This chapter is going to be a lot different than the others. In order to add more explanation to some of the major character's back-stories, I'm going to have to tell the actual stories themselves. I'm starting off with the story of Calvin's ancestors, since it easily segues into the story of Anthony Schaeffer (Who is a much more important character).
On a cold, cloudy day in 1910, a young child, roughly 10 years of age, was starting school at Wittelsbacher Gymnasium in Munich, Germany. The principal, Joseph Gebhard Himmler, had just shown him to his classroom and was introducing him to his other classmates. "Class," He said "This is Thaddeus Stern; he'll be your new classmate." Thaddeus was an incredibly nervous, and introverted child, he didn't really talk to others, and nobody, not even the teachers, paid much attention to him. "Why don't you sit over here, next to my son." The principal said, gesturing to a small, quiet boy with glasses with nobody sitting next to him. He walked over and introduced himself. "Hi." Thaddeus said. The boy looked over and waved to him. "My name's Thaddeus, I just moved here from Berlin." The boy didn't say anything; he seemed to be preoccupied by a book he was reading. "What's your name?" Thaddeus asked. "Heinrich" the boy said. "That's a nice name." Thaddeus said "Hey, do you want to be my friend?" he said with a shaky voice. "You would want to be friends with a principal's son?" He asked. "Of course." Thaddeus said "I've never really had any friends, too" "Okay, then." This was the start of a great friendship.
However, 4 years later, a terrible thing happened: War had broken out in Germany, all because someone from a different country shot and killed the heir to another country's throne. Thaddeus knew his homeland needed him so he left school and Heinrich and went to join the German Army at age 14 (he had lied about his age). Despite his age, and his idiosyncratic behavior, he was among the greatest fighters that Germany had ever had. During his entire career, he had killed over 50 soldiers: 20 British, 15 French, 7 Russians, 5 Americans, and 5 Italians. During the war one bad thing and one good thing occurred. The bad thing being that in 1918, Germany had lost to the Allied powers and had lost most of its land; even Austria-Hungary was separated into two parts. The good thing was that at age 18, Thaddeus fell in love with a young nurse when the war ended. In 1920, they were married and had a baby boy. "What shall we call him?" His wife asked. "How about Nikolaus? It means 'Victory of the People'" "Nikolaus Stern, I like it." And so it was, however, as it would turn out, Thaddeus and his son would never get along, they were just two different people.