Germany

Germany, aka the German Reich, officially the German State, is the most powerful country in the Europa Bund and possibly the most powerful in the world. Although the German nation harks back to medieval times, the current state was born from the reaction against Hitler´s attempted remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936.

When the French government set into effect *Operation Pharamond*, a small-scale military deployment that was nonetheless sufficient to stop the small German forces in their tracks, Hitler quickly lost the support of the more traditional reactionary forces that had brought him to power. A quickly assembled cabal of mid-ranking Nazis, military officers and conservative statesmen assembled behind General Ludwig Beck, the commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, to remove Hitler´s government from power and replace it with an emergency government. The emergency government was itself replaced by a more durable government after a new Frankfurt Convention that gave the Reich a government that owed much to the old German Empire without actually bringing the monarchy back.

In theory the Reich is a democratic republic, but in practice it is neither. While elections are held, the franchise is based on the old Prussian tiered tax system where the votes of the wealthy count for more than those of the poor, and those who are dependent on the state for relief are not permitted to vote. Female suffrage does not exist. But even this overstates the level of effectual democracy. In practice truly oppositional candidates are not permitted to stand except with some rare exceptions (chiefly in Hamburg and Berlin), and when they do do so they face difficulty accessing the media, bureaucratic harassment, electoral manipulation, and sometimes even open violence. Although the Reich´s government is squeamish about mass repression, tending to associate this with the discredited Hitlerist regime, it is not above using extra-legal means to silence critics. It is certainly not unknown for those who criticise the Reich to be assaulted, tortured or even murdered by "criminals", or sometimes to simply disappear. There are widespread rumours of "death flights" over the German Sea where dissidents are thrown into the water. One of the more morbid but enduring jokes is that the German sea is so-named because it has so many Germans in it. Although dissidents are relatively few, there is widespread apathy towards voting, and voter turnout rates are very low. The Gehlen-amt, in cooperation with the military, is generally held responsible for these measures.

The Reich is a federal state and cedes significant power to its regions. It generally keeps the same regional borders that existed under the Weimar republic with some minor adjustments, e.g. the inclusion of Danzig as its own *land*. Generally the Reich government exercises a benign reactionary neglect towards the regional governments, allowing substantial variation between them in terms of their economic policies, law enforcement etc etc. Internal toll barriers and regulatory misalignment is still quite significant. None of the states has an electoral franchise more widespread than the Reich´s, and some have laws that are even more restrictive. The few times state leaders have considered widening the franchise, they have been strongly discouraged from doing so, and none have yet had the confidence to go ahead.

The Reichstag is rarely a format for substantial debate, tending to simply rubber stamp whatever measures are placed before it by the government. Chancellors are appointed by the head of state, who is in turn elected by a very elaborate convention system on an *ad hoc* basis. In practice, the appointment of the government and its high level policies are in the hands of the *camarilla*, an informal clique of elder statesmen that descends from the kitchen cabinets of Wilhelm II and Hindenburg.

Although the Reich stepped back from the mass violence of the Hitler era, it does not offer any formal legal protection for minorities, and in practice they are often harassed or sanctioned by the state.

* Jews no longer experience mass state violence, although mob violence still exists and the authorities often turn a blind eye to it. Similarly Jews are very rarely selected for high office in state service or private companies, although there are some high profile exceptions. Existing laws, particularly those against corrupt business practices and communism (see below) are enforced with special zeal against Jews. Despite this, given the even more openly anti-semitic situation in the USSR, Poland and Romania, there has been a steady trickle of Jewish refugees into the Reich, particularly Berlin. The Reich takes a very dim view of this form of Jewish migration and many such would-be refugees are turned away at the border, but some manage to arrive.
* Roma are persecuted almost as harshly as they were under the Hitlerist regime and do not benefit from any of the quasi-tolerance that their Jewish neighbours do. Laws against vagrancy are used extremely fiercely to keep Roma communities weak and precarious.
* Communist parties are illegal and any public advocacy of communism or sharing of communist literature is a crime. Very little forbearance is exercised in this area, and there have been cases of professors being investigated for even mentioning Karl Marx in a neutral format. Mass arrests of communists, who are often accused of being Soviet spies, are quite common.
* Socialism and social democracy are not illegal but nor are they protected, and very often anti-communist laws are used against them. In theory there is no law against forming non-communist socialist organisations or parties but nobody is brave enough to try. Some of the few, scattered opposition politicians are broadly socialist in their outlook, but they generally have to be very careful to avoid doing or saying anything that even approaches communism.
* Labour unions are theoretically legal. In practice there are two "approved" labour unions, one christian and one secular, both of which are effectively tools for government management of industrial disputes. Workers trying to organise non-approved labour unions usually fall foul of anti-communist laws. The Reich´s distaste of large scale political violence has not prevented it from using police and even, on a few occasions, the military to end large scale strikes.
* Homosexuality is illegal. There is some limited tolerance for wealthy and well connected homosexuals as long as they are discrete, but it only goes so far.

German government, 1936-present:

* Head of State: 1936: Hitler; 1936: Ludwig Beck, 1936-1940: Franz Gurtner, 1940-1950: Oskar von Hindenburg, 1950-1958: Carl-Hans Graf von Hardenberg, 1958-1970: Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk, 1970-?: Dietrich von Hildebrand
* Chancellor: 1936: Hitler, 1936: Ludwig Beck, 1936-1940: Franz Gurtner, 1940-1948: Carl Goerdler, 1948-1955: Hjalmar Schact, 1955-1970; Albert Speer, 1970-?: Henning von Tresckow
* Foreign Minister: 1936-1945: Konstantin Freiherr von Neurath, 1945-1948: Albert Speer, 1948-1955: Marshal Alexander von Falkenhausen, 1955-1960: Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, 1960-1970: Hans-Herbert Herwarth von Bittenfeld, 1970-?: Heinz Kissinger
* Interior Minister: 1936: Wilhelm Frick, 1936: Werner von Fritsch, 1936-1940: Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord, 1940-1948: Konrad Adenauer, 1948-1955: Helmuth Graf von Moltke, 1955-1962: Franz Joseph Prinz von Hohenzollern-Emden, 1962-1965: Clemens de Maziere, 1965-?: Reinhard Heydrich