Kaiserreich: Marsch der Feldgrauen

Imagine this as the extension of the HOI4 mod Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg as a German victory scenario. A socialist West and an ultranationalist East as the enemies in WWII. Nation: German Empire (*Deutsches Reich*) Year: 1960 Party: German National Unity Front (DNEF) Currency: Euromark (ℳ) Faction: Europäischer Kollektiver Sicherheitspakt (EKSP) Area: around 544,000 km² (German proper) + 110,000 km² (Baltic Free State) Population: around 85 million Royal Anthem: Heil dir im Siegerkranz Unofficial Anthem: Die Wacht am Rhein Kaiser: Wilhelm IV Imperial Chancellor: Walther Wenck Schleicher’s Prewar Chancellorship: Black Monday (Berlin Stock Market Crash) in February 1936 with the resignation of Herbert von Dirksen and appointment of Siegfried von Roedern as an interim Reichskanzler. Electoral deadlock, followed by the appointment of Schleicher by Wilhelm II. In June 1936, the Ruhrkampf (general strike) would rise in response to the economic collapse, the past suppression of socialist movements, and the weakness of the central government. Five months amidst stagnant conditions, in November 1936, a socialist insurgency would illegally seize the Brunswick government during the Duke’s vacation absence. This would scare the Reichstag and allow Schleicher to pass the Enabling Act to crush the Brunswick Revolution, marking the first use of the Reichsexekution in the Empire’s history. After the Enabling Act, Schleicher would begin his vision of the Die Neuen Staates: trade unions organised into the Gewerkschaftsbund with compulsory union membership, the nationalisation and merger of railroads into the Deutsche Reichsbahn, Heer liaisons posted to state governments to cooperate policy in favour of the central government, and the nationalisation of the Prussian Secret Police and authorisation over the whole of the Empire. Schleicher's pinnacle accomplishment was the mediatisation (territorial restructuring) of Prussia. The Reichsland-Lösung had the state government abolished and administered directly by the Imperial Government. In response to further centralisation efforts and fearing loss of autonomy, the Kingdom of Bavaria would declare its unrecognition of the Enabling Act and refusal to enforce such laws. This would be taken to the Bundesrat on whether the states would vote in favour of the Imperial government or Bavaria. Ultimately, the Bavarian Nullification Crisis would be defeated by being outvoted through ostensibly parliamentarian means. The resulting Reichsexekution would put Bavaria under a Berlin-friendly Staatskommissar. With Schleicher’s rule secured, the Wehrmacht would be founded, laying the foundations of the German military in the future. Formation of the Deutschnationale Einheitsfront (DNEF) made by Schleicher’s careful consensus-building by co-opting mass politics and incorporating all compatible ideologies into a single political order, known as *Querfront*.

1939-1945: WWII, waged defensively to preserve the German order. Allies:

• German Empire (Kurt von Schleicher and Wilhelm II/Wilhelm III)
• United States of Greater Austria (Karl I) Enemies:
• Russian State (Boris Savinkov)
• Federation of French Communes (Benoît Frachon)
• Commonwealth of Britain (Oswald Mosley)

First started by Operation Groza on Christmas Eve of 1939 by the Russian State. Large-scale Russian tank offensives would sweep through the Baltic theatre. Upon the successful operation across the Daugava and to Riga, the Baltdeutsche-led apartheid United Baltic Duchy would be occupied and the Russians would organise Latvian and Estonian republics under collaborationists. Ukraine, Belarus, and Finland would bear the brunt of heavy fire, while Georgia and Azerbaijan would soon face imminent capitulation. The Western Front led by the Federation of French Communes would begin in February 1940 when Belgian workers began a general strike in Liège, in which German authorities swiftly crushed it, fearing violent escalation. Such hasty brutality of the reprisal prompted a casus belli by the French with the demand of Alsace-Lorraine. This would plunge Germany into a two-front war yet again between the Third Internationale in the west and Russia in the east. The following war saw swift advances by Communard forces, crossing the Rhine in the south in a little less than a month. A surprise naval invasion by the Commonwealth of Britain was launched into the then-neutral Netherlands after the Kaiserliche Marine was routed in the North Sea, successfully encircling hundreds of thousands of German/Belgian troops in Belgium. The war had been brutal, especially within the urban areas of the Rhineland and the Lowlands. Cities such as Frankfurt am Main and the Ruhr were devastated sites of protracted struggle, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides. Köln, previously the hotspot of the Ruhrkampf, had been overrun with the aid of collaborationists such as the Roter Frontkämpferbund. After the bloody liberation of German territories and the final push into France, much of the Rhineland had been placed under several months of martial law with the expressed purpose of purging every element of syndicalist thought. Hundreds of executions and imprisonments for treason during war and postwar alongside the effective disenfranchisement of thousands more for suspected collaboration with foreign spies, advocacy for government policies on the verge of sedition, anti-patriotic agitation, and pacifism.

Denmark prior to WWII elected a social democratic government and Christian X would later abdicate in 1941. Germany, who had been pressuring Denmark for military access, was outraged and declared war when the new Republic of Denmark under Thorvald Stauning negotiated treaties with the Third Internationale. Denmark would surrender in only six hours and accepted a peace and transition to a pro-German government with the Danish military, railways, and seaports under German control for the duration of the war. The Norwegian Socialist Republic, which had a socialist revolution prior to WWII and was part of the Third Internationale, was the battlefield for the Nordic front between the Commonwealth of Britain and Germany/Sweden. Postwar, Otto Ruge was placed as regent with the king returning in 1946. As of today, Norway remains a military junta with an aging dictator. Denmark would restore the monarchy under Frederik IX. The Kingdom of Sweden today maintains close ties in the Europabund and friendly relations with Germany, but withdrew into neutrality.

Serbia and Romania would side with Russia and start a war against the United States of Greater Austria, marking Austria's entry into the Reichspakt. The Russian operation would ultimately stall at the Siege of Königsberg, long under blockade for more than a year, and the Battle of Warsaw. Polish forces would be instrumental in the “Miracle on the Vistula” as in their successful counterattack, hundreds of thousand of Russian soldiers would be encircled in Warsaw. Though much of the capital had been in ruin as a result, this would cripple any further Russian offensive capabilities for the remainder of the Eastern Front. With the Reichspakt war machine fully roaring and in cooperation with organised Ukrainian/Belarusian partisans, the Russian State would be completely expelled out of the Oststaaten and Moscow would be occupied in November 1944. Boris Savinkov, unable to retreat before the Reichspakt encircled the capital, took his own life and died via a self-inflicted gunshot. The remnants of the Russian Army would be forced to retreat to the frozen taigas behind the A-A Line. The Treaty of Moscow would be signed between the Free Russian collaborators and Germany—creating the Russian Democratic Federative Republic or “Free Russia”—and hostilities between the Russian State and the Reichspakt would ultimately end with an armistice. Though politically and militarily independent by the reality of its large size (despite its truncated state) and the lingering remnants of the Svobodniks east of the A-A, it must abide by the economic stipulations of the Treaty of Moscow (which often forces many pieces of legislation to undergo endless revisions for compliance’s sake), recognise the redrawn borders west of it, and allow the stationing of German troops within the Republic. A new nation would be created in the North Caucasus as reward for the local collaborators, the Mountain Republic. Free Russia would remain as an independent nation (albeit under the economic influence of the Europabund and unequal treaties) as a buffer against the rump Svobodnik state. The remnants of the Russian State would reorganise as the Russian National Redemption State (RNRS) under Maksimilian Filonenko.

