Adolf Hitler

**Adolf Hitler** (born 20 April 1889) is the Führer of the Greater Germanic Reich. A revered public speaker and a figurehead known and revered not only in the Reich but also abroad, where his recognition knows few rivals, Hitler's health has long been declining much like the Reich he built.

In 1962, Hitler is nearing 73 years of age, a storied career marked by constant course changes held together only by an overwhelming cult of personality surrounding him, which may result in disaster for the German Reich should circumstances greatly change.

## Biography

### Early Life (1889-1918)

Adolf was born on April 20, 1889 in the town of Braunau am Inn (Braunau on the Inn) in what was the Austro-Hungarian empire to Alois and Klara Hitler. He and his two siblings were raised near the town of Linz. Alois, his father, was a strict parent who very much disapproved of the young Hitler's life decisions, died when he was young, as did his mother. He spent his early adult years in Vienna, attempting to become an artist - but was rejected twice by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts. As a result, he moved into a poorhouse, living off the sale of paintings and generous donations from his surviving family members.

While some historians claim that Hitler became first exposed to the radical antisemitic rhetoric that would define his career in Vienna, evidence exists to suggest that, at the time, he was in fact repulsed by the idea.

In 1913, Adolf Hitler moved to Munich, the largest city in Bavaria, the southeasternmost province of the German Empire. At the outbreak of the first world war in 1914, through a lucky accident (as an Austrian, he should not have been allowed to serve in the Bavarian army) Hitler was able to enlist and serve in the "List Regiment", the first group of volunteer conscripts from Bavaria.

Hitler served with distinction in the First World War as a message runner, bringing communications from command outposts to the front line. He was decorated for bravery, receiving the Iron Cross in 1914 and 1918. At the end of the war, he was briefly blinded by a gas attack, which led to him being sent to a hospital. While there, he learned that Germany had surrendered to the Entente and flew into a fit of rage.

### Rise to Power (1919-1933)

Following the war he was among the millions of Germans who felt betrayed by the German surrender to the Entente, deeming it as the "Stab in the Back". Meeting right-wing agitator Anton Drexler, Hitler was exposed to anti-semitic ideology once again, and found it to be a satisfactory answer to solving the despair of the German people following their supposed 'defeat' in the First World War.

He joined the small German Workers' Party (*Deutsche Arbeiterpartei*, DAP) in 1919, as member #555. (the DAP began counting its members at #500 to give the impression of a larger party.) Hitler's loud and grand speaking manners attracted greater crowds than the DAP had seen in any capacity before, and soon, Hitler rose to become its leader by 1921, renaming it the National Socialist German Workers' Party (*Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei*, NSDAP) to gain attention from other political radicals, as socialism was a predominant ideology in Germany at the time. It was here that he would also organize a private militia for the party, the *Sturmabateilung* or SA (later to become the Schutzstaffel, or SS).

In 1923, Hitler attempted to take control of the Bavarian government through a coup d'état now known as the Beer Hall Putsch. While Hitler and the NSDAP did successfully take the leaders of the Bavarian government prisoner, they were able to escape and Hitler was sentenced to a relatively light six years in prison. He would only serve one of those three.

While in prison, he wrote most of his book *Mein Kampf*, a whitewashed history of himself that has since become textbook literature in most schools in the Reich, though it is known to be a whitewashed version of Hitler's political background designed to paint him in a messianic light.

After his release from prison, Hitler took a political backwater role as the Weimar Republic seemed to stabilize itself. However, in 1929, the stock exchange on Wall Street crashed, causing the Great Depression. Hitler seized on the window and began fervently campaigning across Germany. In 1923, the NSDAP held just 3 seats in the Reichstag. A decade later in 1933, the NSDAP controlled 288 seats, a majority.

In 1932, Adolf Hitler ran against Paul von Hindenburg in the German election. He finished second - though the control Hitler exacted over the country was so great that von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as chancellor in order to temper the demagogue's ambitions. This idea, tragically, backfired, and with his new influence, Hitler instead turned the deal on von Hindenburg, seizing on the fissile political climate in Germany to secure power.

In February of 1933, the Reichstag caught fire. In the aftermath of the fire, Dutch communist Marinus van der Lubbe was arrested as the sole perpetrator. Hitler used this to force Oresident von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, allowing the Nazi party to crack down on political dissidents in Germany by suspending the right to trial. Historians agree that, while van der Lubbe was indeed responsible, there is no sign that it was an organized plot by any communist party in Germany.

The Enabling Act of 1933 granted Adolf Hitler, the Chancellor, the right to make decisions without running them through the Reichstag for what was initially set to be a time limit of four years. Using his supreme authority, Hitler dismantled the opposition parties or forced them into submission, and eventually the Nazi Party was the only legal party in the Weimar Republic - even its coalition mate was dismantled.

After Hindenburg's death in 1934, Hitler became president of the Weimar Republic.

### Rise to Power (1934-1945)

After Hitler's ascension of the presidency, the Weimar Republic was effectively dismantled, and though sham republic continued to exist in framework only, it had given way to a fascist dictatorship. Hitler initiated sweeping initiatives to lift Germany out of the Great Depression, including printing money, seizing the assets of people arrested as enemies of the state, and initiating state-built projects to curb unemployment.

Under Hitler, the Reich also perpetrated a genocide of minority groups, especially Jewish minorities, which began with a series of harsh and brutal acts of repression that have since been widely regarded as the beginning of the Holocaust. The Führer, as he was known, would begin to flagrantly break the treaty of Versailles, including rearming the Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine, remilitarizing the Rhineland which had been disarmed as part of the treaty, and initiating wide-scale rearmament as part of a four-year plan headed by Hermann Göring.

