Background: Maximilian was born on a sunny but cold day on November the 18th 1971 to Luther and Greta Holtz in the DDR�s East Berlin (Deutsch Demokratic Republik). His parents raised him with a firm hand (especially his father), but were not to harsh or ever cruel, they merely sought to instill the values the had learned through hard work into their young son. Max was an only child. His mother managed a photo chemical production plant not to far from Brandenburg Gate, his father Luther was a high ranking Military man and Communist Party member and was subsequently gone on many trips. Whenever Luther was home however he took his boy hunting in Jagerwalds in both Saxony (East Germany) and the Danzig Corridor (Northern Poland) it was here that Maxy picked up his tracking skills, he learned to recognize indigenous animal spore and footprints.

It was his parents hope that Max would grow up to be a good party member and either a military man or a liason to the Soviet regime which dominated the Warsaw Pact Nations. To this end he was taught russian (like most small children in the DDR) and Polish by his father who was raised in former Konigsberg near the Baltic States during WWII (he also picked up some Polish on those hunting trips). He turned out to have an aptitude for language and socialization, in fact many Max�s antics and language skills often impressed and amused his fathers political contacts at Party meetings and private dinners/functions his parents held.

Max grew into a young man of strong build and sturdy frame, his pale blonde hair of youth turned the light brown that many get as the grow older, and his eyes (strangely enough) held onto the same steely blue/grey that they were from infancy on. He excelled in school showing an aptitude for most courses. It was in high school that he began to study English. With ole Gorbie making overatures to the West, it was decided that in addition to speaking Polish and Russian, he might be a military liason to NATO for the Bloc.

He was groomed for the Military Academy, and his father had no problems pulling the strings in order to make the career choices and guaranteed selection for his son. In 1988 Maximilian entered the Academy, and in 89 the Wall fell. Germany was reunified, in a brief period of chaos that ensued, his life was thrown up into the air, however with his good marks and language skills, he was sent to the West German equivalent school to continue his training. It was here he began to shuck off his old belief systems, and find pride and happiness in his reunified nation. In 1990 he met a young woman by the name of Else Mueller who as from Hess and also enrolled in the school, they had a brief romance (6 months) which ended with them as friends (in fact they merely broke it off so that that their marks and blossoming careers would not suffer). Instead he focused on his studies and in whatever spare time he had practiced sharpshooting which he also found he had a knack for. He loved the G11 and G3 in particular and was more than happy to practice with these and leave behind the Kalishnakovs of his 1st year (although he is very familiar with Eastern Bloc weaponry as well).He graduated in 91 with a commission in the Fernspahtruppen with the rank of leutnant.

Once at his new post he learned what it really meant to lead, having actual men in your command is quite different from taking leadership courses and seminars (although they helped and lay the ground work). Despite his hard work and his natural language and leadership skills he was passed by for promotion, due in part to the fact to his families connection to the Communist party and his early training as an eastern Bloc officer. In frustration he took up jogging and mountain hiking (Mostly in Bayern/Bavaria and Switzerland and the Sudten region of the Czech republic on vacation)as a way to work out his anger and to keep his fitness up. As tensions rise across the world and in his home, he is moved to the Polish front toward the end of his 1st term as an officer in 96�, the meat grinding begins.

After a long a bitter struggle fighting Poles, Russians, and Czech/Slovaks, Max somehow survives the worst of it (after all, he is a ground pounder), despite the initial losses with the help of NATO forces in other strategic areas (like Norway), He is with the push that heads once more into Polan/Prussia, both to repatriate the ethnic Germans there, and stave off the Soviets from ever holding his home again. Morale is at an all time high for the year and then the Italians push into Bayern crushing the hopes of both Maxy and his men in 97� . Max is however in the frontal assualts and is one of the first German troops to set foot on Soviet soil in war since 1944 luckily as a Fernspahtruppe he is involved in sabotage acts and commando style raids, and is not parts of the armored, infantry, and support columns which see the first nukes since the Japan�s capitulation at the end of WWII. The use of tactical nukes only furthers his resolve and hate of the enemy. At this point, everybody is pretty sure the world is coming to an end it is only a matter of time.

In the bitter winter of 98� order has crumbled and Germany lies shattered in with former occupied areas in the south and some central German industrial areas, remaining more or less intact. At this point Max has become a hardened veteran, and a killer of men. He has kept his squad from either heavy casualty (3 deaths one wounded in 2 years of heavy fighting) or from running amok. By winter of 99� Germany to all intents and purposes is no more, and most troops fight on skirmish scale. Hardships are endured, unlike many Max does not raid allied positions, bands, or cantonements, this does not stop him however from attacking those allies who attempt to steal from him. Eventually, he and his men turn to acting as bodyguards and a strike force for hire in order to keep equipped, warm, and with food in their bellies. Although by Winter of 99� his squad had been reinforced, he let two of his men go when they decided they wished to go home.

In the year 2000, Europa has taken on her feudal face once more (with the exception of France and Belgium), Max and his squad leave their settlement and join the German 3rd and it�s US 11th Corps allies for one last offensive into Poland. Darkness falls...

Maximilian is sought by a british cantonement in Northern Germany to retrieve two "brains" which had been taken in a pitched battle by Polish and Soviet regular forces during a move from a production facility back to the cantonement. One of these men was a pharmacist and chemist (an excellent resource Dr. Alec Clark was both used for the creation of smokeless powder, explosives, AND medical supplies (antibiotics and many drugs), the other gentleman was an electronics engineer (Albert Grunwald who not only trained and taught, but replaced/created parts for circuit boards in additon to making sure the factory in question ran smoothly).

Max spends some time in the field to glean the location of these men and others who were taken prisoner. He finds the answer...the men had been moved to a re-education camp in Karelia near the Baltic. They moved forward deep into Soviet territory in order to not only free these men now, but also to free as many POWs and political dissidents as possible.

Unfortuneately as the approached the the concentration camp (loaded with explosive charges) one of the men set off an explosive booby trap (apparently an anti-personnel mine had been missed during their approach) Max and several other men who were to close suffered from the blast. Heavily wounded Max passed out...When he came to he was in a tent "hospital"/butcher shop where he learned he had been captured by the hostiles.

Holtz' equipment:
BDU (flecktarn camoflauge pattern)
boots
wallet
Mauser+ 3 shots
binoculars
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