German Empire (Central Victory)

The German Empire (German: Deutsches Reich) is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland, Lithuania and the Czechoslovakia; to the south by Italy and Switzerland; and to the west by France and the Netherlands.

A region named Germania, inhabited by several Germanic peoples, has been known and documented before AD 100. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire, which lasted until 1806. During the 16th century, northern Germany became the centre of the Protestant Reformation. As a modern nation-state, the country was unified amidst the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Germany emerged from World War II as the first country with nuclear weapons. It, along with Japan, became a superpower after the war.

Germany is a federal constitutional_monarchy of twenty-two states (Länder). The capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany is a member of the Axis Powers. It is the worlds largest exporter and second largest importer of goods. In absolute terms, Germany allocates the biggest annual budget of military expenditure in the world. The country has developed a high standard of living and established a comprehensive system of social security. Germany is recognised as a scientific and technological leader in several fields.

World War I
During World War I, the German Empire was one of the Central Powers that ultimately won the war. It began participation with the conflict after the declaration of war against Serbia by its ally, Austria-Hungary. German forces fought the Allies on both the eastern and western fronts, although German territory itself remained relatively safe from widespread invasion for most of the war.

Germans responded to the beginning of war during 1914 with the same general enthusiasm as did many people of other countries of Europe; this enthusiasm is known as the Spirit of 1914. The German government, dominated by the Junkers, thought of the war as a way to end Germany's disputes with neighbors and rivals like France, the United Kingdom, and Russia. The beginning of war was thus presented in authoritarian Germany as the chance for the nation to secure "our place under the sun" as the Kaiser Wilhelm II put it, which was readily supported by prevalent nationalism among the public. The Kaiser and the German establishment hoped the war would unite the public behind the monarchy, and lessen the threat posed by the dramatic growth of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which had been the most vocal critic of the Kaiser in the Reichstag before the war. Despite its membership in the Second International, the Social Democratic Party of Germany ended its differences with the Imperial government and abandoned its principles of internationalism to support the war effort.

It soon became apparent that Germany was not prepared for a war lasting more than a few months. At first, little was done to regulate the economy for a wartime footing, and the German war economy would remain badly organized throughout the war. Germany depended on imports of food and raw materials, which were briefly stopped by the British blockade of Germany. Food prices were first limited, until the Battle of Jutland.

Enthusiasm began to decrease as the enormous numbers of casualties began returning from the first battles. As the human cost increased during battles at the Marne, Verdun, the Somme, and at Ypres in the west, and in Poland and Galicia in the East, a grimmer and grimmer attitude began to prevail amongst the general population. Morale was helped by victories against Serbia, Greece, Italy, and Russia which made great gains for the Central Powers. Morale was at its greatest since 1914 at the end of 1917 and beginning of 1918 with the defeat of Russia following her rise into revolution, and the German people braced for what Ludendorff said would be the "Peace Offensive" in the west. In one of the bloodiest series of battles in history from March to August, Ludendorff's plans succeeded by the failed defensive efforts by the Allies and Germany's last chance to win the war was secured.

By September 1918, the Central Powers were exhausted from fighting, and the Allies had won the support of American forces. Yet even though the eastern front was hundreds of miles away from the borders of the Reich, an invasion of the Rhineland on the western front was made impossible after the Second Battle of the Marne. By the end of 1918, Germany had accepted the Armistice with the Allies.

Interwar period
Wilhelm II lead Germany into many years of social, and military prosparity. But some in Germany shared the aging Kaiser's opinion that unification was not complete. One night after hearing about his exploits, the Kaiser invited a young veteran to the Berlin Palace. And after talking with him Wilhelm II convinced the young man to leave the German Workers Party in favour of the German National People's Party, aka the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (DNVP). The young man accepted and was apointed Reich Chancellor in 1934.

