The first one who would use nuclear weapons on American soil against American citizens is going to suffer a lot in the minds of the public. It is a taboo.
But of course there are cases where benefits could outweight the costs.
The Iron Eagle III - Fallen Eagle
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
- Start date
But of course there are cases where benefits could outweight the costs.
Methinks that the War in Mexico will be the cause of Goldwater's downfall. He didn't start the war, but he sure as heck isn't going to end it.
I think I will keep the "steel", the Syrian army based their doctrine on the Germans which include the employment of Armored forces in amassed numbers.
I would say that an alliance of Muslims with the Crusader nation is unlikely. They have papal legions, any place that Brazilians take control of that has a Muslim population will have a very sad end. The country is a modernized version of the Iberian Christian kingdoms.
Ehhh, kinda the hate is based on religion and not color. So the Muslim will not be killed for being non-white, but rather if he refuses to accept Catholicism.
The more the world changes the more it stays the same, we return to the time of crusaders vs jihadists. Papal legions vs the Taliban in this TL. We even have the holy inquisition to look for crypto Muslims.
It is stronger and weaker at the same time. The country does not have the extermination of the OTL great leap forward, at the same time the industry will grow slower than in the OTL, and you can count on your fingers the countries that trade with China (with the big factor for the industrialization of china being the commerce with the American sphere in OTL)
Perhaps Japan would reactivate its navy, they would have the experience and technique to compete navally.
I can actually see this in Africa where the Catholics face off against the rising Islamist especially if say Napoleons Africa either decides to ally with the Integralists or falls apart.
Considering how rubbish the Chinese industrialization efforts were and how the entire attempt at mass industrialization failed, the lack of massive industrial growth is a good thing for China since they will be able to actually make good factories and materials this time. If anything this just makes them stronger especially since they will not suffer as much from demographic transition.
V - DER FÜHRER UND DIE PRINZESSIN
THE IRON EAGLE
FALLEN EAGLE
DER FÜHRER UND DIE PRINZESSIN
FALLEN EAGLE
DER FÜHRER UND DIE PRINZESSIN
The Office of the Führer was an oppressive burden, one may think the opposite, but Remer had seen at least three men being driven into insanity for being in this place, and it just so happened that those were his three predecessors. The temptation of absolute power that drove men with no sense of duty to madness, one was a merchant, one was a literature writer, one was an architect, none of the men who held that mighty position were truly members of the Military, none of them had that sense of duty which belongs to a leader, a sense of duty to an entire people, to protect them and the nation. That is what the Wehrmacht taught, that is what the Führer taught, and yet they did not listen and wasted their time and energy into pointless politics.
The Reich has been a headless beast for far too long, and any head which could not control it's body had to be replaced. He did not want this office, he knew he was not the best suited for it, he had never been in the inner circle of the Führer, he had never been close, he rarely ever visited the Berghof or even saw him outside formal occasions at best. But he knew even his mind was better than no mind, he knew a mind of Steel, unbent and sharp, was needed to protect them against the threat beyond the Volga. He liked to think he did his best and earned his position after that great trial by fire, he did more to protect the physical legacy of the Führer than any of his predecessors, who instead weakened the Reich either by being too weak or too forceful, that is why he had earned that chair.
"The leader has two qualities that are rare to find in a single man" is what the Führer once wrote in Mein Kampf, he was right then and he was right now, he has to be a man of ideas and a man of action at the same time, not only an ideologue who sets the course, but also a demagogue who steers and guides the people to that goal. Hess had his ideas, but he lacked the leadership to drag the colossus of the German Reich with him. Goebbels had the will for sure, he had the demagoguery and made the people follow him, but his whole reign was to follow the will of Hitler to it's last consequences. Finally, Speer had neither, maybe he once had both, but after he had gone through the hell he did, he was left with neither and ended up by shooting himself in the solitude of his room.
Remer needed both, he needed the ideas and he needed the action, he had proven the leadership in times of war and now he, the man of the Wehrmacht, had to guide Germany in a time of peace, which he would soon find out to be infinitely more atrocious to do than fighting the Slavs.
The war had ended the previous year, 1967, and today was the Tag das Sieges of 1968, the Victory Day which was meant to celebrate the defeat of the Allies in the Weltkrieg, which by now was not even the deathliest war they had to fight. He had organized a great show of force for today, one that the people needed and was even used to, there was much to be told about Goebbels but he did know how to make this date into a ceremony envied by the entire world. Jet planes maneuvering in the skies and drawing giant swastikas with the smoke, the coordinated formations doing the same on the ground of the Unter den Linden, the ceremony in the floor of the Volkshalle that was televised across the nation which ended with the grand speech. Ever since the attack in 1960, the Victory Day had changed it's format, became more grand and magnificent, but in a way it also felt hollow, or at least it was today. The ceremony in 1966 had been barebones due to the Total War measures, it came to a point that even the men in the parade were needed on the front, in 1967 there was a show, but still affected by the wartime and the general fear that the nuclear confrontation grew out of the battlefields and escalated into attacks on the cities.
Now it was 1968, and Remer watched in the Volkshalle as a formation of the Hitler Youth was making it's great show on the grounds of the "Basilica of the Reich". He wondered how many in that youth were members of the Volkssturm during the Goebbels years, how many of those teenagers had seen or participated in the brutal lynchings and massacres made during the Angriff, how many of them were sent to work in factories during the war to compensate the lack of Ostarbeiters, how many of them had seen things that were better left in the great taboos of mankind? He was distracting himself with that spectacle so much that he almost did not notice his Chief of Chancellery, Hans Globke, speaking close to his ear.
"The report of the Ministry of the Eastern Territories will be awaiting in your office, it has just arrived."
That was a news that could have waited, but Remer did tell Globke that he wanted to be notified when that report arrived. He had ordered the new Minister of the Eastern Territories Werner Koeppen, to make a thorough report about the damages sustained in the Reichskommissariat by the war and it's consequences in the east in all terms of resources. That document could very well make or break his rule, although he was expecting things to be already awful.
"The Reich will soar once more and re-establish the order at home, our future has never been brighter!"
He said those words in the speech that day, but now, in his office, each page which he read in that 300-page long report just made things worse, and that was an abridged version, Koeppen claimed that it could take yet another year for the true extent of the damages to be known. This has forced him to do one thing which has not been done since Speer's death, and before that it was last done still under Hitler: A Cabinet Meeting of the Reichsministers. He used the chance that every Minister was meant to be in the Welthauptstadt that day to gather everyone, sending summons for them to go to the Reich Chancellery that night.
He could tell how tense those men all were, some of them were just barely spared from the last purges by Goebbels like Koeppen and Globke, one for being associated with Rosenberg and the other for being a Catholic before 1962. When Goebbels called a Ministers to the Schwanenwerder, it usually meant meeting new faces, because that minister could very likely be dead and his family with him in that same night. Remer was more flexible, he wanted to give the image of a strong leader made out of pure stoicism, a modern Augustus rising from the ashes of the civil wars, and a stoic man does not just jump at the first slight to execute another man. He was wearing a civilian suit, something he only started to do after the end of the war with the Russians, perhaps that could reduce the tension.
He had 12 Ministers, 13 if you count Globke as Chef der Reichskanzlei, half of them were associates of his' in the armed forces who had certain specialties in technical departments, others were political survivors from the Angriff, others were made up of fresh blood of what was left of the once-proud German public bureaucracy, again what was left of it after the Angriff. Talent was hard to find, those who were loyal to Goebbels could not be relied upon, many in the youth were tainted by association with the Volkssturm, there were others who were far too old to even walk up to a chair, and others who were still too frightened to ever take up an offer working in the Government. One good thing of this war is that it revealed new managers in the war industries, it revealed new officers to the army, it revealed a dynamism in the ranks of the Aryan volk that he felt that was missing during the previous era.
"My apologies for calling all in such short notice today, I am sure we are all spent by the events, however the report of the Ministry of Herr Koeppen has arrived, and now I invite him to make the opening presentation of it's contents."
Remer took his seat as Koeppen, clearly caught by surprise that he had to make a verbal statement, began to expose the catastrophic situation they were in. As he spoke, one of Remer's assistant approached him, a member of his bodyguard unit which was not commanded by Kempka, Remer was hardly superstitious but that officer in specific had stood by while 4 different leaders died, literally speaking in the case of Hess and Speer and Remer had his suspicions about how much Kempka just "stood" when Hess died. He whispered to his ear something that could have probably waited, after all there was an ongoing cabinet meeting, but there was just something about that woman that just screamed in his mind to not leave her waiting, perhaps it was just a subconscious answer. When you spend most of your life learning to obey whatever command comes before or after the word "Hitler", it was hard to not feel a subconscious instinct to obey.
"Please proceed, Herr Koeppen, I will return shortly."
Remer figured he already knew enough of the basics of the situation: Hunger, Diseases, Radiation, Destroyed towns, Refugees, Partisans... they would discuss that in depth the whole night, spending ten minutes listening to whatever Klara had to say should not take long. Only when he was opening the door to his office did he realize he was essentially summoned out of a vital meeting to his own office to talk with some girl, well, not some girl, one he had seen gore one of his predecessors with a knife used to spread butter on bread. But before he could even think twice, he would see her already awaiting, just staring at a large and very life-like bust of her father that was kept in the office.
"Frau Hitler, an unexpected surprise to see you here."
He could swear she used to be shorter, but something about seeing her close to that bust, to the portrait that stared down at him every day, with the same eyes, it made him feel once again like he was not adequate for his position. Which was ludicrous, he should not be feeling intimidated by some spoiled woman from an alpine house, a spoiled woman who just so happened to have an uncanny appearance and familiarity to the man every single German had been raised to serve as the perfect leader for almost 40 years. Oh, and let us not forget that she was the leader, technically, of the female wing of the National Socialist Party, a gift from Goebbels that remained after she killed him, but that is very much how far she goes, other than also the custodianship of the Führermuseum and other proprieties of her father such as the Berghof and the Royalties of a book more sold than the Bible in this damned country. But still, she was just a girl, and he was the Führer.
