German Reich

National Flag of the German Reich (After 1951), Formerly the Imperial War Flag

The **German Reich** [German: *Deutsches Reich*], is a country occupying the center of Europe. The Reich is a Conservo-Fascist one-party monarchy. It consists of

In the wake of the Soviet War, the German Reich is often considered one of the world's great powers. The German Reich is also one of the leaders of the Rome Pact, alongside its ally Fascist Italy.

The German Reich is a one party state under the rule of *Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten* (The Steelhelmet, League of Front Soldiers). Starting off as a veterans league, the Stahlhelm grew into Germany's largest fascist force for most of the Weimar period. Allied with Chancellor Franz von Papen, after the German Civil War the Stahlhelm became the official paramilitary of the state, and acted as a Gendarme. After the end of the Soviet War, many war-veterans were demobilized and entered into the Stahlhelm as part-time members. This swelled the ranks of the league, and made its leader Franz Seldte more and more powerful. Chancellor Franz von Papen began to view Seldte as a dangerous rival. The tension between the two came to a head in 1951 with the Stahlhelm Coup which saw Papen removed from power via a public declaration of condemnation by the young Kaiser Wilhelm IV.

## History

The modern German Reich began with Franz von Papen's dissolution of the German Reichstag September 12th, 1932. Germany was embroiled in chaos after the financial crash of 1929 and the subsequent rise of Hitler's Nazis and German communists. After von Papen successfully dissolved the Reichstag, he was able to successfully push through his planned constitutional reforms, whose emergency powers and electoral law changes made Papen a dictator in all but name. Papen reorganized the *Reichsrat* (Council of the Realm), the upper chamber of the legislature. Instead of the constituent members being appointed by the federal states of the Reich, they were instead appointed by the Chancellor personally. The Reichsrat was also given legislative authority, with the ability to supercede the Reichstag in the passing of legislation, and to even create it itself if the Reichstag was deemed "incapable" of fulfilling its duties.

By December, violence by the Nazi SA and the Communists had increased tenfold across the country, and both parties walked out of the Reichstag. Papen then on December 11th declared the Reichstag incapable of preforming its duties, transferred legislative duties to the Reichsrat, who were at this point filled with pro-Papen members (DNVP, Der Stahlhelm, DVP, and right-wing Zentrum), with the Reichstag effectively being stripped of any real power. The Reichsrat and Papen then began to unleash a flury of new legislation. They banned all demonstrations, at the same time deputized the paramilitary *Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten* as official members of the police.

The German Reich is a nation ruled by soldiers. In the aftermath of the Stahlhelm Coup in 1951, the Reich was reorganized into the *Stahlhelmstaat* (state of the Stahlhelm), the long time goal of *Der Stahlhelm*, the large paramilitary group which had acted as the nations' veterans group and Gendarme under Papen's Reich. Soldiers and veterans were made into the ruling class of the nation. All civil service positions were to be only open to veterans. Active duty soldiers were made unprosecutable by civilian law, and only subject to military law. The Reich's corporatist model of government was slightly reorganized, with