Two. No Cold War. No atom bombs. No space race. Britain is not bankrupted by two world wars.
At the heart of Europe stands the German Reich. She is rich and powerful. Culturally der Fatherland is a bit of a brute and showoff. But Germany is an economic powerhouse and a center of science and learning. She gets on well enough with Britain for they have the same concern, Russia. To that end Germany is the head of an alliance of Eastern European states against Russia. The number two nation in this alliance is Poland, followed by Romania and Hungary. It should be noted that the rump Austrian state has been absorbed into the Reich. Germany has a vast African empire centered on Congo, taken from Belgium as par the 1914 settlement. Its Syrian-Lebanon colony is a favorite vacation spot.
France is an economic basket-case which for the last four decades has been run by a series of despots each claiming to be the next Napoleon. She has lost a series of colonial engagements from Asia to Africa and is something of a laughing stock on the continent.
The British Empire is strong though a bit slow and stodgy. By act of parliament India was granted dominion status in 1950.
Russia is a dictatorship with a rump parliament and still decades behind Europe. The Germans roughed her up in the Great Eastern War.
America has little interest in Europe and is focused entirely on the Pacific. As Germany commemorates the 50th anniversary of its victory in 1914, America commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Pacific War. Japan mourns.
What else is missing?
No communist Revolution, no Nazis. No World War Two. No Cold War. No atom bombs. No space race. Britain is not bankrupted by two world wars.
At the heart of Europe stands the German Reich. She is rich and powerful. Culturally der Fatherland is a bit of a brute and showoff. But Germany is an economic powerhouse and a center of science and learning. She gets on well enough with Britain for they have the same concern, Russia. To that end Germany is the head of an alliance of Eastern European states against Russia. The number two nation in this alliance is Poland, followed by Romania and Hungary. It should be noted that the rump Austrian state has been absorbed into the Reich. Germany has a vast African empire centered on Congo, taken from Belgium as par the 1914 settlement. Its Syrian-Lebanon colony is a favorite vacation spot.
France is an economic basket-case which for the last four decades has been run by a series of despots each claiming to be the next Napoleon. She has lost a series of colonial engagements from Asia to Africa and is something of a laughing stock on the continent.
The British Empire is strong though a bit slow and stodgy. By act of parliament India was granted dominion status in 1950.
Russia is a dictatorship with a rump parliament and still decades behind Europe. The Germans roughed her up in the Great Eastern War.
America has little interest in Europe and is focused entirely on the Pacific. As Germany commemorates the 50th anniversary of its victory in 1914, America commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Pacific War. Japan mourns.
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