"I know I do not come often, Herr Remer, but I won't take much of your time. I understand you have important matters to solve in the Reich."
Klara was dressed in grey, just like her father in the portrait, even the grey coat of her's matched his suit. Perhaps it was on purpose, like a trick that triggered in the heart of every Aryan to see the person who had those characteristics and have a good impression.
"The Mother's Day is approaching soon, I would like to offer that the event in the Volkshalle this year be financed by the Hitler Estate, consider it a contribution of mine to the event. I am aware that we are facing difficult times and I wish to make my part to provide the widows with a proper ceremony for their sacrifice."
Remer was neither proud nor foolish enough to refuse free money, he knew that the economy was in a dire enough situation now that they could not afford to pass up on that offer, but he knew there would be something else to that offer. Still, he acted like a gentleman.
"That is very noble of you, my dear."
"Tell me, do you already have a list for the speakers of the ceremony? I could offer some suggestions from the ranks of the Frauenschaft."
"There were preliminaries, but naturally you may take a look at them, provided any adjustments is first approved by the Reichskanzlei."
There it was, she wanted to be a speaker, show up more to the people. Remer knew that was a double-edged sword, God knows how much Germania needed a sense of legitimacy and stability that few people could provide other than Klara. But on the other hand, could he trust her? She gave a polite nod with a smile.
"If you don't mind my intrusion, may I ask if there is any plan for the restoration of the Eastern Territories? Many widows have approached me, Herr Remer, I only wish to assure them that the legacy of what their husbands died for will live on."
That was a rather coincidental question, it did not cross Remer's mind that moment that there could be more to it, he just assumed that she was acting like a spokeswoman of the Women's League. Besides, he had been asked that many times by others, it was only natural when the veterans returned and spoke about the destruction in the east, of course the people would want answers about it's repairs.
"We are working to a solution in the cabinet now, the full report is being deliberated properly. Perhaps you would like to hear Herr Koeppen's report, but I doubt that such tedious procedures would-"
"I would like to listen, Herr, I understand the sensitivity of the information, but still it would be reassuring for me to see how a properly responsible leader is able to work."
Remer should have reprimanded her for interrupting him, he should have just told her to leave and return to the meeting. But why? Why should he feel threatened by her? Why did he even question if he could trust her? She was young enough to be his daughter, maybe even granddaughter, yet he was feeling something so sinister and hypnotic in her.
"Very well, you may observe as long as you wish, Frau Hitler."
He would return to the cabinet room and all the Reichsministers stood up when he walked inside. Yet their eyes quickly set sights on the woman who went just after him, all seemingly trying to understand why she was in that room. But soon Remer would sit down by the head of the table and all were back on their seats, except for Koeppen, who continued his lengthy report. Remer listened to the details with his full attention, all while Klara was seated on a separate chair near the wall, just watching and listening attentively to the meeting of the Council. The session would last for hours, the picture drawn appeared worse and worse, the losses, the plague, the scorched earth and even the territorial losses themselves. Was that truly the best he had to offer for his legacy? That he managed to hold most of the east on the paper but allowed half of it to be destroyed? The Reconstruction, not only of the Lebensraum but of the Reich itself, had to be the priority. But even with all that was being said, the one thing that was buried deeper in his mind than anything else was Klara, how she stood besides that bust and looked at him, with the same look of the bust, of the portrait, of that very building that kept saying: "You aren't worthy, Otto".
The Reich has been a headless beast for far too long, and any head which could not control it's body had to be replaced. He did not want this office, he knew he was not the best suited for it, he had never been in the inner circle of the Führer, he had never been close, he rarely ever visited the Berghof or even saw him outside formal occasions at best. But he knew even his mind was better than no mind, he knew a mind of Steel, unbent and sharp, was needed to protect them against the threat beyond the Volga. He liked to think he did his best and earned his position after that great trial by fire, he did more to protect the physical legacy of the Führer than any of his predecessors, who instead weakened the Reich either by being too weak or too forceful, that is why he had earned that chair.
"The leader has two qualities that are rare to find in a single man" is what the Führer once wrote in Mein Kampf, he was right then and he was right now, he has to be a man of ideas and a man of action at the same time, not only an ideologue who sets the course, but also a demagogue who steers and guides the people to that goal. Hess had his ideas, but he lacked the leadership to drag the colossus of the German Reich with him. Goebbels had the will for sure, he had the demagoguery and made the people follow him, but his whole reign was to follow the will of Hitler to it's last consequences. Finally, Speer had neither, maybe he once had both, but after he had gone through the hell he did, he was left with neither and ended up by shooting himself in the solitude of his room.
Remer needed both, he needed the ideas and he needed the action, he had proven the leadership in times of war and now he, the man of the Wehrmacht, had to guide Germany in a time of peace, which he would soon find out to be infinitely more atrocious to do than fighting the Slavs.
The war had ended the previous year, 1967, and today was the Tag das Sieges of 1968, the Victory Day which was meant to celebrate the defeat of the Allies in the Weltkrieg, which by now was not even the deathliest war they had to fight. He had organized a great show of force for today, one that the people needed and was even used to, there was much to be told about Goebbels but he did know how to make this date into a ceremony envied by the entire world. Jet planes maneuvering in the skies and drawing giant swastikas with the smoke, the coordinated formations doing the same on the ground of the Unter den Linden, the ceremony in the floor of the Volkshalle that was televised across the nation which ended with the grand speech. Ever since the attack in 1960, the Victory Day had changed it's format, became more grand and magnificent, but in a way it also felt hollow, or at least it was today. The ceremony in 1966 had been barebones due to the Total War measures, it came to a point that even the men in the parade were needed on the front, in 1967 there was a show, but still affected by the wartime and the general fear that the nuclear confrontation grew out of the battlefields and escalated into attacks on the cities.
Now it was 1968, and Remer watched in the Volkshalle as a formation of the Hitler Youth was making it's great show on the grounds of the "Basilica of the Reich". He wondered how many in that youth were members of the Volkssturm during the Goebbels years, how many of those teenagers had seen or participated in the brutal lynchings and massacres made during the Angriff, how many of them were sent to work in factories during the war to compensate the lack of Ostarbeiters, how many of them had seen things that were better left in the great taboos of mankind? He was distracting himself with that spectacle so much that he almost did not notice his Chief of Chancellery, Hans Globke, speaking close to his ear.
"The report of the Ministry of the Eastern Territories will be awaiting in your office, it has just arrived."
That was a news that could have waited, but Remer did tell Globke that he wanted to be notified when that report arrived. He had ordered the new Minister of the Eastern Territories Werner Koeppen, to make a thorough report about the damages sustained in the Reichskommissariat by the war and it's consequences in the east in all terms of resources. That document could very well make or break his rule, although he was expecting things to be already awful.
"The Reich will soar once more and re-establish the order at home, our future has never been brighter!"
He said those words in the speech that day, but now, in his office, each page which he read in that 300-page long report just made things worse, and that was an abridged version, Koeppen claimed that it could take yet another year for the true extent of the damages to be known. This has forced him to do one thing which has not been done since Speer's death, and before that it was last done still under Hitler: A Cabinet Meeting of the Reichsministers. He used the chance that every Minister was meant to be in the Welthauptstadt that day to gather everyone, sending summons for them to go to the Reich Chancellery that night.
He could tell how tense those men all were, some of them were just barely spared from the last purges by Goebbels like Koeppen and Globke, one for being associated with Rosenberg and the other for being a Catholic before 1962. When Goebbels called a Ministers to the Schwanenwerder, it usually meant meeting new faces, because that minister could very likely be dead and his family with him in that same night. Remer was more flexible, he wanted to give the image of a strong leader made out of pure stoicism, a modern Augustus rising from the ashes of the civil wars, and a stoic man does not just jump at the first slight to execute another man. He was wearing a civilian suit, something he only started to do after the end of the war with the Russians, perhaps that could reduce the tension.
He had 12 Ministers, 13 if you count Globke as Chef der Reichskanzlei, half of them were associates of his' in the armed forces who had certain specialties in technical departments, others were political survivors from the Angriff, others were made up of fresh blood of what was left of the once-proud German public bureaucracy, again what was left of it after the Angriff. Talent was hard to find, those who were loyal to Goebbels could not be relied upon, many in the youth were tainted by association with the Volkssturm, there were others who were far too old to even walk up to a chair, and others who were still too frightened to ever take up an offer working in the Government. One good thing of this war is that it revealed new managers in the war industries, it revealed new officers to the army, it revealed a dynamism in the ranks of the Aryan volk that he felt that was missing during the previous era.
"My apologies for calling all in such short notice today, I am sure we are all spent by the events, however the report of the Ministry of Herr Koeppen has arrived, and now I invite him to make the opening presentation of it's contents."
Remer took his seat as Koeppen, clearly caught by surprise that he had to make a verbal statement, began to expose the catastrophic situation they were in. As he spoke, one of Remer's assistant approached him, a member of his bodyguard unit which was not commanded by Kempka, Remer was hardly superstitious but that officer in specific had stood by while 4 different leaders died, literally speaking in the case of Hess and Speer and Remer had his suspicions about how much Kempka just "stood" when Hess died. He whispered to his ear something that could have probably waited, after all there was an ongoing cabinet meeting, but there was just something about that woman that just screamed in his mind to not leave her waiting, perhaps it was just a subconscious answer. When you spend most of your life learning to obey whatever command comes before or after the word "Hitler", it was hard to not feel a subconscious instinct to obey.
"Please proceed, Herr Koeppen, I will return shortly."
Remer figured he already knew enough of the basics of the situation: Hunger, Diseases, Radiation, Destroyed towns, Refugees, Partisans... they would discuss that in depth the whole night, spending ten minutes listening to whatever Klara had to say should not take long. Only when he was opening the door to his office did he realize he was essentially summoned out of a vital meeting to his own office to talk with some girl, well, not some girl, one he had seen gore one of his predecessors with a knife used to spread butter on bread. But before he could even think twice, he would see her already awaiting, just staring at a large and very life-like bust of her father that was kept in the office.
