Germany (The Fuhrer's Empire)

Germany (also commonly known as the German Empire or Nazi Germany) is a country in Central Europe. Its borders are shared to the north by Iceland, Greenland, and the North Pole; to the east by Ukraine, Muscovy and West Russia; to the south by Italy, Hungary, South France and Switzerland; and to the west by the Republic of Spain and Portugal. Through military and civilian possessions Germany also borders Yugoslavia, Free Russia, Bulgaria, Greece, Egypt, Japan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Iran, the United States (which includes Deutsch Amerika in addition to the Republic of Mexico), and the Republic of Texas.

Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic, Paul von Hindenburg, on 30 January 1933. The NSDAP 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 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. Extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen (motorways). The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.

Formation and Nazification
Although the Nazis won the greatest share of the popular vote in the two Reichstag general elections of 1932, they did not have a majority. Hitler therefore led a short-lived coalition government formed with the German National People's Party. Under pressure from politicians, industrialists, and the business community, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933. This event is known as the Machtergreifung ("seizure of power").

On the night of 27 February 1933, the Reichstag building was set afire. Marinus van der Lubbe, a Dutch communist, was found guilty of starting the blaze. Hitler proclaimed that the arson marked the start of a communist uprising. The Reichstag Fire Decree, imposed on 28 February 1933, rescinded most civil liberties, including rights of assembly and freedom of the press. The decree also allowed the police to detain people indefinitely without charges. The legislation was accompanied by a propaganda campaign that led to public support for the measure. Violent suppression of communists by the SA was undertaken nationwide and 4,000 members of the Communist Party of Germany were arrested.

In March 1933, the Enabling Act, an amendment to the Weimar Constitution, passed in the Reichstag by a vote of 444 to 94. This amendment allowed Hitler and his cabinet to pass laws—even laws that violated the constitution—without the consent of the president or the Reichstag. As the bill required a two-thirds majority to pass, the Nazis used intimidation tactics as well as the provisions of the Reichstag Fire Decree to keep several Social Democratic deputies from attending, and the Communists had already been banned. On 10 May, the government seized the assets of the Social Democrats, and they were banned on 22 June. On 21 June, the SA raided the offices of the German National People's Party – their former coalition partners – and they disbanded on 29 June. The remaining major political parties followed suit. On 14 July 1933 Germany became a one-party state with the passage of a law decreeing the NSDAP to be the sole legal party in Germany. The founding of new parties was also made illegal, and all remaining political parties which had not already been dissolved were banned. The Enabling Act would subsequently serve as the legal foundation for the dictatorship the NSDAP established. Further elections in November 1933, 1936, and 1938 were Nazi-controlled, with only members of the NSDAP and a small number of independents elected.

Hitler followed imperialist policies which were mostly fashionable in Europe of these times, through a process he would call "Nazification": claiming much more possessions he thought was German. At the time, many in the Western World considered these policies as highly risky and dangerous - especially as the alliances that Germany concluded before were not renewed, and an isolated Germany (except for an alliance with Italy). However, as history was soon to show, Wilhelm II's gamble would pay off, he would achieve all his aims and more, and even many of his sharpest critics would be forced to admit as much.

Second Great War
Germany declared war and France and Britain declared war on Germany as such to cease her destabilisation, and Italy backed Germany; soon, Germany found itself at war with most of Europe. Quickly invading Denmark and Norway, the German advance was stopped at Central France in 1940. Germany quickly turned against Russia in 1941. In 1942, Britain landed in Normandy and began the Normandy invasion. In March 1944, after three and a half years of attrition warfare, the German offensive on the European Front finally succeeded in overrunning the Allied defences. Russian morale collapsed along with her army against the onslaught as the Nazi army exploited the breakthrough and marched towards Moscow and Central Russia. As the army collapsed, the exhausted French surrendered and allowed the German army to occupy their proud nation. Following this stunning victory, German troops were rapidly deployed to the existing Hungarian front, and forced entry into the lightly defended parts of Yugoslavia. With the arrival of these veteran troops, the Axis Powers defeated both the French and Yugoslavian armies, forming Japanese power in South East Asia. The war with France and the remaining Allied forces overseas dragged on inconclusively until 1946 when a Final Treaty was secured, ending the Second Great War. Even if white peace had been concluded with China, South Africa and France, Russia, Portugal, Britain and Yugoslavia had almost ceased to exist, and were forced to give their colonial holdings to a victorious Germany.

Großdeutschland
Not everything was well within Germany though - 7 years of war had pushed her population to the brink of unemployment, German industry stagnated following the war as demand was slashed and the government costs mounted as they were forced to subsidise conversion back to domestic production. The state struggled to give its population jobs and fought the ever-present danger of inflation that had arisen from printing money to fund the war effort, which continued exist in order to secure the terrible situation in Britain, now in a huge crisis. In 1969, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder became the first Chancellor since 1933 and was advised by Hitler with policies and development. Under Raedar hugely successful regime culminated in the well-executed occupation of French military possessions following the outbreak of the 1973 French Election and the establishment of Freie Inselstaaten, created along with Deutsch Amerika in order to reduce the full powers of military governors. His only failures were his inability to stop the spread of National Leftism in Europe, to secure the worsening economic situation, and an intervention in the United States, which only worsened the situation. In 1975, Raedar died and his son took over. However, since his son died in 1993, things have been going downhill for Germany. A general slowing of the world economy is decreasing industrial output and national income as other nations recover their manufacturing power, and growing nationalism in Germany’s eastern clients is starting to cause tensions as both populations and governments begin to drift away from the Reich. Hitler died in 1979, and Goebbels's son has taken over since. The current Fuhrer is getting very old and so is the welfare state put in place by others, and if Germany has never been so powerful, it has never had such heavy burdens either.