Conquering the world from the Kaiser's driver

"If you really want to return to Berlin without hindrance, why don't you join the SPD? I will take you back to Berlin by special train. Nothing will happen. Klein will never think that you will join the SPD and take my special train back to Berlin."

(Yes, he never missed any opportunity to recruit me into the party...)

Lin Shangzhou rolled his eyes, but this time he was very tempted by the privilege Louis mentioned - he could return to Berlin without hindrance.

This time after a brief hesitation he nodded to Louis.

"Well, I agree to join the Socialist People's Party."

.

Chapter 65 Difficult Current Situation

"Okay, okay, okay! Please wait a moment. I will get you the party admission materials. You just need to sign your name on them."

Louis jumped up from the sofa happily, and left the living room as he spoke, leaving Lin Shangzhou with a frown.

Lin Shangzhou felt like he had been cheated. Louis had actually prepared the materials and was just waiting for his approval! Damn!

A minute later, Louis returned to the living room with the party membership materials. He placed the documents on the table and handed Lin Shangzhou a pen.

"You just need to sign your name. I will hand these materials to the Social Democratic Party office in Strasbourg this afternoon, and then you can become a member of the Social Democratic Party. When I come back this afternoon, I will take you to take a photo and get your party membership card."

"You... Louis, how much do you want to get me into the Social Democratic Party? You have prepared all the materials for me in advance, and you are just waiting for me to agree to join the Social Democratic Party."

Lin Shangzhou rolled his eyes at him, took the pen, read each document in detail, and signed his name on it.

Watching Lin Shangzhou sign his name on the materials, Louis felt a sense of relief.

"There is no way. The SPD is too weak compared to other political parties. In particular, in 1925, after the SPD and the Trade Union Party broke up completely and other left-wing parties were listed as illegal organizations by the government, some radical figures within the SPD chose to withdraw and follow other left-wing parties in underground activities."

"After Chancellor Albert arrested and killed Mr. Thälmann and Mr. Pieck fled to the French Commune in 1927, they almost lost their backbone and had no choice but to return to the protection of the Social Democratic Party and secretly develop their own power here."

After hearing this, Lin Shangzhou, who was signing, stopped what he was doing. He turned his head and looked at Louis suspiciously and asked, "You said that the chancellor arrested and killed Thalmann?"

Louis rubbed his forehead with his right hand. This matter was one of the things that gave him a headache.

"Well, because he made a wrong decision in 25. That year, Chancellor Albert temporarily dissolved the parliament on the grounds of the emperor's death. After Her Majesty the Queen ascended the throne, the parliament was reorganized. When the parliament was reorganized, new elections were held for political parties. Mr. Thälmann took this opportunity to announce that the Syndicalist Party would participate in the election."

"His impulsive behavior caused voters who should have voted for the Social Democratic Party to vote for the Workers' Syndicalist Party, which caused the Social Democratic Party to lose the election and only won a few seats. After the election, the Workers' Syndicalist Party and some other left-wing organizations were declared illegal. The entire party was forced to go underground. The Social Democratic Party abstained from voting on related bills because of the loss of votes."

Lin Shangzhou said angrily:

"Humph, the Prime Minister played a good hand here! It not only weakened the strength of the left wing in parliament, but also divided the left-wing parties, making the already not very united left wing even more disunited."

The chancellor's calculations were very good, and they greatly weakened the left-wing forces in Germany. Lin Shangzhou also understood from these words why the syndicalists did not choose to go deep into the working class. Faced with the current decline, it is indeed difficult for them to help the workers.

Louis nodded.

"Then it was Mr. Pieck who led the German syndicalists, but the chancellor who was re-elected after the election of 27 launched a hunt for the syndicalists, and he was forced to flee to the French Commune."

"After this, the left wing in Germany was greatly reduced. I tried to persuade some of them to join the SPD, but they refused."

"So in order to strengthen the power of the Social Democratic Party, after the 1927 election, I discussed with other party members and decided to merge with the Progressive People's Party, which had also suffered setbacks. Although I persuaded General Vorbeck to join the party and gained some support from the military, General Vorbeck and a few radicals alone were not enough to make the entire party stronger."

As Louis spoke, fatigue appeared on his face, and the joy he had just felt over Lin Shangzhou's admission into the party disappeared without a trace.