"Frau Hitler, an unexpected surprise to see you here."
He could swear she used to be shorter, but something about seeing her close to that bust, to the portrait that stared down at him every day, with the same eyes, it made him feel once again like he was not adequate for his position. Which was ludicrous, he should not be feeling intimidated by some spoiled woman from an alpine house, a spoiled woman who just so happened to have an uncanny appearance and familiarity to the man every single German had been raised to serve as the perfect leader for almost 40 years. Oh, and let us not forget that she was the leader, technically, of the female wing of the National Socialist Party, a gift from Goebbels that remained after she killed him, but that is very much how far she goes, other than also the custodianship of the Führermuseum and other proprieties of her father such as the Berghof and the Royalties of a book more sold than the Bible in this damned country. But still, she was just a girl, and he was the Führer.
"I know I do not come often, Herr Remer, but I won't take much of your time. I understand you have important matters to solve in the Reich."
Klara was dressed in grey, just like her father in the portrait, even the grey coat of her's matched his suit. Perhaps it was on purpose, like a trick that triggered in the heart of every Aryan to see the person who had those characteristics and have a good impression.
"The Mother's Day is approaching soon, I would like to offer that the event in the Volkshalle this year be financed by the Hitler Estate, consider it a contribution of mine to the event. I am aware that we are facing difficult times and I wish to make my part to provide the widows with a proper ceremony for their sacrifice."
Remer was neither proud nor foolish enough to refuse free money, he knew that the economy was in a dire enough situation now that they could not afford to pass up on that offer, but he knew there would be something else to that offer. Still, he acted like a gentleman.
"That is very noble of you, my dear."
"Tell me, do you already have a list for the speakers of the ceremony? I could offer some suggestions from the ranks of the Frauenschaft."
"There were preliminaries, but naturally you may take a look at them, provided any adjustments is first approved by the Reichskanzlei."
There it was, she wanted to be a speaker, show up more to the people. Remer knew that was a double-edged sword, God knows how much Germania needed a sense of legitimacy and stability that few people could provide other than Klara. But on the other hand, could he trust her? She gave a polite nod with a smile.
"If you don't mind my intrusion, may I ask if there is any plan for the restoration of the Eastern Territories? Many widows have approached me, Herr Remer, I only wish to assure them that the legacy of what their husbands died for will live on."
That was a rather coincidental question, it did not cross Remer's mind that moment that there could be more to it, he just assumed that she was acting like a spokeswoman of the Women's League. Besides, he had been asked that many times by others, it was only natural when the veterans returned and spoke about the destruction in the east, of course the people would want answers about it's repairs.
"We are working to a solution in the cabinet now, the full report is being deliberated properly. Perhaps you would like to hear Herr Koeppen's report, but I doubt that such tedious procedures would-"
"I would like to listen, Herr, I understand the sensitivity of the information, but still it would be reassuring for me to see how a properly responsible leader is able to work."
Remer should have reprimanded her for interrupting him, he should have just told her to leave and return to the meeting. But why? Why should he feel threatened by her? Why did he even question if he could trust her? She was young enough to be his daughter, maybe even granddaughter, yet he was feeling something so sinister and hypnotic in her.
"Very well, you may observe as long as you wish, Frau Hitler."
He would return to the cabinet room and all the Reichsministers stood up when he walked inside. Yet their eyes quickly set sights on the woman who went just after him, all seemingly trying to understand why she was in that room. But soon Remer would sit down by the head of the table and all were back on their seats, except for Koeppen, who continued his lengthy report. Remer listened to the details with his full attention, all while Klara was seated on a separate chair near the wall, just watching and listening attentively to the meeting of the Council. The session would last for hours, the picture drawn appeared worse and worse, the losses, the plague, the scorched earth and even the territorial losses themselves. Was that truly the best he had to offer for his legacy? That he managed to hold most of the east on the paper but allowed half of it to be destroyed? The Reconstruction, not only of the Lebensraum but of the Reich itself, had to be the priority. But even with all that was being said, the one thing that was buried deeper in his mind than anything else was Klara, how she stood besides that bust and looked at him, with the same look of the bust, of the portrait, of that very building that kept saying: "You aren't worthy, Otto".
The end of 1967 was the end of an Era for Germany, for the first time there would be room for introspection in the nation that once prided itself into being the greatest power in the world. The Uralkrieg, the purges, the Angriff, the Israeli war and, most of all, the Ostrkrieg, was a harsh wake up call, in the sum there were around 6 to 7 million Germans who died between 1958 and 1967, most of them either at the hands of the Russians or at the hands of their own Government. Entire families were massacred for arbitrary definitions of race and treason, the crimes of one distant relative being sufficient to send thousands to camps or to the rope. The Volkssturm and the viciousness of Goebbels' brand of fanaticism almost brought the world to a nuclear war, a fact which the public was unaware of, the blind hatred of a generation raised in the Hitler Youth would reveal to the German people just how gruesome it could be to be on the wrong side of the NSDAP's criteria of what constituted a "True German".
Otto Ernst Remer, born on August 18th of 1912, was the new Führer to emerge from the Vierführertag, the day of four leaders, with the deaths of Goebbels, Speer and Hoffmann leading to a once relatively low Wehrmacht officer to become the most powerful man in Europe. Remer had an impressive career during the previous wars, serving in different divisions from the Wehrmacht until he reached his first command in the closing days of the Second World War. Following that, he would take his place in the higher levels of the General Staff during the late Hitler years as older Wehrmacht commanders began to retire, with a new brand of more politically-minded officers rising to turn the Wehrmacht into a force loyal to the Führer unequivocally. The Ural War would show more of his talents as he commanded the German forces during the deathly Battle of Orenburg, resisting the worst of the Russian counter-offensive, although he never managed to fully capture the city. He would be catapulted into the leadership of the OKW in 1960 as him and Joachim Peiper, another member of the new generation of the Wehrmacht, conspired to remove their superiors and win over Goebbels' favor during his purges.
As head of the OKW, Remer was essentially one of the most powerful men in Europe and his loyalty towards Goebbels' vision was seen as commendable, with the Field Marshall being one of the responsible for the drafts for Sealion II. While he did not show as much eagerness for a nuclear war, Remer was a strict disciplinarian and considered as a "Model Officer", never refusing to obey an order to the last consequences, which came from his mentorship in the 1950s under Field Marshall Ferdinand Schörner. Even so, Remer could see the direction the wind was blowing during the Angriff and worked in a precaution, using connections in the Mauthausen Camp to ensure the former Reichsminister Albert Speer kept his life.
Remer's leadership involved a period of preparation for a war that caught Germany by surprise on the day it happened, his failure, or more specifically Peiper's, in securing the quick conquest of Israel would lead to a vicious war and a loss of momentum. His focus on Britain as a main enemy and the preparations for an invasion of the British Isles would lead to the eastern border being left undermanned and it's shortcomings were filled up with Volkssturm men, men who would end up later arrested or leading a mutiny which tore open the German defenses across the Volga. Finally, Remer would also finish the reorganization of the Wehrmacht with the promotion of politically "reliable" officers over competence, a practice which was decisive in ensuring the Russian success in the start of Operation Poltava.
He could have hardly done better in February of 1966 given the circumstances, the death of Goebbels at the hands of his own wife was a surprise to him and, despite the tight control of the Schwanenwerder and the neutralization of Goebbels' family, he could not prevent the news from reaching the head of the Volkssturm Ludwig Hoffmann, who attempted a violent takeover which led to the Battle of Cottbus. The death of Speer by suicide, while avoidable, can also be hardly blamed on Remer himself, and he did the only reasonable alternative by launching essentially a military coup, not existing any legal procedure in Germany for the succession of a Führer who declared no successor, something he already did when placing Speer in power. The leadership of the Reich, an essentially political position, was hardly an ambition of the military man who prided himself in being a follower of commands.
Now the nation he ruled was a nation devastated, unemployment had reached an impressive 13% of the Population, many veterans and workers of wartime industries being laid off and left to the streets. The Government debt, which was essentially ignored under Goebbels who called the financial experts of the Reich as "Narrow-Minded Jews", had become unbearable and reached an astonishing 120% of the GDP. The government revenue still continued to be only around 60 to 70% of the expenditures, with the latter being expected to rise further once the "Koeppen Report" reached the Reich Chancellery: The costs for the full reconstruction of the East were equivalent to the entire German GDP in 1961, which included the land clearing, the repairs to installations and cities, as well as accounting for the permanent loss of revenue due to the Russian Scorched retreat, the radiation poisoning of fields and waterways, as well as the loss of workers and manpower on the account of the loss of millions of "Ostarbeiter".
That is not even including the deficiencies of the German economy itself, while it would be generous to give a definition of the maze which was the German economic system in the 1950s, the most accurate the depiction of it was a "Crony State Capitalist system" based around the relations of a few oligarchic leaders, SS commanders, slavery, threats and government corporations. Goebbels considerably simplified the system in a manner that would make Lenin proud, creating what was essentially a "Top Command Economy", where practically all of the large scale companies and corporations in Germany were nationalized and placed under State control to serve his aims. There was also a "Down Economic Populism" in a manner, with small companies being encouraged to flourish and compete with one another, on the local level the businesses would benefit from the break of monopolies at first, but soon enough the Angriff ensured that they too were subject of government harassment. The Volkssturm many times would assault shops under the claim the products were sold at "Jewish prices", a more direct approach of the government-imposed price controls made to fight inflation in the years before the death of Goebbels. Rationing had been reintroduced in 1964, in what Goebbels privately claimed to be a preparation for the "Hardships of the War", part of the same logic which led to the expansion of nuclear shelters and nuclear drills that same year.
The Total War between 1966 and 1967 was essentially already under effect in some areas, the militarization of the economy and society under Goebbels did lead to a rapid response in the Reich against the Russian invasion that halted Operation Poltava. But now that the war was over, the challenge was not only to tackle the terrible economic situation left by the war, but also the prior decades of a plunder-based economy that transformed into a cronyist system. Furthermore, Remer had to properly define the future of the German economy from zero, the public sector owned an estimated 85% of the German economy, the highest level of a non-Marxist state, the economy had been essentially shut down with a limited consumer market, and the demographic losses no longer allowed for the slavery system of the "Ostarbeiter" to fill the gaps.
