“I am going to take you into my confidence and reveal a secret few outside Berlin know.”
Dreissen’s guest instinctively leaned in as if there were listeners hiding in the hydrangeas.
“What do you know of the American electoral system?”
The question wasn’t expected, and the man muttered for a moment before calling up the information. “They hold elections every four years for their President, and I think every two or six for their Congress. There’s something about a ‘college’ that never made any sense to me.”
“For the purposes of our discussion, the ‘electoral college’ is irrelevant. The other point that need be brought up is that they have a two-party system. The Democrats and the Republicans. Each has a distinct way of seeing their country and different paths for taking it forward.”
“I have heard of the parties.”
“The last election was different. Theodore Roosevelt challenged the incumbent, President Taft, at their party’s convention for a chance to retake the White House for an unprecedented third term. The party bosses refused and renominated Taft to run against the Democrat challenger, Woodrow Wilson.”
“Who defeated Taft and is now the President.”
“Correct. Here’s the interesting thing. There is nothing in the American constitution that forbids a third presidential term, just tradition. Instead of tucking tail, Roosevelt formed a third party, the Bull Moose, and ran for office once again. Roosevelt and Taft, men with similar agendas, managed to garner more ballots together than Wilson did by himself. The electoral college was a landslide for Wilson, and while he technically won the popular vote against his rivals individually, he didn’t if their numbers were combined.”
“An interesting lesson in American civics, but what does that have to do with us now?”
“After their loss, the Republicans knew they made a terrible mistake not giving Roosevelt the nomination. He remains wildly popular in America, and his diverting more than half of traditional Republican voters away from the party’s nominee sank their chances to remain in power.
“There will be another national election in 1916, and the Republicans are desperate to regain the White House.”
“You believe they’ll ask Roosevelt?”
“At this point, I do. Things may change between now and then, yet he is who they would most likely want to run. His charisma and popularity would surely lead to Wilson being a single-term President.”
Dreissen paused to light a cigarette from a silver case.
His guest said, “I still don’t understand the relevance of this to our current mission.”
“Because I haven’t yet brought you into my confidence. You know, I have an older brother in New York who oversees Essenwerks’s business in the United States. Like me, he also has contacts high up in our government and does occasional favors for them. Like what I am doing here with the canal.” There was no need to mention the Argentine angle—the guest had no need to know. “Last year my brother was asked to help on a secret project, one that would destroy relations with the United States if it ever came to light.”
“Go on,” the guest said eagerly.
Dreissen would have never divulged what he was about to say if he didn’t think Berlin would authorize another mission that would by necessity involve his visitor at the very highest levels.
“The Kaiser and his Ministers believed that even with three men in the race for President, Roosevelt would win, and that he would continue raising America’s profile among the nations of the world. They already have the world’s largest economy but lack the diplomatic clout to assert their dominance. Our leaders speculated that the United States would take a world leadership role and eclipse Great Britain and Germany if he was returned to the White House for a third term.”
“What did they do?”
“They sent a doctor well versed in suggestive hypnotism and pharmacology from Germany to New York. My brother, who put him up, used his contacts to find a suitable candidate, someone weak-willed and easily manipulated. The man they found was Bavarian by birth and had once been a saloonkeeper in the city before selling his property and immersing himself in Christian fundamentalism, which has grown popular in America. He’d become a traveling preacher, who’d often wander at night, muttering to himself. He happened to be in New York City at the time and was taken to a secure facility outside the city on September fifth, roughly a month after Roosevelt began his campaign.
“The man’s name was John Flammang Schrank,” Dreissen continued. “Over the course of the next two weeks, the doctor kept him in a near-constant state of hypnosis using multiple techniques including drugs. They shaped an already disturbed man by feeding him new delusions to occupy his mind. While the drugs were doing that, the doctor was making him forget he was under any kind of care.
“By the time they were done, Schrank believed that Roosevelt was trying to establish a monarchy in America by running for a third time. The doctor also convinced Schrank that Roosevelt was responsible for William McKinley’s assassination in 1901, which resulted in Roosevelt becoming President in the first place.”
Dreissen’s guest knew enough about recent history to realize where the story was heading and couldn’t believe his nation had a hand in it.
“They stayed with Schrank as he stalked the President while he was on the campaign trail. They monitored his mental state and fed him more drugs and more sessions under hypnosis if he showed signs of wavering. My brother told me that it really wasn’t necessary. By this point, Schrank was delusional and believed himself on a sacred mission to protect the United States from what he called a ‘third termer’ and to avenge the spirit of President McKinley.”
“Schrank caught up to Roosevelt in the city of Milwaukee, if I remember right.”
“Yes. In the state of Wisconsin, in what they call the Midwest. As you know the assassination attempt failed. The bullet hit Roosevelt in the chest but had