"It seems that the situation of the Social Democratic Party is not optimistic..."

After signing his name on the last document, Lin Shangzhou put the pen on the table, crossed his arms and looked at Louis unhappily and said, "Hearing what you said, I suddenly feel like I'm on a pirate ship."

Louis patted Lin Shangzhou on the shoulder and said with a smile:

"Hehehe, don't worry about these things. With your joining, I believe the Socialist People's Party will become stronger."

"you sure?"

Lin Shangzhou looked at him in surprise and said, "I am just an ordinary party member now, right? How can I make the entire party stronger?"

Louis smiled mysteriously and said, “Don’t worry about that, you have already produced your own results, just leave the rest to me.”

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Shangzhou nodded.

"Fine…"

Louis picked up the party application materials, sorted them out, and put them back on the table. Then he picked up the bottle and poured a full glass of wine for him and Lin Shangzhou, then raised his glass and cheered happily: "Come on! Cheers to your joining the party!"

Lin Shangzhou picked up the cup and clinked it with his, smiling.

"Respect my admission to the party."

Then they both drank the wine in their glasses.

Putting the cup back on the table, Lin Shangzhou looked at Louis curiously and said:

"Louis, I'm curious how you merged the Social Democratic Party and the Progressive People's Party?"

"There's nothing much to say about this. At that time, the Social Democratic Party was too weak and the Progressive People's Party was also weakened. The idea of ​​merging the two parties came to my mind. After getting the consent of other party members, I went to discuss it with the Progressive People's Party, and finally reached a unified opinion - to merge the two parties into the Socialist People's Party."

"Amazing! You are not an ordinary person. You can merge two political parties."

Lin Shangzhou praised sincerely and gave Louis a thumbs up. It is not an easy task to merge political parties. The fact that he could think of and successfully merge the two parties shows that Louis is extremely capable.

"Then can you tell me about the basic political situation in Germany right now, so that I can really understand how bad the SPD's situation is."

Louis cleared his throat and said, "First, the ruling Central Party is the most powerful and has the most seats in the Imperial Parliament, accounting for about 30% of the nearly 400 seats, making it the well-deserved majority party."

"Next are the three right-wing parties: the Empire Party, the Fatherland Party and the Conservative Party. Together, they account for 40 percent of the seats in parliament."

"Of the remaining 30 percent, 10 percent are held by the centrist National Liberal Party and the remaining 20 percent by the Socialist People's Party."

“Before the merger, the Social Democratic Party held nine percent of the seats and the Progressive People’s Party held eleven percent of the seats.”

Lin Shangzhou listened carefully to what Louis said. To sum it up, the right-wing forces were unprecedentedly powerful, occupying a total of 70% of the seats, while the Social Democratic Party only had a pitiful 20% of the seats. No wonder Louis said that it didn't matter if they had one vote less or one vote more.

Generally speaking, the members of the ruling party will agree to the proposals put forward by the prime minister. Now there are 30% of the votes in favor. Secondly, the 40% of the members are all right-wing. There may be some opposition, but more will be in favor. In this way, there are 50% of the votes in favor. It doesn't matter whether the remaining center-left agree or not.

If there is no national will, it will be basically impossible for the SPD to become the ruling party.

Lin Shangzhou leaned back on the sofa, looked up to the sky and sighed:

"I'm really on a pirate ship now..."

Louis looked optimistic, as if he believed that as long as they kept working hard, the SPD would be able to become the ruling party sooner or later.

"Don't sigh yet, if we work hard we still have a chance."

"Well, let's go for it."

Lin Shangzhou cheered himself up and nodded.

In the afternoon, Lin Shangzhou finished what needed to be done with Louis. After returning home, he waited to go meet the German syndicalists with Louis tomorrow.

Although he already knew how difficult their situation was, Lin Shangzhou still didn't like them very much.

After returning home, he sat on the sofa and read today's "Workers' Newspaper". The aftermath of the strike had dissipated, and the newspaper no longer published anything about the strike on March 3, but it did report that he had been attacked.

He turned the newspaper to the other side to read the story written by Goebbels, but as he read it he was stunned and slapped himself.

"How the hell did I forget about Xiao Huang?!!!"