The Commonwealth of Britain would be the last belligerent power. Despite years of fighting and the unconditional surrender of France, Oswald Mosley declared that he will never surrender, believing the island will hold out indefinitely and exhaust the belligerents into a peace. However, a nuclear strike onto Scapa Flow—dubbed the Scapa Explosion—heavily shook the government, believing such continuation will lead to the decimation of the British population. Mosley was subsequently ousted in a coup. However, much of the population was thoroughly demoralised at this point with the state nearing total internal collapse. The government again attempted peace negotiations, hoping they would be satisfied with a republican Britain, though it bore fruitless. In the closing months of the war, Operation Sealion would commence by Canadian, exiled British, and supporting German troops. Following the postwar order, it was agreed that the restored United Kingdom of Great Britain would relinquish any claim to Northern Ireland, agree that the Anglo-German Condominiums lost from the 1925 British Revolution would remain under German authority, and that it would be allowed to remain independent of Berlin.

Though the DNEF had claimed to have brought profound unity and shared victory to all of German society, it had only truly lasted for the duration of the Reich’s existential struggle. Now with its external threats safely neutralised and peacetime once again settling after returning to ostensible demobilised rule, complacency, old rivalries, and institutional decay creeped in, blinded by their own entitlement of hard-earned victories. The attempt of a country-wide big tent movement—which would ideally amalgamate into a united corporatist organisation—had only worsened factionalism within the Imperial Government due to a lack of shared transcendent values beyond material interest and power accruement. Though divisions into parliamentary groups or partisan affiliations were officially prohibited, informal groupings had already begun to form into establishment militarists, conservatives, technocrats, and even reformists, Strasserites, and fringe völkisch ideologues.

Kurt von Schleicher had a long battle with pernicious anemia since its diagnosis in 1930 which was, at the time, only known with his closest associates. Still, with the best medicine the Reich could provide, he managed the sickness and staved off its symptoms during his ascension into Chancellorship and tenure. His health approached terminal decline in the 1940s which was accelerated both by the demands of wartime rule and his efforts to lay the transformative foundations for the Wehrstaat. During that time, he gradually delegated the powers and duties of Chancellery to his right-hand man, Ferdinand von Bredow, while remaining as the head of state. When Schleicher ultimately passed away in late 1944, the penultimate year of WWII, Bredow would succeed the role of Chancellery to continue the war effort and formalise the control over the inherited state apparatus Schleicher had previously set up.

Following the conclusion of WWII, Bredow would cement his rule under continued emergency rule under the Enabling Act made permanent and marital law with the pretense of ensuring a steady transition towards reconstruction. Under his tenure, Bredow would dutifully fulfill Schleicher’s vision of the “Neuer Staat,” with many of these restructurings of the constitutional framework already in partial completion and in draft during Schleicher’s wartime tenure, only needing to be fully enacted by his associated jurists (Carl Schmitt, Hans Luther, Wilhelm von Gayl) and his successor: The centralisation of the Reich with the disbandment of the Bundesrat and replacement with the Ständekammer, the official declaration of the Wehrstaat through the Schleicher Constitution, institutionalisation of military influence and autonomy, and politicisation of the police and military.

Further developments by the Bredowist regime: expansion of domestic security and surveillance by consolidating counterintelligence agencies, systemic purge of suspected communist elements, reorganising Mitteleuropa into the Europabund and reorganising the military alliance—once the Reichspakt—into the Europäischer Kollektive Sicherheitspakt, and the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Thuringia. Though effective in implementing the long-awaited political system for the military elites, Bredow had drawn some ire due to his autocratic streaks, confrontational foreign policy, and his favouritism towards the reactionary class. Though Bredow was initially unopposed by the upper echelons of the DNEF, the latter half of his rule after the completion of the Schleicher Constitution was characterised as a backward-looking aristocrat surrounded by the elitist old guard committed to preserving the old power structures.

In 1951, the Free Russian Republic chose to continue anti-Cossack policies and the North Caucasus would be embroiled in large-scale riots after the first shots were fired by the Free Russians. Bredow would personally authorise an intervention, siding with the Cossack separatists rather than Moscow. The result would lead to a significant carving into Russian territory, creating four new states: the Don Cossack Republic, the Terek Host, the State of Kalmykia, and the Ural Host all as EKSP members. This decision—though popular with the expansionists, anti-Russian hawks, and the Ukrainian government—had convinced many within the DNEF that Bredow was now an erratic liability for steering Germany as a geopolitical antagonist, empowering the Grenztruppen as an autonomous paramilitary force, and bypassing consultation/approval of the central government. The schism regarding foreign policy threatened to dissolve the DNEF.

In 1952, a group of conspirators would gather under the “Pragmatiker” clique sponsoring war hero Walther Wenck as the leading figure, coalescing support by covertly swaying Bredow’s close associates, organising the favour of corporate oligarchs who held grievances amidst economic stagnation, downwardly-mobile elites demanding “meritocracy,” and the military/political establishment who grew uncertain of the Bredowist rule. In the summer, Bredow was summoned back to Berlin from his vacation in Courland. A bloodless and carefully orchestrated palace coup was launched and forced him into retirement from all civilian and military duties, officially citing advanced age and poor health as the reasons. Though Bredow initially fought back, once he saw his former allies turn on him, he recognised the inevitability of his sudden isolation and reluctantly capitulated to the “resignation.” Bredow’s main failure was his lack of calculated participation in the “shadow” politics, failure to cultivate personal loyalty, and consolidate power around a clique. They saw Bredow as an architect of the Wehrstaat, but not its owner. His policies ended up empowering the ones who would eventually replace him. The conspirators installed Wenck as the new Reichskanzler, known as a man with a “Herz aus Eisen.” The Reich's guiding ideologies of state corporatism, authoritarian militarism, and “non-ideological” technocracy continues, albeit under a looser and more adaptable regime now purged of its excessive wartime bureaucracy. Much of the radical right and völkisch ideologues had now been sidelined and effectively exiled due to their unpredictability and disagreeableness.

<United_States_of_Greater_Austria> Post-WWI, Karl I would devolve Cisleithania into crownlands alongside sweeping reforms to ensure the empire's survival towards modernity. The interwar era marked a significant transformation of the Empire as a whole. The Berlin Stock Market Crash ending obstructionist elements opposed to federalisation, particularly in Hungary. Agreed referendum and secession of Galicia and Lodomeria to Poland (Kraków and Lwów) and Ukraine (Stanyslaviv, later renamed Ivano-Frankivsk). Ausgleich re-negotiations (Balaton Congress) in 1938. On December 31, 1939, the people of Austria-Hungary entered the new era as citizens of the United States of Greater Austria. Under Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, the ideology of pan-Europeanism would be implemented as a federation of European states roughly delineated along ethnic lines. Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek are some of the most influential economists in Vienna.

The United States of Greater Austria was proclaimed on 1 January 1940, a federal compromise meant to save the Habsburg realm by turning its peoples into Nation-States with their own Landtage, bound together by a single Reichsrat and crown. WWII tested the Union immediately; a wartime coalition of Conservatives and National Liberals kept Vienna functional as a Serbian-led Balkan Pact invasion forced a southern war, ending in Austrian victory and military administrations in occupied Serbia and Montenegro. The war was won, but the Joint Army that was meant to embody unity revealed early cracks in cohesion, logistics, and political staffing, problems quietly filed away rather than solved. The once-troublesome Serbia is now finally pacified and put under a firm heel. Vienna is tasked to create a brand new government from the ground up as literally none of the pre-existing Serbian parties wanted to collaborate.

Peace brought paralysis instead of relief. The wartime coalition shattered, the 1945 election produced a hung Reichsrat, and reforms meant to break deadlock lowered the threshold and strengthened regional and national representation, unleashing a wave of nationality parties that learned to veto Vienna without taking responsibility for it. In 1946 Karl died, and Otto took the throne as Kaiser Franz Joseph II, inheriting a federation whose politics were increasingly defined by bargaining and obstruction. Reconstruction revived the economy, but the Union Construction Fund and later equalisation schemes became patronage battlegrounds, while the Language Reform Act multiplied paperwork and the Joint Army Quota Act entrenched proportionality in the officer corps.

