Nazi Germany

**Nazi Germany** (officially known as the **German Reich** from 1933 until 1943, and the **Greater German Reich** (German: *Großgermanisches Reich*) from 1943 to 1945), fully styled the **Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation** (German: *Großgermanisches Reich deutscher Nation*), is the official German state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany established in Europe during World War II and if they won in an alternate universe. From 1933, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a Authoritarian-Totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government and the party. The **Third Reich**, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the **Thousand-Year Reich**, With its capital in Berlin, the German Reich dominates the entirety of the European and African continents, and used to control the majority of americas.

The Nazi Party became the largest party in parliament following the July 1932 German federal election, but it did not hold a majority, and could not form a majority coalition to elect Hitler chancellor of Germany, the head of government. By the constitution of the Weimar Republic, in those circumstances the Chancellor could be appointed by the president and head of state, Paul von Hindenburg, who subsequently appointed Hitler to the office on 30 January 1933, on behest of right-wing politicians and industrialists.

Early into Hitler's chancellorship the Reichstag Building caught fire, which his government responded to by passing the Reichstag Fire Decree, leading to the suppression of civil liberties. On 23 March 1933, the Enabling Act was enacted to give Hitler's government the power to make and enforce laws without the involvement of the Reichstag or president. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the offices and powers of the chancellery and presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as the sole *Führer* (leader) of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitler's person and his word became the highest law. The government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitler's favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. Using deficit spending, the regime undertook a massive secret rearmament program, forming the ***Wehrmacht*** (armed forces), and constructed extensive public works projects, including the *Autobahnen* (motorways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.

Racism, Nazi eugenics, and especially antisemitism, were central ideological features of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the master race, the purest branch of the Aryan race. Discrimination and the persecution of Jews and Romani people began in earnest after the seizure of power. The first concentration camps were established in March 1933. Jews, liberals, socialists, communists, and other political opponents and undesirables were imprisoned, exiled, or murdered. Christian churches and citizens that opposed Hitler's rule were oppressed and many leaders imprisoned. Education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed. Recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased Germany on the international stage. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotic oratory to influence public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others.

From the latter half of the 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if these were not met. The Saarland voted by plebiscite to rejoin Germany in 1935, and in 1936 Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized after World War I. Germany seized Austria in the *Anschluss* of 1938, and demanded and received the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia in that same year. In March 1939, the Slovak state was proclaimed and became a client state of Germany, and the German Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was established on the remainder of the occupied Czech Lands. Shortly after, Germany pressured Lithuania into ceding the Memel Territory. Germany signed a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union and invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. By late 1942, Germany and its European allies in the Axis powers controlled much of Europe and North Africa. Extended offices of the *Reichskommissariat* took control of Nazi-conquered areas and a German administration was established in the remainder of Poland. Germany exploited the raw materials and labour of both its occupied territories and its allies.

Genocide, mass murder, and large-scale forced labour became hallmarks of the regime. Starting in 1939, hundreds of thousands of German citizens with mental or physical disabilities were murdered in hospitals and asylums. *Einsatzgruppen* paramilitary death squads accompanied the German armed forces inside the occupied territories and conducted the genocide of millions of Jews and other Holocaust victims. After 1941, millions of others were imprisoned, worked to death, or murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps. This genocide is known as the Holocaust.

Following the success of Operation Sealion and Barbarossa, the Axis launching a two prong assault on both the East and West Coasts in mid-1945. Just as in our timeline, the Reich began a nuclear weapons program in the 1940s, led by Dr. Werner Heisenberg. However, in this timeline, the Nazis succeeded in creating two operational Nuclear atomic bombs, dubbed the "Heisenberg Device" and "Der Bestrafer", by 1945. Finally, on December 11th, 1945, "Der Bestrafer", annihilated Manhattan, New York City by Luftwaffe pilot Peter Trumbauer, and the "Heisenberg Device" missed Washington D.C but it was enough to forced the United States, the last free nation of the world, to surrender thus ending World War II in a Axis ultimate victory or Endsieg.

The Nazi German Reich is presented as the more powerful and technologically advanced of the superpowers, and is in a state of war with Z-Tech, US, and their democratic successor state of Germany. Under the Nazi Party, Germany has became a Unitary Nazi one-party fascist state under a Authoritarian-Totalitarian Military dictatorship.

## History

By the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles began, on June 28, 1919. Being the primary belligerent of the losing side, Germany suffered harsh and humiliating terms, including crippling war reparations, near complete disarmament, numerous territorial concessions, and admission of guilt for causing the war. In September 19, 1919, Adolf Hitler, a World War 1 veteran, joined a small political party at a beer hall in Munich, Germany. Under Adolf Hitler, the German Worker's Party (German: *Deutsche Arbeiterpartei*, abbreviated **DAP**) later was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: *Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei*, abbreviated **NSDAP**), or later on Nazi Party.

Hitler based the Nazi platform on reversing the Treaty of Versailles, restrengthening the nation, and on a stab-in-the-back (*Dolchstoßlegende*) notion that the German military did not "lose" the war but was rather betrayed at a critical moment by traitorous civilians (Communists, Jews), thereby causing the war effort to fail. These policies proved popular among those embittered by the Treaty. The Great Depression allowed the party's popularity to grow even faster as impoverished Germans flocked to Hitler's banner. The Nazi Party grew steadily until it became the largest political entity in the Weimar Republic in 1933.

Having more seats than any other party in the *Reichstag* (the legislative body of the Republic) Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor (*Reichskanzler*) in January 30, 1933. The NSDAP quickly moved to silence all opposition to its power by passing the Enabling Act of 1933. This act spelled the end of the Weimar Republic by granting Chancellor Hitler emergency powers, abolishing all other political parties, and stripping away almost all powers of the *Reichstag*. After the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg (who was all but a figurehead at this point) on 2 August 1934, Hitler had became the sole leader and Dictator of Germany by merging the offices and powers of the chancellery and presidency. A national referendum held 19 August 1934 merged the offices of **Reichspräsident** and **Reichskanzler**, and declared Hitler the ***Führer and Reichskanzler***, although Hitler was more commonly referred to as *Der Führer* (The Leader) thus making him both the head of State and Government altogether. In this new government, Hitler wielded absolute power and German bureaucracy became a collection of factions "working towards the Führer": Hitler issued vague instructions on many policies and expected his subordinates to work the details out on their own.

In the mist of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment with massive military spending and extensive public work projects, such as the continued construction of the Autobahn (high speed highways). These acts boosted the regime's popularity. Driven by a desire to avenge the punishments of the First World War and its hated Treaty of Versailles, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive military actions (much to the dismay of many of the German military high command). First, in 1935, the state reintroduced mass conscription, transformed the **Reichswehr** (Reich Defense) into the **Wehrmacht** (Defence Force), and in 1936 it moved to occupy the Rhineland region (a demilitarized zone); both actions constituted direct violations of the Treaty. Then, in 1938, it annexed Austria (the 'Anschluss') and through the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland as well, a German-speaking region in Czechoslovakia before conquering the rest in 1939, pushing Europe ever closer to war. Finally, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland, igniting World War II, as both France and the United Kingdom declared war against Germany to defend Poland's sovereignty.

