To: Corin Frei - Printable Version

"You comported yourself with distinction."

"It is not Unioner policy to withhold information or for details to be need-to-know. We are, after all, not a military, nor are we absolutist."

"Before your time, the Unioners were under the sway of an Arbeitsdirektor known as Hansel Garen, who liked to style himself 'Von Himmel', which should give you a accurate representation of his ego. Garen was extremely old, solidly within his ninetees, and had survived years at the head of raider organisations that lead from the front. It engendered in him a sense of invincibility. He was instrumental in fostering ties with the Rheinland conservatives and even the pro-monarchists who havn't taken up prominent positions in the Republic yet. Garen lead the Unioners from 822 to 824, taking over from the half-Molly Christian Von Boyle. Himmel took the reigns at a time when the Volksrevolution was attempting to subordinate the entirity of Rheinland's resistance under one flag, through force and ideological extremism. Splinter groups were rapidly hunted down. Garen mannaged to save the Union by gathering Imperialist support, funding, and political support, but in the process helped inadvertently create the Rheinland - GMG war through meddling in the Bundestag. Of course, the GMG is an illegitimate monopolist capitalist scam, so Garen was not without his benefits. "

"Garen, along with his Union supporters, thwarted the Rheinland Underworld from falling under complete Hessian influence. During his tenure, he oversaw the breakup of the Bundschuh Widerstand movement, removing elements of the Bundshuh who would push for Liberty-style corporatism through military aggression. Unfortunately it lead to the Auxesians being hired against us, leading to regional ramifications that exist until today."

"Garen was also responsible for many of the Union's most controversial acts, including the Chemical bombing of Alster Shipyard which was far more indiscriminate than the Altona strike. He is an example of a Napoleon figure - an evil man who nevertheless improved the prospects of the future. His primary benefit was breaking down the lines of 'left' and 'right' that the corporatists promote to turn the blue-collar against itself. There is only representation and a lack of it. Inclusivity and exclusion. We try to be better."

"Garen's excesses were wiped away with his assassination by the Coalition - a crime against our sovereignty that the Coalition has still not answered for. He did create enough of a stirr to reach the ears of the Bretonian intelligence service."

"There is a theory the Coalition subscribe to that an absolutist ruler is required to enable a revolution to be successful. Of course, the failure with this fact is that an absolutist ruler will never relinquish the power given to them. This is why the Arbeitsdirektorate answers to the cells directly. I am a public servant, not a figurehead, nor the head of any artificial 'state'. I am only a means to an end."

"A head of state cannot be this. They are either controlled through black interests, or completely exposed in populism, two forces which lead to dictatorship with near-inevitability. Rheinland will require a strong leadership to enable a socialist society. Democracy must first require a leader to cleave the old systems away - a leader who receives their power only through a compromise of populace and law."

"Bretonia's Monarchy is as close as they come. Aristocracy is full of flaws, but one bastion that it does have is a sense of inherent cultural origin - people trust aristos. Bretonia's crown is subordinate to parliment, which is itself elected. It is not a perfect system, and we ourselves can do better. Indeed, we have. In the early days of the Rheinland Empire, the state had a democratic Constitutional monarchy with a direct representation electoral system fraternizing directly with the syndicates. Lobbyist behaviour was outlawed."

"The Albrechts do not represent the early years. Remember, the last Kaiser - the same Kaiser who oversaw the fall of the monarchy and the severance of guarantees to the Bundschuh, was an Albrecht. Yet we are not defined by our forefathers, any more than you are defined by your mother. Perhaps the Albrechts of today - raised in Bretonia, and subjected to the highminded ideals of the Cambridge Research Institute, lack the arrogance of the preceding generations, near two hundred years ago. "

"I am a democratic socialist, just as you are. I am not a follower of Garen. Perhaps there are more nobles like yourself, out there."

"I will patch you into any future communications."

You cannot cut off the tongue, of a man who speaks through his acts.
C.Frei.
Comrade Arbeiter of the Cologne system.