By the mid-1950s, budgets bogged down, provisional extensions became routine, Landtage pushed the limits of federal authority, and the Reichsrat procedure turned into a weapon. The 1956 election forced Franz Joseph II to press CS (Christlichsoziale Parties), SDAP (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei), and NLP (Nationalliberale Partei) into the fragile “Coalition of the Unable,” a government too weak to reform what everyone admits is drifting. Abroad, the Union is praised as stable and moderate, but inside, reforms die in committee, trust erodes, and the Joint Army's troubles remain classified, for now.

“24. The Federal Government guarantees to the nation-states their territory, their right for self-determination, their own institutions outlined by their special nation-state constitution, and their right to assemble inter-nation-state cooperative committees insofar as this is not restricted by the Federal Constitution, and their special nation-state constitutions.”

Unity, in the United States of Greater Austria, comes at a price and that price is paid in paperwork. The Federation's labyrinthine bureaucracy is so hopelessly entangled that its continued operation borders on the miraculous. Vienna prides itself on having solved the Empire's old ethnic question by constitutional decree. Every group, large or small, has its voice, its committee, its council, and naturally, its veto. The bureaucrats see this as a triumph of enlightened governance, a model of harmony amidst diversity. In practice, however, the machine grinds forward at a glacial pace. Every proposal must pass through a maze of commissions, councils, and subcommittees; every reform must please a dozen national governments and the Federal Senate alike. To outsiders it may look like a well-oiled federal apparatus - but those within know the truth: the empire's greatest unifying force is red tape.

The current Minister-President of Großösterreich is Alfons Gorbach of the CS. Notable economists are Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek.

Austro-German relations in the EKSP are ambivalent and pragmatic. Vienna fiercely maintains an independent military command fearing “pan-Germanic” domination dictating their foreign policy, domestic unrest from the non-German Nation-States, and maximal autonomy needed to develop their pan-European project. They also have their own nuclear deterrent.

Sixteen Constituent Nation-States

• German Austria (Wien)
• German Bohemia (Reichenberg)
• German Moravia (Troppau)
• Bohemia (Prag)
• Trentino (Trento)
• Carniola (Laibach)
• Trieste (Triest)
• Croatia (Zagreb)
• Bosnia (Sarajevo) (Illyrian Autonomy)
• Slovakia (Preßburg)
• Transcarpathia (Ungwar)
• Hungary (Budapest)
• Transylvania (Temeschburg)
• Klausenburg (Klausenburg)
• Szeklerland (Neumarkt)
• Vojvodina (Neusatz) </United_States_of_Greater_Austria>

<Mittelafrika_Colonial_Federation> The Reich's crown jewel, a massive resource extraction colony prized for its vast mineral deposits discovered after WWII and its land. The discovery of such resources such as cobalt led to heavy investments into its security infrastructure with significant German presence, both to deter decolonial movements funded by adversarial powers overseas and to keep the colonial federation from fraying under the Reich's firm grip. Mittelafrika is not valued so much for its natives, thought by the German elites emerging from the Wehrstaat to be incapable of achieving the same levels of civilisation as Europe. Such racial differences at a biological level means there's no thought the Africans could be Germanised in any meaningful way.

The Nachtigal Weltraumzentrum, named after Gustav Nachtigal. Initially, the creation of a spaceport in Zanzibar baffled many of the colonial elite. However, it proved to be an ideal location for these reasons: close proximity towards the equator, its isolation and distance from the metropole an optimal environment to protect its secrets from sabotages and leaks, and ease of logistics with the richest deposits of mineral wealth in all of the world—cobalt, copper, silver, and gold—feeding the space program. The leading German scientists are Wernher von Braun, Walter Thiel, and Helmut Gröttrup. The space program is an EKSP project which also includes a lot of Ukrainians such as Serhii Koroliov, Valentyn Hlushko, and Volodymyr Chelomey.

Freistaat Südwestafrika, under Governor-General Hellmut von Leipzig, is an explicit German settler-colonial state in Africa with all of its former indigenous population practically cleared out of its borders. Frankly, it's mostly a giant and empty desert, but the thought of an all-German territory right in the dark continent makes up for its prestige.

Nigeria, Kenya, and Northern Rhodesia are Anglo-German Condominiums, meaning they retain their British colonial administrations yet are part of Mittelafrika. </Mittelafrika_Colonial_Federation>

* Kingdom of Poland * Kingdom of Lithuania * Belarusian National Republic * Hetmanate of Ukraine * Kingdom of Finland * Mountain Republic * Kingdom of Georgia * Don Cossack Republic * State of Kalmykia * Ural Host * Terek Host * Kingdom of Georgia * Republic of Azerbaijan

The demographics of the Eastern Europe states are defined by heterogeneity, pluralism, and blurry cross-border populations that existed before the founding of their nation-states during Brest-Litovsk. For example, the Ukrainian government practices territorial patriotism due to its many minorities, especially after its eastward expansion post-WWII to encompass the entire coast of the Sea of Azov. Ukraine has Russian, Crimean Tatar, Yiddish, Belarusian, and Polish as minority languages. Finland has Karelian and Russian minorities after the annexation of eastern Karelia post-WWII. Eastern Jews or the Ostjuden are also a significant minority. Potential ethnic tensions and hypothetical Russian revanchism are both a headache and a leverage for Germany to act as an arbiter for the Oststaaten.

<Baltic_Free_State> The Germanisation of the Baltics was a long-awaited imperial ambition ever since its control in WWI. During the interwar, it had been in an unclear limbo with awkward half-measures given the political situation back in the metropole entertaining parliamentary politics and the southern Catholic states protesting Prussian expansion. Now with the Wehrstaat fully in control, our will hardened, and our reconquest of the once-United Baltic Duchy imbued with such eagerness given the widespread levels of destruction from “reckless collateral damage,” “anti-partisan measures,” and “necessary reprisals in response to mass collaboration under Russian occupation” (read: war crimes), the once-flattened villages and entire displacements of people created a perfect opportunity to colonise newly-emptied farms with German settlers to directly integrate it into the Reich!

The Duchy had fallen, the former duke Adolf Friedrich was forced to abdicate for the Kaiser, and the lands of the Teutons back under control were now directly annexed as Free States, nominally a part of the German Empire yet governed with de facto autonomy. Courland—the crown jewel once majority Latvian (most of whom were landless labourers living in a pseudo-feudal state by the Reich’s official narrative)—and Riga—once a plurality—had become comfortably German thanks to our settlement and colonial programmes. An agreement was also reached with the Free Russian Republic to allow displaced Volga Germans to resettle in the Baltics. The Baltic frontier shall be filled with a vigorous and solid demographic of German farmers to act as a foundation for future Germanisation. The Forest Brothers, once a major thorn in the ‘50s with their insurgencies, are now safely pacified by the Baltische Landeswehr through both ethnic cleansing and population transfers. The fate of the Latvians and Estonians is that they are either forcibly relocated to what are basically glorified reservations off the good lands—reminiscent of Native Americans—or made to flee elsewhere (mostly Free Russia or overseas) as diaspora. For this reason, there is now a Baltic People’s Party in Russia.

Lithuania fell under Russian collaborationists during WWII similar to the United Baltic Duchy. Postwar, it was reestablished with Vytautas II, albeit with heavy German presence and supervision. The Sicherheitskrat wishes to formally annex it for “security reasons,” while the Völkischer wishes to fully incorporate and Germanise it. </Baltic_Free_State>

<Free_Russia> Also known as the Russian Democratic Federative Republic. Not part of the EKSP, though a nominal member of the Europabund through the Treaty of Moscow. Rumours abound that they seek to annul the Treaty, decouple from the euromark to readopt the ruble, break the German chains binding them, and ignite a Reunification War to the east to reunify Russia on their own accord. As of now, Germany appears strong and vigilant on the surface, but for how long?