### World War II

It can be assumed the Second World War proceded as it did in the timeline up until mid-1940, with Germany successfully conquering Poland by the end of September 1939, followed by Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France by June 1940. The discovery of a secret placement of Da'at Yichud where the German soldiers stole the secrets inside the placement. All the information was given to General Wilhelm Strasse, where he could develop his advanced weapons for the German Reich at his fortified compound. Wehrmacht has enjoyed many victories, seizing the Suez Canal and repelling Operation Overlord being chief among them, and is undergoing a heavy reconstruction, with new, incredibly advanced weaponry being deployed and field-tested throughout Greater Germany. Furthermore, SS officers, historically ridiculed and often if not always less successful than their Wehrmacht counterparts, are arbitrarily put in charge of entire districts as the border between the Waffen-SS, the Party Paramilitary Wing, and the Wehrmacht, the national military, become more and more intertwined. As the Soviet Union burns under the relentless advance of the German troops and the Caucasus falls, Rommel is mentioned pulling the unbelievable stunt of launching the ground invasion of the British Raj, striking at the Crown Jewel of the British Empire. Meanwhile, the Kriegsmarine won the Battle of the Atlantic, crippling the Western war effort, and reached the Pacific to give the U.S. and Royal Navies a sound beating. By 1948, the USSR has capitulated, with Stalin M.I.A. and the last resistance pockets retreating in Siberia, China has been occupied, India has presumably already fallen and Canada has been occupied entirely. The other Axis powers, including Finland, the Free State of Croatia, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdoms of Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary have been Supplied by Germany and were made stronger, In 1944, the Allies attempted to liberate mainland Europe by landing troops in Normandy, France, but were repelled. The D-Day invasion was a military disaster, with a total of 156,000 Allies killed in action, while only 89 German troops were killed. In 1946, the Allies attempted to assault Deathshead's Compound, but this attack also ended in a resounding defeat. The war would continue for another two years into 1948, Just as in our timeline, the Reich began a nuclear weapons program in the 1940s, led by Dr. Werner Heisenberg. However, in this timeline, the Nazis succeeded in creating two operational Nuclear atomic bombs, dubbed the "Heisenberg Device" and "Der Bestrafer", by 1945. Finally, on December 21st, 1948, "Der Bestrafer", annihilated Manhattan, New York City by Luftwaffe pilot Peter Trumbauer, and the "Heisenberg Device" missed Washington D.C but it was enough to forced the United States, the last free nation of the world, to surrender thus ending World War II in a Axis ultimate victory or Endsieg.

The Greater German Reich employed a policy of genocide and enslavement against non-Aryan peoples, with both Jews and Black people being particular targets. By the 1960s, none are present in Reich territory. The Reich teaches that this genocide is a continuation of previous American policies, for instance slavery and the genocide of American Indians. However it is not honest about the extent of the exterminations - for instance, in schools children are taught that Black people were resettled to their 'homelands' in Africa.

### 1946-1961: Global Dominance

By 1960, Hitler's Third Reich is a world spanning empire, which includes all of Europe, the majority of Eurasia, much of North Africa and a vast military operation dedicated to the conquest of the African continent, the United States, possibly portions of South America, and territories in Manchuria and Korea are under the Empire of Japan, and the Medititerranean sea and the Mediterranean Basin under the Italian Empire, while South Africa remained nominally independent as of 1960. Controlling a claimed 75% of habitable territory as their "Lebensraum" (in itself a virulently racist term used to sanction any atrocity to expand controlled territory), the Reich was the undisputed master of the 1950's. Having run out of Earth to conquer, the Reich has set their sights beyond Earth and colonies on the Moon and Venus have been established to effect the spread of the Nazi ideology across the inner Solar System and beyond.

In the most grandest irony of all human history, all this technological achievment was made possible by cracking the secrets of Da'at Yichud, a Jewish sect of master creators, whose achievements were used by Deathshead and his successors to develop highly advanced robotics, anti-gravity vehicles, directed energy weapons, crack genetics, attempt climate control, and, as mentioned, begin large scale colonization of the Solar System. While these technologies would create an utopian reality in saner hands, the Nazis used it to impose their twisted, horrific ideology on the world, carrying out genocide on an unspeakable scale and erecting their concrete edifices on the bones of the peoples ground into dust. Jews were the first to be targeted, and many more followed them into the ovens by 1960.

Adolf Hitler, following his victory in World War II, was elevated to a godlike status in Nazi propaganda. While Hitler has actually retired from the public eye due to ill health, leaving the day-to-day functions of the Reich to various subordinates such as the Überkommandants and notable figures in powerful ministerial positions such as Wilhelm Strasse. Below him are paramilitary groups such as the Schutzstaffel, which appears to have been merged with or had outright replaced the Wehrmacht, judging by the SS runes that appear on most German soldiers. The SS became the single most powerful organization within the structure of Nazi Germany, absorbing other organizations outright or maintaining control of them (like the Gestapo). Other newly created governmental positions such as the Ministry of Advanced Research are also mentioned to be active within the Reich. The Wehrmacht does still exist in some case (like the africa front) but has mostly been controlled by the SS or by deathshead altogether.

### 1961-1980: Decline

Despite having most of the world in their grasp, the Nazi empire was not impervious to harm. With nothing to lose, resistance movements continued the fight against the fascists, including the Kreisau Circle, Black Revolutionary Front, American Resistance, the Maquis, Soviet resistance fighters, and many more. New cells formed overnight, as the Nazi brutality persisted - and the shift to "*peacetime*" footing after defeating the world's major nations led to a rise of carelessness and arrogance in Nazi ranks. Even their most powerful and secure machines and facilities like the *Ausmerzer* or the *Oberkommando* on Venus were riddled with security flaws, apparently with the assumption, that no unauthorized personnel would ever come near them.

At the apex of their power, in 1960, the Nazis made a critical mistake: They underestimated their opponents. Believing themselves to be genuinely superior and undefeatable, the Nazis let their guard down which sealed their fate and their reich. The return of B.J. Blazkowicz that same year was the catalyst for the destabilization of the Nazi regime and the global reich. B.J. liberated Kreisau fighters from a Berlin concentration camp, the Eisenwald Prison, linking up with the Berlin cell and leading a series of precise strikes at critical parts of their operations. Nazis' carelessness and pathological inability to respect their opponents intellectually allowed the Kreisau Circle to not only severely damage the London Nautica and impact numerous critical programs, but also take control of Eva's Hammer and infiltrate the Nazi lunar base, which eventually culminated in the second assault on Deathshead's compound and its destruction, together with the infamous Wilhelm Strasse, the malevolent genius responsible for Nazi successes in World War II.

The Nazi's grip on the world begins to loosen as the death and destruction of Deathshead and his compound crippled their entire Research Division and deprived the Nazi empire of one of the only leaders capable of respecting their foes. Irene Engel, rewarded by Nazi leadership with rule over North America after her mauling at Camp Belica, survived Deathshead and was capable of accurately estimating Nazi opponents and even outwitting them (as was the case with B.J., lured to Mesquite, Texas, and captured there). However, she dropped her guard after B.J.'s execution, allowing the resistance to take the initiative by assassinating her on Live Television and eventually launch the Second American Revolution - after destroying the Oberkommando on Venus, taking out key Übercommanders across North America, and adding the *Ausmerzer* to its arsenal. The loss of North America and its immense reserves of manpower, resources, infrastructure, and other imperial essentials weakened the Nazi empire considerably.

What did it in was the assassination of Adolf Hitler in the late 1960s by B.J. The loss of the retired leader deprived the Nazis of a unifying symbol, fracturing Nazi leadership and leading to the emergence of cliques vying for control over the Empire and two decades of struggle, as the empire frayed at the edges. By 1980, Nazi Germany was no longer a global power. A series of defeats, rebellions, and ongoing wars consuming ever increasing amounts of men and materiel has left the regime a shadow of its former self. The space colonization program was shuttered and the Reich withdrew from many of its colonial conquests. The former Soviet Union was abandoned, but not before being viciously bombarded with nuclear weapons to prevent any sort of habitation there, while the Afrika Korps, once on the cusp of dominating the continent, were forced to retreat and assume a defensive posture in North Africa. The North African Front became an endless battlefield, fed men and materiel unceasingly for four decades by 1980. The front also gave birth to one of the most credible threats to humanity, General Lothar Brandt. Celebrated by Nazi propaganda as an African hero, Brandt was determined to take power and replace the SS and the Berlin establishment he saw as incompetent. Considering himself to be the true heir of Adolf Hitler, Brandt founded the Fourth Reich, a clandestine military organization to wrest control of the Nazi empire from Berlin and the SS. He began with a coup to revitalize the Gestapo and take control of it, with the intention of using it against his foes. By 1980, the Gestapo in Neu-Paris was completely independent of the Nazi imperial power structure, allegedly running things more smoothly than the SS could ever hope for.

### 1980-: Fourth Reich

By 1980, the Reich's control shrunk to just Europe, under the rule of an Unnamed Reichskanzler as head of state with the title of "*Der Führer"* reserved symbolically for the long-deceased Hitler.

