Iron Cross Coup

The **Iron Cross Coup** was an event that saw the overthrow of the Veergen-SS dominated government of the Weltreich during the Greater Decade's War. The coup was carried out by the Reichsheer-loyal "Iron League" lead by general Wolfgang Grutzberg, who was the main leader and backer behind the coup. The Coup was planned to kill Weltführer Vustark van Veergen in his secret bunker in Tunisia and blame the SS for high treason and trying to take control. The coup would successfully do so albeit with the survival of Veergen.

## Planning

The plans for the coup originally began with general Wolfgang Grutzberg who along with many others were sick and disgusted by the recent actions of the SS-dominated Veergen regime. They had grown tired of the constant ill-treatment against the Reichsheer and favouring of the Waffen-SS. Outrage would spark with the sacking of former lieutenant general Ludwig Wexler. Wexler had defended the Reich multiple times and devoted nearly every day working to improve it, all for naught and his sacking by Veergen, under the influence of the SS, would see Wexler along with other angry generals to join the ranks of the newly formed Iron League. Under Grutzberg, the IL was able to expand it's ranks even more while remaining secret to the SS. They decided the best way to end this madness would be to destroy it's source, Veergen. The plans were to secretly assassinate him and claim that the SS were behind it, outraging the people and remaining neutral army. The IL would then take control, defeating the SS and hopefully win the war with all the nation's efforts focused on the army. The plans also hoped for field marshal Carolus Ironhard to become involved but he would deny indentations. After much revamping and revisiting, they still needed to know were Veergen was and how to deal with Ragnarr von Thorheim, leader of the SS and Veergen's puppeteer. They were hoping that Thorheim was with Veergen and that they could capture him as well but the more information they got, it showed that Thorheim actually wasn't with Veergen much often anymore, spending most of his time in an unknown location. Now the IL had to figure out were both Veergen and Thorheim are. Luckily for them, Hardrada von Oberland, a former SS-Colonel General, knew were they both where. Veergen was stationed in his Weltfuhrerbunker located in the southern deserts of Tunisia, North Africa. Hardrada also told of Thorheim's locations, leading the SS from his castle Adlerland, Bavarian Alps. The plan wasn't finished yet, they needed to still revamp their information and planning, nothing can go wrong. They decided to kill Veergen in his bunker and at the same time, have a large army fight the SS in Bavaria and their other strongholds including, Rhineland, Netherlands, Stockholm and Burgundy. General Fritz Orndorff would lead the siege upon Adlerland Castle. Wexler would reclaim the Rhineland, Burgundy and lowlands from SS rule. Major-General Gerd Hatten along with Klaus Böhmer would besiege Stockholm and remaining SS forces in Scandinavia. Grutzberg would command the main forces that would take and kill Veergen. The plans were finished, now was the time to execute. The Nuuks were coming and with every passing day, the SS grew stronger. Just before the plan began, the SS through interrogation and torture found out of the plan, coincidentally, the SS had a plan like that but now, now they knew what was coming and now they knew what to do.

## Initiation

On April 12th, 2998, the plan was enacted.

## List of main members of the Iron Cross Coup

* General, later Field Marshal, Wolfgang Grutzberg - main leader of the coup
* Colonel General Alden Crackling - Conspirator and Grutzberg's second in command, died before the coup was executed
* General, later Field Marshal, Fritz Orndorff - Conspirator, became second in command following Crackling's death and the commander of the armies that besieged Adlerland Castle
* Foreign Minister Edward Humble - Conspirator
* Former Colonel General Hardrada von Oberland - Former high-ranking SS officer and later conspirator
* Head-Scientists Corilus Heidelberg - Conspirator
* August Weiß - Conspirator
* Klaus Böhmer - Conspirator and close ally of Grutzberg
* General Gerd Hatten - Conspirator
* Manfred Horstmann - Conspirator
* General Wilfried von Hellsenberg - Conspirator
* Grand Admiral Obert Wöltz - Conspirator
* Air Marshal Karl Herzing - Conspirator

## In Films and Media

The Iron Cross Coup was remained famous in popular culture, being the main subject point of multiple Nuuk and Australasian movies, documentaries and television shows. While very popular in the Nuuk Empire and the ACC, it remains a semi-popular subject in the Weltreich, it's seen more of a weird point in Reich history. The Reich was against itself and sometimes, citizens don't know how to react to the topic but nevertheless, it remains famous.