In the year 1891 most of the western world was connected by deep underwater cables through which telegraph messages could be sent to spread news and information around the world quickly. And so in the month of October that year news was quickly spread all around the world about a new study conducted by Germany.
In it German scientists funded by the Kaiser himself argued that smoking was bad for a person's health and that it apparently didn't cure asthma. Alcohol was also bad for you and not something that children should have as it could lead to a variety of bad long term side effects. And even eating too much sugar or sweets was bad for you. Also cocaine was apparently not a healthy medicine unlike many believed it to be. And weight gain was apparently caused by eating too much and exercising too little. And so everyone should try and exercise for at least two hours a day, and exercise in a way that causes you to sweat during those two hours.
There were also more suggestions within the study about other substances that were apparently harmful for you and definitely not medicine, there were also many things included in the study that were not good for babies or children overall.
Seeing it all not only the Germans, Europeans at large, but even the Americans were completely stunned as well. Smoking cigarettes was bad and a person shouldn't drink alcohol as it could lead to things like High blood pressure, Heart disease, Liver disease, Strokes, physical and mental health problems, Digestive problems, Weaker immune system and an increase in your chances of getting sick.
To most people this seemed a bit absurd and so surreal, It was like their whole world view had been turned upside down, but for many it suddenly just made so much sense why it was that they got exhausted so easily and were coughing constantly.
As for Kaiser Wilhelm and Heinrich this publication was a bit concerning. On one hand they were more than happy to spread this knowledge bestowed upon them by her Holiness Lili, but on the other hand they felt conflicted in the fact that as one of the contributors to this research they had placed her Holinesses name there for all to see.
After all this would most certainly raise Lilis already rising popularity even more and possibly place her in harms way. But then again as loyal followers of her they simply just couldn't publish something like this without crediting her Holiness for it was all thanks to her that they even knew all of this to begin with.
Also her Holiness had suddenly fallen into some form of a coma and so they could not ask for her opinion regarding this matter.
Then again the two men figured that all this was certainly a part of her plan and something she would most definitely approve of. After all with this publication Germanies and Lilis public approval would grow and along with it they were most definitely going to be able to sell more Lottery tickets to Germans and overseas as well.
Although regarding expanding the company overseas they had gotten into some trouble. Her Holiness Lili was the face of the company and the one meant to go spread it around the world. After all this company was meant to be her company and not the German royal families.
So with her Holiness not being available they had turned to another person close to her Holiness. So in their search for potential candidates the Kaiser had decided to simply look within his own staff of workers.
For within his own manor in Plön there already was a vast selection of people who had all sworn their loyalty to her holiness. And not only that, but they had also been touched by her holy light which gave them a slight edge over normal men.
So from amongst all the guards and servants they then managed to find one man who fit this role perfectly. This man being a tall man, with a good physique and a handsome appearance. He is a royal guard who had studied within the military academy and in his spare time taken it upon himself to study finance and invest his money in hopes of making it big. Or well that was until he saw her holiness after which his entire being has been focused on guarding her.
And most importantly to the Kaiser was that this man is a pure blooded German man, and his name is Gierig Reich. Truly the man seemed as if he were made for this role and he was quite enthusiastic to accept the role as well. And by using his natural charms he had then quickly started swaying foreign countries into accepting Lilis Welfare Company within their borders.
And so starting out in the north, Denmark, Sweden and Norway were quickly swayed into accepting the lottery with open arms. This in turn added an additional 9 million or so potential players into the lottery.
While this was not much it was still something and also a way to spread her holinesses good name. For already in Germany many had already been helped thanks to her.
Some workers had even begun to wear helmets made by a newly established company called Schmitt. And this was significant as the company was more than happy to say to everyone that their revolutionary safety helmet designs were all designed by Lili. Although despite this people quickly took to calling these helmets the Schmitt helm.
Like so Lilis good name found another way to spread itself all around Germany and overseas. Quickly Lilis welfare lottery started to be known mostly for its charitable nature and all the good it did to many, especially miners liked it as many of their Schmitt helmets were donated to them by Lilis Welfare Company.
From there it was then just easy sailing into Britain which was already a huge advocate for free trade and had a friendly Queen who happily accepted the company onto its shores. After that came Germanies Allies Italy and Austria-Hungary and then the rest of Europe followed by the United States.
Of course the company was not large within these countries just yet and needed time to expand, but with Germanies financial backing and some time they would surely become great sources of profit for the Kaiser and Heinrich.
For the moment the Kaiser and Heinrich really only cared about establishing a foothold in them all and then going on from there. After all her Holiness had wisely stressed the fact that Germany should not build too much upon this lottery business within its own borders, for doing so it would only be hurting itself by sucking its own people's pockets dry.
So instead the Kaiser and Heinrich looked overseas to not only spread Lilis welfare lottery there, but other gambling games as well. And with this in mind the Kaiser could only let out an evil laugh as he thought of all the soon to be profits and looked at Heinrich and said.
