It is the year 2006. The major powers on the planet are the US, Germany, and the SU, in this order. All those powers are a lot more militaristic than IOTL. There's also lots of eugenics, euthanasia, racism, and the likes, especially in Germany, but also in most other places. Standard of living is far lower than IOTL, due to all the military spending, even in the US, which has a comparatively low military budget at just 20% of GNP. Technology is slightly better developed, especially in terms of military.
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Germany, after accepting Stalins peace offer in 1943, was able to stabilize it's borders, to crush D-Day, and to annex Italy and France. It also had Poland, the Ukraine, the Balkans, the Benelux countries, Denmark, and Norway at the time.
The situation in northern Africa was also in favor of the Germans after they were able to send lots of troops from Russia there. After a crushing defeat of the US and British armies there in 1944, both were willing to accept an armistice for a few years, which gave Germany Libya, Britain Egypt and everything around and to the south, while much of the rest became neutral.
The armistice wasn't broken since then, especially after Germany became a nuclear power in 1947, 2 years after the US.
With the war basically won by Germany - though at staggering losses and not very glamorous - Hitler was a popular hero. Statues of him were erected all over Germany. His increasing mental problems due to the demands of his job were attributed to his genius and became part of the Hitler-cult. He died in 1949 of an overdose of some drug - no-one knows whether any of the potential successors of him, or just concerned nationalists, had anything to do with that.
There was a lot of cold war activity - spying, supporting rebellions, and so on - some even less cold than IOTL.
Britain was reduced to a country similar to IOTL Britain, with even less connections to the Commonwealth, but closer ties to the US - up to regular talks over a potential union in news magazines.
Inbetween were a few reforms in Germany - somewhat less racism, though not much, somewhat more democracy, though limited, and so on. The SU also had similar reforms, accelerating in the 1990s, but without Gorbatchov, who had a misterious car accident after he tried to negotiate an unfavourable arms control deal with the two other powers. There was a transition towards more and more free market, though, which was far more successful than IOTL.
Germany managed to overthrow the Swiss government in favor of a pro-unity movement, so that Switzerland became part of the empire in 1953.
Spain followed in the 60s, and Portugal in the 70s. Ireland stayed neutral only due to American pressure. Sweden stayed a neutral buffer zone between East and "Middle", becoming an important hub for the exchange of goods and information between Britain, Germany, and the SU.
Southern and eastern Asia developed pretty similar to OTL.
With only Libyan, Norwegian, and Rumanian oil, Germany was far less "mobile" than the two other countries. Lots of effort was put into producing fuel from plants, and the likes. Still, cars were mainly for the rich, for business, and for the military.
The SU was much less of a threat than IOTL - no access to Ukrainian ressources and western Russian people caused a lot of limitations, not to mention the much more restricted access to Africa and other places.
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Travel between the major powers is severly restricted - and ordinary citizens aren't expected to travel anywhere but allied countries. Only the US managed to achieve some more liberal rules for their citizens, helped by the dollar-cravings of the other countries.
China is trying to become the fourth power, aided by Germany which sees better chances for survival with China as a counter to US-allied Japan and independent from the SU.
Genetic engineering is becoming more and more popular in all the more advanced countries - preselection of babies, sperm and egg donations from important people, even first efforts to modify the human genome, and so on.
Especially in Germany, one still shouldn't belong to any minority. Once there were nearly no Jews, Roma, Africans, Communists, and so on there anymore, hatred was directed towards other people - it is pretty dangerous not to be part of the majority of popular opinion making, for instance. Or strange. Or a loner. And so on. There was also new racism laws after the old ones became obsolete due to lack of minorities - blond, red haired, and dark haired people have to find similar partners. Blue, Green, and Brown eyed people the same. And so on. For the few people with rare combinations of features a problem. Not to mention countless love affairs ending in pain or even jail.