The Reunification War is a hypothetical future war between Free Russia and the RNRS regarding who shall rule the whole of Russia from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific. Ideally, the Treaty of Moscow is meant to prevent that without German authorisation. </Free_Russia>

Philippe Pétain collaborated with the Germans during WWII, leading an exiled government from Algiers against the Communards. After the reclamation and the Treaty of Paris returning the French mainland from German occupation, Pétain would rule until his death until 1951, where he would be succeeded by Charles Huntziger. Eventually, Huntziger—due to his bad political skills—would be outmaneuvered and ousted by politicians united in ending the military junta. Thus, it transitioned from the French State to the French Republic (its current and official name). The political situation there is that the government is ruled by a gentleman's agreement between factions and writing out the constitution itself is still being debated. They pridefully maintain the franc, being a “great power” with what remains of French Africa still under their rule.

<government_structure> Legislature: Bicameral Upper House: Ständekammer Lower House: Reichstag Additional states since the initial unification:

• Grand Duchy of Luxemburg (united with the Fatherland after a referendum in 1920)
• Grand Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine (successor of the former Reichsland after the March Constitution in 1920)
• Grand Duchy of Thuringia (unification after the Schleicher Constitution in 1945)
• Reichsländer under a Personal Union: Courland, Riga, Livonia, Estonia (Baltic Free State established 1945)

The Ständekammer represents the ideological thought of corporatism and Prussian centralism in its modern iteration. It is a council of national interests that holds 500 representatives from local governments, associations, unions (such as the Gewerkschaftsbund), and corporations. Federalism and “states’ rights” were but compromises of necessity during the times of the North German Confederation, now finally swept away when the Bundesrat was replaced in 1945. For some, it is the long-awaited realisation of national efficiency, nonpartisan unity, end of parliamentary division, and the complete unification of Germany. For others, it is the face of the Reich’s gradual degeneration into corruption and nepotism, bloated by careerists and sycophants, along with the leveling nature of totalisation and standardisation. Prussia was mediatised with its independent government abolished and its territory came under direct control of the central government as part of the all-imperial Reichsländer. Other states were allowed to keep their local governments, though its territory operated as semi-Reichsländer where ideally its governors cooperated with Berlin. Their state governments were replaced by Staatskommissare, and even Prussia itself was subsumed into the central authority. The monarchical dynasties were preserved with their properties and titles as ceremonial figureheads for legitimacy and historical continuation. The kingdoms, duchies, and principalities that once were are now ruled from the Imperial Government.

Despite the centralists winning in taking power in Berlin and implementing their radical restructuring postwar, there still exists a significant number of federalists and regionalists whose other qualities rendered them just as indispensable to be tasked with governance. One example is Bavaria’s legal resistance against attempts of Gleichschaltung through civil service by stalling with pedantic legalism and arguments with the Heer liaisons over jurisdiction. After over a decade later, the Imperial Government under Wenck had finally withdrawn. The renegotiation of Bavaria into an autonomous region under Staatskommissar Franz Josef Strauss and King Albrecht I represents a concession to maintain state unity, conceding defeat to administrative inertia by restoration, and keeping the Bavarians content. The nostalgia of federalism remains sidelined and marginalised in favour of a more theoretically “efficient” administration despite the realities of bureaucratic friction and enduring regional identities. With every German resting on the laurels of narrative victory combined with a vindicated Spießbürgertum dotted with regional angst from enforced Prussian centralisation, one could say it’s degenerating to no end as Prussian elites attempt to restructure the state towards administrative unity while grinding against the petty regionalism of civil servants.

The current mayor of Berlin is Albert Speer, appointed in 1958. Once seen as the younger rival of Walter Gropius during the interwar, Speer successfully managed to gain undivided favour from the incumbent Schleicher cabinet by impressing them with his architectural skills. His war contribution was coordinating the industrial evacuation of the Ruhr from Communard advances and reorganising the Western Front transportation system. Postwar, he designed numerous victory monuments across the Reich dedicated to both World Wars, including several in Berlin. As mayor, he intends to see his highly ambitious and grandiose “Volkshalle” project come to fruition.

Posen and West Prussia have a Polish cultural/linguistic autonomy exempt from Germanisation. Still, Prussian Poles have official minority representation from the absorbed Polish Party and their continued existence is subject to the pragmatic goodwill of the regime and upholding good relations with the Oststaat Kingdom of Poland. Poles make up around 5% of the Reich's population or more than 4 million, making it its largest minority.

The Grand Duchy of Alsace-Lorraine is under the Wittelsbach dynasty. It was enlarged post-WWI with Belfort and the Longwy-Briey basin.

The Reichstag essentially functions as a rubber stamp for the powers that be. </government_structure>

Wilhelm II (1888-1941): Upon his ascension to the throne in 1888, Wilhelm II steered the German Empire in a radically new direction with the dismissal of Bismarck for the “place in the sun.” His often irrational and unpredictable behavior undermined diplomatic relations, increasingly isolating Germany internationally and ultimately contributing to the outbreak of WWI. Over the course of the war, he and the civilian government gradually lost control to the all-powerful OHL. In early 1920 after the settlement of WWI's aftermath, he unexpectedly allied with the civilian government and the Reichstag to bring down Ludendorff. This succeeded at the cost of introduction of the March Constitution. To Wilhelm II, this significantly curtailed his authority, transforming him into a monarch largely dependent on the parliament for decision-making. Though he initially used this event to regain influence, he eventually became disillusioned with the new political order and withdrew from active politics, focusing on ceremonial duties and leaving most decisions to his chancellors. In one attempt to assert his authority in 1934, largely orchestrated by the Crown Prince, Wilhelm II appointed Reichskanzler Herbert von Dirksen, a known yes-man of the Imperial family in an attempt to reassert imperial control. This move proved largely ineffective, leading to a deadlocked government and another needed appointment in 1936 of Kurt von Schleicher. This move would be considered the last substantial intervention in politics by the Kaiser. Wilhelm II's legacy is defined by his vindication of his policies, once questioned as reckless, and prescience of Germany as a world power against the prudence of Bismarck. He passed away in 1941 from a pulmonary embolism, during the height of WWII.

Wilhelm III (1941-1951): Though he had reigned over the era of a victorious second World War and the following period of austerity and reconstruction, Wilhelm III's personal legacy is unfortunately viewed as being a divisive and unpopular figure, whose meddlesome personality, playboy attitude, and breach of royal etiquette by commenting on far-right politics had to be kept subdued by the Wehrstaat for the sake of the Crown's reputation. Following the postwar era, the Kaiser's role had now been finalised as the symbolic image of monarchical continuity: a figurehead. He passed away in 1951 from a heart attack.

Wilhelm IV (1951-): Wilhelm Friedrich Franz Joseph Christian Olaf. Born in 1906, WWI had passed by him when he was a child, and so he grew up and gained an education in a modern Reich. Having served with distinction on the Western Front in WWII as a Hauptmann, Wilhelm IV represents the respectable and handsome face of the German Empire: a modern Hohenzollern able to transcend rigid class boundaries and his vows to not to repeat the mistakes of his father and grandfather. His marriage with Dorothea von Salviati in 1933 had caused a major scandal due to her being a member of minor nobility. Eventually, Wilhelm II recognised the marriage as dynastic. He often engages with the German people of all kinds through frequent events and thus has gained genuine popularity. His relationship with the Wehrstaat is that he wishes to be more included and assertive beyond his gilded cage of a figurehead position, though given the institutional realities it wouldn't be possible. Reichskanzler Wenck often uses the Kaiser as the diplomatic face of the Reich and the Europabund. Both of Wilhelm IV's children are daughters (Felicitas and Christa), and the couple could no longer conceive afterwards. His younger brother Louis Ferdinand is considered heir presumptive if the Salic law remains as it is.

All of the acceptable political factions support the continuation of the monarchy, yet they have no interest in giving power to the Kaiser himself. Monarchism as an ideology is functionally dead.