"Tell me Heinrich how much should we take from them all?"
Hearing this Heinrich showed an evil smile as he said.
"Everything."
Then the two men burst into hysterical evil laughter as they started happily throwing large sums of money into the air. Soon coins and bills were flying all around and falling like rain around the two men's office room.
With the lottery business expanding and close to a hundred million people playing it each week around the world the two men couldn't help but smile now. Even with them having to pay taxes overseas for the lottery and other expenses as well, they were still getting an easy 50 to 70 million Marks weekly in profits as most participants did not just buy a single ticket, but multiple tickets. Some people even chose to buy in bulk which they appreciated quite a lot.
***
But as the Kaiser and Heinrich celebrated in Berlin, there was another large event funded by them taking place in Africa. In the German Togoland in West Africa, a competition grater than ever before was being held.
With the help of native translators and many promises of great riches, hundreds of thousands of natives had gathered to dig a large hole unlike any the Togoland had ever before seen. This hole was supposed to be made into a large artificial lake meant for fish farming according to the Germans.
So to see this large lake built the Germans had swayed many tribes into helping them out. And to motivate them all the Germans promised to give weapons, luxury goods, land and official German recognition to that land for which ever tribe dug the most.
Although there was a catch and that was that the whole tribe, women, children and even babies needed to be made to dig. After all independence and riches for a whole tribe should be earned by the entire tribe.
Also they only had one day in which they needed to cut down a vast area of jungle away and dig as deep of a single unified hole as possible. So with their own native tools the many tribes dug side by side like crazy as they attempted to dig deeper than their rival native tribes.
Under the watchful eyes of 5000 German West African colonial soldiers the competition had went on for almost the entire day. The competition was fierce, people sweated like crazy and yelled words of motivation to one another in their many native languages, while others simply sang happy songs motivating one another to keep digging along.
Through countless roots, rocks and thick jungle foliage they dug and dug. The digging was slow and though, but with the help of the black liquid the Germans gave them to soften up the ground the competition continued nonetheless.
Then as the sun began to set and the competition started to come to a close the Germans seemed pleased to see that some had made it over three meters deep. And to help the natives some more the Germans handed their native translators torches and made them stand close to the edge of the large hole to give the tribes some light.
Seeing nothing wrong with this the native translators did as they always did and followed orders well, but then yells suddenly rang out as they were violently kicked into the holes by the Germans who simply laughed evilly at them.
Then as the torches hit the black liquid covered ground it immediately ignited into large and hot violent flames, and spread throughout the ever deepening hole. In panic the natives yelled, some caught fire instantly and let out screams of agony as they began to run around crazily.
Quickly panic along with the flames spread and the seemingly normal competition suddenly turned into a scene straight out of hell. Many tried to run, but within their haste and panic they crushed the small ones under their feet, while others simply tripped on their fellow tribes men and were then trampled to death.
Some managed to push through the flames and screaming masses of people, they made it to the edge of the hole from where they began to climb, but as they did they were only met with German bayonets and bullets. Nonetheless, some natives set aflame as they were managed to come screaming out the burning hole of hell and past the Germans and in doing so set the jungle a flame with their own burning bodies.
Soon artillery and machine guns opened up on the natives within the burning hole. More gasoline was thrown in as well and whoever managed to get away were quickly hunted down by the German cavalry and infantry.
Cavalry Sabers cut down natives, pistols and rifles gunned down the others blowing holes in the natives heads and bodies. The natives screams of agony rang out the night as the Germans crazily laughed at the sight and the easy slaughter. For hours the fires raged on and the killing continued throughout the night along with the ever diminishing screams of the natives until finally there was nothing more to kill.
Watching this all was the newly assigned General of the West African force, General Adrian Dietrich Lothar von Trotha. The man held no signs of emotion on his face, he merely checked his pocket watch to see how long this whole operation was going to take, after all he was on a schedule to clean up all the German colonies.
All in all these colonies held more than 14 million natives within them and as such he needed to do this as quick as possible, and as quiet as possible. There were to be no survivors, no witnesses and definitely no press.
By the orders of the Kaiser the purification of the colonies was to be a top-secret mission. No-one was to know of this except the highest personnel within the German government, even the soldiers here were not to know the full extent of their mission.
Of course the pay was good, and all the men here were selected for their aggressive natures, their support for the German monarchy and the German people, all were fanatical nationalists and veterans of many wars who weren't afraid of some death and slaughter. These men especially held no emotions of empathy towards the natives and as such felt no sympathy as they watched these natives burning to death before their very eyes.
These men held a simple and justified mission of cleaning Germanies colonies of their illegal native inhabitants. Truly these were all well trained, motivated and well picked men.
And just as was to be expected of his men General Adrian could only see indifferent cold faces mixed in with sadistic smiles of some and the victorious laughter of many. And within that single night the native population of Togoland dropped from a little over 900000 to a little under 800000, truly a great success.