Otto Ernst Remer, born on August 18th of 1912, was the new Führer to emerge from the Vierführertag, the day of four leaders, with the deaths of Goebbels, Speer and Hoffmann leading to a once relatively low Wehrmacht officer to become the most powerful man in Europe. Remer had an impressive career during the previous wars, serving in different divisions from the Wehrmacht until he reached his first command in the closing days of the Second World War. Following that, he would take his place in the higher levels of the General Staff during the late Hitler years as older Wehrmacht commanders began to retire, with a new brand of more politically-minded officers rising to turn the Wehrmacht into a force loyal to the Führer unequivocally. The Ural War would show more of his talents as he commanded the German forces during the deathly Battle of Orenburg, resisting the worst of the Russian counter-offensive, although he never managed to fully capture the city. He would be catapulted into the leadership of the OKW in 1960 as him and Joachim Peiper, another member of the new generation of the Wehrmacht, conspired to remove their superiors and win over Goebbels' favor during his purges.
As head of the OKW, Remer was essentially one of the most powerful men in Europe and his loyalty towards Goebbels' vision was seen as commendable, with the Field Marshall being one of the responsible for the drafts for Sealion II. While he did not show as much eagerness for a nuclear war, Remer was a strict disciplinarian and considered as a "Model Officer", never refusing to obey an order to the last consequences, which came from his mentorship in the 1950s under Field Marshall Ferdinand Schörner. Even so, Remer could see the direction the wind was blowing during the Angriff and worked in a precaution, using connections in the Mauthausen Camp to ensure the former Reichsminister Albert Speer kept his life.
Remer's leadership involved a period of preparation for a war that caught Germany by surprise on the day it happened, his failure, or more specifically Peiper's, in securing the quick conquest of Israel would lead to a vicious war and a loss of momentum. His focus on Britain as a main enemy and the preparations for an invasion of the British Isles would lead to the eastern border being left undermanned and it's shortcomings were filled up with Volkssturm men, men who would end up later arrested or leading a mutiny which tore open the German defenses across the Volga. Finally, Remer would also finish the reorganization of the Wehrmacht with the promotion of politically "reliable" officers over competence, a practice which was decisive in ensuring the Russian success in the start of Operation Poltava.
He could have hardly done better in February of 1966 given the circumstances, the death of Goebbels at the hands of his own wife was a surprise to him and, despite the tight control of the Schwanenwerder and the neutralization of Goebbels' family, he could not prevent the news from reaching the head of the Volkssturm Ludwig Hoffmann, who attempted a violent takeover which led to the Battle of Cottbus. The death of Speer by suicide, while avoidable, can also be hardly blamed on Remer himself, and he did the only reasonable alternative by launching essentially a military coup, not existing any legal procedure in Germany for the succession of a Führer who declared no successor, something he already did when placing Speer in power. The leadership of the Reich, an essentially political position, was hardly an ambition of the military man who prided himself in being a follower of commands.
Now the nation he ruled was a nation devastated, unemployment had reached an impressive 13% of the Population, many veterans and workers of wartime industries being laid off and left to the streets. The Government debt, which was essentially ignored under Goebbels who called the financial experts of the Reich as "Narrow-Minded Jews", had become unbearable and reached an astonishing 120% of the GDP. The government revenue still continued to be only around 60 to 70% of the expenditures, with the latter being expected to rise further once the "Koeppen Report" reached the Reich Chancellery: The costs for the full reconstruction of the East were equivalent to the entire German GDP in 1961, which included the land clearing, the repairs to installations and cities, as well as accounting for the permanent loss of revenue due to the Russian Scorched retreat, the radiation poisoning of fields and waterways, as well as the loss of workers and manpower on the account of the loss of millions of "Ostarbeiter".
That is not even including the deficiencies of the German economy itself, while it would be generous to give a definition of the maze which was the German economic system in the 1950s, the most accurate the depiction of it was a "Crony State Capitalist system" based around the relations of a few oligarchic leaders, SS commanders, slavery, threats and government corporations. Goebbels considerably simplified the system in a manner that would make Lenin proud, creating what was essentially a "Top Command Economy", where practically all of the large scale companies and corporations in Germany were nationalized and placed under State control to serve his aims. There was also a "Down Economic Populism" in a manner, with small companies being encouraged to flourish and compete with one another, on the local level the businesses would benefit from the break of monopolies at first, but soon enough the Angriff ensured that they too were subject of government harassment. The Volkssturm many times would assault shops under the claim the products were sold at "Jewish prices", a more direct approach of the government-imposed price controls made to fight inflation in the years before the death of Goebbels. Rationing had been reintroduced in 1964, in what Goebbels privately claimed to be a preparation for the "Hardships of the War", part of the same logic which led to the expansion of nuclear shelters and nuclear drills that same year.
The Total War between 1966 and 1967 was essentially already under effect in some areas, the militarization of the economy and society under Goebbels did lead to a rapid response in the Reich against the Russian invasion that halted Operation Poltava. But now that the war was over, the challenge was not only to tackle the terrible economic situation left by the war, but also the prior decades of a plunder-based economy that transformed into a cronyist system. Furthermore, Remer had to properly define the future of the German economy from zero, the public sector owned an estimated 85% of the German economy, the highest level of a non-Marxist state, the economy had been essentially shut down with a limited consumer market, and the demographic losses no longer allowed for the slavery system of the "Ostarbeiter" to fill the gaps.
The Demographic catastrophe in Eastern Europe between 1941 and 1967 cannot be understated, in what was once one of the most fertile regions in the world, with entire nations of different peoples who have lived there for centuries, there was now a barren desert. The causes were many, but none greater than the "Generalplan Ost", the German plan for the East which was put into full effect in 1943, although it began implementation during the winter of 1941. Hunger alone would lead to the deaths of over 20 million people in the first three years, following that came a long-term campaign which included population control, forced sterilizations, expulsions, ethnic cleansing, mass transfers, slavery, and a denial to the access to most healthcare facilities would lead to an almost absolute lack of growth in the population of the so-classified "Ostarbeiters" (German Eastern Civilians who were automatically classified as workers in what was at first a "voluntary" program) between 1947 and 1957. The situation would change for the worst yet under Goebbels' rule as the new eastern directives made by Gustav Darré, based around the "Blood and Soil" ideology, would be the new modus operanti, which will be expanded on later.
The Ostkrieg led to the end of the Ostarbeiter system as a practical option for the German Economy. The enormous death toll of the war would be shown by the Koeppen Report: Of around 41 million people classified as "Eastern Peoples", only 11 million would be left. Between the brutal "anti-partisan" campaigns enacted in Ostland and Ukraine under the directive of Ernst Kaltenbrunner and the opening of an escape route by the collapse of the administration in Moscowien, Don-Wolga and the Kaukasus, many took the opportunity to escape to the east in massive numbers or were even liberated upon the arrival of Russian troops. 15 million people from the Eastern territories who were classified by the NSDAP as "Untermenschen" would move to Russia by the end of the War, and the remaining 15 million who would be lost would be killed by a mixture of brutal german actions against suspected guerrillas and the "Eastern plague".
The Eastern Plague was not a single disease, rather it was a cocktail of many biological weapons which were unleashed during the war by Russians and Germans alike against a population which had long been denied vaccinations against any diseases and whose healthcare facilities were kept just as improvised camp hospitals kept overcrowded with terrible hygiene. Many of the Concentration camps in the east would be simply repurposed as "Quarantine Zones" where the infected were left to die with little medical care or, in specific facilities, would be used by the National Socialist German Doctor's League as test subjects to observe the effects of illnesses in the human body. Perhaps the most horrifying experiences were ones of healthy individuals brought into these camps, more often than not the German authorities would transport an entire village or all inhabitants of worker camps to the quarantine facilities at the slightest suspicion that such illnesses had spread. In those cases, the general rule was those healthy individuals eventually contracting one of the pletora of illnesses and succumbing to them from the lack of medical attention.
The Plague caused a generalized fear in German cities until Remer decided to act to ensure these fears would not weaken the morale of the home front. In July of 1967, he would sign Führer Directive N7 (the number was restarted after the rise of each new leader), commanding for the territories of "Germany Proper" (essentially those outside of the Reichskommissariats) to be made "Free of Untermenschen" by "Transferring" these populations to the east as a sanitary measure. The result was the forceful deportation of up to 9 million workers which were living in Germany to the east, many of which used the opportunity to escape or, in most cases, ended up unable to return and left exposed to the Eastern Plague. It was a terrible measure for the German War effort, but Remer considered the situation at the front to be sufficiently optimistic that the benefits outweighted the costs, especially when he also feared the possibility of diseases such as Typhus, Anthrax, Bubbonic Plague etc to spread into the German Population.
The truth is that the risk of it was very small to begin with, while there was a serious danger in the case of biological weapons such as Anthrax, most of the German population was already vaccinated against at least 90% of the diseases which made up the Eastern Plague. In a historical comparison, this can be seen in the San Diego Bombing of 1946, when the Japanese dropped powerful strains of bubbonic plague on the American City which were proven devastating against the malnourished Chinese test subjects, but in comparison it was relatively ineffective against the American population. Overall, while the German "Anti-Partisan" campaign did claim roughly 5 to 6 million slavs through retaliatory measures, the use of chemical weapons, and massacres made in arbitrary fashion, the majority of the Eastern Peoples, which included Poles, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Ruthenians, Balts, Romani etc, would die due to the Eastern Plague, which was eventually brought under control by the start of 1968.
The Depopulation of the East was not limited to Eastern Peoples, but Germans themselves would dwindle in numbers during the Ostkrieg. The majority of the Volga German population in the Don-Wolga region would suffer the wrath of the Russian armies, which perpetrated similar massacres to the ones made by the Germans against the "Partisans". The sense of vengeance and constant frustrations of the Russian people over the suffering made by the Germans in the Great Patriotic War, the subsequent Civil War and, most recently, the Uralkrieg, morphed into a vicious anti-Germanism which led to millions of German settlers to flee out of terror of the Tsar's army. Many of those would be reluctant to ever return to the East.