The Wehrmacht is the unified armed forces of the German Empire. The service branches are divided into the Heer, the Luftstreitkräfte, and the Kaiserliche Marine. Postwar, the Heer was officially centralised with the abolishment of the Bavarian, Saxon and Württemberger armies in 1945 (though regionalism still strongly persists). Seen as the backbone of the Prussian soul and of the German nation, its social prestige had been virtually enshrined through its “mandate of victories” in the World Wars and further cemented through various institutions post-WWII. The Schleicher Constitution contains an infamous clause that allows the Großer Generalstab to veto a cabinet member’s appointment, thus giving the military immense amount of control over civilian policy. As such, the government and the military had intertwined and became inseparable into this draconian bureaucracy that it is today. Domestic and international observers dub this German government the “Shogunate,” given many of its detractors view it as a glorified military dictatorship with a puppet emperor. Though the Wehrstaat had demobilised and transitioned into civilian rule 15 years after the war, much of its guiding forces are shaped by its legacy. In theory, if they feel a policy will squander the two blood-soaked victories of the Reich, once to realise its Place in the Sun and another to utterly cement it against resurgent powers, they will veto it. But in practice, the Wehrmacht is of course not a monolithic political entity due to the founding nature of the Wehrstaat: pragmatic and non-ideological. It is rife with factionalism, petty corruption, divided political beliefs, and especially the generation gap pertaining to the old guard’s aristocratic attitudes in comparison to the emerging class of young officers.

<Nuclear_Status> Nuclear weapons were produced by the Uranprojekt headed by notable physicists such as Otto Hahn, Georg Joos, Walther Bothe, and Werner Heisenberg. One atomic bomb was used over Scapa Flow to obliterate the Republican fleet. Heeding to the postwar warnings against the perils of such weapons of mass destruction on the environment and humanity as a whole, its potential reckless usage in the future, and for the promotion of geopolitical stability, it led to the promulgation of the 1952 Paris Atomic Treaty to prevent a nuclear arms race. It states the legal limit of 20 kilotons of TNT equivalent, the required warning to the targeted nation prior to the attack, and detonation to be above ground to minimise radioactive fallout. This is enforced globally, including on the signatories themselves. The Atomic Age is approached not with frightful world-shattering implications, but with self-assured old-fashioned prudence. Though many are rightfully wary of the idea of the upcoming nuclear era, so did the people of the 16th century when gunpowder was revolutionised. The threshold was crossed. To command mastery over technology is where one controls it. Nuclear research is currently directed towards civilian usage, such as the development of nuclear reactors in hopes of ushering in a new age of near-limitless power for all of humanity! </Nuclear_Status>

<Reactionary_Modernism> Though the Wehrstaat and the DNEF explicitly presents itself as apolitical and non-ideological, an observed ideology can be described to it. A syncretic ideology born out of the Conservative Revolution and forged in the industrial onslaughts of the World Wars, it was first given definition by political theorists Carl Schmitt and Carl Jung. It is not explicit orthodoxy, but it is more so the articulation of Germany's overall civilisational arc and how it will adapt into modernity. The foundations were built on a pragmatic, total Wehrstaat specifically mobilised for WWII, where all Germans regardless of class and religion were united, albeit temporarily, against an external existential threat. They had sold their liberties, their principles, and their traditions for the promise of Endsieg, and it was delivered. Having achieved its purpose, the citizens of the new Reich now fall under the postwar order as the military-industrial complex and centralism took hold. However, there are still a lot of common beliefs and values accepted as normal here, enough to define what is considered “Reactionary Modernism” despite the regime initially presenting itself as pragmatic and non-ideological.

It is primarily defined by great enthusiasm in embracing modern technology, a right-wing cultural outlook, and rooted upon “timeless civilisational virtues” based on hierarchy, order, and duty. Its dynamism is predicated on the soul of the national culture, rejecting both conservative stagnation and revolutionary deconstruction. To adapt to modernity, it aims to reconstruct society if necessary and shape humanity itself into the heroic image of the “New Man.” In practice, it is employed in an authoritarian, paternalistic regime, in this case forged by the crucible of total war in the ascendent Kaiserreich and imbued with a grandiose, unifying narrative. From the Holy Roman Empire, the Ostsiedlung, the Kingdom of Prussia with Old Fritz, to the unification of Germany under Bismarck, the Weltpolitik of Wilhelm II, the tenure under Chancellor Schleicher and transformation into the Wehrstaat is seen as the logical evolution of Germany’s Sonderweg. </Reactionary_Modernism>

<Deutschtümelei> This pejorative was used to describe a certain strain of German nationalism after the unification of Germany in the 19th century, one that is kitschy, self-aggrandising, parochial, and Reich-oriented. This observed cultural pathology would continue to metastasise as Prussian entitlement and military victories had led to an unchecked cycle of cocksure excess and material pomp. The DNEF had led the people to their “Endsieg” after WWII, and its existence justifies itself as the only political entity capable of delivering future victories. Power is a means to itself, though perverted as state sovereignty rather than individual agency. Nationalism became a political tool for channeling and controlling the masses. Its homogenising force, combined with centralism and the burdens of being a world power, would pave over “inefficient” particularities to form a civically unified and cohesive imperial core aligned with the Reich’s directives. The embedding of the Reich into all formal social organisations such as the Gewerkschaftbund effectively creates a society of functionaries plugged into its vast network. Thus, the Reich, as the omnipresent arbiter of social connections, defines what is acceptable German behaviour. Experimental and avant-garde expressions are often ignored in favour of state-approved heroic realism and Speerist architecture.

Modern German culture would no longer be defined by the artists and thinkers of the Holy Roman Empire (though the Reich will co-opt such history into its national mythos), but as organisational-administrative cultural superiority on how humanity should be governed. Its last loss was from Napoleon more than a century ago. Efficiency, material and technological supremacy as seen in the Space Race, German-based hierarchical order, rule-following, and discipline define German national character. The structure of the Europabund, the Oststaaten, and Mittelafrika holds Germany as the hegemon and thus necessitates a belief of superiority to maintain its leading position. The colonisation of the United Baltic Duchy would be the most egregious expression of this Deutschtümelei. Perhaps in its self-anointed role as the steward of Europe and bearer of civilisational stability, it could also be seen as stifling Europe's dynamism and vitality by installing German order as “rightful,” thus suffocating what it had sought to protect. Perhaps it is a defensive reaction—vindicated by its own victory that only it can restore order and traumatised by a second continental raze with another generation of young men decimated. “Deutschland, Deutschland über alles!”

In short, an extreme superiority complex and sense of exceptionalism. This, of course, has a weakness in basing one's worth in victory, for the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Repeated failures in foreign policy and losses in proxy wars are potent fuel for left-wing dissidents (like the underground SPD) that could end up contributing to a potential revolution in the future! </Deutschtümelei>

<Status_of_Jews> The Jewish Question had been answered by the Verband nationaldeutscher Juden promoted by Bredow’s regime, that being the total assimilation of German Jews, voluntary self-erasure of distinctness in favour of loyalty to the German nation-state (rejecting both rootless cosmopolitanism and Zionism), and the exclusion of the Ostjuden due to their “inferiority” and non-German Jewishness. Jews were mandated into German national schools, VnJ membership made compulsory, and taxes were drastically increased for Jews who hold office in business and politics compared to non-Jews of similar standing. Intermarriage rates had continued to rise with Jewish-descent citizens deliberately shedding their cultural markers to adopt a new fully German identity and the Reich undermining any potential “Jewish networks,” whether informal or perceived as having too many Jews in close proximity.