While the government in Berlin remains the formally in control, infighting between various factions has caused widespread instability within Germany and Europe. Although Nazi Germany continues to view other nations with contempt and disdain, in particular the reborn United States, this instability and territorial losses rendered it largely incapable of waging offensive war again, becoming a defanged predator. The Apocalypse unleashed by Hitler's assassination, created as a side-effect of Hitler building a doomsday device that would be activated as a failsafe should he be assassinated or killed, is largely ignored, passed off as naturally extreme weather patterns. Rather than prepare for it, the Reich has decided to shut down its European borders, turn away refugees, and pretend nothing is happening - aside from toying with the idea of declaring the extreme weather periods as a new, fifth yearly season, the *Sturmzeit*.

Berlin's attempts to put Lothar and his Fourth Reich down were unsuccessful. Despite a brutal attack against Lothar by loyalist forces sent from Betlin, Brandt escaped with his concubine into the underground, posing as French resistance fighters and taking over the Parisian cells. Manipulating the unaware Blazkowicz twins with Juju, Lothar resecured his control over Neu-Paris by eliminating key officers loyal to Berlin. Coupled with new setbacks, including a major defeat at the Strait of Gibraltar, the situation was ripe for a coup and Brandt eventually pulled the trigger. His real goal was to try to initiate Operation Accession by using the Da'at Yichud's inter-dimensional gate to escape the dying Earth, abandoning humanity and subjugating another dimension.

While his coup is initially successful and Brandt was briefly installed as Hitler's rightful successor, the Blazkowicz twins survived the purge of the resistance. They counter-attacked and killed Brandt atop the Siegturm, liberating Paris. His ally General Messer succeeded him as Führer of The Fourth Reich and began preparations for a retaliatory attack on Paris.

### Flags and Emblems

Swastika (Symbol of Nazism)Nazi Eagle of the Third ReichNazi FlagThe Nazi flag was designed by Hitler as his party's flag in 1920. It features a simple red field, with a white disk, and at the center: a black swastika at a 45 degree angle.

The Nazi swastika is a prominent symbol in the Reich, appearing on many properties and civil products such as phone booths. Soldiers (especially those of the SS) and police officers wear swastika armbands. Nazi officials typically wear a lapel that has the swastika on it. It represents the Aryan race and the Black Sun.

Presumably, Nazi puppet regimes incorporate the swastika in their flags as well.

## Governmental Structure

Nazi Germany is organized as a unitary nazi one-party fascist state, ruled by a authoritarian-totalitarian military dictatorship that tries to exercise total control over society and, ideally, the world. The toxic Nazi ideology of Nazism or National Socialism combines virulent racism with Anti-Semitism, eugenics, and Pan-Germanism with the goal of creating a German hegemony over the world and hell for everyone else. Something that would lead to their downfall and a motive for the resistance act against, with defections happening to some germans who never accepted nazism and began to side with the resistance by letting some groups survive no matter what the party says.

Who was considered German? Rejecting the notion of citizenship equating nationality, the Nazis embraced bizarre, pseudo-scientific notions of race. Blood determined who was German (*Deutsche*) and through it, a member of the mystical *Volk* of Aryan peoples. Anyone of German blood (usually meaning having German ancestry and culture; despite trying for years, Nazis couldn't find any scientific basis for their racial ideas, as there was none) could be a member of the *Volk*. Related peoples, like Scandinavians (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians etc.) or West Europeans (French, Dutch, Brits etc.) were also considered Germanic. Many other Europeans were borderline cases, determined according to the current political needs of the Reich.

Those not considered German faced fates worse than death. The *Untermenschen* (subhumans) encompassed the vast majority of the global population, including Slavs, Romani, Africans, and especially Jews or people of Jewish blood. Many would be murdered outright by Nazi death squads or herded into concentration camps to be killed after being exploited as slaves. Due to their overwhelming successes, organized extermination campaigns seem to have taken a backseat, in favor of brutal exploitation, and then death: Instead of being killed immediately, they are killed *after* propping up the Nazi regime through forced labor, as per the tradition of European colonialism.

However, even when one belongs to the privileged group of overlords, they tread a very fine line. The Nazis use total surveillance and a vast network of informants to enforce conformity. Anyone found deviating from the Nazi ideal will very quickly find themselves shipped off to a concentration camp to die, in particular LGBT people, under the repressive Paragraph 175.

There is little freedom of speech or press. The media is regulated to promote Nazi principles and ideologies. Schools, youth groups and other educational institutions are also designed to serve this purpose amongst the young. Possession of outlawed or “degenerate” media is met with harsh punishment. Religion is regulated, and the regime appears to be atheistic, or has adopted a racialized form of Germanic Paganism. In our world, while the Nazis never made any official public condemnation of religion, it was a long term goal to eventually subsume all religions (particularly Christianity) and replace them with a National Socialist ideal, which took its roots from a quasi-Germanic Pagan standpoint.

National Socialist ideology combined racial hygiene (racial purity), Anti-Semitism, eugenics, and Pan-Germanism with the goal of creating a German hegemony over the world. Racism, particularly Anti-Semitism, was a core pillar of the regime. The Nazis promoted what they called the "Aryan Race" or "Master Race", which was an ideal superior human, identified by light blue eyes, light blode hair, light white skin and a tall stature height. These people were descendants of Scandinavia (Swedes, Danes, etc.) and Western Europe (Germans, Dutch, British, etc.) Southern Europeans (Spanish, Italians, Greeks, etc.), while not heavily discriminated against, are still viewed as inferior to Aryans. *Untermenschen* (sub-humans) included Slavs, Romani, Africans, and particularly Jews or people of jewish blood. Most of these peoples were not considered worthy of life and were only meant to be dominated, segregated, enslaved, or exterminated, the latter four would Inevitably cause huge resistance and rebellions to grow beyond their might and will come back hard on them.

Asiatic peoples rested somewhere in between these groups but were still considered inferior to Aryans. The Japanese appear to have escaped this classification, at least by Hitler, who bestowed the title of, "Honorary Aryan" to the entire Japanese people (most likely to appease his powerful allies). Many other high-ranking Nazis, however, do not share this sentiment.

Chillingly, the Nazis have (very likely) all but completed their "Final Solution" in their territories, leaving ethnic groups such as Jews, Slavs, and Romani nearly extinct. So far all scenes in Nazi-controlled America do not indicate that any non-white, non-Aryan people (save for the Japanese) reside there at all. Other peoples deemed unworthy of life by the Nazis included the mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals, and "social misfits."

### organizations

Other newly created governmental positions such as the Ministry of Advanced Research are also mentioned to be active within the Reich, Solely placed under the control of Deathshead to continue the Reich's scientific advancements.

According to Airship station at Brother 2 tower in New Paris, outside of Germany, the cities of London, Lisbon, Bacău, Rome, Uppsala, Moscow, Lyon, Kiyv, Athens, Vienna, Antwerp, and most of Europe have Airship station with flight lines and are supposedly under Nazi control.

## Geography

### Territorial changes

Main article: Territorial evolution of Germany

As a result of their defeat in World War I and the resulting Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost Alsace-Lorraine, Northern Schleswig, and Memel. The Saarland became a protectorate of France under the condition that its residents would later decide by referendum which country to join, and Poland became a separate nation and was given access to the sea by the creation of the Polish Corridor, which separated Prussia from the rest of Germany, while Danzig was made a free city.

Germany regained control of the Saarland through a referendum held in 1935 and annexed Austria in the *Anschluss* of 1938. The Munich Agreement of 1938 gave Germany control of the Sudetenland, and they seized the remainder of Czechoslovakia six months later. Under threat of invasion by sea, Lithuania surrendered the Memel district in March 1939.

Between 1939 and 1941, German forces invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Greece, and the Soviet Union. Germany annexed parts of northern Yugoslavia in April 1941, while Mussolini ceded Trieste, South Tyrol, and Istria to Germany in 1943.

### Occupied territories

Some of the conquered territories were incorporated into Germany as part of Hitler's long-term goal of creating a Greater Germanic Reich. Several areas, such as Alsace-Lorraine, were placed under the authority of an adjacent *Gau* (regional district). The *Reichskommissariate* (Reich Commissariats), quasi-colonial regimes, were established in some occupied countries. Areas placed under German administration included the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, *Reichskommissariat Ostland* (encompassing the Baltic states and Belarus), and *Reichskommissariat Ukraine*. Conquered areas of Belgium and France were placed under control of the Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France. Belgian Eupen-Malmedy, which had been part of Germany until 1919, was annexed. Part of Poland was incorporated into the Reich, and the General Government was established in occupied central Poland. The governments of Denmark, Norway (*Reichskommissariat Norwegen*), and the Netherlands (*Reichskommissariat Niederlande*) were placed under civilian administrations staffed largely by natives. Hitler intended to eventually incorporate many of these areas into the Reich. Germany occupied the Italian protectorate of Albania and the Italian governorate of Montenegro in 1943 and installed a puppet government in occupied Serbia in 1941.