As a result, the Koeppen Report would show the challenges of the Reich in the East which had to be added to it's already existing economic and social woes: The material cost of the reconstruction of places such as Adolfsburg and Rostow, the permanent loss of locations such as Wesselstadt (formerly Moscow and now a lake), the destruction of several mines, farmlands and oilfields, the loss of manpower, the loss of logistical centers and existing infrastructure. This would prove to be a long-term problem that loomed over Remer's entire reign as Führer and that was only considering the situation in the East, not including the situation at home.
Adolf Bockslaff still had in his memory the night when the Rosenbergs were killed in Riga, hardly did he know that was just the start. In the days of the Angriff, Riga was a truly chaotic city full of paranoia and accusations. There was the fear that anyone could be a secret traitor, there was the fear of the Volkssturm and their daily marches at the height of the chaos, the fear of having the wrong calendar, of being the one who shouted the least during a rally, of raising your arm and being too slow in it, there was just the fear of not being perfect.
He would have gladly lived his whole life in that fear if it meant not being sent to the east.
When he returned home to Riga he found that the city had changed. He was not there during the war properly, he was one of the first volunteers when the eastern border had been breached, but there was just a different feel to the place. There used to be different "Untermenschen" speaking around with their odd languages and going around to work on factories or in some stores, after all it was cheaper to get one allocated to you than to hire a German and follow pesky things like labor regulations, but now there were almost none of them. The city felt more empty, but one thing that was not lacking were Germans from the East, like ones he had seen fleeing during the war. Cities like Riga became a safe heaven for these people who wanted to feel like they were in a German city without going into the West further.
He did not have many others places to go other than his sister's house. Now that his father was dead, one of the many who died at Rostow, he had little choice but head to Agnes and hope she would be grateful enough to see a living relative to ignore the rest of his shortcomings. The house was technically her's now, even if she was only 15, all thanks to their father's testament, an old piece of paper written years ago after his father saw him marching alongside the Volkssturm. He could have denounced it, but he knew that if he had denounced that his father had disinherited his son over being a member of the Volkssturm, his whole family would have the fate of the Rosenbergs, including himself eventually. It was good that Agnes was always more capable than he was with numbers, but she needed someone else to care for the place, now that the war was over the rule of law was expected to return.
He knocked on the door despite having the keys, still dressed up in uniform, fresh off the post where he left his weapons and discharge of duty. Agnes opened the door, he was not sure if he should have expected a good reaction or a bad one, instead she just cried, no hug or anything.
"Why couldn't it be father?"
She actually said that out loud, much to his surprise, no doubt she would have preferred their father to have returned instead of him, he almost did if not for the radiation poisoning as far as he heard.
"Agn, I know... just let me inside, I have as much right to be here as you do."
She looked as if she was about to smack him in the face, but instead stepped aside to let him in after thinking for more than two seconds. She needed a legal guardian until she was of age, that had to be him now, her closest older relative, and it helped the fact he was a man and a Wehrmacht veteran... although if not for a few days, he would have likely been arrested or shot as a disgraced associate of the Volkssturm. He went in and the place still looked exactly like it was before, homely, smelling like his mother's plants.
"Adolf!"
She shouted at him behind his back, his mind so distracted he did not even notice she was trying to talk to him.
"I asked, how long are you staying?"
"Whatever time I want, don't you start acting like things are the same, father is not here to keep me away and I am your guardian!"
Whatever was in Adolf's eyes at that moment when he looked at Agnes with a finger pointed at her, it was enough to make her cower and back down from starting an argument. She was still the younger sister here, technicalities aside, this place was his' as much as her's and he still had a duty to care for her. For now he could count on the money he made in the army, maybe even the pension, but he would have to find a job for himself in this place. With any hope, the letter of recommendation from Hauptmann Steuben would give him a job in the public service.
That night, it was hard for him to sleep, it was at these moments when he was alone that things became worse. He just kept feeling that urge, building up inside of him like he could kill someone for it. He had served in the Panzer Korps in the east, and in some special missions there was a certain ration they received, he could stay awake for days, he could focus better, he lost any shred of fear and that made him feel like a super human. But then the effects faded and he could feel how shaky his aim could become, he could feel how disoriented and, in some cases aggressive, he could be. The Hauptmann understood well what him and his peers went through, in some cases it was easier and in others the men were transferred. He tried to compensate with cigarettes, it just was not the same, they tasted terrible and he could only get a fraction of that thrill.
"Turn down the volume, Adolf, you want the whole neighborhood to hear?"
Agnes came to the living room and stood in front of him as he was just staring blankly at the television, although he was not even paying attention to it. Rather he looked up to her with his leg shaking, wondering why did he go through hell only to return and have to deal with that ungrateful, spoiled, weak-willed sister of his'. She saw that in his eyes and backed a couple of steps away, then he looked back at the television to realize it was still turned on, the RRG was showing something on the news that caught his attention, it was a historical collection of speeches made by Hitler that were transmitted late at night with some experts making comments about it like they were priests interpreting the gospel.
"Would you believe it if I said he was back?"
Adolf turned his head to Agnes as she spoke, trying to cling to anything which could help his mind be distracted of the withdrawal.
"You have to be dreaming."
"I'm serious, I went to Köningsberg last week and saw someone who was just like him, she was talking in a meeting of the Hitler Youth and God, she was electric, it was like listening to his speeches, she did the same... thing with her hands, the... the clothes were the same color and everything!"
"You said she?"
"Mhm, it was his daughter, what was her name again... something with ara... Klara! Yeah, I mean, she wasn't a Goebbels but you could just feel something magical when you were in there, it felt like hearing hi-"
He had stopped listening halfway through and was already feeling like he should go back to enlist, if only so he could have those rations again. When noticing he was no longer paying attention, Agnes no longer bothered to waste her breath either. The two siblings just distanced themselves from one another, Adolf left to rot with his demons in the living room and Agnes left with her own in her bedroom.
He would have gladly lived his whole life in that fear if it meant not being sent to the east.
When he returned home to Riga he found that the city had changed. He was not there during the war properly, he was one of the first volunteers when the eastern border had been breached, but there was just a different feel to the place. There used to be different "Untermenschen" speaking around with their odd languages and going around to work on factories or in some stores, after all it was cheaper to get one allocated to you than to hire a German and follow pesky things like labor regulations, but now there were almost none of them. The city felt more empty, but one thing that was not lacking were Germans from the East, like ones he had seen fleeing during the war. Cities like Riga became a safe heaven for these people who wanted to feel like they were in a German city without going into the West further.
He did not have many others places to go other than his sister's house. Now that his father was dead, one of the many who died at Rostow, he had little choice but head to Agnes and hope she would be grateful enough to see a living relative to ignore the rest of his shortcomings. The house was technically her's now, even if she was only 15, all thanks to their father's testament, an old piece of paper written years ago after his father saw him marching alongside the Volkssturm. He could have denounced it, but he knew that if he had denounced that his father had disinherited his son over being a member of the Volkssturm, his whole family would have the fate of the Rosenbergs, including himself eventually. It was good that Agnes was always more capable than he was with numbers, but she needed someone else to care for the place, now that the war was over the rule of law was expected to return.
He knocked on the door despite having the keys, still dressed up in uniform, fresh off the post where he left his weapons and discharge of duty. Agnes opened the door, he was not sure if he should have expected a good reaction or a bad one, instead she just cried, no hug or anything.
"Why couldn't it be father?"
She actually said that out loud, much to his surprise, no doubt she would have preferred their father to have returned instead of him, he almost did if not for the radiation poisoning as far as he heard.
"Agn, I know... just let me inside, I have as much right to be here as you do."
She looked as if she was about to smack him in the face, but instead stepped aside to let him in after thinking for more than two seconds. She needed a legal guardian until she was of age, that had to be him now, her closest older relative, and it helped the fact he was a man and a Wehrmacht veteran... although if not for a few days, he would have likely been arrested or shot as a disgraced associate of the Volkssturm. He went in and the place still looked exactly like it was before, homely, smelling like his mother's plants.
"Adolf!"
She shouted at him behind his back, his mind so distracted he did not even notice she was trying to talk to him.
"I asked, how long are you staying?"
"Whatever time I want, don't you start acting like things are the same, father is not here to keep me away and I am your guardian!"
Whatever was in Adolf's eyes at that moment when he looked at Agnes with a finger pointed at her, it was enough to make her cower and back down from starting an argument. She was still the younger sister here, technicalities aside, this place was his' as much as her's and he still had a duty to care for her. For now he could count on the money he made in the army, maybe even the pension, but he would have to find a job for himself in this place. With any hope, the letter of recommendation from Hauptmann Steuben would give him a job in the public service.
That night, it was hard for him to sleep, it was at these moments when he was alone that things became worse. He just kept feeling that urge, building up inside of him like he could kill someone for it. He had served in the Panzer Korps in the east, and in some special missions there was a certain ration they received, he could stay awake for days, he could focus better, he lost any shred of fear and that made him feel like a super human. But then the effects faded and he could feel how shaky his aim could become, he could feel how disoriented and, in some cases aggressive, he could be. The Hauptmann understood well what him and his peers went through, in some cases it was easier and in others the men were transferred. He tried to compensate with cigarettes, it just was not the same, they tasted terrible and he could only get a fraction of that thrill.
"Turn down the volume, Adolf, you want the whole neighborhood to hear?"
Agnes came to the living room and stood in front of him as he was just staring blankly at the television, although he was not even paying attention to it. Rather he looked up to her with his leg shaking, wondering why did he go through hell only to return and have to deal with that ungrateful, spoiled, weak-willed sister of his'. She saw that in his eyes and backed a couple of steps away, then he looked back at the television to realize it was still turned on, the RRG was showing something on the news that caught his attention, it was a historical collection of speeches made by Hitler that were transmitted late at night with some experts making comments about it like they were priests interpreting the gospel.
