The Kaufmann family (Decade Challenge is finished)
Hello fellow simmer,
Originally I have started this challenge three months ago in July and I write about it in the 'What happened in your game today'-thread. But @MelsieYT asked me if the story is written down somewhere coherently, so I'm going to copy the story parts in here.
My challenge is placed in Germany and I'm playing the legacy of the Kaufmann family with adapting the original rules, because I'm a german, so this history is more familiar to me than the american history. During the game I switch to the nice streamer StephKaycee deathroll-method (roll D20 after statistics), which made this challenge a bit more fair, but create less drama. If you don't know her yet, she plays on twitch her own decade challenge.
At first I thought I wouldn't stay long enough on this challenge and I had my struggle in the world war 1, but I can't believe that' already 3 months gone.
Then let me start:
1890
The american rules forbid to start in San Myshuno, but for me it's essential for the story. It's 1890. A young and poor couple has move from the countryside to the big growing city. Ludwig and Viktoria Kaufmann, her marriage was arrange by their former squire, who let them go because of a bankruptcy. They hope to find a better paid job there. They found a cheap room in one of the tenement barracks. Ludwig started his 3 years military service and Viktoria became pregnant soon.
Living in a cramped building, they have to deal with loud neighbors and dirty environment all the time.
In late 1890 their first son named Wilhelm (after the emperor) was born.
Ludwig is very ambitious and and impressed his superiors, so he ranked up, while he is proud of his family growing extended.
While he is family orientated, he is also unflirty in due of the prudish era, but he did his marital duties and Viktoria became pregnant again. It's now 1891. He began to be interested in the social democratic party and workers right, since the anti-socialist laws were lifted.
Mostly I spent my time with the rest of the family, to arrange marriage or decorate their homes/style for a new decade, but sometimes I play them too for a short time, but I have to keep an eye on the main family, because I like it when the children are trained enough and get a advanced headstart for their life too.
I think I keep the background section short this time, because further down I have to explain a hot topic a little bit more specific
1980 - 1982
Main event beside the demonstation and massive unemployement was the Constructive vote of no confidence in the Bundestag 1982, where Helmut Kohl won against Helmut Schmidt. Helmut Kohl had promoted a conversative change of morale. What ever he meant with that, his Party is well-known for corruption and scandals, in my opinion.
Waiting for Christmas
https://i.imgur.com/bJCgY04.png
This time no one was disappointed with their gifts.
Hans retired from his job at the age of 63 years. He was sad about leaving his work.
https://i.imgur.com/vaZnuPc.png
By a request of mightysprite I've focussed on Sabine Kaufman, the sister of Erika, for a while, who became a punk and moved to Berlin. I have to explain why I did this, but I need some time to tell why. It is a topic which still has an influence until today. Berlin was always tenant city. Every citizen of Berlin has a right to live in a home by law.
Berlin in the 1980s was a morbid place (okay, it is still so), real estate speculators left houses vacant and dilapidated. The local goverment wanted to bulldoze these and wanted to build standardized and anonymous houses, of which the local citizens weren't happy about. A small group of punks became squatters to rescued these old houses and they repaired them as far as they could.
At first the squatters were peaceful and had the support of the local citizens. But with the time and an agressive police behaviour more violence came into the city, like young and bored teenagers too. The policed and justice threated everyone, who doesn't fit in the scheme, hostile, because many of them supported a right politics, they give the racists a low verdict and harder verdicts to lefts and other minorities. We mostly say in in german that they are blind on the right eye. These occupied houses have been cleared by the police. On one day a young punk died through one evictions, which left the people speachless about the brutality of this death and the reaction of the police comissioner. The local goverment change their opinion. Many squatter became legalized and got a real lease contract. The cruel fact nowadays: today a worker with a normal income can't afford especially these homes anymore in due of the high rents from real estate companies, who squeeze out the tenants like a lemon for more yield. Tenants who have lived there for decades are forced to leave their known environment, because they can't affort the rent anymore.
Back to Sabine. She fit in very quickly in to the house comunity. As you now Hans and Annemarie are very conversative andgave rigorous education to their children. Sabine, too late for the hippie era wanted to break free, she didn't care about having a job and capitalism. She saw no point in mindless shopping.
Not all things went well. One ob the biggest problem for Punks are the fascists and racists next to the police, who are threatened them. In the 1980s Skinheads were a part of the punks but in Germany this part of Punk was taken over very soon by the far rights, who hates them.
Haha, I hope not for pastel pink route for all, but yeah Barbie in pink dresses for girls at a holiday, since my Erika hasn't any sons who could start with video gaming. :D Sometimes it's fun to play with the clichés, like twins same outfit, but I'll try to avoid it as long as I can, because today you are going to find only pastel pink for girls and pastel blue for boys in the shops, it exists rarely alternatives, but somewhere it had to be started ?.
The thing I really like about the decades challenges is how the colour palette changes from decade to decade. The 50s is very red/blue/green: Primary colours. The 60s is black/white/vibrant colours all mixed, the 70s is Yellow/beige/brown and now the 80s is pastels. The 90s will start black, then go brown, then grey, then purple....