## Administrative divisions of Nazi Germany

The ***Gaue*** (Singular: *Gau*) were the main administrative divisions of Nazi Germany from 1934 to 1945.

The *Gaue* were formed in 1926 as Nazi Party regional districts in Weimar Germany based on the territorial changes after the First World War. The *Gau* system was established in 1934 as part of the *Gleichschaltung* process, replacing the *de jure* system of *Länder* (states) and Prussian provinces, which held no administrative purpose since the Enabling Act of 1933 and were reduced to rudimentary bodies. Each *Gau* was headed by an administrative leader, the *Gauleiter*, a high-ranking Nazi Party official with near-autocratic powers.

Germany consisted of 32 *Gaue* in 1934, eventually peaking at 42 *Gaue* with regions occupied in 1938 to early 1939 (Austria, Sudetenland, Memelland) and conquered during the Second World War incorporated into existing *Gaue* or organised as *Reichsgaue*, a special type of *Gau* where the *Gauleiter* also carried the position of *Reichsstatthalter*. Due to the number of *Gaues* in the Greater Reich, the Reichsrat was restored on the same month it was dissolved to manage all *Gaues*

### *Gaue*, *Reichsgaue* and *Länder*

The *Gaue* existed parallel to the German states, the *Länder*, and Prussian provinces throughout the Nazi period. *Pro forma*, the Administrative divisions of Weimar Germany were left in place. The plan to abolish the *Länder* was ultimately given up because Hitler shrank away from structural reforms, a so-called *Reichsreform*, fearing it would upset local party leaders. For the same reason, the borders of the *Gaue* remained unchanged within Germany throughout this time. The *Gaue* were only enlarged through the adding of occupied territories after 1938. While the *Länder* continued to exist, the real power on local level did lie with the *Gauleiters*, not the *Minister Presidents* of the German states. The *Gauleiters* were directly appointed by Hitler and only answerable to him. In practice, interference from above was rare and their power almost absolute.

## Ideology

Central to the Greater Germanic Reich is the idea that the German people, and by extension, the Aryan race are chosen by God himself, and are inherently physically and intellectually superior to all other races, with various other races often relegated to slavery by the Reich at best (in the case of the African-American population of the American Territories), or mass extermination in concentration camps at the worst (in the case of the Jewish population worldwide). By 1961, the idea of German culture being inherently superior to all others has taken an extreme turn, with cultural assimilation projects being undertaken by the Reich. These range from subtle influencing, such as in Korea, where locals are supposedly prompted to abandon all aspects of Buddhist and East Asian culture in favor of Germanization and the technological advancement it brings, or outright enforcement, such as in the American Territories, where plans to enforce mandatory speaking of the German language in public under pain of re-education or death are being undertaken. Food across the world has been gradually Germanized, local staples such as fish and chips in Britain are denigrated and dismissed as being inferior, while select 'foreign' food such as the hamburger are fused with German ingredients. Traditional 'authentic' German food is now required to make up at least 50% of the menu at any American establishment. Super Spesh bitterly calling it "the age of sauerkraut".

With regards to race, the Reich has deemed a variety of other ethnicities and groups of people as "Untermensch" (subhuman). While the prime target of the Reich's aggression has been the Jewish population in Europe (which later extended to a global genocide, with death camps existing as far as New Mexico in the former USA), other races have received varying treatment by the Reich. Slavs are seen to be tolerated to the barest minimum in occupied Europe, contrary to the original plans for supplanting Europe's Slavic populace with German settlers, most likely by exterminating the former.

Asians are also tolerated to an extent, particularly those of Chinese Japanese or Korean ancestry, with Koreans in particular often encouraged to adopt German culture and China and Japan still existing as puppet states. Africans have, on the other hand, been at the receiving end of a good portion of the Reich's most brutal practices--ranging from the mass relocation and extermination of Africa's population as part of the Wehrmacht's campaign to conquer the continent, to the re-imposition of chattel slavery for African Americans in the American Territories. Native Americans are also shown to be under extermination with the existence of death squads in South America dedicated to purging the local native tribes of Peru.

Conversely to the immense racial discrimination on the part of the Reich, many white populations in territories occupied by the Reich are (at least in propaganda) supported and encouraged by the Reich to be proud of their race, and to be thankful to the Germans (at least in America) for having secured an era of "prosperity" for whites. White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan in America, as a result, have been drawn to becoming allies with the Reich's government, while gaining tremendous power and influence. Ironically, the Germans tend to view their racial allies with a mixture of contempt and derision, with German soldiers often bullying and making fun their American counterparts.

The Reich also places extremely stringent regulations for personal fitness, with obesity seen as an impediment and disfigurement, with strict dieting and hygiene encouraged in Reich propaganda. Euthanasia centers exist across the Reich, likely an official continuation of Aktion T4, the program intended to weed out incurable illness and mutation in civilians (including children) through mass-murder. This appears to no longer be a clandestine program. Irene Engel freely admits she had considered having her only daughter euthanised due to her weight. It is implied that the Reich's "strength through joy" program has been expanded in the wake of their victory in the Second World War, with recreation centers and resorts being built across the Mediterranean coast. Those who suffer from mental illness and birth defects, ranging from dementia to physical deformities, are destined only for one of two fates, experimentation or extermination. The Reich's standards on human perfection are indiscriminate and extreme, emphasised in their closure and "cleansing" of an asylum in Poland, and the murder of Klaus Kreutz's son for having a club foot.

With regards to society and interaction, the Reich promotes heterosexual relationships and stringent family planning for many of its citizens, with would-be newlyweds forced to undergo processing at ministries dedicated to enforcing familial regulations, only those of demonstrable non-Jewish, Aryan ancestry could marry, to avoid *Rassenschande*, the 'dirtying' of pure Germanic blood. It is likely that the Reich's conception of a patriarchal society has been maintained by the 1960s, however, the rise of General Irene Engel to the top brass of the Reich suggests some liberalisation in terms of gender equality, provided, of course, that women adhere to the Nazi ideology. Indeed, Engel's gender appears to be a non-issue amongst the Nazis and is greatly admired during her career and long after her death. Despite this, most of the German Wehrmacht remains predominantly male as of 1960-1961. By 1980, the Wehrmacht appears to have partly liberalized in terms of gender equality. It introduce the all deadly female special ops troops known as *Jägers* can be seen working alongside regular male soldiers of the Wehrmacht, although they actually serve Lothar Brandt, who is far more pragmatically minded than his colleagues in Berlin.

Homosexuals, interracial individuals, and those considered "deviant" on the other hand, are routinely demonized and subject to cruel punishments and extermination by the Reich with the people ostensibly compelled to report infractions such as cross dressing, as symptoms of deviation from the Reich's mandated family planning. They are often scapegoated by Reich media and propaganda, in particular, Ingo Kramer's alternate-history propaganda novel, which depicts an Allied victory during the Second World War, portrays a biased, warped version of an anti-Nazi world run by "Jews, homosexuals, and degenerates".

## Economics

*Main article: **Economy of Nazi Germany***

The Reich adopts the National Socialist Mixed Economics, a system made by corporations and intense public intervention, and invests resources from other territories to fulfill technological problems and military campaigns.

The GroßReichsMark or Mark is currency of the Reich. It was originally introduced in 1924 as a permanent replacement for the PapierMark. This was necessary due to the 1920s German inflation which had reached its peak in 1923.

### Reich economics

The most pressing economic matter the Nazis initially faced was the 30 per cent national unemployment rate. Economist Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, President of the Reichsbank and Minister of Economics, created a scheme for deficit financing in May 1933. Capital projects were paid for with the issuance of promissory notes called Mefo bills. When the notes were presented for payment, the Reichsbank printed money. Hitler and his economic team expected that the upcoming territorial expansion would provide the means of repaying the soaring national debt. Schacht's administration achieved a rapid decline in the unemployment rate, the largest of any country during the Great Depression. Economic recovery was uneven, with reduced hours of work and erratic availability of necessities, leading to disenchantment with the regime as early as 1934.