"Would you believe it if I said he was back?"
Adolf turned his head to Agnes as she spoke, trying to cling to anything which could help his mind be distracted of the withdrawal.
"You have to be dreaming."
"I'm serious, I went to Köningsberg last week and saw someone who was just like him, she was talking in a meeting of the Hitler Youth and God, she was electric, it was like listening to his speeches, she did the same... thing with her hands, the... the clothes were the same color and everything!"
"You said she?"
"Mhm, it was his daughter, what was her name again... something with ara... Klara! Yeah, I mean, she wasn't a Goebbels but you could just feel something magical when you were in there, it felt like hearing hi-"
He had stopped listening halfway through and was already feeling like he should go back to enlist, if only so he could have those rations again. When noticing he was no longer paying attention, Agnes no longer bothered to waste her breath either. The two siblings just distanced themselves from one another, Adolf left to rot with his demons in the living room and Agnes left with her own in her bedroom.
Remer's project was called the "Disziplin" starting a phase of German History more commonly known as "Wehrstaat", the Army-State. It was a time where Remer sought to reform the Reich by establishing the military institutions as a role model and expanding the military influence on all aspects of Public life, relegating the National Socialist apparatus as secondary. This is not to say that Germany became a Military Dictatorship, as some historians would claim at the time, the NSDAP was still leading the One-Party State, Remer was still the Führer of the NSDAP and inherited all offices from Speer, Goebbels, Hess and Hitler. But the Marshal saw the Volkssturm as a show of chaotic indiscipline within the NSDAP, he denounced the corruption of past leaders and the fanaticism of Goebbels and Hess which almost brought the world to a nuclear war, ignoring the fact that he used these situations to reach the position he now had.
The Gauleiters, long cowered and neutered since Goebbels' purges and now without the local alliances with the Volkssturm, were subjected to Remer's callous approach during the Total War phase, several of them would be arrested for collaboration with the Volkssturm in the previous years and replaced by military leaders. In his Führer Directive N3, Remer would place all the Reichsgaue (which completely phased out the old Gau organization under Goebbels in his efforts to strengthen the control of the Ministry of the Interior) under a new system: In a regional basis, Wehrmacht officers would be placed in charge of the security forces of the territory, with the Gauleiters answering directly to them and they would answer only to the Führer in his position as Head of the OKW rather than the Ministry of the Interior.
This was only one of several administrative changes within Germany that removed the power from the Ministries, greatly strengthened in the Goebbels era, and transferred it to the Werhmacht that began to increase it's own administrative apparatus. Remer would follow that with the gradual militarization of the police and the restoration of the Abwehr. Even so, those reforms would not limit themselves only to the Security fields, soon the new Führer planned to include the OKW in his own economic vision, or rather his minister's economical visions. Seeing the unreliability of the NSDAP proper and the ones he called as mere "Party Functionaries", he sought the discpiline and militarization of the Wehrmacht to move from a military ideal to a German ideal.
The Wehrmacht would grow it's influence in the economy with the justification of controlling the logistical chain during the Ostkrieg, with the use of the Heereswaffenamt, the Army Weapons Office. The German Armaments industry had previously been nationalized by Goebbels following the destruction of the different industrial conglomerates which controlled it, such as the Krupp Industries, gathered under the direct control of the Ministry of the Economy led by Friedrich Hildebrandt. Essentially, the companies were under the direct control of the Ministry of the Economy between 1960 and 1966, subjecting it to Goebbels' whims. The Armaments production in Germany had skyrocketed between 1961 and 1962, then again in 1965-1966, however the factories suffered with mismanagement and lethargy brought by the Planned Economy established by Hildebrandt, a member of the left wing of the NSDAP.
The Heereswaffenamt (HWA) would expand it's directives from research and development to also the production of armaments as part of the Total War Measures, said measures later becoming the status quo as Remer entrenched the Wehrmacht's control of perhaps the largest military-industrial complex in the world. He hoped that this measure would overcome the excessive bureaucratization of the State in favor of the Army, which was always seen by Remer as a more effective institution than the Party. Remer's own experiences in the Ural War, where he saw infighting and corruption in the power games between Wegener, Heydrich and Speer compromising the supply of ammunition and the war effort as a whole, agreeing with Goebbels' rhetoric that the Party's bureaucratization weakened the Reich.
To Remer, the Wehrmacht was the pinnacle of what Germany ought to be, and that was also seen in the idealized vision the Armed Forces of the post-war generation held of the old Prussian Values in a superficial level, despite thoroughly twisting them in favor of National Socialism. The Apoliticism of the Prussian Army and the later Deutsches Heer was ignored or, in some cases, removed from the historical perspective in favor of a revisionist trend to claim that the Prussian Army, since the Teutonic days, always was the champion of values considered "Proto-Nazism", such as anti-Semitism, discipline, dynamism, leadership, bravery, ambition and drive to expansion in the east (Drang Nach Osten).
In that line, it would come as to no surprise that the majority of the State industries would soon come under the direction of Wehrmacht officers and the privatization effort made between 1968 and 1971 would mainly benefit War veterans and reserve officers.
The Gauleiters, long cowered and neutered since Goebbels' purges and now without the local alliances with the Volkssturm, were subjected to Remer's callous approach during the Total War phase, several of them would be arrested for collaboration with the Volkssturm in the previous years and replaced by military leaders. In his Führer Directive N3, Remer would place all the Reichsgaue (which completely phased out the old Gau organization under Goebbels in his efforts to strengthen the control of the Ministry of the Interior) under a new system: In a regional basis, Wehrmacht officers would be placed in charge of the security forces of the territory, with the Gauleiters answering directly to them and they would answer only to the Führer in his position as Head of the OKW rather than the Ministry of the Interior.
This was only one of several administrative changes within Germany that removed the power from the Ministries, greatly strengthened in the Goebbels era, and transferred it to the Werhmacht that began to increase it's own administrative apparatus. Remer would follow that with the gradual militarization of the police and the restoration of the Abwehr. Even so, those reforms would not limit themselves only to the Security fields, soon the new Führer planned to include the OKW in his own economic vision, or rather his minister's economical visions. Seeing the unreliability of the NSDAP proper and the ones he called as mere "Party Functionaries", he sought the discpiline and militarization of the Wehrmacht to move from a military ideal to a German ideal.
The Wehrmacht would grow it's influence in the economy with the justification of controlling the logistical chain during the Ostkrieg, with the use of the Heereswaffenamt, the Army Weapons Office. The German Armaments industry had previously been nationalized by Goebbels following the destruction of the different industrial conglomerates which controlled it, such as the Krupp Industries, gathered under the direct control of the Ministry of the Economy led by Friedrich Hildebrandt. Essentially, the companies were under the direct control of the Ministry of the Economy between 1960 and 1966, subjecting it to Goebbels' whims. The Armaments production in Germany had skyrocketed between 1961 and 1962, then again in 1965-1966, however the factories suffered with mismanagement and lethargy brought by the Planned Economy established by Hildebrandt, a member of the left wing of the NSDAP.
The Heereswaffenamt (HWA) would expand it's directives from research and development to also the production of armaments as part of the Total War Measures, said measures later becoming the status quo as Remer entrenched the Wehrmacht's control of perhaps the largest military-industrial complex in the world. He hoped that this measure would overcome the excessive bureaucratization of the State in favor of the Army, which was always seen by Remer as a more effective institution than the Party. Remer's own experiences in the Ural War, where he saw infighting and corruption in the power games between Wegener, Heydrich and Speer compromising the supply of ammunition and the war effort as a whole, agreeing with Goebbels' rhetoric that the Party's bureaucratization weakened the Reich.
To Remer, the Wehrmacht was the pinnacle of what Germany ought to be, and that was also seen in the idealized vision the Armed Forces of the post-war generation held of the old Prussian Values in a superficial level, despite thoroughly twisting them in favor of National Socialism. The Apoliticism of the Prussian Army and the later Deutsches Heer was ignored or, in some cases, removed from the historical perspective in favor of a revisionist trend to claim that the Prussian Army, since the Teutonic days, always was the champion of values considered "Proto-Nazism", such as anti-Semitism, discipline, dynamism, leadership, bravery, ambition and drive to expansion in the east (Drang Nach Osten).
In that line, it would come as to no surprise that the majority of the State industries would soon come under the direction of Wehrmacht officers and the privatization effort made between 1968 and 1971 would mainly benefit War veterans and reserve officers.
"A woman's world is her husband, her family, her children, her house."
-Adolf Hitler
There is a discussion to be made on whether the movement started after the Ostkrieg by German women was feminist in nature if one is to follow the definition made in countries outside of the Pakt. It was fairly distinct from what happened in nations such as Britain where the Feminist wave was mainly associated with female individuality, rather, in Germany the movement was made for women to have a more active duty in the National Socialist movement while still reinforcing historical duties associated to women which were emphasized since the fall of the Weimar Republic. The Angriff and the Ostkrieg alike would create the conditions for such movement to arise, the "Frauenschaft" (Women's League) would be at the forefront of that movement as it's focus was diverted by the rise of the new Reichsfrauenführerin Klara Hitler.
The daughter of Adolf Hitler would enter politics around 1967, although technically she had the leadership of the female wing of the NSDAP since the age of 18 at the behest of Joseph Goebbels, who placed her in such position mostly as a symbolic move (such as his appointment of Egon Meyer as head of the Luftwaffe). Contrary to her predecessors in the movement such as Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, she saw the lack of participation of German women in politics as a weakness within the Reich, believing that many women had strong leadership qualities in their households which were necessary in the Post-War Germany. To her, it was a woman's foremost duty to serve the Führer and the Reich even before her own family, although not neglecting the latter by any means, some had a higher calling than homemakers.
It was a great shift in perspective within the NS-Frauenschaft, but one which was already being seen among the youth thanks to the mobilization made on the previous years. During the Angriff, the Volkssturm did not deny the recruitment of women, Goebbels believed that it was a woman's duty to also be devoted to National Socialism, citing at first the example of his wife Magda, who many times was praised by Adolf Hitler himself as a model woman in the NSDAP. It was a common sight for the German Girl's League, as part of the Hitler Youth, to also organize mobs to enact the will of the Führer, many Volkssturm commanders were in fact surprised by the fanaticism of many that matched, and even overcame, their own.
