28. ST MARY’S INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH INCIDENT REPORT
Competition entry by Karen Peterson
St Mary’s Incident Report: Bismarck Mission
Mission: As a sub-section of the overall mission (see Background below), determine the initial public opinion about Otto von Bismarck’s appointment as Minister President of Prussia.
Target Date: 23 Sept 1862
Target Location: Berlin, Prussia (later Berlin, Germany)
Mission Background:
Thirsk University has hypothesised that it is rarely apparent that politicians with major impacts on history will be so consequential in shaping that history when they are at early but defining moments in their careers. To investigate this hypothesis, Thirsk has commissioned a large series of short-duration jumps to observe public reaction to multiple politicians across a wide swathe of time and space. Examples include ancient politicians such as Themistocles in Athens, Julius Caesar in Rome, and Queen Amanirenas in Kush, as well as more recent politicians such as Abraham Lincoln in the USA.
In later Europe, politicians who were essential to the long run-up to WWI and its rather rapid spawning of WWII are particular targets of interest. Otto von Bismarck is one such figure, as his major role in the Unification of Germany and the subsequent events of the late 19th century set the stage for the alliances and tensions that erupted in WWI. His appointment as Minister President of Prussia was arguably the first step leading to his later prominence.
Mission Personnel:
Lead and Report Author: Senior Historian Ms Sophia Scott
Security: Mr Leonard Stabili
Trainee: Mr Reynard Trausch
(sub-) Mission Outcome: FAILED. Mistakes were made, but let me make one thing perfectly clear: THIS WAS NOT MY FAULT.
(sub-) Mission Events:
I entered Pod Number 6 at St Mary’s with Mr Stabili and Mr Trausch. As part of his training, Mr Trausch was to lay out the coordinates of the jump, after which he was to wait for my review before initiating the jump. Instead, he laid in coordinates and then immediately called for the Pod to jump. I had been moving towards the console to check the coordinates when the world went white. When I recovered after a jarring landing, I saw we were in a dark alley with traces of snow on the ground. This was suspicious, of course, as Berlin generally will not have snow in September. In order to ascertain our actual location, we set the pod scanner to long range and did see people on the main street passing the mouth of the alley, wearing what seemed to be period appropriate clothing. I therefore had Mr Stabili cautiously lead the way to the street to gather more location information. We expected to hear German conversation as we slipped into the street but instead heard primarily French and a little Dutch. After a short walk, we found ourselves in front of a building labelled “Universiteit Gent,” definitively confirming that rather than being in Berlin, we were in Ghent, Belgium. We approached the main University building, as a newsstand was near the entrance. We were able to see the date on copies of the Gazette van Gend, which was 18 Feb 1862.
Thus, we had ascertained that we were 7 months too early and hundreds of kilometres from our planned location. We entered the building to warm up before returning to the pod, as by now a rather bitter winter wind was blowing snow around us. We spotted a sitting room with a fireplace down a short hallway off the lobby and moved in there to warm up.
Mr Stabili and I paused after entering as we saw a tall-backed chair by the fire that was occupied by a sleeping gentleman. Without waiting for direction from me (again, Senior Historian to his Trainee), Mr Trausch shook his coat (rather violently, it must be said), several articulated wooden snakes flew from a pocket, slid across the floor, and hit the shoes of the sleeper. He started awake, and when he saw he was not alone he rose to bow to us and said in French, “Please, Madam and Gentlemen, draw close to the fire, as I see that you are cold and wet. I am Professor Kekule.” He then noticed with sleepy bemusement the contorted snakes lying at his feet. His gaze sharpened, and he exclaimed, “But yes – the snake with its tail in its mouth: perhaps this is the structure I have been searching for!” With another hasty bow, he rushed from the room while excusing himself by saying, “I must draw this out before I forget!”
We stood in stunned silence for a minute before I rounded on Mr Trausch to inquire why he was carrying wooden snakes in his pocket, contrary to standard protocol requiring that only mission-essential items should be taken through time. Mr Trausch, rather than being appropriately abashed, appeared to be proud of his transgression. He explained that some of the Trainee Historians had decided to pull pranks on their jump teams by bringing along non-mission essential items and deploying them in a startling way. When I pointed out that this was prohibited, as such objects might affect past times, he sulked and gave the excuse that he originally was going to set the snakes in lockers and the toilet cubicle, a la the early 20th c. film Snakes on a Plane.
Mr Stabili and I exchanged eye-rolls before hustling our errant trainee back to the pod (after I confiscated the snakes, of course), and returning to St Mary’s.
(sub-) Mission Negatives: Due to Mr Trausch’s impetuosity and failure to follow protocol, we travelled to the wrong coordinates, landing in Ghent, Belgium, 18 Feb 1862, rather than Berlin, Prussia, 23 Sept 1862. Therefore, we failed in our objective of ascertaining initial public reaction to Otto von Bismarck’s appointment as Minister President of Prussia.
(sub-) Mission Positives (?): We appear to have witnessed the moment Friedrick August Kekule actually realised that benzene could have a ring structure, as in a snake with its tail in its mouth. This settles a long-standing controversy, as his own accounts of this breakthrough were vague enough to raise questions about whether the Ouroboros analogy actually inspired him, and when it occurred. In another negative, however, evidently, this happened because of Mr Trausch’s juvenile impetuosity.
Recommendations to Avoid Further Such Incidents:
1. The current protocol of excluding Trainee Historians from jumps involving more sensitive events should be continued – vigilantly.
2. The Technical Section should lock the pod consoles so that a jump can only be initiated after the Senior Historian verbally verifies that the coordinates are correct.
3. Mr Trausch should undergo remedial training in proper observation of protocols.
4. The Trainees’ training schedule should incorporate increases in physical training to ensure they are too tired in their off time to promulgate juvenile pranks amongst themselves.
5. All trainees should be strip-searched outside the pod just before a mission to be sure they are not carrying contraband items.
Conclusion: We failed to ascertain the public response to Otto von Bismarck’s appointment as Minister President of Prussia. We did witness (and some might say, caused) Kekule’s famous recognition that the Ouroboros predicted the benzene ring structure. Finally, again, mistakes were made, but not by me, and let me make one thing perfectly clear: THIS WAS NOT MY FAULT.
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