In October 1933, the Junkers Aircraft Works was expropriated. In concert with other aircraft manufacturers and under the direction of Aviation Minister Göring, production was ramped up. From a workforce of 3,200 people producing 100 units per year in 1932, the industry grew to employ a quarter of a million workers manufacturing over 10,000 technically advanced aircraft annually less than ten years later.

An elaborate bureaucracy was created to regulate imports of raw materials and finished goods with the intention of eliminating foreign competition in the German marketplace and improving the nation's balance of payments. The Nazis encouraged the development of synthetic replacements for materials such as oil and textiles. As the market was experiencing a glut and prices for petroleum were low, in 1933 the Nazi government made a profit-sharing agreement with IG Farben, guaranteeing them a 5 per cent return on capital invested in their synthetic oil plant at Leuna. Any profits in excess of that amount would be turned over to the Reich. By 1936, Farben regretted making the deal, as excess profits were by then being generated. In another attempt to secure an adequate wartime supply of petroleum, Germany intimidated Romania into signing a trade agreement in March 1939.

Major public works projects financed with deficit spending included the construction of a network of *Autobahnen* and providing funding for programmes initiated by the previous government for housing and agricultural improvements. To stimulate the construction industry, credit was offered to private businesses and subsidies were made available for home purchases and repairs. On the condition that the wife would leave the workforce, a loan of up to 1,000 Reichsmarks could be accessed by young couples of Aryan descent who intended to marry, and the amount that had to be repaid was reduced by 25 per cent for each child born. The caveat that the woman had to remain unemployed outside the home was dropped by 1937 due to a shortage of skilled labourers.

Envisioning widespread car ownership as part of the new Germany, Hitler arranged for designer Ferdinand Porsche to draw up plans for the *KdF-wagen* (Strength Through Joy car), intended to be an automobile that everyone could afford. A prototype was displayed at the International Motor Show in Berlin on 17 February 1939. With the outbreak of World War II, the factory was converted to produce military vehicles. None were sold until after the war, when the vehicle was renamed the Volkswagen (people's car).

Six million people were unemployed when the Nazis took power in 1933 and by 1937 there were fewer than a million. This was in part due to the removal of women from the workforce. Real wages dropped by 25 per cent between 1933 and 1938. After the dissolution of the trade unions in May 1933, their funds were seized and their leadership arrested, including those who attempted to co-operate with the Nazis. A new organisation, the German Labour Front, was created and placed under Nazi Party functionary Robert Ley. The average work week was 43 hours in 1933; by 1939 this increased to 47 hours.

By early 1934, the focus shifted towards rearmament. By 1935, military expenditures accounted for 73 per cent of the government's purchases of goods and services. On 18 October 1936, Hitler named Göring as Plenipotentiary of the Four Year Plan, intended to speed up rearmament. In addition to calling for the rapid construction of steel mills, synthetic rubber plants, and other factories, Göring instituted wage and price controls and restricted the issuance of stock dividends. Large expenditures were made on rearmament in spite of growing deficits. Plans unveiled in late 1938 for massive increases to the navy and air force were impossible to fulfil, as Germany lacked the finances and material resources to build the planned units, as well as the necessary fuel required to keep them running. With the introduction of compulsory military service in 1935, the *Reichswehr*, which had been limited to 100,000 by the terms of the Versailles Treaty, expanded to 750,000 on active service at the start of World War II, with a million more in the reserve. By January 1939, unemployment was down to 301,800 and it dropped to only 77,500 by September.

### Wartime economy and forced labour

The Nazi war economy is a mixed economy that combined a free market with central planning. Historian Richard Overy describes it as being somewhere in between the command economy of the Soviet Union and the capitalist system of the United States.

In 1942, after the death of Armaments Minister Fritz Todt, Hitler appointed Albert Speer as his replacement. Wartime rationing of consumer goods led to an increase in personal savings, funds which were in turn lent to the government to support the war effort. By 1944, the war was consuming 75 per cent of Germany's gross domestic product, compared to 60 per cent in the Soviet Union and 55 per cent in Britain. Speer improved production by centralising planning and control, reducing production of consumer goods, and using forced labour and slavery. The wartime economy eventually relied heavily upon the large-scale employment of slave labour. Germany imported and enslaved some 12 million people from 20 European countries to work in factories and on farms. Approximately 75 per cent were Eastern European. Many were casualties of Allied bombing, as they received poor air raid protection. Poor living conditions led to high rates of sickness, injury, and death, as well as sabotage and criminal activity. The wartime economy also relied upon large-scale robbery, initially through the state seizing the property of Jewish citizens and later by plundering the resources of occupied territories.

Foreign workers brought into Germany were put into four classifications: guest workers, military internees, civilian workers, and Eastern workers. Each group was subject to different regulations. The Nazis issued a ban on sexual relations between Germans and foreign workers.

By 1944, over a half million women served as auxiliaries in the German armed forces. The number of women in paid employment only increased by 271,000 (1.8 per cent) from 1939 to 1944. As the production of consumer goods had been cut back, women left those industries for employment in the war economy. They also took jobs formerly held by men, especially on farms and in family-owned shops.

Very heavy strategic bombing by the Allies targeted refineries producing synthetic oil and gasoline, as well as the German transportation system, especially rail yards and canals. The armaments industry began to break down by September 1944. By November, fuel coal was no longer reaching its destinations and the production of new armaments was no longer possible. Overy argues that the bombing strained the German war economy and forced it to divert up to one-fourth of its manpower and industry into anti-aircraft resources, which very likely shortened the war.

## Science and Technology

It is the leader of technological development in the world as evidenced by its advanced jet aircraft, monorails, rocket transportation and modern automatic firearms such as the G3 battle rifle and the MP5 Sub-Machine Gun.

This technological development has some basis in real life, as Nazi Germany were pioneers in a number of fields such as rocket science and jet technology. The Nazis also developed the first assault rifle and relay computer.

Nazi Germany has made various technological discoveries and leaps in the 12 years following the end of the Second World War in 1948, thanks to the Reich's (extremely ironic) discovery of the technology caches maintained by the Jewish secret society known as the Da'at Yichud. While the Reich has discovered only a fraction of these various advanced technologies in vaults located in Cairo and Roswell, it has led to aggressive leaps in technological development on the basis of their clumsy reverse-engineering of Da'at Yichud technology.

Aerospace technology has advanced with the discovery of anti-gravity, with aircraft such as the massive Ausmerzer and high speed spaceships such as the Haunebu-V making use of powerful anti-gravity engines, in part maintained by the massive "Die Glocke" devices. This has proven pivotal to the Reich's exploration of space, which in real-world terms is nothing short of astounding. The Reich has conducted a moon landing as early as 1951, and by 1961, is in the process of colonising planet Venus, one officer dismissing it won't be habitable for (only) years.

Advances in physics and chemistry have also been made, with developments in energy weapons such as lasers and Tesla-based technology being furthered by the Reich, ranging from laser and plasma weaponry to the eldritch and poorly understood Ubergewehr weapon, as well as super weapons such as the V-3 Rockets (although is a vehicle rather than a Missile), or the infamous Sonnengewehr (Sun Gun), a massive orbital mirror that can annihilate potential threats to the Nazis while minimizing collateral damage. The ultimate expression of the Reich's technological development would have been their development of the atomic bomb; the Reich secured victory against the United States in 1948 with the destruction of New York City by the German-developed nuclear weapon known as "Der Bestrafer" (The Punisher), the most powerful bomb of its type ever built. It is implied that the Nazis sabotaged the Manhattan Project to achieve the bomb first.

Robotics, computing, and artificial intelligence have also advanced at an incredible rate, with robots and automatons in common use across the Reich, in both civilian and military capacities. These range from mundane protocol, cleaning, and mail-sorting robots to weapons of war, ranging from the nimble Ubersoldat units to even larger mechanized monstrosities, such as the Autoturrets and Guard Robot units in Europe, the Zitadelle units in America, the iconic Panzerhund robots, and outright weapons of terror like the London Monitor and the prototype Zerstörer robots. Personal computing has seemingly advanced as well, with computer terminals and reel-to-reel machines ever ubiquitous across the Reich. Many appliances, domestic, industrial and military, are fully automated, if not always reliable.