However, particular blood-and-soil völkisch ideologues argue that the assimilation of German Jews into the upper-class formed a synthesis instead of preserving a purely German elite. Intermarriage became bound connections, inherited stewardship replaced by ruthless striving, and neurotic legalism was integrated into the ruling class. This would be argued as the perversion of German nationalism as a hollow costume, cosmopolitanism and managerialism (even if nationally-minded) enslaving the Volk to globalism and international finance, the erosion of the traditional landed Junker class, the diluted meaningless of the Volksgemeinschaft, and the increasing decadence and “mongrelisation” of German elites as they stray further from their racial brethren. That is, the long-term replacement of elites will corrupt the noble German culture and spirit that led to its civilisation’s ascension in the first place, leading to a path of mischling-filled ruin akin to “Anglo-American degeneracy.” As such, it is considered a point of contention for the “single-issue” racial antisemites. One of the arguments against antisemitism for the common people is to assert that the German Jews do not exist as an ethnic group that could be coherently defined without religion, denying their racial categorisation and deeming the threat of mongrelisation nonexistent. With secularisation and intermarriage, the idea of a separate Jewish identity seems more and more pointless as it is now viewed by the public as being defined by a negation, a hostility towards the “Gentiles.”

Though Reichskanzler Wenck favours the assimilationist method for the German Jews, he nonetheless takes measures combatting antisemitic expressions because he knows it enables the supporters of his rival factions (Gehlen and Schulenburg). He also repealed some of the more exclusionary policies from the Bredow regime such as discriminatory taxes. As for the fates of the Ostjuden, it varies from pluralism, tolerated co-existence, or pressured assimilation by their native governments. They are largely excluded from settling in the German nation and are under supervision if visiting. </Status_of_Jews>

<Preußentum_und_Sozialismus> Following the conclusion of the Ruhrkampf under the “Red General” Schleicher's tenure, a form of ethical socialism had come into practice in the form of unification of the German trade union movement under the state. Many conservative revolutionaries in his cabinet believed that the German race possessed national characteristics stemming from the militaristic culture of Prussia, as it naturally promoted collective duty and self-sacrifice. “Preußentum und Sozialismus” by Oswald Spengler would be adopted as a term to describe this. This “socialism” is defined by social roles rather than capital, fundamentally rejecting the Marxist and internationalist forms which are antithetical with German nationalism. Even the SPD (well, the factionalist remnants) was subverted and absorbed into Schleicher’s regime along with the trade unionists to finally defang the left opposition; the ASPD (Old Social Democratic Party of Germany) represented a “positive, nationalist, and revisionist” wing of the old titan of the German left. Working within the system, they find themselves in alignment with the Reformisten. One notable member of the ASPD is Helmut Schmidt.

The Gerwerkschaftbund's expressed goal is state-mediated collaborationism between the classes and to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of workers. In actualisation, the German economy was transformed into a quasi-command economy, with each German as part of the national labour union. The Gewerkschaftbund—the trade union federation—functions as a tool to execute control over large private enterprises through channeling worker grievances through state-aligned channels and transmitting state directives downwards. This is to foster “harmonious” labour relations, economic stability, and to embed formal social organisation under state influence. Private labour organising without permission is prohibited. </Preußentum_und_Sozialismus>

<Officers_and_Admirals> Adolf Heusinger Albert Schnez Alexis von Roenne Alfred Becker Alfred Zerbel Axel von dem Bussche Bern von Baer Claus von Stauffenberg Eckart Afheldt Eduard Dietl Eduard Wagner Erich Bärenfänger Ernst Barkmann Erwin Rommel Ewald-Heinrich von Kleist-Schmenzin Ferdinand Maria von Senger und Etterlin Ferdinand Schörner Franz Pöschl Friedrich August Freiherr von der Heydte Friedrich Foertsch Friedrich Klausing Fritz Bayerlein Georg Bochmann Georg von Boeselager Gerd Schmückle Gerhard von Schwerin Gert Bastian Günter Kießling Günther Rall Günther Smend Hans-Joachim Herrmann Hans-Joachim Mack Hans Krebs Hans Speidel Hans Teusen Hans-Ulrich von Oertzen Harald von Hirschfeld Heinrich Trettner Heinz-Georg Lemm Heinz Günther Guderian Heinz Harmel Hellmuth Stieff Henning von Tresckow Herbert Otto Gille Hermann Priess Hermann Wulf Hugo Kraas Joachim Sadrozinski Johann von Kielmansegg Johannes Steinhoff Karl-Adolf Hollidt Karl-Theodor Molinari Leo Hepp Ludwig Heinrich Gaedcke Oskar Munzel Otto Ernst Remer Otto Hitzfeld Otto Kumm Philipp Freiherr von Boeselager Robert Ritter von Greim Rudolf-Christoph Freiherr von Gersdorff Theodor Tolsdorff Ulrich de Maizière Walther Wenck Werner Mummert Werner Schrader Wessel Freytag von Loringhoven Wilhelm Burgdorf Wolf Graf von Baudissin Wolfgang Altenburg

Ansgar Bethge Armin Zimmermann Bernhard Rogge Erich Topp Friedrich Guggenberger Friedrich Ruge Günter Luther Günther Prien Hans-Georg von Friedeburg Hans-Rudolf Rösing Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock Heinrich Liebe Helmuth Brinkmann Herbert Schultze Horst von Schroeter Karl Dönitz Karl-Friedrich Merten Karl-Jesko von Puttkamer Kurt Weyher Otto Ites Otto Kretschmer Otto von Bülow Robert Gysae Rolf Johannesson Theodor Hoffmann Wilhelm Meendsen Bohlken Wilhelm Meentzen </Officers_and_Admirals>

Reinhard Gehlen is the founder and president of the Reichsnachrichtendienst (RND), which serves as the successor of the Abteilung III and the Gestapo as a consolidated, coordinated, and more efficient intelligence agency. He is undoubtedly one of the most powerful men in the Reich, with his tendrils of intelligence reaching into all corners of Germany and his agency serving as the eyes and ears of the Imperial Government. For personal views, he takes the international interpretation of the Wehrstaat as a suffocating, inhuman leviathan to its “perfected” ideal of a honed weapon: adapting to modernity, cleansing itself of subversive elements and ideological divisions, top-down enforcement, and utmost loyalty to the Heer. Warfare is no longer just the direct confrontation of the battlefield, it is also political, economic, legal, informational, diplomatic, and psychological warfare as well. With the advent of the mass adoption of new technologies such as television and surveillance tools combined with the centralised apparatus of the state, this type of rule may be more plausible than some may realise.

Though Germany hoped to break the Einkreisung through the thorough humbling of the Great Powers, it had only served as a 20-year armistice. Even after the cataclysm upending the entire world order, the civilians during the interwar played politics with their attempts of democracy and parliamentarianism. An exhausted victory, the warranted ousting of the Ludendorff dictatorship, and the ensuing complacency had led them blinded by their Place in the Sun and blissfully unaware of the dangers lurking right on or within their borders. Upon the break of temporary peace in 1939, the Wehrstaat grew from its infancy through the necessity of total war and the total mobilisation of every resource, whether material or human, into its revving engine. He also played a key role in overthrowing Branisłaŭ Taraškievič's social democratic government of Belarus in favour for the Belarusian Central Council after its liberation, where its new elites are amicable towards German interests in return for economic prosperity and investment.

Gehlen currently operates with influence beyond his official station in cooperation with the Imperial Government and is supported by the most militant and radically nationalist elements. The Army is the State, as is the State is the Army. Nationalist indoctrination shall imbue a duty of unflinching self-sacrifice for the Fatherland and their posterity during the war, and the ideologisation of the Heer will ensure its survivors, the veterans, carried on the message of their fallen comrades through direct political influence. There is a noticeable generational gap within the Wehrmacht in that the majority of those in support of Gehlen are young officers, radicalised with a “romanticised myth” of German militarism and honour culture taken to its logical extreme. Some are into conspiracy theories about the “International Jewry” in America. A parasitic cabal of elites operating across the globe beyond being held accountable by any sovereign power, but that's bad because those are rootless cosmopolitans and we are morally infallible Germans. Only Germany, ordained and vindicated by virtue of conquest and superiority of Kultur, could shape the world into how it sees fit. Gehlen himself is not an ideologue and paints himself as “apolitical” who seeks to build a state free from ideological bickering, though he operates on the mindset of accruing power if he believes it would serve Germany's interests.

