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This is Pessimists Archive, a history show about why people resist new things.

I'm Jason Pfeiffer.

If you were alive in 1913, and if you're the kind of person who is just insanely into royal

weddings, then the thing that would have given your life some kind of strange meaning

would have been the union of Prince Ernest Augustus of Brunswick Lunenberg to his beloved bride, Princess Victoria Louise, daughter of the Kaiser.

And the wedding party was going to be epic.

1,200 guests, and 800 of them were to be housed at the Hotel Adlon near the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

So now, just pause for a moment to consider the poor employees of the Hotel Adlon,

who had to organize this insane thing.

I mean, this is 800 guests.

800 very particular, very powerful, very needy, very expectant guests.

For example, there was the Duke of Schleiswig Holstein who asked for a room on the fourth

floor.

It was the Duke's express wish to stay on that floor and no other.

...