I've been planning out this scene where the main characters are giving a big presentation to the leaders of their country. The various heads of state departments, the top tier brass from the military, and of course the Kaiser himself. About eight people altogether, plus another 12 seated in the back (important for the presentation, but not the decision-makers for the country.) For context, this is taking place in a fantasy equivalent to an early 20th century European country, like 1920's. These heads of state probably remember when the light bulb was invented. I know the events of the meeting quite well, and I've imagined the setting very clearly, but while writing one of the scenes just before this a character needed to mention the place where this meeting would be. And that's when I realized I don't know where this room was. What building was it in? What building WOULD it be in? Specifically, I just don't know how someone would casually reference this location. These characters are in an entirely different building somewhere else in the city, and instructing some people to meet them at the location where this meeting will be held (though not mentioning the meeting.) It would either be a prominent capitol building, or a military building in the capital. It would be someplace big officials like this could meet for a private meeting, a secure meeting. I see locations like this all the time in movies and books; various board rooms, council chambers, war rooms, etc, but I don't know where those places are. If you were elsewhere in the city and you told someone to bring something to that location, what building would you be telling them to take it to? I'm not in the military, so I don't know what kind of buildings military people have their meetings in. I don't work in the big G either, so I don't know where someone would have such a meeting, unless it were straight-up at the Prime Minister's home, (which this wouldn't be,) or the equivalent of the Pentagon, (which would be reasonable but the reader wouldn't understand a name like that, and there's no place to explain it to the reader.) I can easily change the location from the country's capital to a military base just outside the capital, so I can use the name for a military building, but it feels like this would be a capitol building of some sort.
I'd say the equivalent of the Pentagon or the White House, be it a military HQ or executive government HQ. Whatever it is, it can be explained to the reader in one sentence. Hell, maybe in one clause.
Alternatively, maybe a different location. As the meeting is restricted to a small number of high-profile people, how about a secluded mountain retreat. e.g., similar to Berghof - Adolf Hitler's Mountain hideaway
I'd say it would be a palace, or the equivalent. Mussolini's headquarters were in the Palazzo Braschi. Kaiser Wilhelm II had a Große Hauptquartier, but it was a name for wherever he placed it. The location of the Große Hauptquartier changed several times. In England, a meeting such as you describe might have taken place at the Parliament, or perhaps at Army headquarters. I was thinking that a place such as Blenheim Palace might be an appropriate location, but apparently Blenheim Palace has always been a private residence. Such a meeting in France might well have taken place at the Parliament.
I kept thinking "the Palace" too, but I don't like it. It sounds too... royal. It sounds like if they were told to go there they should have their jaw drop. I want this to feel more like "oh okay, there's something important going on there," and then when they get there and see who's attending, THEN they realize something big is going down. And moreover, that's how I want the reader to feel, not just the characters. German names never sounded cool again once I started learning German. They pick the most boring and low-tier verbiage you can imagine. But isn't Parliament a public building? Well, semi-public at least. Lots of officials and heads-of-state come and go as they please. I mean sure, they can hold a private meeting in some back room somewhere, but my first impression is that you don't hold secret meetings there. These are good suggestions though, and I am considering them. I don't mean to sound dismissive.
Instead of referencing the building, how about just let the characters mention the room instead? Maybe the equivalent of White House's Oval Office. Readers will assume it's an esoteric important secret location that is well-known enough to the parties involved, and you'll get the effect you're looking for. It's very hard to make a building secret. Most buildings are big and therefore conspicuous from the outside. But get yourself a secret room, and it could be anywhere!
This is the hard part, IMO. Important people like Kaisers generally are only found in a few locations (unless they're traveling), because usually they're important enough that everyone else has to come to them. Everyone also usually knows well in advance when such an important person will be part of a meeting, because nobody wants to be caught unprepared and waste their time (or an opportunity to impress/flatter). And their buildings have whatever the state of the art is in private/secret meeting spaces. Having said that, palaces are big and have big staffs, and lots of working-level grunts are always coming in and out on business, so it might not be as amazing/rare as you think to get invited to a meeting at the palace. Maybe you could reference a specific part of the palace--they're meeting in the gazebo in the formal gardens or in Administrative Annex 14B or whatever--so the attendees assume it's one of those working-level meetings.
The Yalta Conference is a good point of reference. This was a meeting between the Big Three in 1945. It took place in the Livadia Palace in Livadiya, Crimea. Before Soviet times, this was a palace owned by the Russian royal family, and there were a couple of other palaces nearby which were used for the Soviet and British delegates. I've been to the Livadia Palace, and you can find photos online. The important bits of the meeting took place around a round table in a mid-sized room, with the most important people sitting and a few others standing behind them. Livadia Palace is a very beautiful building, but it's just short of dripping with opulence like the Winter Palace in St. Peterburg. For another example, the Berlin Conference which divided up Africa between European colonial powers in the 19th century took place in Otto von Bismarck's personal residence. I can't find much information about it beyond that, but I think we can safely assume given Otto's position in government that this was a palace of some sort. It seems residences of government officials were the go-to in our own history. Keep in mind these are important people who lead tens to hundreds of millions of citizens/subjects, and in many cultures, they would also be used to luxury. If they don't meet in a palace or something similar, they might take offense or otherwise be disappointed. If you want a weirder example, Napoleon and Aleksandr I met on a raft in a middle of the Neman River.