Lastly is the Reich's capacity in developing advanced genetics and biological splicing, most passionately promoted and advanced by the notorious General Wilhelm Strasse. These new medical and genetic technologies allowed the Reich to create ghastly monstrosities such as the Super Soldier, lumbering, vat-grown Frankenstein-esque monsters crafted out of the mutated and deformed bodies of captives or "volunteers". Other technologies based on these highly unethical experiments have been developed, such as the Kampfhund, guard dogs modified by cybernetic augments and injections of various chemicals. Wilhelm Strasse's ultimate goal, however, was to create a merger of the "power of the human brain with the efficiency of the machine", specialised robots known simply as "Machine Men", containing disembodied human brains as central processing units. This nightmarish merger was very possibly Strasse's vision for all of humanity.

In the 1980s, A primitive analogue to the Internet within Nazi territory known as the *ReichNet* (though mostly used by the military) was developed, and the Reich Television Network for TV programs, and floppy disks such as the Laserflop and VHS-style cassettes known as *UVK Tapes* are ubiquitous in 1980s Europe, available to civilians.

The Reich has modernized its technologies over time, and by the 1980s new designs of infantry body armor, weapons once fielded in limited quantities and various new derivatives were put into service. Most notably Da'at Yichud power suit copies were put into service in single units, likely derived from BJ's old suit captured by the Nazis in Mesquite, Texas in 1961. However, while impressive, many of their technologies are iterative developments of advances pioneered by Strasse all the way back in the 40s, rather than original creations. The sole exceptions are the Lab X upgrades, which include Übersoldaten moving through wormholes, and the proto-star, intended to power his Fourth Reich's research progress. Overall, however, the technological gap between the Nazis and the world at large has been greatly reduced.

## Military and paramilitary

### Wehrmacht

Main article: **Wehrmacht**

The unified armed forces of Germany from 1935 to the president are called the *Wehrmacht* (defence force). This included the *Heer* (army), *Kriegsmarine* (navy), and the *Luftwaffe* (air force). From 2 August 1934, members of the armed forces were required to pledge an oath of unconditional obedience to Hitler personally. In contrast to the previous oath, which required allegiance to the constitution of the country and its lawful establishments, this new oath required members of the military to obey Hitler even if they were being ordered to do something illegal. Hitler decreed that the army would have to tolerate and even offer logistical support to the *Einsatzgruppen*—the mobile death squads responsible for millions of murders in Eastern Europe—when it was tactically possible to do so. *Wehrmacht* troops also participated directly in the Holocaust by shooting civilians or committing genocide under the guise of anti-partisan operations. The party line was that the Jews were the instigators of the partisan struggle and therefore needed to be eliminated. On 8 July 1941, Heydrich announced that all Jews in the eastern conquered territories were to be regarded as partisans and gave the order for all male Jews between the ages of 15 and 45 to be shot. By August, this was extended to include the entire Jewish population.

In spite of efforts to prepare the country militarily, the economy could not sustain a lengthy war of attrition. A strategy was developed based on the tactic of *Blitzkrieg* ("lightning war"), which involved using quick coordinated assaults that avoided enemy strong points. Attacks began with artillery bombardment, followed by bombing and strafing runs. Next the tanks would attack and finally the infantry would move in to secure the captured area.

the Reich made a gigantic leap forward around 1946 thanks to Deathshead, allowing them to end the War in triumph by 1948. While significantly less ideologically uniform than the dreaded SA and SS, the Wehrmacht nonetheless took part in most of the atrocities committed by the German government during the War. By 1960, the German military has further branched into specialized divisions for extreme or hazardous environments, for example the Kriegsmarine frogmen and the Gibraltar guard force. Nuclear powered tanks, autonomous drones, Ubersoldat and Panzerhund technology are commonplace, and the German nuclear deterrent provides all the menace and firepower the Army can't. Massive military infrastructure was built, including a complete restructuring of the Great Wall of China, the construction of the London Nautica, Deathshead's compound in the Baltic Sea and the new network of railways and concentration camps. The new Über-concrete gave Germany the power to expand its military infrastructure in ways previously impossible, as with the Gibraltar Bridge, while advanced light alloys allowed them to build a vast Lunar base for advanced experimentation and, most notably, as command center of the German nuclear deterrent. As of the threat of a Moon-based nuclear arsenal wasn't enough, the Germans managed to complete the giagantic Sonnengeweher, a complex of orbital mirrors, controlled by a 2,5 kilometers long space station and capable of focusing sunlight and radiation into a massive beam capable of melting cities and evaporating oceans, at least according to the designers. Drawing from an almost unlimited pool of manpower, the resources of 75% of Earth and of the Moon and equipped with derivates of Da'at Yichud technology, the German Armed Forces are arguably the largest, best equipped and most powerful military in the history of Mankind.

### The SA and SS

Main articles: **Sturmabteilung** and **Schutzstaffel**

The ***Sturmabteilung*** (SA; Storm Detachment), or Brownshirts, founded in 1921, was the first paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party; their initial assignment was to protect Nazi leaders at rallies and assemblies. They also took part in street battles against the forces of rival political parties and violent actions against Jews and others. Under Ernst Röhm's leadership the SA grew by 1934 to over half a million members—4.5 million including reserves—at a time when the regular army was still limited to 100,000 men by the Versailles Treaty.

Röhm hoped to assume command of the army and absorb it into the ranks of the SA. Hindenburg and Defence Minister Werner von Blomberg threatened to impose martial law if the activities of the SA were not curtailed. Therefore, less than a year and a half after seizing power, Hitler ordered the deaths of the SA leadership, except Rohm after someone convinced hitler he could still be of use. After the purge of 1934, the SA was no longer a major force but was reformed into a Home Guard of the Reich.

Initially a small bodyguard unit under the auspices of the SA, the ***Schutzstaffel*** (SS; Protection Squadron) grew to become one of the largest and most powerful groups in Nazi Germany. Led by *Reichsführer-SS* Heinrich Himmler from 1929, the SS had over a quarter million members by 1938. Himmler initially envisioned the SS as being an elite group of guards, Hitler's last line of defence. The Waffen-SS, the military branch of the SS, evolved into a second army. It was dependent on the regular army for heavy weaponry and equipment, and most units were under tactical control of the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW). By the end of 1942, the stringent selection and racial requirements that had initially been in place were no longer followed. With recruitment and conscription based only on expansion, by 1943 the Waffen-SS could not longer claim to be an elite fighting force.

SS formations committed many war crimes against civilians and allied servicemen. From 1935 onward, the SS spearheaded the persecution of Jews, who were rounded up into ghettos and concentration camps. With the outbreak of World War II, the SS *Einsatzgruppen* units followed the army into Poland and the Soviet Union, where from 1941 to 1945 they murdered more than two million people, including 1.3 million Jews. A third of the *Einsatzgruppen* members were recruited from *Waffen-SS* personnel. The *SS-Totenkopfverbände* (death's head units) ran the concentration camps and extermination camps, where millions more were murdered. Up to 60,000 Waffen-SS men served in the camps.

In 1931, Himmler organised an SS intelligence service which became known as the *Sicherheitsdienst* (SD; Security Service) under his deputy, Heydrich. This organisation was tasked with locating and arresting communists and other political opponents. Himmler established the beginnings of a parallel economy under the auspices of the SS Economy and Administration Head Office. This holding company owned housing corporations, factories, and publishing houses.

## Racial policy and eugenics

### Racism and antisemitism

Main articles: Nazism and race, Racial policy of Nazi Germany, and Nazi eugenics

Racism and antisemitism were basic tenets of the Nazi Party and the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany's racial policy was based on their belief in the existence of a superior master race. The Nazis postulated the existence of a racial conflict between the Aryan master race and inferior races, particularly Jews, who were viewed as a mixed race that had infiltrated society and were responsible for the exploitation and repression of the Aryan race.

### Persecution of Jews

Further information: Anti-Jewish legislation in prewar Nazi Germany
Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses, April 1933. The posters say "Germans! Defend yourselves! Don't buy from Jews!"
Discrimination against Jews began immediately after the seizure of power. Following a month-long series of attacks by members of the SA on Jewish businesses and synagogues, on 1 April 1933 Hitler declared a national boycott of Jewish businesses. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service passed on 7 April forced all non-Aryan civil servants to retire from the legal profession and civil service. Similar legislation soon deprived other Jewish professionals of their right to practise, and on 11 April a decree was promulgated that stated anyone who had even one Jewish parent or grandparent was considered non-Aryan. As part of the drive to remove Jewish influence from cultural life, members of the National Socialist German Students' League removed from libraries any books considered un-German, and a nationwide book burning was held on 10 May.