In 1938, Adolf Hitler annexed Austria in a manipulated referendum. A direct breach of the Treaty of Versailles, the Entente powers of France and Britain refused to intervene. Shortly after, Adolf Hitler demanded the German-majority Sudentenland from Czechoslovakia, which was awarded to him as part of the 'Appeasement' agreement.

Adolf Hitler then claimed Danzig (then Gdansk), which was not granted to him, leading to the invasion of Poland on September 1st, 1939, and the start of the Second World War. It was, to Hitler's expectations, a complete and overwhelming victory.

### Post-war (1946-1962)

Following the end of the war, Hitler ascended to international levels of fame for taking an impoverished, punished state and turning it into a model war machine that humiliated the world's greatest powers. The wealth plundered from the Second World War supported Hitler's visions for a "greater German reich", including Germanization of conquered lands in accordance with Generalplan Ost, the lining of the pockets of not only his generals but the corporations that made Endsieg possible, and the construction of various massive projects, the crown jewel of which being the retooling of Berlin into a "World Capital" named for the Latin term for the Germanic lands. Welthaupstadt Germania was the brainchild of Albert Speer, an impressive project that built impressive megastructures - particularly the Volkshalle - into the landscape of the city. However, the immense spending these projects commanded dried up as the German economy began to sour following Demobilisierung.

Around this time, Adolf Hitler's began growing more and more erratic, likely due to a combination of Parkinson's Disease and syphillis. Due to Hitler's known aversion to the female sex - often seized upon by OFN propagandists - it is unknown from where he contracted syphillis from.

During the West Russian War, Hitler often slipped into fits of rage, shouting at his generals and, on multiple occasions, firing otherwise competent generals for the slightest of offenses-- most of whom were swiftly re-hired by his subordinates either for financial benefit or political posturing. Following the SS attempted coup d'etat, Hitler ordered the SS to be split into the Burgundian and German sections.

Despite his extensive planning for victory, Hitler has not planned for the ultimate defeat he may suffer: his death. The Führer does not have any outlined plans to select an heir, and consequently the **destiny** of the Reich remains intertwined with his. If Hitler is to die, there is nobody to replace him, and even while he lives, his subordinates squabble with each other like wild dogs, tearing at the fragments of power slowly crumbling from the Führer.

At game start in 1962, Hitler has entered the 29th year of his reign as Führer of the nation, although it is clear to most that his days are numbered, and should he die, the competition between factions in the NSDAP could possibly tear the Reich - the masterpiece that he spent his life painting - apart.

## In-Game

At the start of the game, Hitler will have a rather sizable focus tree which consists of branches for thawing relations with the United States of America in an effort to get both countries to focus on dealing with Japan, training exercises to prepare for threats on mainland Europe (namely, the Triumvirate, as well as refocusing Luftwaffe bombing of the various warlords in West Russia and West Siberia), and reconvening the Reichstag for new series of laws.

This focus tree, extensive in appearance, is - much like the focus tree of John F. Kennedy prior to its removal - merely an illusion in reality; soon after completing the first focus, an assassin will ambush Hitler while in his office, gravely wounding him. After the attack, the player will have to name a successor for Hitler, and will have a choice between Albert Speer, Martin Bormann, and Reinhard Heydrich. After naming said successor, Germany's focus tree will change to preparing said successor for the German Civil War.

After Hitler dies on October 15, 1963, Germany will break out into civil war on the 27th of the month, with the player taking control of whoever they named as Hitler's successor if they were playing as Germany.

## Trivia

* Hermann Göring could once be selected as a candidate for Hitler's succession, and while he does still rise up and still does gain influence prior to the war, Göring has no content during the war nor after and it is currently impossible for him to win without console commands.
	+ Göring's content set Germany on a more militant path, forcing them to conquer other countries within a certain time limit or risk fiscal-- and swiftly after, national collapse. It often resulted in nuclear war as eventually Göring would be forced to attack a Kyōiken or OFN member. The super-events for this (particularly Fall Schwartz, the invasion of Burgundy) still exist in game.
	+ Göring's content is being retooled and will be made available
	+ If one uses console commands to complete the first focus of Hitler's starting tree, an event will play where Speer will approach Hitler about allying with the United States against Japan, only for Hitler to burst out of his room, ranting about how the player cheated, telling the player to start over (with the game penalizing the player for cheating).
	+ Similarly, if one uses console commands to complete his other focuses, the bonuses that are granted will have similar text calling the player out for cheating.
* A super event referencing a meme ("Change Da World. My Final Message, Goodbye") can be accessed through console commands if one inputs the correct command (set\_country\_flag big\_event\_hitler\_die).
	+ This is not a cut event that would have played in response to Hitler's death (since his death occurs very shortly before the German Civil War, which has it's own super event), but rather, a joke that former developer Pink Panzer included for the sake of one of his development vlogs.
* As with real life, Hitler married Eva Braun, a longtime companion of his. Unlike in real life, where the marriage lasted for 30 hours before the two committed suicide, in *The New Order*, Eva died of cancer in 1957.
* Originally, when there was a canon for the 1970 start date, Hitler would have named Heydrich as his successor, but Bormann would have won the war.
	+ It is possible in game for Heydrich to be named as a successor; it is impossible for him to win and more than likely, Bormann or Speer will triumph over him.
* A somewhat amusing bug in earlier versions of the game would have the event that never killed Hitler fire off, which led to the German Civil War never breaking out - thus meaning Germany remains unified due to Hitler technically becoming immortal.
* While the assassin that strikes out at Hitler is reported to be a member of the Kempeitai and even is believed to be such by the Reich itself (resulting in a sizeable increase in tensions between the Japanese Empire and German Reich), unbeknownst to the world at large, the perpetrator was, in actuality, coerced into the action by Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler in an attempt to gain control over Germany.