I reread your post a second time and realized you were speaking about a domestic meeting. In that case, most countries have some kind of capital complex with dozens to hundreds of rooms available for meetings of various sizes. A couple examples would be the Pentagon or the White House or the Kremlin. Such complexes also tend to have underground passages so politicians or administrators can come and go discretely. Important meetings nowadays tend to just take place in rather mundane settings, such as a specific room of an administrative office building (the three examples I listed earlier can all fall under this category).
Thank you all for the good advice. If anyone is curious, I would up just saying that the meeting was in the Reichstag Building. It's old enough that it was around at this time, it seems like the kind of place a general might call a meeting at, and I imagine the Kaiser had a lot of meetings there, so I think it works for this story. Because in the context of the conversation they were in the same city but not the same building, so they would need to be told what building to go to. And the meeting location isn't supposed to be a secret; for that matter, the meeting itself isn't "secret" so much as "confidential." For anyone who reads through this thread with a similar question, I thought I would share some additional information I got from my brother, when I asked him where a big meeting would be held on a modern military base (since before I decided on the Reichstag Building, I thought I would move the location to being on a military base instead of just the capital.) He was in the Army and later worked doing security-related things for the military. Apparently Generals just have private conference rooms next to their private offices. This is the Transcript of our conversation: Hey I've got a question for you. I was writing a story, and I've got a military-related question. If there was a big meeting going on at a military base, where would they be meeting? Like if there were a bunch of five-star generals meeting meeting at a regular military base like Hill or something, (as opposed to meeting at the pentagon,) or maybe if the president were there, what kind of place would they be meeting at? Is it an emergency situation or just a meeting? Not an emergency; something that was planned a few days in advance. But now I'm curious how that would impact the answer. Ok then it would be in the conference room of the office of the highest ranking person. So regular business meetings are held there. What building would that be, typically? Headquarter’s building. If it was like a war situation or some sort of emergency then they would go to the Command Post. And do officers have private conferance rooms? I just imagined they would have offices, but this would have too many people to be just an office. What is the Command Post? Yes the commander has an office with their desk but also a conference room table. However it is used for daily activities. If someone important showed up, everyone would be using the big conference room. The command post is kind of like a war room. It is a secure building, not the regular day to day office. It has lots of maps and computers and radios and phones. It has copies of all the emergency action plans for everything important. Hmm, the way I was writing this scene, I wanted the low-ranking characters to think this was some common meeting but then find that the highest-ranking people showed up, so I don't think it would be at the command post. Yup How high rank are the people? Basically the heads of state; not many military but all the major politicians. Hmmmmm So they are meeting a general? How many stars does the General have? I wound up writing it from the POV of a lietenant who can't recognize anyone other than the head honcho. The one who was calling the meeting has three stars. Ok… so a 3 star would have a conference room the size of a basketball court. It would be decorated with a long hallway lined with American flags from the generals office to the conference room. There is enlisted making sure everyone has tables of snacks and coffee and bottled water and stuff. Anyone a general or above will have coasters with military logos on them that match the logos on their seats. They also get two drinks. Most importantly, everyone with a seat at the table has a name tag facing the rest of the room so everyone can read their rank, name and position. The most important people have a seat at the table. Less important people have chairs around the edge of the conference room. Oh crap, name tags on the desk! I should have thought of that. If a bunch of important people walked in the room to surprise everyone, they would be accompanied by military attachés, which would probably be a colonel. They basically make sure the politicians have access. Not so much "to surprise everyone," it's just that I'm writing this from the perspective of someone who doesn't know jack about what's going on, to make it more interesting to the reader, so that the reader doesn't know what's going on.
I was going to suggest the War Room at Raven Rock, Pennsylvania. It’s a DUCC, a deep underground control center, but your story appears to involve more than just personnel from the U.S. and takes place long before Raven's Rock was built. You said the meeting place isn't necessarily a secret but I'm thinking it might enhance your story if it is a secret. Perhaps you could include a riddle that only the attendees could unravel? Or...?
You want "secret"? You expect to have heads of state, cabinet members, military top echelon leaders, all in one room and you expect it to be SECRET? In general, such meetings are almost always conducted in some government facility, and in Europe (as well as in many countries in South America), the only government buildings able to accommodate such an enterprise are former palaces.