Technologically, each of the three super powers feel like being the number one. Germany leads in rockets, alloys, some chemistry, some engineering, some trade, some space fare, some military technology, and so on. The US leads in electronics, automatization, genetic engineering, some chemistry, some space fare, some engineering, some trade, some military technology, and so on. The SU leads in education, some engineering, some space fare, some military technology, and so on.
###################################################
Germany, after accepting Stalins peace offer in 1943, was able to stabilize it's borders, to crush D-Day, and to annex Italy and France. It also had Poland, the Ukraine, the Balkans, the Benelux countries, Denmark, and Norway at the time.
The situation in northern Africa was also in favor of the Germans after they were able to send lots of troops from Russia there. After a crushing defeat of the US and British armies there in 1944, both were willing to accept an armistice for a few years, which gave Germany Libya, Britain Egypt and everything around and to the south, while much of the rest became neutral.
The armistice wasn't broken since then, especially after Germany became a nuclear power in 1947, 2 years after the US.
With the war basically won by Germany - though at staggering losses and not very glamorous - Hitler was a popular hero. Statues of him were erected all over Germany. His increasing mental problems due to the demands of his job were attributed to his genius and became part of the Hitler-cult. He died in 1949 of an overdose of some drug - no-one knows whether any of the potential successors of him, or just concerned nationalists, had anything to do with that.
There was a lot of cold war activity - spying, supporting rebellions, and so on - some even less cold than IOTL.
Britain was reduced to a country similar to IOTL Britain, with even less connections to the Commonwealth, but closer ties to the US - up to regular talks over a potential union in news magazines.
Inbetween were a few reforms in Germany - somewhat less racism, though not much, somewhat more democracy, though limited, and so on. The SU also had similar reforms, accelerating in the 1990s, but without Gorbatchov, who had a misterious car accident after he tried to negotiate an unfavourable arms control deal with the two other powers. There was a transition towards more and more free market, though, which was far more successful than IOTL.
Germany managed to overthrow the Swiss government in favor of a pro-unity movement, so that Switzerland became part of the empire in 1953.
Spain followed in the 60s, and Portugal in the 70s. Ireland stayed neutral only due to American pressure. Sweden stayed a neutral buffer zone between East and "Middle", becoming an important hub for the exchange of goods and information between Britain, Germany, and the SU.
Southern and eastern Asia developed pretty similar to OTL.
With only Libyan, Norwegian, and Rumanian oil, Germany was far less "mobile" than the two other countries. Lots of effort was put into producing fuel from plants, and the likes. Still, cars were mainly for the rich, for business, and for the military.
The SU was much less of a threat than IOTL - no access to Ukrainian ressources and western Russian people caused a lot of limitations, not to mention the much more restricted access to Africa and other places.
###################################################
Travel between the major powers is severly restricted - and ordinary citizens aren't expected to travel anywhere but allied countries. Only the US managed to achieve some more liberal rules for their citizens, helped by the dollar-cravings of the other countries.
China is trying to become the fourth power, aided by Germany which sees better chances for survival with China as a counter to US-allied Japan and independent from the SU.
Genetic engineering is becoming more and more popular in all the more advanced countries - preselection of babies, sperm and egg donations from important people, even first efforts to modify the human genome, and so on.
Especially in Germany, one still shouldn't belong to any minority. Once there were nearly no Jews, Roma, Africans, Communists, and so on there anymore, hatred was directed towards other people - it is pretty dangerous not to be part of the majority of popular opinion making, for instance. Or strange. Or a loner. And so on. There was also new racism laws after the old ones became obsolete due to lack of minorities - blond, red haired, and dark haired people have to find similar partners. Blue, Green, and Brown eyed people the same. And so on. For the few people with rare combinations of features a problem. Not to mention countless love affairs ending in pain or even jail.
Technologically, each of the three super powers feel like being the number one. Germany leads in rockets, alloys, some chemistry, some engineering, some trade, some space fare, some military technology, and so on. The US leads in electronics, automatization, genetic engineering, some chemistry, some space fare, some engineering, some trade, some military technology, and so on. The SU leads in education, some engineering, some space fare, some military technology, and so on.
