Greater German Reich (Götterdämmerung)

History
After Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party began to eliminate all political opposition and consolidate their power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany when the powers and offices of the Chancellery and Presidency were merged. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending and a mixed economy. The return to economic stability boosted the regime's popularity.

Racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples—also referred to as the Nordic race—were considered to be the purest representation of Aryanism, and therefore the master race. Jews and others deemed undesirable were persecuted or murdered, and opposition to Hitler's rule was ruthlessly suppressed. Members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or forced into exile. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, and Hitler's hypnotising oratory to control public opinion. The government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and discouraging or banning others.

Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands, threatening war if they were not met. Austria and Czechslovakia were seized in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and divided Poland between them in September 1939, launching World War II in Europe. In alliance with Italy and other Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940 and occupied Great Britain in 1941. This allowed the Irish government to join the Axis and annex Northern Ireland. Reichskommissariats took brutal control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in Poland and ended in late 1941 when the sate was formerly annexed into a German "gaue." Jews and others (gypsies, mormons, catholics, slavs and blacks to name a few) were deemed undesirable were imprisoned in labour and death camps. The implementation of the regime's racial policies culminated in the mass murder of these minorities. Following the German invasion of the USSR in 1942, there was large-scale bombing of Soviet cities, rail lines, and oil plants escalated in 1943. The Soviets were overrun in 1944 by the Nazis from the west and the Japanese from the east. Stalin's refusal to admit defeat led to massive destruction of Soviet infrastructure and unnecessary loss of life in the closing months of the war. The victorious Axis initiated a policy of anti-democratization and purged a large amounts of Jews and other racial enemies of the government.

A cold war then began bewtween the United States and her allies against the German Reich and its allies. This led to the creation of the Ruhr Pact. This alliance included Germany and it's Reichskommissariats, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Italy, the Banat Republic, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Spain and Portugal. The Union of Britain maintained an armed neutrality as it was not willing to risk war with America as it was already suffering from intense armed resistance groups and pro-democracy and anti-fascist movements. When the Americans developed nuclear weaponary in 1946, the Germans followed in pursuit and developed in 1950.

Hitler later died in 1958 thanks due to a cardiac arrest. The new German Führer, Karl Dönitz, attempted a purge of some of the more extremist members of the Nazi Party and built up new reforms within the nation such as a new healthare system and less predjeduce against the catholic Church and non-German inhabitants. Although he seeked out a fairer form of goverment he still kept the anti-communist and anti-semitic views of Hitler. Dönitz lasted as the Fuhrer up until 1964 when he was forced from office by a Provisional Government, fromed after his invasion of France.

(More coming soon...)

Politics
The Reich was made up of 2 forms of administrative divisons, the "Gaue" states, found within the Inner Reich, and the external pseudo-protectorates, the "Reichskommissariats," found outside the Inner Reich. There were 58 "Gaue" states, all found within the Inner Reich. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, the General Government Protectorate, the Tatar Protectorate, the Leningrad Protectorate, Alsace-Lorraine, Luxemborug and the Belgien-Nordfrankreich Reichskommissariat were all annexed directly into new "Gaue" states.

There existed 5 Reichskommissariats. They were autonomous, unincorporated republics, witht their own armed forces and political divisons seperate from the Inner Reich. They were allowed to issue their own social and domestic decisions on a national level but had to answer directly to Berlin on matters involving foreign policy and economic policies. The armies of each Reichskommissariat were seen as autonomous parts of the German Wehrmacht.

Society
(More coming soon...)