The mobilization of the Youth during the Angriff reached it's climax during the Ostkrieg, as millions of German women would join the War effort in the Home Front, replacing the men sent to the frontlines against the Russians. Previously, the Reich had worked to discourage the presence of women in the workforce after the Second World War, replacing them at the growing industries with the Ostarbeiters, however the devastation of the war and the Eastern Plague would make such task impossible due to the depletion in the numbers of "Easterners". Many women would take up permanent functions in the factories as a replacement to millions of dead Workers, and with that came a greater leverage for the NS-Frauenschaft under Klara to make pushes against the previously established doctrines of the Party.
Remer saw the employment of women with cautiousness, believing that to provide an inferior output in the German Industry compared to the past. However, numbers would prove him wrong, not necessarily because German women were better in a racial sense like claimed by the Frauenschaft, but the Ostarbeiters were known for creating products of terrible quality in the European Market due to acts of sabotage and the slavery-like status they were kept under. Furthermore, the denial of education and healthcare facilities for the Eastern peoples would compromise their capacity in working in more than menial tasks. The average Ostarbeiter in 1960 was less capable than the one in 1950 simply because, bar a few veterans, their average lifespan was short and the younger replacements were deliberately less capable.
Naturally, Klara justified her reasoning in a racial basis, claiming that even a woman of the Germanic race was inherently superior to male untermenschen workers, a spin which won over many Gauleiters and party members and resonated with the pride of the German public. Thus, this appeal to racial and genetic superiority would win over ideas of reintegrating the Ostarbeiters in the economy of the Reich proper, relegating them to minor roles at best, the survivors of the Eastern Plague would instead be used in the agricultural areas of the Reich.
The conquest in the workplace for women and the Ostarbeiter question were part of the economic situation of Germany in the late 1960s, where unemployment would fall to a historical low. The loss of workers, both in German men and in Eastern Slaves, forced the German economy to readapt and reintegrate many citizens who were marginalized in the previous status quo, which contributed to an increase in the average wage of the German worker (as Germans were entitled to labor protections not given to the Easterners) and created a small nucleus for the growth of the consumer industry. But that was still a distant dream compared to the misery of the early Remer years, where the aftershocks of the Angriff and the War were still felt harshly in the lives of most Germans.
On the other hand, the growth in the influence of the Frauenschaft would soon become a threat to Remer's own shaky hold over the Party, a threat he did not see at the time and heavily underestimated. To him, Klara Hitler was too young and inexperienced in politics, a sheltered girl who was playing around with speeches and served at most as a useful popular distraction while he commanded the Discipline process. But she had many inherent advantages that he did not, first among them being her own second name, but besides that she would grow closer to the Party officials of the NSDAP in the coming years, the men who Remer disregarded as "undisciplined brutes" contrasted to his "disciplined soldiers" in the Wehrmacht. Remer was an outsider who never held a major position within the Party and simply happened to have the army in Germania at his disposal to force the Reichstag to name him as the Führer, despite that technically not even being an official method of succession.
The daughter of Adolf Hitler would enter politics around 1967, although technically she had the leadership of the female wing of the NSDAP since the age of 18 at the behest of Joseph Goebbels, who placed her in such position mostly as a symbolic move (such as his appointment of Egon Meyer as head of the Luftwaffe). Contrary to her predecessors in the movement such as Gertrud Scholtz-Klink, she saw the lack of participation of German women in politics as a weakness within the Reich, believing that many women had strong leadership qualities in their households which were necessary in the Post-War Germany. To her, it was a woman's foremost duty to serve the Führer and the Reich even before her own family, although not neglecting the latter by any means, some had a higher calling than homemakers.
It was a great shift in perspective within the NS-Frauenschaft, but one which was already being seen among the youth thanks to the mobilization made on the previous years. During the Angriff, the Volkssturm did not deny the recruitment of women, Goebbels believed that it was a woman's duty to also be devoted to National Socialism, citing at first the example of his wife Magda, who many times was praised by Adolf Hitler himself as a model woman in the NSDAP. It was a common sight for the German Girl's League, as part of the Hitler Youth, to also organize mobs to enact the will of the Führer, many Volkssturm commanders were in fact surprised by the fanaticism of many that matched, and even overcame, their own.
The mobilization of the Youth during the Angriff reached it's climax during the Ostkrieg, as millions of German women would join the War effort in the Home Front, replacing the men sent to the frontlines against the Russians. Previously, the Reich had worked to discourage the presence of women in the workforce after the Second World War, replacing them at the growing industries with the Ostarbeiters, however the devastation of the war and the Eastern Plague would make such task impossible due to the depletion in the numbers of "Easterners". Many women would take up permanent functions in the factories as a replacement to millions of dead Workers, and with that came a greater leverage for the NS-Frauenschaft under Klara to make pushes against the previously established doctrines of the Party.
Remer saw the employment of women with cautiousness, believing that to provide an inferior output in the German Industry compared to the past. However, numbers would prove him wrong, not necessarily because German women were better in a racial sense like claimed by the Frauenschaft, but the Ostarbeiters were known for creating products of terrible quality in the European Market due to acts of sabotage and the slavery-like status they were kept under. Furthermore, the denial of education and healthcare facilities for the Eastern peoples would compromise their capacity in working in more than menial tasks. The average Ostarbeiter in 1960 was less capable than the one in 1950 simply because, bar a few veterans, their average lifespan was short and the younger replacements were deliberately less capable.
Naturally, Klara justified her reasoning in a racial basis, claiming that even a woman of the Germanic race was inherently superior to male untermenschen workers, a spin which won over many Gauleiters and party members and resonated with the pride of the German public. Thus, this appeal to racial and genetic superiority would win over ideas of reintegrating the Ostarbeiters in the economy of the Reich proper, relegating them to minor roles at best, the survivors of the Eastern Plague would instead be used in the agricultural areas of the Reich.
The conquest in the workplace for women and the Ostarbeiter question were part of the economic situation of Germany in the late 1960s, where unemployment would fall to a historical low. The loss of workers, both in German men and in Eastern Slaves, forced the German economy to readapt and reintegrate many citizens who were marginalized in the previous status quo, which contributed to an increase in the average wage of the German worker (as Germans were entitled to labor protections not given to the Easterners) and created a small nucleus for the growth of the consumer industry. But that was still a distant dream compared to the misery of the early Remer years, where the aftershocks of the Angriff and the War were still felt harshly in the lives of most Germans.
On the other hand, the growth in the influence of the Frauenschaft would soon become a threat to Remer's own shaky hold over the Party, a threat he did not see at the time and heavily underestimated. To him, Klara Hitler was too young and inexperienced in politics, a sheltered girl who was playing around with speeches and served at most as a useful popular distraction while he commanded the Discipline process. But she had many inherent advantages that he did not, first among them being her own second name, but besides that she would grow closer to the Party officials of the NSDAP in the coming years, the men who Remer disregarded as "undisciplined brutes" contrasted to his "disciplined soldiers" in the Wehrmacht. Remer was an outsider who never held a major position within the Party and simply happened to have the army in Germania at his disposal to force the Reichstag to name him as the Führer, despite that technically not even being an official method of succession.
In the following years, the German Reich would face perhaps it's lowest point in strength, both at home and abroad. While that did not necessarily translate into opposition to National Socialism at home, it did fuel a sense of skepticism in German society that contrasted with the fanaticism of the Goebbels years, later turned into a powerful nostalgia for the Hitler age. A generation of Germans had grown up since 1951, in 1969 would come of age the first ones to have never lived under the rule of Adolf Hitler and instead living in the Reich sustained by his successors, all of which fell short of the great expectations of the people.
Perhaps the fact Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels were the two main leaders of Germany during most of this time was the main factor in the growth of the cult to the Führer. Hess was always one of the most fanatical followers of his predecessor, there was rarely a speech where he did not spend at least a third of the time speaking of Hitler, during his rule he even kept the official salute and oaths almost unchanged, merely adding his name after Hitler's. He did even allegate to speak with his mentor's spirit in his late years when his mental health deteriorated. Goebbels was not only a propagandist, but a man who personally saw Hitler as a messianic figure and, after nullifying the protests of the Catholic Church in 1962, he essentially made Hitler a divine figure for the German people. In religious pulpits, in schools, in public events, there were always great ceremonies in his name. The Führermuseum in Linz was the most visited building of the German Reich, to some families it became an annual occasion that was encouraged by the government through tourism.
It comes as no surprise that Linz grew into a city equal to Vienna and Munich, even overshadowing their significance in the coming years. The city, greatly expanded and reorganized for that purpose under Speer's direction in the 1940s, was a site of pilgrimage only compared to Mecca or Rome. There were statues, streets and buildings named after Hitler in every German city, in the Ostkrieg, Adolfsburg would be site of a special effort by the Reich, with Remer denying permission to use heavy weaponry at the city and with the defenders of the city fighting to the very end during Operation Poltava.
The propaganda grew more and more during the Angriff, public oaths of loyalty were made in ceremonies for the German people to uphold Hitler's legacy, the name "Adolf" became the most commonly given male name in Germany since the 1940s, up to a level that in 1962, in a determined classroom of 50 students in Breslau, a professor counted that at least 19 students had the first name "Adolf". Movies and books, produced by Goebbels' ministry during the Hess and his own years, idealized Hitler and his era as a German golden age, with the name of Theodor Morell, the doctor who was officially blamed for "poisoning" him, becoming a synonym of dishonorable traitor (The name "Morell" would be included in the German dictionary during the Angriff to signify "Charlatan Doctor"). Any flaws in Hitler's rule were completely hidden, every misstep was either ignored or justified, every attrocity was directed at others, the Führerprinzip continued to live on even almost 20 years after his demise.