Well for the background I pick just one topic. In this year the fake dairies from a certain infamous person, which name is censored here in the forum, were published and had produced one of the biggest scandal for the newspapers. The reputation from this magazine dropped into the void and went worse a few years later.
I did a renovation on the house and gave them an updated look. Holger with his wife Marina and only child Karl Hans lives also under the roof of Hans and Annemarie.
This is Teenager Karl Hans playing computer.
https://i.imgur.com/f74sZOG.png
Hans and Annemarie enjoy the freedom and Pension life now.
He travelled with Holger only, because the other didn't wanted to travel, nor could because of the compulsory school attendance. They made pictures from each other.
Then they went home and my game chrashed, all treasure were gone, but I was not really sad about, I had made my pictures.
Part 3 Erika
It's wintertime and christmas season.
https://i.imgur.com/aAfwfq9.png
Watching TV together
https://i.imgur.com/4gkR6hq.png
Baking together.
https://i.imgur.com/9skpPsT.png
Of course Homework were monitored by the parents.
https://i.imgur.com/f4qKS77.png
And suddenly was Christmas day again. They went to the church and watched the children nativity play, when they came home it was time for the celebration and gifts.
I'm sorry for the long break, but I had some struggle with playing my challenge, because I don'treally get in touch with the 80's, playing a familygame is quite boring again and at last my rl is quite stressful at the moment, most of the days I'm so tired after my work. However like we say in Germany: Mühsam ernährt sich das Eichhörnchen (literally translation: The squirrel feeds with difficulty). Hours by hours I made it through the next two years.
1984 -1985
1984 the first Forest Status Report show that the trees in the forest are heavy damaged and will be die, which leeds us to the famous German Angst. Most of the germans love forests. They played an important role in our history. 1985 President Richard von Weizsäcker made his important speach about the 8th of may 1945.
The twins had celebrate their birthday and are now teenagers. I had to redecorate the house.
After this this point I've decided to start a new family. It's now 1985. These years marks the highest point of immigration of germans from the GUS-states, mostly from Poland, Romania or the Sovjet Union. These people faced discrimination because of their german ancestry, beside living since centuries in the area, speaking german was forbidden and so on, so they resettled to Germany. Where they were unfortunately not seen as real germans at all. Most of them choosed the assimilation, to avoid attracting attention.
So meet Jerzy and Katarzyna Weishaupt, a young couple from poland. Well their weren't really religious there, but they were remembered on their heavy heritage when arriving in Germany.
The german jewish community was small and became old, but they helped them and integrate them into the society. Especially in the 1990s after the fall of the Sovjet Union.
Unfortunatly the old lady couldn't live alone without any help longer and moved to Israel to her brother. Meanwhile Sabine Kaufmann and her boyfriend Atze slowly left the punk scene and started a new, more normal, life together. They became good neighbors and friends with Jerzy and Katarzyna.
Hello and I apologize for being absent from the challenge so lately, I didn't expect that the 80's were such a hard bone, difficult to digest, it's doesn't really make fun right fun, so the storyline is quite viscous. And reallife strikes hard at the end of the year, too much work too little time. :)
1986 -1987
1986 the chernobyl disaster stroke Germany too, and the fears about radioactiviy were rising into the sky. Parents were frightened to let the children play outside. Mushrooms and wild (game) dishes (like boar or deer) were avoided, no problem since the game doesn't offer any boar or deer dishes, in due of the radioactivity. at least nuclear power became more and more unpopular with a lot of demonstration against power plants. So we are, either we ignore every danger or then we exaggerate excessively. /facepalm
1987 marks the 750th anniversity of my hometown Berlin, it was celebrated in both parts of Berlin. Unfortunately I was too young to remember these festivities.
Here the family see the bad news. https://i.imgur.com/ULgHulP.png
Later that evening, the movie was so boring, Erika fell asleep.
https://i.imgur.com/dCn211Y.png
Grandma Annemarie came to visit.
https://i.imgur.com/d7mBSdu.png
The kids play inside the house, they were forbidden to play outside.
https://i.imgur.com/vI6FAnA.png
Nicole and Tanja, tried something new. A trend from the usa, thanks to the movies and series, attracted the young girls. It's called Halloween. But it isn't so much accepted then. But nowadays more children celebrate Halloween. However, the party was succesful.
Okay, in 1988 some interesting and bad things happened, but to be honest I'm too lazy to write them all down. In 1989, you will probably already know this and once again I'm too lazy to write all down, was the fall of the berlin wall. The early opening happened by an mistake and this marks the end of the separation of Germany. And later it became clear, that not only the gdr vanished, the old west germany vanished too. The following years will be unruling and disappointing for many eastern germans, who will face an uncertain future.
Growing up in the eighties Sandra spent her time outside and with doing sports.
https://i.imgur.com/mqhRIBg.png
Her Dad trained her in self-defense.
https://i.imgur.com/ATghEmi.png
Nicole and Tanja instead enjoy the music television, and "left" the school for their job training.