His goals are described as consolidating the intelligence agencies of Europe (largely the Oststaaten) into a multinational securocracy and preparing the Eastern Front for a reconquest to the Russian question (a united Russia, regardless of ideology, will always pose a security threat to the Reich) via permanent dismantlement into over a dozen nations (republics, duchies, hosts, military administrations, commissions). After that, it's all “confidential,” world domination perhaps? STRENG GEHEIM. (OTL parallel: East Germany and Imperial Japan if it was a reactionary superpower with military adventurism and nukes).

Back in 1937 during the Bavarian Nullification Crisis, it was considered the final act of the Bundesrat that signed itself away for the promises of security and unity. As Prussian centralism drew its claws closer towards Bavarian rhetoric of defending states' rights, the defiant kingdom stood proudly against Schleicher's creeping authoritarianism, that is until that fateful vote. Bavaria was outvoted under the justification that it violated the duties of the state. The proceeding Reichsexekution that time was bloodless, unlike the one in Brunswick, thanks to Rupprecht I, fearing civil war, intervening and allowing Berlin to install a Staatskommissar to replace the “rebellious” government. After WWII, the Bundesrat was phased out for the Ständekammer, and any lingering notions of federalism was swept away by the gears of total mobilisation. Ever since the unification of Germany under Berlin in 1871, the Bundesrat was the compromise to ensure cooperation and unity by limiting Prussian dominance, even if still largely influential, with states' rights and balances of power. Ever since those constitutional protections were officially abolished in 1945, granting the central government unrestricted power, the people began to fear as if their regional identities will be grinded down by the efficient German machine and that the second largest state of Bavaria will be eventually subsumed into the Prussian yoke as a mere Reichsland. That is, until a certain man decided to enter politics, channeling that energy.

Born in Munich in 1915 as the second child of a butcher, Strauss studied at LMU Munich and was an active member of a Roman Catholic youth organisation. When WWII broke out, he was called up for military service and became an officer. After serving as an artillery lieutenant, Strauss returned home and joined the DNEF with his military record and connections, where he launched a spectacular rise in local politics thanks to his key role in rebuilding Bavaria and the construction of the Rhein-Main-Donau Canal system, in which he earned an appointment as Staatskommissar of Bavaria in 1957. One of his crowning achievements is the successful negotiation of reestablishing Bavaria as an autonomous region. He believes the future of Germany lies within the masses, deregulation, economic liberalisation and capital mobility, closer cooperation with Großösterreich and by extension Europe, reforming the ossified, nepotistic bureaucracy by cutting red tape, a return to regional autonomy for the disaffected federalists, and restoring Reichstag powers beyond its ceremonial role.

His goal for the DNEF is to rebuild it from merely the bureaucratic wing of the military into a mass party with “liberal” reforms, transforming the system towards a true civilian state (a post-Wehrstaat evolution) where military experience would no longer be the limiting factor in politics and all of their cronies would no longer be obstacles to him. He argues along the lines of the mandate of popular will (broadly from the middle and working class), capitalising on his personality, quick wit, and charisma. Despite that, it seems he has the backing of the military-industrial complex with his great enthusiasm for technological progress and economically liberal technocrats who stand to benefit from potential privatisation, seeing Strauss as the path of least resistance for their agendas. Detractors speak of his unscrupulousness and brazenness, and of his vulgar populism, anti-elitist rhetoric, and his own web of corruption built upon a clique of merchants who believe in nothing higher than the present. His rhetoric is also seen as threatening to reignite class conflict and divide the already “harmonious” Volksgemeinschaft. For Strauss himself, his idealism stems towards steering the German people into modernity like a rider on a stallion, seeing them as not to be managed but as a force to be unleashed. He also believes in a “small government” of sorts (though not against wielding state power), viewing the pervasiveness of the Reich and enforced centralisation into every aspect of civil society as inefficient, invasive, and corrosive to the German spirit.

He views Prussian militarism as a chauvinistic impediment, as he believes in the inevitable necessity of European unity (pan-European nationalism) and sweeping reforms to compete on the world stage as an economic powerhouse. Regardless, he remains committed to the necessity and destiny of German paternalism to guide Europe, as he believes that it has been beneficial to the Oststaaten and the colonies. However, it is said that his populism is that of a demagogue weaponising the mobilisation of the masses rather than advocating for genuine democratic input, in which he still views the state as the primacy, both morally and politically. He is the head of the reformist clique and is emblematic that even in a nominally hyper-regulated society, it can reward its charismatic rule-benders. Perhaps it is not a society solely defined by standardisation, but a society also defined by status rivalries and why people both love and loathe him. Heinz Kissinger (foreign policy academic at LMU Munich) and Ludwig Erhard (proponent of the social market economy and ordoliberalism) are close associates of Strauss. Others within the Reformisten are social democrats (neoliberal edition), Keynesians who think the government is doing Keynesian economics wrong, big business leaders, and economists smitten by Hayekian ideals. (OTL parallel: one-party CDU/CSU state but without democratic institutions)

Wenck is in an informal alliance with Strauss in regard to implementing reforms, but he has reserved suspicions about his ambitions.

<Völkischer> Upon the conclusion of WWI where millions of its young men were slaughtered in the trenches, Europe was torn asunder by radicalism and toppling of traditional hierarchies, casting the Occident down from Olympus. Though Germany is ascendent once again with Europe under her stewardship, the spectres of Marxism, liberalism, and democracy are always felt like a miasma: our enemies across the globe playing with the corrosive ideas of egalitarianism and anti-colonialism. These ideological parasites threaten the very fabric of our society. Marxism pits class against class and reduces life to mere material struggle. Liberalism is a dissolvent that fuels radical individualism and societal atomisation. Democracy, especially in its parliamentary form, is a system easily bent to the will of outside manipulators and political elites whose interests are antithetical to the prosperity of Germany.

Fritz-Dietlof von der Schulenburg, known in his earlier years as the Red Count, leads the “Völkischer” faction which is made up of various dissident groups who are ideological critics against the Wehrstaat. From a Spenglerist perspective, he views it as an oppressive, rationalist, and destructive military oligarchy dedicated to war for the sake of war. A Zivilisation entering its mature stage of exhaustion, dominated by finance and bureaucracy, and its once-animated form—the state—calcifying into a coffin. He views the current regime as being staffed by distant, egotistic bureaucrats who act without honour and rule in self-interest, much like the prewar parliamentary government beforehand and as such, it is the betrayal of the Konservative Revolution. Mere possession of power does not conference legitimacy, and when money rules, power dissolves into abstraction. Schulenburg himself has a romanticised vision of an integrated European union on a federative basis, seeking closer ties and reconciliation with the Western nations such as France, Italy, and Spain. A European brotherhood tied to its racial/cultural essence and Christendom, beyond mere economic ties like the euromark and the Europabund. A civilisation must be so closely bound in spirit that may never again be divided and unraveled by hostile actors. Reconciliation with France is of utmost priority for Schulenburg. Italy is the subject of debate in Schulenburg's circle due to its rivalry with Austria, but it is agreed that Austria must be reminded of their place even if Franz Joseph II (Otto von Habsburg) is a pan-Europeanist.

However, Schulenburg's lofty idealism may often find himself in conflict with reality's various obstacles, both within and outside. Of course, the name “Völkischer” should be an indicator that the movement is inhabited by völkisch followers who heavily lean into the mass-movement populist, antisemitic, and eschatological side of politics that do not necessarily reflect the views of its upper echelons. The shared goals of the Völkischer are the development of the “Volksgemeinschaft” (whatever that entails) and the transformation of the DNEF into an explicitly ideological one-party state free from “old guard” military meddling and subordinated to the Volk. The full commitment to Germanisation of the Baltics along with the forceful incorporation of Lithuania (Drang nach Osten) alongside Belgium/Netherlands into a racial-state Großgermanisches Bundesreich is considered an extreme yet plausible goal within their realm.