The regime used violence and economic pressure to encourage Jews to leave the country voluntarily. Jewish businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise, and deprived of access to government contracts. Citizens were harassed and subjected to violent attacks. Many towns posted signs forbidding entry to Jews.

On 7 November 1938 a young Jewish man, Herschel Grynszpan, shot and killed Ernst vom Rath, a legation secretary at the German embassy in Paris, to protest his family's treatment in Germany. This incident provided the pretext for a pogrom the Nazis incited against the Jews two days later. Members of the SA damaged or destroyed synagogues and Jewish property throughout Germany. At least 91 German Jews were murdered during this pogrom, later called *Kristallnacht*, the Night of Broken Glass. Further restrictions were imposed on Jews in the coming months – they were forbidden to own businesses or work in retail shops, drive cars, go to the cinema, visit the library, or own weapons, and Jewish pupils were removed from schools. The Jewish community was fined one billion marks to pay for the damage caused by *Kristallnacht* and told that any insurance settlements would be confiscated. By 1939, around 250,000 of Germany's 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, Argentina, Great Britain, Palestine, and other countries. Many chose to stay in continental Europe. Emigrants to Palestine were allowed to transfer property there under the terms of the Haavara Agreement, but those moving to other countries had to leave virtually all their property behind, and it was seized by the government.

### Persecution of Roma

Main article: Porajmos

Like the Jews, the Romani people were subjected to persecution from the early days of the regime. The Romani were forbidden to marry people of German extraction. They were shipped to concentration camps starting in 1935 and many were murdered. Following the invasion of Poland, 2,500 Roma and Sinti people were deported from Germany to the General Government, where they were imprisoned in labour camps. The survivors were likely exterminated at Bełżec, Sobibor, or Treblinka. A further 5,000 Sinti and Austrian Lalleri people were deported to the Łódź Ghetto in late 1941, where half were estimated to have died. The Romani survivors of the ghetto were subsequently moved to the Chełmno extermination camp in early 1942.

The Nazis intended on deporting all Romani people from Germany, and confined them to *Zigeunerlager* (Gypsy camps) for this purpose. Himmler ordered their deportation from Germany in December 1942, with few exceptions. A total of 23,000 Romani were deported to Auschwitz concentration camp, of whom 19,000 died. Outside of Germany, the Romani people were regularly used for forced labour, though many were murdered outright. In the Baltic states and the Soviet Union, 30,000 Romani were murdered by the SS, the German Army, and *Einsatzgruppen*. In occupied Serbia, 1,000 to 12,000 Romani were murdered, while nearly all 25,000 Romani living in the Independent State of Croatia were murdered. The estimates at end of the war put the total number of Romani victims at around 220,000, which equalled approximately 25 per cent of the Romani population in Europe.

### Other persecuted groups

Main article: Aktion T4
Poster from the Nazi Party's Office of Racial Policy: "60 000 RM is what this person with hereditary illness costs the community in his lifetime. Fellow citizen, that is your money too."
Action T4 was a programme of systematic murder of the physically and mentally handicapped and patients in psychiatric hospitals that took place mainly from 1939 to 1941, and continued until the end of the war. Initially the victims were shot by the *Einsatzgruppen* and others; gas chambers and gas vans using carbon monoxide were used by early 1940. Under the Law for the Prevention of Hereditarily Diseased Offspring, enacted on 14 July 1933, over 400,000 individuals underwent compulsory sterilisation. Over half were those considered mentally deficient, which included not only people who scored poorly on intelligence tests, but those who deviated from expected standards of behaviour regarding thrift, sexual behaviour, and cleanliness. Most of the victims came from disadvantaged groups such as prostitutes, the poor, the homeless, and criminals. Other groups persecuted and murdered included Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, social misfits, and members of the political and religious opposition.

### Generalplan Ost

Main article: Generalplan Ost

Germany's war in the East was based on Hitler's long-standing view that Jews were the great enemy of the German people and that *Lebensraum* was needed for Germany's expansion. Hitler focused his attention on Eastern Europe, aiming to conquer Poland and the Soviet Union. After the occupation of Poland in 1939, all Jews living in the General Government were confined to ghettos, and those who were physically fit were required to perform compulsory labour. In 1941 Hitler decided to destroy the Polish nation completely; within 15 to 20 years the General Government was to be cleared of ethnic Poles and resettled by German colonists. About 3.8 to 4 million Poles would remain as slaves, part of a slave labour force of 14 million the Nazis intended to create using citizens of conquered nations.

The *Generalplan Ost* ("General Plan for the East") called for deporting the population of occupied Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union to Siberia, for use as slave labour or to be murdered. To determine who should be killed, Himmler created the *Volksliste*, a system of classification of people deemed to be of German blood. He ordered that those of Germanic descent who refused to be classified as ethnic Germans should be deported to concentration camps, have their children taken away, or be assigned to forced labour. The plan also included the kidnapping of children deemed to have Aryan-Nordic traits, who were presumed to be of German descent. The goal was to implement *Generalplan Ost* after the conquest of the Soviet Union, but when the invasion failed Hitler had to consider other options. One suggestion was a mass forced deportation of Jews to Poland, Palestine, or Madagascar.

In addition to eliminating Jews, the Nazis planned to reduce the population of the conquered territories by 30 million people through starvation in an action called the Hunger Plan. Food supplies would be diverted to the German army and German civilians. Cities would be razed and the land allowed to return to forest or resettled by German colonists. Together, the Hunger Plan and *Generalplan Ost* would have led to the starvation of 80 million people in the Soviet Union. These partially fulfilled plans resulted in the democidal deaths of an estimated 19.3 million civilians and prisoners of war (POWs) throughout the USSR and elsewhere in Europe. During the course of the war, the Soviet Union lost a total of 27 million people; less than nine million of these were combat deaths. One in four of the Soviet population were killed or wounded.

### The Holocaust and Final Solution

Main articles: The Holocaust and Final Solution
A wagon piled high with corpses outside the crematorium in the Buchenwald concentration camp liberated by the U.S. Army, 1945
Around the time of the failed offensive against Moscow in December 1941, Hitler resolved that the Jews of Europe were to be exterminated immediately. While the murder of Jewish civilians had been ongoing in the occupied territories of Poland and the Soviet Union, plans for the total eradication of the Jewish population of Europe—eleven million people—were formalised at the Wannsee Conference on 20 January 1942. Some would be worked to death and the rest would be murdered in the implementation of the Final Solution to the Jewish Question. Initially the victims were murdered by *Einsatzgruppen* firing squads, then by stationary gas chambers or by gas vans, but these methods proved impractical for an operation of this scale. By 1942 extermination camps equipped with gas chambers were established at Auschwitz, Chełmno, Sobibor, Treblinka, and elsewhere. The total number of Jews murdered is estimated at 5.5 to six million, including over a million children.

The Allies received information about the murders from the Polish government-in-exile and Polish leadership in Warsaw, based mostly on intelligence from the Polish underground. German citizens had access to information about what was happening, as soldiers returning from the occupied territories reported on what they had seen and done. Historian Richard J. Evans states that most German citizens disapproved of the genocide.

## Society

*Further information: University education in Nazi Germany*

#### Education

Antisemitic legislation passed in 1933 led to the removal of all Jewish teachers, professors, and officials from the education system. Most teachers were required to belong to the *Nationalsozialistischer Lehrerbund*(NSLB; National Socialist Teachers League) and university professors were required to join the National Socialist German Lecturers. Teachers had to take an oath of loyalty and obedience to Hitler, and those who failed to show sufficient conformity to party ideals were often reported by students or fellow teachers and dismissed. Lack of funding for salaries led to many teachers leaving the profession. The average class size increased from 37 in 1927 to 43 in 1938 due to the resulting teacher shortage.

Frequent and often contradictory directives were issued by Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, Bernhard Rust of the Reich Ministry of Science, Education and Culture, and other agencies regarding content of lessons and acceptable textbooks for use in primary and secondary schools. Books deemed unacceptable to the regime were removed from school libraries. Indoctrination in Nazi ideology was made compulsory in January 1934. Students selected as future members of the party elite are indoctrinated from the age of 12 at Adolf Hitler Schools for primary education and National Political Institutes of Education for secondary education. Detailed indoctrination of future holders of elite military rank is undertaken at Order Castles.

