War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Bismarck raised his tea cup, smiled and did not answer.

There is a legend that Bismarck participated in the Prussian mission as a private and made wild remarks at the Vienna Peace Conference (1839, Turkish-Egyptian War), claiming to surpass Metternich.

Many people regarded it as a joke, or as a self-marketing tool for the farmer, but Alfred Krupp believed that this young man had this energy.

He met countless people throughout his life, whether they were arrogant Viennese purchasers, greedy British officials, or even self-righteous French people, who were not even qualified to lift shoes in front of the young man in front of him.

At this time, Alfred Krupp seemed to suddenly think of something again, and continued.

"You said the Austrians are looking for talent? What kind of talent are they?"

After hearing this, Bismarck nodded, took a sip of tea and said.

"Aren't you?"

After hearing this, Alfred Krupp smiled and sighed in his heart that he had indeed seen the right person, so he also took a sip of tea.

"The Austrians did reach out to me and were very willing to spend money."

In fact, Franz's idea of ​​recruiting Krupp was purely taken for granted. To be precise, it was caused by inherent impressions. The idea of ​​building an arsenal in Tyrol was brewing in his mind, and he happened to think of this famous artillery king in later generations.

So he slapped his forehead and decided to let people buy firearms and artillery. Obviously, this was difficult for Krupp, who had been making farm tools and tableware.

Having never done any research, he had no idea that the entire Krupp Steel workforce at this time only had 67 employees, and that the person responsible for recruitment and procurement missions even asked for 3,000 rifled guns and 20 cannons. Thinking this was a deliberately provocative and humiliating move, the first meeting between the two parties ended in an unpleasant atmosphere.

When Franz learned the truth, he secretly regretted it and immediately changed his strategy. He planned to recruit him to his banner with the promise of being the "steel project leader", but he was sternly rejected by the other party in the name of patriotism.

This has to mention the unreliable negative impression left by the Austrians on Alfred Krupp. When he first took over his father's business, he had only five smelters and two blacksmiths, and the factory's business could barely make ends meet.

Krupp's economic situation was very bad. All his properties included a semi-closed factory, a house worth 750 thalers, a cow, and several pigs.

Alfred Krupp wrote in his diary:

"If even one of the crucibles breaks or overturns, we will be broke and even homeless on the streets. I have to be secretary, letter writer, cashier, craftsman, smelter, cokemaker and night watchman and all I do is make people The family has a good meal.”

So Alfred Krupp has developed extraordinary sales talents since he was a child. He always takes some home-produced tableware with him when traveling, because a professional buyer can tell important information about materials and workmanship from these simple tools.

However, he ran into a wall once in Vienna. Almost all the buyers he met there thought his kitchen utensils were not exquisite enough, so they would not place orders for agricultural tools from his factory.

Unwilling to fail, Alfred Krupp gritted his teeth and hired a sculptor to carve exquisite patterns for his tableware.

When he met with the buyers again, they scolded them in a mocking country tone: "It's not tableware at all, but a fragile work of art!"

It was obvious that the other party, who had a high self-esteem, did not take him, a poor boy from the Rhine, seriously at all. In the end, Alfred Krupp could only leave Vienna in despair.

Then in 1840, he got another opportunity to cooperate with the Imperial Mint in Vienna. The Imperial Mint needed a new rolling mill, and after negotiations between the two parties, the price was set at 20,000 florins.

Historically, due to its own poor economic situation, defaults on payment for goods happened from time to time even in the heart of the empire. Although the economic situation has improved in this life, the old problem of Austrian officials has not been eradicated.

To be fair, 20,000 florins may not hurt the Austrian Empire, which was growing in strength at this time, but for Krupp, who was anxiously waiting for payment, it was an unacceptable loss.

If the matter had only ended here, Alfred might not have left an unforgettable memory, but goddess luck suddenly played a joke; just when a special person in Vienna was about to pay for the goods, the rolling mill broke down. Lost.

The outraged mint official demanded compensation from Krupp and even threatened to jail him.

Alfred's family had no choice but to pool their money and pay 100,000 florins to the Austrian Imperial Mint to redeem it.

After everything returned to normal, Alfred Krupp finally received the belated payment from the Austrians, but what he received was 20,000 expected Austrian banknotes.

This transaction almost eliminated the Krupp Steel Company from the world, so since then his hatred of the country Austria has become stronger and stronger.

However, these series of accidents were not planned by Franz at all. After all, he was not sinister enough to harm a legitimate steel merchant.

And if he had to do it, Franz would do it more thoroughly so that he would never have a chance to turn around.

"Not only you, but also many professors, soldiers, and businessmen in the German Confederation were invited, and even a high school student named Helmholtz. The Austrians offered him a scholarship of 2,000 florins per year. And brought his family to Vienna.”

This baseless solicitation soon aroused Bismarck's interest. After investigation, he discovered a terrible fact, that is, people recruited by Austria will make some amazing achievements soon after arriving in Austria. This is It made him more convinced of his judgment.

"Scholarship of 2,000 florins? Every year?" Alfred Krupp seemed a little incredible. At that time, 2,000 florins was definitely a huge sum of money, equivalent to 20 years' salary of a soldier, and 70-80 in later generations. Ten thousand.

"That's right, five times that of the University of Berlin."

In fact, the so-called scholarships offered by most universities during this period were nothing more than a reduction of some tuition and miscellaneous fees, as well as a small living allowance, which usually did not exceed five pounds per year.

For particularly outstanding students, the school will provide or introduce them to jobs to help them. For example, the famous Sir Isaac Newton completed his studies at Cambridge University through work-study.

"What about him now? Helmholtz? I haven't heard any rumors about this man."

"I haven't heard that he made any amazing discoveries or actions, but he was invited by the Royal Society of Science in Vienna as a student. Even if there is, we have no way of knowing. You should know how much you want to join this society. Disaster."

Alfred Krupp couldn't help but take a breath after hearing this.