The Strasserists led by Otto Strasser represent the Völkischer movement as Third Positionist within the context of German politics, standing between the market liberals of the Reformisten and the crony military-industrial complex of the current establishment. It synthesises the anti-capitalist policies of the left and the “revolutionary vitality” of the right.

Edgar Julius Jung, one of the more visionary and politically involved thinkers of the Konservative Revolution, is also here as a leading figure closely associated with Schulenburg. He champions a society organised around inherent standards of excellence, where individuals find their place within a hierarchy guided by merit, character, and virtue. A “organic elite” replacing mechanical cronyism, corrupt electoralism, and bureaucratic leveling with self-governance grounded in responsibility and moral integrity. Whose discipline and measure are not imposed from without, but arise from an inner nobility of soul.

Other figures include Hans Zehrer, Ernst Jünger, Armin Mohler, and Claus von Stauffenberg as right-wing dissidents.

Though sizable and influential, they are considered the least likely to take power in Germany due to its anti-establishment nature and disparate beliefs. Aristocratic and intellectual elitism contrasted to racial materialism and populist tendencies. Pan-European integration and ethnocultural pluralism contrasted with pan-Germanic expansion and Nordicism. However, should the other factions fail to secure their position in the power struggle, then the Völkischer may seize the opportunity—and if they do somehow get in power, a sweeping of the vulgar rabble-rousers may be ordered to consolidate the Red Count's position—but they remain united, for now.

Schulenburg dislikes Strauss as a power-hungry merchant working with liberal capitalism and Gehlen as an autocratic war hawk in a desk job. He personally respects Wenck as a war hero despite what he represents. </Völkischer>

Konrad Adenauer: Former mayor of Köln during the Ruhrkampf, he was diametrically opposed to the DNEF due to his “anti-Prussian” views and committed federalism. He retired from politics in 1949. Ludwig Erhard: A Bavarian economist associated with the Reformisten and considered “radical.” Kurt Georg Kiesinger: A high-ranking minister in the Foreign Office. Helmut Schmidt: A notable member of the ASPD. Albrecht Diskont operates with around 500 stores, though the company had split this year allegedly due to a dispute over cigarette sales. Televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines are becoming increasingly common household items thanks to state subsidisation. Private car ownership is on the rise, though gradually. However, some of the older generations who remember the interwar years feel as if the standard of living has not adequately recovered since Black Monday in part due to interventionist economic policies, military spending, colonial maintenance, state projects (such as the space program), and changes in global markets. It had recovered to its pre-1936 levels and surpassed it only recently under Wenck's tenure. The availability of luxury imports and quality consumer goods are accessible and affordable enough for the common man, yet scarce enough to be coveted and treasured. After over fifteen years, this “victory” had not felt like the result of one. Of course, the citizens never voice these concerns out loud, but often they divulge their dissatisfaction with others in private. Speerist designs are often used for special architecture, though it’s becoming more common to see low-cost apartment buildings modeled after Bauhaus being constructed as social housing.

Formal social organisations had encouraged participation, with officials still riding off the euphoria of triumph to impose onto the new generation the duty to “continue the work of their ancestors.” Clubs, parks, and vacations are state-run. Sevastopol and the Dalmatian coast are popular tourist spots. Some people often retreat to private spaces as they may find the atmosphere suffocating due to a web of obligations tied to the Reich and the unspoken omnipresence of surveillance, whether present or not. Due to border proximity and partnership with the United States of Greater Austria, outside media is allowed though in a controlled flow. Though there is essentially a state-sponsored art style, individually-made creative output and stylistic experimentation may thrive as long as it's not antagonising the state, “aesthetically pleasing,” and of good moral standard. There are also unspoken yet defined “red lines.”

The citizens of the Reich are kept apathetically apolitical, fed heroic tales of the Wehrmacht, and any notions of wrongdoing are kept under the covers. All by design by the Wehrstaat.

The euromark is the shared currency of the Europabund.

<Dating_Simulator_Parody> Erika: The President. Represents the Pragmatiker under Wenck and the Heer. Military background. Dutiful and reliable, the Prussian ideal. Positions herself as the “moderate,” a bulwark against destabilising extremism by being an anchor. Paints an image of a reformist technocrat and a popular war hero. Dislikes it when people challenge her status and think they could do a better job than her. Fears being replaceable. Her core motivation is to be as indispensable as possible so that no one else would ever think of an alternative. Can crack jokes if she thinks it could make herself feel more lighthearted. Despite her demeanor and regimented feel, she says she's not frigid. Leans into the fact that there is a song titled with her name. ESTJ 3w2 Erika's appearance: 172 cm, above-average height; Heer officer uniform; an athletic and lean build meant for efficiency when moving around; long snow-white parted hair and icy-blue eyes to exemplify soldierly grace and confidence

Monika: The Bully. Represents the Reformisten under Strauss and the Luftstreitkräfte. Commoner background. Tends to be very loud. A Bavarian patriot and a Catholic (mostly brought up when against Prussian Protestants). Populist appeal. Has lots of friends and connections. Will try to bribe you with gifts. Can also be bribed. Openly acts as if she's beyond her official station. Charismatic and impulsive. Often prone to being a bratty dick with a short temper and eschewing propriety, though can switch up to be more amicable if she thinks it could get her more favour. Insincere? No, her mood's just like that. Her core motivation is fierce independence. ESTP 8w7 Monika's appearance: 166 cm, average height; Luftstreitkräfte pilot uniform; a noticeable hourglass with plush thighs; tries to look alluring yet approachable, the feminine ideal; brown-auburn hair in a long ponytail tied with a black ribbon and green eyes to paint a folksy and eye-catching figure

Katharina: The Stalker. Represents the Sicherheitskrat under Gehlen and the Kaiserliche Marine. Military background. Accumulates information and gossip for the sake of security and often probes you with rather intimate questions. Too important to be removed. Selfish, often acts disregarding the emotions of others. Your personal boundaries don't factor with her. Slightly lacking in wisdom despite intellect. May deploy blackmail. Dreams of total war and mass surveillance. Thinks of herself as the grey eminence, the mastermind. Her problems are her really big ego and overestimating the extent of her abilities. She also doesn't allow herself to fully trust someone unless they are totally dependent on her. Has a black-and-white worldview. Her loyalty lies in the “people of Germany” and herself. INTJ 6w5 Katharina's appearance: 158 cm, a petite and unassuming stature; Kaiserliche Marine admiral uniform; mildly androgynous; shoulder-length black hair in a slight mess with lilac-purple eyes; yellow-tinted glasses; carries herself with utmost certainty in her perpetual skepticism

Charlotte: The Bookworm. Represents the Völkischer under Schulenburg. Affiliated with miscellaneous wings of the school. Noble background. Romantic, melancholic, erudite. Idealist but pessimist. Will talk about philosophy, the Conservative Revolution, and the spirit of the German/European race. Will explain to you why Marxism, liberalism, and democracy are moral syphilis. Beyond optimism. Beyond despair. An inner orientation forged in struggle, she says. Often gets detached from her surroundings when lost in her mind. Head of the Literature Club and reluctant representative of the Occult Club (someone has to keep them in line). Some of the students under her talk about race science and Aryan breeding much to her embarrassment. In search of a vaguely-defined “vitality,” maybe You? She reads Nietzsche, Jünger, Evola... A bit of a doomer, though she calls herself a “Spenglerist.” Said to have a deeper, more intense side if one could uncover it. INFJ 1w9 Charlotte's appearance: 180 cm, an “aristocratic” height; a white turtleneck sweater that hugs her rather large breasts; long golden-blonde hair coiffed with drill sidelocks and ruby-red eyes—almost doll-like—that hold a certain wistfulness beneath everything; a monocle

The setting is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Militärakademie, basically a setting made up for the dating simulator. The girls try to charm You, and winning over You means they get to become Reichskanzler. Whether it's a ploy for power or actual romance is unclear. All students at the academy are female. </Dating_Simulator_Parody>