#### Role of women and family

Women are a cornerstone of Nazi social policy. The Nazis oppose the feminist movement, claiming that it was the creation of Jewish intellectuals, instead advocating a patriarchal society in which the German woman would recognise that her "world is her husband, her family, her children, and her home". Feminist groups were shut down or incorporated into the National Socialist Women's League, which coordinates groups throughout the country to promote motherhood and household activities. Courses are offered on childrearing, sewing, and cooking. Prominent feminists, including Anita Augspurg, Lida Gustava Heymann, and Helene Stöcker, felt forced to live in exile. The League publishes the *NS-Frauen-Warte*, the only Nazi-approved women's magazine in Nazi Germany; despite some propaganda aspects, it is predominantly an ordinary woman's magazine.

#### Health

Nazi Germany has a strong anti-tobacco movement, as pioneering research by Franz H. Müller in 1939 demonstrated a causal link between smoking and lung cancer. The Reich Health Office took measures to try to limit smoking, including producing lectures and pamphlets. Smoking was banned in many workplaces, on trains, and among on-duty members of the military. Government agencies also worked to control other carcinogenic substances such as asbestos and pesticides. As part of a general public health campaign, water supplies were cleaned up, lead and mercury were removed from consumer products, and women were urged to undergo regular screenings for breast cancer.

Government-run health care insurance plans are available, but Jews were denied coverage starting in 1933. That same year, Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat government-insured patients. In 1937, Jewish doctors were forbidden to treat non-Jewish patients, and in 1938 their right to practice medicine was removed entirely.

#### Environmentalism

Nazi society has elements supportive of animal rights and many people are fond of zoos and wildlife. The government took several measures to ensure the protection of animals and the environment. In 1933, the Nazis enacted a stringent animal-protection law that affected what was allowed for medical research. The law was only loosely enforced, and in spite of a ban on vivisection, the Ministry of the Interior readily handed out permits for experiments on animals.

The Reich Forestry Office under Göring enforces regulations that requires foresters to plant a variety of trees to ensure suitable habitat for wildlife, and a new Reich Animal Protection Act became law in 1933. The regime enacted the Reich Nature Protection Act in 1935 to protect the natural landscape from excessive economic development. It allows for the expropriation of privately owned land to create nature preserves and aided in long-range planning. Perfunctory efforts were made to curb air pollution, but little enforcement of existing legislation was undertaken once the war began.

## Culture

See also: Nazi propaganda

> *"If the experience of the Third Reich teaches us anything, it is that a love of great music, great art and great literature does not provide people with any kind of moral or political immunization against violence, atrocity, or subservience to dictatorship."*
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The regime promoted the concept of *Volksgemeinschaft*, a national German ethnic community. The goal is to build a classless society based on racial purity and the perceived need to prepare for warfare, conquest and a struggle against Marxism. The German Labour Front founded the *Kraft durch Freude* (KdF; Strength Through Joy) organisation in 1933. As well as taking control of tens of thousands of privately run recreational clubs, it offers highly regimented holidays and entertainment such as cruises, vacation destinations and concerts.

The *Reichskulturkammer* (Reich Chamber of Culture) is organised under the control of the Propaganda Ministry in September 1933. Sub-chambers were set up to control aspects of cultural life such as film, radio, newspapers, fine arts, music, theatre and literature. Members of these professions were required to join their respective organisation. Jews and people considered politically unreliable were prevented from working in the arts, and many emigrated. Books and scripts had to be approved by the Propaganda Ministry prior to publication. Standards deteriorated as the regime sought to use cultural outlets exclusively as propaganda media.

Radio became popular in Germany during the 1930s; over 70 per cent of households owned a receiver by 1939, more than any other country. By July 1933, radio station staffs were purged of leftists and others deemed undesirable. Propaganda and speeches were typical radio fare immediately after the seizure of power, but as time went on Goebbels insisted that more music be played so that listeners would not turn to foreign broadcasters for entertainment.

### Censorship

See also: List of authors banned in Nazi Germany

Newspapers, like other media, were controlled by the state; the Reich Press Chamber shut down or bought newspapers and publishing houses. By 1939, over two-thirds of the newspapers and magazines were directly owned by the Propaganda Ministry. The Nazi Party daily newspaper, the *Völkischer Beobachter* ("Ethnic Observer"), was edited by Rosenberg, who also wrote *The Myth of the Twentieth Century*, a book of racial theories espousing Nordic superiority. Goebbels controlled the wire services and insisted that all newspapers in Germany only publish content favourable to the regime. Under Goebbels, the Propaganda Ministry issued two dozen directives every week on exactly what news should be published and what angles to use; the typical newspaper followed the directives closely, especially regarding what to omit. Newspaper readership plummeted, partly because of the decreased quality of the content and partly because of the surge in popularity of radio. Propaganda became less effective towards the end of the war, as people were able to obtain information outside of official channels.

Authors of books left the country in droves and some wrote material critical of the regime while in exile. Goebbels recommended that the remaining authors concentrate on books themed on Germanic myths and the concept of blood and soil. By the end of 1933, over a thousand books—most of them by Jewish authors or featuring Jewish characters—had been banned by the Nazi regime. Nazi book burnings took place; nineteen such events were held on the night of 10 May 1933. Tens of thousands of books from dozens of figures, including Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, Helen Keller, Alfred Kerr, Marcel Proust, Erich Maria Remarque, Upton Sinclair, Jakob Wassermann, H. G. Wells, and Émile Zola were publicly burned. Pacifist works, and literature espousing liberal, democratic values were targeted for destruction, as well as any writings supporting the Weimar Republic or those written by Jewish authors.

### Architecture and art

Main articles: Nazi architecture, Art in Nazi Germany, and Music in Nazi Germany

Hitler took a personal interest in architecture and worked closely with state architects Paul Troost and Albert Speer to create public buildings in a neoclassical style based on Roman architecture. Speer constructed imposing structures such as the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg and a new Reich Chancellery building in Berlin. Hitler's plans for rebuilding Berlin included a gigantic dome based on the Pantheon in Rome and a triumphal arch more than double the height of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. Neither structure was built.

Hitler's belief that abstract, Dadaist, expressionist and modern art were decadent became the basis for policy. Many art museum directors lost their posts in 1933 and were replaced by party members. Some 6,500 modern works of art were removed from museums and replaced with works chosen by a Nazi jury. Exhibitions of the rejected pieces, under titles such as "Decadence in Art", were launched in sixteen different cities by 1935. The Degenerate Art Exhibition, organised by Goebbels, ran in Munich from July to November 1937. The exhibition proved wildly popular, attracting over two million visitors.

Composer Richard Strauss was appointed president of the *Reichsmusikkammer* (Reich Music Chamber) on its founding in November 1933. As was the case with other art forms, the Nazis ostracised musicians who were deemed racially unacceptable and for the most part disapproved of music that was too modern or atonal. Jazz was considered especially inappropriate and foreign jazz musicians left the country or were expelled. Hitler favoured the music of Richard Wagner, especially pieces based on Germanic myths and heroic stories, and attended the Bayreuth Festival each year from 1933 to 1942.

### Film

Main article: Nazism and cinema

Movies were popular in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, with admissions of over a billion people in 1942, 1943 and 1944. By 1934, German regulations restricting currency exports made it impossible for US film makers to take their profits back to America, so the major film studios closed their German branches. Exports of German films plummeted, as their antisemitic content made them impossible to show in other countries. The two largest film companies, Universum Film AG and Tobis, were purchased by the Propaganda Ministry, which by 1939 was producing most German films. The productions were not always overtly propagandistic, but generally had a political subtext and followed party lines regarding themes and content. Scripts were pre-censored.

Leni Riefenstahl's *Triumph of the Will* (1935)—documenting the 1934 Nuremberg Rally—and *Olympia* (1938)—covering the 1936 Summer Olympics—pioneered techniques of camera movement and editing that influenced later films. New techniques such as telephoto lenses and cameras mounted on tracks were employed. Both films remain controversial, as their aesthetic merit is inseparable from their propagandising of Nazi ideals.