The NSDAP, to many, had lost it's way following Hitler's death and that was a deliberate design. In the Bamberg Conference of 1926, and afterwards following the dismissal of Otto Strasser, Hitler declared that the Führer was above any ideology and the ultimate aim of the Party was to follow the Leader's Will. When he died, the very meaning of National Socialism became the subject of dispute, none of his successors truly coming to define it despite Goebbels' attempts of doing so. In it's essence, Nazism was to follow Hitler's Will, and when he died it became an big tent Totalitarian system that united sometimes opposite interests without a strong enough figure to unite those interests, which often led to bloody assassinations and purges by one faction against the other, the infighting leading to feuds and infighting between powerful players which deliberately led to self sabotage, the climax of that example being the failed conquest of the Urals.
That is where Klara Hitler came in. The only blood child of Adolf Hitler, a mysterious woman who rarely ever appeared in public until the late Goebbels years and came to realize the power of nostalgia. To the German people, the time between 1951 and 1967 was a time of decline, with the figures that were meant to lead them showing indecisiveness and weakness. The economy stagnated with an incoherent economic system set in place which left powerful oligarchs to exploit the German people, with millions of Germans being left unemployed and replaced by cheap Eastern Workers. The military appeared weak, the Wehrmacht that once conquered the Soviet Union had failed to defeat a supposedly weaker Russian Empire and later failed to stop the "Asiatic Horde" from breaching it's defenses and massacring millions of Germans who believed the Reich's promise of Lebensraum in the East. The party appeared weak, torn down into infighting with so many betrayals and changes in narrative that the news coming from Germania stopped being believed to be "neutral" in these power games. What is worse, the NSDAP, which once promised to restore law and order from the reviled Weimar Years, would be the party unleashing fanatics into bloody purges in the streets, hanging innocents for the crimes of their relatives and radicalizing the youth to turn them against their own parents. The promised golden age for a people who believed to be supreme in the Earth and above all races was gone, relegated to a distant past, forever associated to the figure of "Hitler".
So when a "Hitler" appeared to the public, with the same mannerisms, the same manner of speak, the same "Aryan blood", even similar appearance and dressing, it would be only natural that the years of ideological indoctrination, the leftover fanaticism of the Angriff, the powerful nostalgia in the older generations of National Socialists, the rising ambitions among the National Socialist women and the desire of the youth to live the promises of this golden era their parents lived, would lead to the German people to see the young "Edelweiss", the daughter with her father's eyes, to be their salvation. And against this feeling, there was little that Remer could do other than to sit in a time bomb, unaware of the opposition that would begin to coalesce against him. He was unaware of the fact that, from the moment he made Klara Hitler be the one to publicly endorse his takeover in the Reichstag, he had shown to the German people a new "Messiah". He was not the Führer for most of the Germans, but merely a regent.
Perhaps the fact Rudolf Hess and Joseph Goebbels were the two main leaders of Germany during most of this time was the main factor in the growth of the cult to the Führer. Hess was always one of the most fanatical followers of his predecessor, there was rarely a speech where he did not spend at least a third of the time speaking of Hitler, during his rule he even kept the official salute and oaths almost unchanged, merely adding his name after Hitler's. He did even allegate to speak with his mentor's spirit in his late years when his mental health deteriorated. Goebbels was not only a propagandist, but a man who personally saw Hitler as a messianic figure and, after nullifying the protests of the Catholic Church in 1962, he essentially made Hitler a divine figure for the German people. In religious pulpits, in schools, in public events, there were always great ceremonies in his name. The Führermuseum in Linz was the most visited building of the German Reich, to some families it became an annual occasion that was encouraged by the government through tourism.
It comes as no surprise that Linz grew into a city equal to Vienna and Munich, even overshadowing their significance in the coming years. The city, greatly expanded and reorganized for that purpose under Speer's direction in the 1940s, was a site of pilgrimage only compared to Mecca or Rome. There were statues, streets and buildings named after Hitler in every German city, in the Ostkrieg, Adolfsburg would be site of a special effort by the Reich, with Remer denying permission to use heavy weaponry at the city and with the defenders of the city fighting to the very end during Operation Poltava.
The propaganda grew more and more during the Angriff, public oaths of loyalty were made in ceremonies for the German people to uphold Hitler's legacy, the name "Adolf" became the most commonly given male name in Germany since the 1940s, up to a level that in 1962, in a determined classroom of 50 students in Breslau, a professor counted that at least 19 students had the first name "Adolf". Movies and books, produced by Goebbels' ministry during the Hess and his own years, idealized Hitler and his era as a German golden age, with the name of Theodor Morell, the doctor who was officially blamed for "poisoning" him, becoming a synonym of dishonorable traitor (The name "Morell" would be included in the German dictionary during the Angriff to signify "Charlatan Doctor"). Any flaws in Hitler's rule were completely hidden, every misstep was either ignored or justified, every attrocity was directed at others, the Führerprinzip continued to live on even almost 20 years after his demise.
The NSDAP, to many, had lost it's way following Hitler's death and that was a deliberate design. In the Bamberg Conference of 1926, and afterwards following the dismissal of Otto Strasser, Hitler declared that the Führer was above any ideology and the ultimate aim of the Party was to follow the Leader's Will. When he died, the very meaning of National Socialism became the subject of dispute, none of his successors truly coming to define it despite Goebbels' attempts of doing so. In it's essence, Nazism was to follow Hitler's Will, and when he died it became an big tent Totalitarian system that united sometimes opposite interests without a strong enough figure to unite those interests, which often led to bloody assassinations and purges by one faction against the other, the infighting leading to feuds and infighting between powerful players which deliberately led to self sabotage, the climax of that example being the failed conquest of the Urals.
That is where Klara Hitler came in. The only blood child of Adolf Hitler, a mysterious woman who rarely ever appeared in public until the late Goebbels years and came to realize the power of nostalgia. To the German people, the time between 1951 and 1967 was a time of decline, with the figures that were meant to lead them showing indecisiveness and weakness. The economy stagnated with an incoherent economic system set in place which left powerful oligarchs to exploit the German people, with millions of Germans being left unemployed and replaced by cheap Eastern Workers. The military appeared weak, the Wehrmacht that once conquered the Soviet Union had failed to defeat a supposedly weaker Russian Empire and later failed to stop the "Asiatic Horde" from breaching it's defenses and massacring millions of Germans who believed the Reich's promise of Lebensraum in the East. The party appeared weak, torn down into infighting with so many betrayals and changes in narrative that the news coming from Germania stopped being believed to be "neutral" in these power games. What is worse, the NSDAP, which once promised to restore law and order from the reviled Weimar Years, would be the party unleashing fanatics into bloody purges in the streets, hanging innocents for the crimes of their relatives and radicalizing the youth to turn them against their own parents. The promised golden age for a people who believed to be supreme in the Earth and above all races was gone, relegated to a distant past, forever associated to the figure of "Hitler".
So when a "Hitler" appeared to the public, with the same mannerisms, the same manner of speak, the same "Aryan blood", even similar appearance and dressing, it would be only natural that the years of ideological indoctrination, the leftover fanaticism of the Angriff, the powerful nostalgia in the older generations of National Socialists, the rising ambitions among the National Socialist women and the desire of the youth to live the promises of this golden era their parents lived, would lead to the German people to see the young "Edelweiss", the daughter with her father's eyes, to be their salvation. And against this feeling, there was little that Remer could do other than to sit in a time bomb, unaware of the opposition that would begin to coalesce against him. He was unaware of the fact that, from the moment he made Klara Hitler be the one to publicly endorse his takeover in the Reichstag, he had shown to the German people a new "Messiah". He was not the Führer for most of the Germans, but merely a regent.
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Now, this is just the first part of the chapter, I actually intended to post it tomorrow after further work, but I'm leaving this as a teaser before I Threadmark it.
No, this will not include the rest of the Continent, this is a Germany-focused chapter. There will be two chapters of the Mediterranean nations and one chapter going deeper into the Pakt States after the Angriff and the Ostkrieg.
No, this will not include the rest of the Continent, this is a Germany-focused chapter. There will be two chapters of the Mediterranean nations and one chapter going deeper into the Pakt States after the Angriff and the Ostkrieg.
Is it wrong I am more excited for the chapters on Germany’s clients than on the Germany chapter?
Imperador Pedro III
Banned
I'm eager to see Napoleon's chapter. A little bit of glow amidst all this doom.
So I was right and Klara is going to be the next leader or at least shadow leader by the looks of it.
I like the detail that Klara came to discuss Mother Day and that this was actually 3 weeks before that part in the Epilogue of Iron Eagle II
Other than that, yeesh Germany does not look like its in a healthy state rn. And given what could happen in its satellites i dont think it’s gonna get any better for them.
Other than that, yeesh Germany does not look like its in a healthy state rn. And given what could happen in its satellites i dont think it’s gonna get any better for them.
I see Klara slowly inserting herself into the day to day decisions of the government first as an adviser.
Theme: Showcase a leader with imposter syndrome constantly trying to justify his rule to himself while struggling against a rising star. Said rising star is mainly propeled up the ranks due to two generations of deep ideological indoctrination of a people to idealize her father as an almost divine ruler, an image she purposefully uses to suit her interests.
TL;DR:
TL;DR:
I think Germany's client states, at least outside of the Arab ones might be slow pot type of failing downwards for now.
By that Gobbles severely disrupted them with his cultural revolution but aside from that having mobilised men for the war in the East certainly I think will have a damaging effect on them, both in the sense of removing workers from the economy and missing the harvest but having hundreds of thousands of armed, angry veterans might create problems that can't be solved easily.
The great struggle for the German puppets is between Pan-European Fascism, Neofascism and what is left of resistance forces.
The German minions have to deal with the fact they spent a generation teaching people to be extremely Nationalistic while they have competing irredentist claims on one another and have to play as subservients to Germania's interests.
The German minions have to deal with the fact they spent a generation teaching people to be extremely Nationalistic while they have competing irredentist claims on one another and have to play as subservients to Germania's interests.
Seems like this would mostly impact Eastern Europe and the Balkans since I doubt Germany will allow much freedom to France, and the Benelux are under the German boot I believe.