The man's name was Adolf Hitler. And with the Kaiser's full support and blessing, Hitler began rapid reformations in Germany that dismantled Prussia. And nearly caused the Kaiser to dismiss him. But Hitler followed by dethroning all the other monarchs of Germany accept the Kaiser. All Prussian provinces were incorperated into a New Sacred Germany Hitler called it. At first these forced abdications caused civil unrest but the people in the end accepted this policy. Then Hitler introduced a standardized uniform to all the individual armies in Germany and then had those armies nationalized for Germany, not German states. Following this Hitler increased the Army's budget that expanded on the creation tanks and artillery weapons.

Hitler also increased the German Navy budget, commissioning the construction of Air Craft Carriers, expecting the first two ships to be completed by 1943. Finally, Hitler reorganized the Luftstreitkräfte into the Luftwaffe. It was agreed by all nations at the time, the German Empire had the most advanced and largest military in the world.

World War II
On September 17, 1939, seventeen days after the start of World War II and victorious Russian advance into eastern Europe, the German Army sent officers to aid in commanding their allied armies, stating the protection of eastern Europeans as their operation's primary goal and as the justification of the action. As a result, France and Britain declare war on Germany. In the meantime the negotiations with the Netherlands about a German-Dutch alliance succeeded; and in December, 1939 Belgium started a campaign against Germany. In spring 1940 Germany and the Netherlands launched a joint invasion of Belgium and France. By June France and Belgium were overrun by German and Dutch soldiers and had surrendered. At the same time, Germany pushed the British Army out of France. But by May 1940, the Russians had conquered most of Poland, eastern Europe had fallen.

On June 22, 1941, Stalin invaded Germany, using his contacts within the Russian Communist party, German spy Richard Sorge was able to discover the exact date and time of the planned Russian invasion of Germany. This information was passed along to Kaiser Wilhelm III, but went ignored, despite warning from not only Sorge, but from King Gustaf Vand other sources as well. The German military went on high alert immediately after the invasion of eastern Europe but did not leave German soil. It was not caculated how long it would take the Red Army to reach Germany, let alone invade. And so, the Russian invasion caught German military unprepared. In the larger sense, Hitler expected invasion but not so soon. The Army was in poor morale due to the recent death of Kaiser Wilhelm II; the nation was still in national mourning at the time of the invasion. In the immediate sense, Kaiser Wilhelm III, although receiving a specific and accurate warnings of when the invasion would occur, simply refused to believe it would happen. As such, defensive actions did not occur and the German Army was unprepared in that tactical sense, when the invasion occurred. The initial weeks of the war were a disaster, with thousands of men being killed, wounded, or captured. Whole divisions disintegrated against the Russian onslaught. The new Kaiser gave majority of his military power over to Hitler, although how this was decieded has been debated. All in all, on the very first day of the attack, Hitler held meetings with over 15 individual members of the German government and military apparatus. Russian troops reached the outskirts of Berlin in October 1941, but failed to capture it, because the forces reaching Berlin were late and under−strength. At the Siege of Fehmarn in 1942–43, after losing an estimated 1 million men in the bloodiest fighting in history, the German Army was able to regain the initiative of the war. Due to the unwillingness of Spain to enter the war, the Germans were able to call dozens of army divisions back from occupied France and Belgium. These units were instrumental in turning the tide, because most of their officers had seen combat in World War I and used the new equipment the German Army now had. German forces soon launched massive counter attacks along the entire Russian line. By 1944, the Russians had been pushed out of eastern Europe to the Stalin Line, which whas located on the Russian border. In June 1944 a German-Dutch invasion of Britain, which lasted from June–August, forced the British to sue for peace. In that same year, with Generalfeldmarschall Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb attacking from the North, and Generalfeldmarschall Fedor von Bock slicing Russia in half from the center the fate of Communist Russia was sealed. On May 2, 1945 the last Russian troops surrendered to the overjoyed German troops in Moscow.

As victory was won in Europe, a joint Axis plan to invade the United States was launched. Germany, having developed the first nuclear weapons, used them on the American cities of New York and Boston in August. The United States surrendered on September 2, 1945 ending the war.