Greater German Reich

The Flag of the NSDAP and The Greater German Reich

Official Name: Greater German Reich

Ruling Party: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party)

Ideology: National Socialism

Führer: Adolf Hitler

The **Greater German Reich** (German: *Großdeutsches Reich*) strongest and most powerful nation the world has ever known... Or at least, so it seems. In reality, victory over the Soviet Union has only delayed the inevitable for the Reich: Tensions between the SS and the Wehrmacht are higher than ever, even as the SS itself dissolves to infighting between the Heydrich and Himmler cliques.

The economy is at a standstill, the officer corps is overblown and useless, the navy is over budget yet under efficiency, and Hitler is nearing his deathbed with no clear successor in sight. All while a mysterious string of assassinations rocks the corrupt bureaucracy, spreading fear and panic. It would truly take a miracle to bring the evil state back from the brink...

It is never revealed who is actually behind the series of assassinations against the most heinous criminals of the Nazi regime, ranging from Oskar Dirlewanger to Josef Mengele. Is it the result of Heydrich and Himmler trying to kill off each other's support base? The Wehrmacht taking matters into their own hands to weaken SS influence across Germany? A plot by Bormann to increase panic and give himself an excuse to seize power? Hans Oster initiating phase one of his plan to dismantle the Nazi regime from the inside? Or is it really all just the work of highly skilled Polish underground resistance fighters, possibly aided by the Toronto Accords?

## **In-Game**

#### **Colonies**

At the very best, the Untermensch are treated as slaves, constantly reminded of Aryan superiority over their race, and allowed to reproduce only to produce more workers and laborers. At worst, SS squads will roam the countryside, executing entire villages on sight, while bombers make nightly trips to bomb Slavic civilization into nonexistence, all to make room for Aryan settlement.

#### **Economy**

Germany's economy is not in good shape, thanks to all the wars and the continuous war in the east against a massive partisan insurgency. In addition, since they're not invading new countries any more they can't keep looting them, and they're boycotted by the west in terms of trade.

#### **Power Struggle**

After Hitler's death, the Nazi Party power struggle will almost always escalate into civil war (unless the player is skillful enough and makes sufficient compromises to avoid it, and even then, success is highly reliant on luck). The three primary contending factions in the civil war are the German government (gathering most of the Nazi party government, led by whomever emerged victorious from the power struggles), the Schutzstaffel Ordensstaat (the forces of the fanatical Nazi paramilitary Schutzstaffel under Himmler), and the Emergency Wehrstaat (a military junta of Wehrmacht officials led by Manstein).

As the civil war continues, resistance movements in occupied nations will seize the opportunity to launch uprisings, and if the civil war drags on, the German Resistance can gain enough support to launch an uprising, establishing their own contender dubbed People's Germany — and potentially quickly snowballing against the exhausted other factions.

If the Nazi Party power struggle becomes too excessive, the Wehrmacht or the SS paramilitary can coup the government to impose order (leading the player down the Emergency Wehrstaat or the Schutzstaffel Ordensstaat). The coups will almost guarantee the outbreak of the German Civil War.