When Lin Shangzhou saw the newspaper, he realized that there was a person around him whose political influence was no less than the national will: Goebbels.

If Goebbels joined the SPD and served as propaganda commissioner, would he still have trouble getting votes?!

Of course, while he was excited, Lin Shangzhou also thought of another thing, that is, Goebbels might not be willing to participate in politics. In OTL, he was in a period of confusion and was persuaded by Hitler to join the Nazi. In this world, Goebbels had a stable job and the German Empire was thriving. He did not have the opportunity to be confused, so the probability of him participating in politics was not high.

(Go to the newspaper office and ask him tomorrow)

Lin Shangzhou put the newspaper on the table, looked up at the clock on the wall, and got up to go out. It was almost half past six, and he was going to pick up Letitia and take her home.

.

Chapter 66 Obtaining the Legendary Character——Xiao Huang

On the morning of April 11, Lin Shangzhou came to the newspaper office in Louis' car. In addition to discussing joining the party with Goebbels, he also came to the newspaper office to sign limited edition books. This matter had been delayed for a long time and could not be delayed any longer.

Lin Shangzhou sat in the passenger seat and turned to Louis and said, "Louis, I want to trouble you with something."

His words made Louis, who was about to get off the car, sit back in his seat.

"What's the matter? Tell me."

"Do you remember Goebbels?"

"Goebbels?"

Louis searched for the name in his mind and soon found the relevant information.

He looked at Lin Shangzhou puzzledly and said, "Are you talking about the employee who wrote great articles? Of course I remember him. What's wrong?"

"That's right. I want him to join the Socialist People's Party as well."

"why?"

Louis looked at Lin Shangzhou in confusion. The reason he invited Lin Shangzhou to join the SPD was that he admired Lin Shangzhou for leading the workers' strike. Although he appreciated the employee named Goebbels for his good writing, it was just a good article. Having worked in Berlin for a long time, he did not know this man named Goebbels.

And even he couldn't open a back door like this. If Lin Shangzhou's reasons couldn't convince him, he wouldn't agree to this.

"Forehead…"

Lin Shangzhou thought for a moment, how should he explain to Louis? He couldn't tell him about Goebbels's work at OTL, could he?

"Anyway, you won't regret letting him join the party."

He said to Louis with confidence.

"you sure?"

Louis frowned and looked at him, but Lin Shangzhou's confident expression made him feel that Lin Shangzhou was right. After hesitating for a moment, Louis nodded.

"Okay, but does he agree?"

"I haven't asked him yet. I'm going to ask him now."

Lin Shangzhou happily got out of the car and walked towards the newspaper office. After entering the second floor of the newspaper office, he came to his seat and greeted Goebbels who was typing on the typewriter next to him.

"Good morning, Paul."

"Good morning, Fritz."

Goebbels stopped typing and responded to Lin Shangzhou.

Lin Shangzhou curiously leaned over to look at the manuscript on the table. Judging from the content, this was Goebbels' new novel.

"Are you planning to write a novel?"

Goebbels nodded.

"Well, I also have to give myself some money. Although the salary from the newspaper is enough for me, I also want to make some extra money."

As he spoke, he picked up the manuscript and handed it to Lin Shangzhou. His meaning was obvious, he wanted Lin Shangzhou to take a look, and there was anticipation in his eyes.

"let me see…"

Lin Shangzhou took the manuscript and read the contents carefully. After reading the manuscript in full, he nodded and gave his own evaluation:

"It's a good story, I look forward to your finished product."

“Thanks for the review.”

After getting his manuscript paper back, Goebbels was about to continue typing when Lin Shangzhou stopped him.

"Paul, I have something to discuss with you."

Goebbels did not stop typing, but asked as he typed: "What is it?"

"I joined the Socialist People's Party at the invitation of Editor-in-Chief Louis..."

Goebbels stopped typing, turned his head and looked at Lin Shangzhou in surprise and congratulated him:

"This is a good thing, congratulations."

Lin Shangzhou smiled and continued, "I want you to join the Socialist People's Party."

After hearing this, Goebbels looked at Lin Shangzhou in surprise and asked, "Do you want me to join the Socialist People's Party as well?"

"why?"

Lin Shangzhou said sincerely:

"Editor-in-Chief Louis said your article is very well written. We may need your help in future political activities."