Greater German Reich (Deutschland Siegt)

The Greater German Reich (Großdeutsches Reich), often referred as Nazi Germany and the Third Reich, refers to Germany under the regime of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP or the Nazi Party), which established a totalitarian dictatorship in 1933. Officially, the state was, as in the preceding Weimar Republic era, still called the Deutsches Reich until 1943, whereafter it changed to its current form.

The policies pursued during this period were based on the concept of Lebensraum, among them "Aryan" racial purity, anti-Semitism, revenge for Germany's territorial losses at the Treaty of Versailles and the perceived loss of pride because of it, and anti-communism directed at the Soviet Union; also the Nazi regime's systematic mass murder of Jews, political opponents, and other minorities like homosexuals and gypsies in a genocide known as the Holocaust.

Under the Nazi regime, Germany became one of the major states in Europe by early 1939 from a military, territorial and to some degree economical standpoint. After the annexation of Austria in 1938, Nazi Germany became the first united German state since the Holy Roman Empire to include Austria within its boundaries. Following the no complaince by the Czechoslovak government regarding the cessession of the Sudetenland as demanded in the Munich Agreement signed by Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini on September 29, 1939, Hitler launched his military powers on Czechoslovakia, initating Operation Fall Grün on October 1, 1938. On October 20, Hungary entered the war on Hitler's side, and following a bloody campaign, the Germans and the Hungarians finally conquerred Czechoslovakia on March 15, 1939. On May 1, 1939, the territories of Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia was formally annexed into the German Reich.

The conquest of Czechoslovakia was the beginning of the Second World War. On September 1, 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, which was completely overrun by October 5. In 1940, Nazi Germany had conquerred Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and its long-time rival and major adversary, France. On May 10, 1942 Nazi Germany, along with the rest of the Anti-Comintern Pact, invaded the Soviet Union, which capitualed on April 15, 1944.

Since 1945 — the Greater German Reich and United States of America has been the two world superpowers that dominates the global agenda of economic policy, foreign affairs, military operations, cultural exchange, scientific advancements including the pioneering of space exploration, and sports (including the Olympic Games and various world championships).

Administrative regions
Under the Nazi regime, administrative powers were significantly altered. The term Gau was revived in the 1920s as the name given to the administrative regions of the Nazi Party. The Gau was the main administrative region of the NSDAP (Nazi Party), created by a party statute dated May 22, 1926. Each Gau was headed by a Gauleiter. The original 32 Gaue were generally coterminous with the pre-existing Länder and Prussian provinces.

By 1938 all of Germany was divided into around thirty Gaue. Following the suppression of the political institutions of the Länder (states) in 1934, the Gaue had become the de facto administrative region of government, and each individual Gauleiter had considerable power within his territory.

With Germany's annexation of neighbouring territories beginning in the late 1930s, a new unit of civil administration, the Reichsgau, was also created. After the successful invasion of France in 1940, the Alsace-Lorraine was re-annexed by Germany. The former département of Moselle was incorporated into the Gau of Saar-Palatinate, while Bas-Rhin and Haut-Rhin were incorporated into Baden Gau. Similarly, the formerly independent state of Luxembourg was annexed to Koblenz-Trier, and the Belgian territories of Eupen and Malmedy were incorporated into Cologne-Aachen.

German-speaking territories annexed to Germany from 1938 were generally organised into Reichsgaue. Unlike the pre-existing Gaue, the new Reichsgaue formally combined the spheres of both party and civil administration.

Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, the country, briefly renamed "Ostmark", was sub-divided into seven Reichsgaue. These had boundaries broadly the same as the former Austrian Länder (states), with the Tyrol and Vorarlberg being merged as "Tyrol-Vorarlberg", Burgenland being divided between Styria and "Lower Danube" (the re-named Lower Austria). Upper Austria was also re-named "Upper Danube", thus eliminating the name of "Austria" from the official map. A small number of boundary changes were also made, the most significant of which was the massive expansion of Vienna's official territory, at the expense of "Lower Danube".

Northern and eastern territory annexed from the dismembered Czechoslovakia were mainly organised as the Reichsgau of Sudetenland, while Bohemia and Moravia was annexed and organised as the Reichsgau of Böhmen und Mähren.

Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, territories lost at the Treaty of Versailles, together with some adjacent territory, were re-annexed to Germany as the Reichsgaue of Danzig-Westpreussen (which also incorporated the former Free City of Danzig) and Wartheland. Central Poland and Polish Galicia were run by a protectorate government, called the General Gouvernment. Eventually, the Polish people were supposed to be "removed" and Poland itself populated with 5 million Germans. In 1946 the General Gouvernment was formally annexed and organised as the Reichsgau of Weichselland.

In 1943, the Netherlands and Belgium was annexed into Germany. The Netherlands were organised as the Reichsgau of Niederlande, while Belgium was organised as Flanders-Antwerp, comprising the Dutch-speaking provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, East Flanders, West Flanders, the arrondissement of Brussels (except the city of Brussels itself), and the arrondissement of Leuven in the then-province of Brabant, and Wallonia-Liège, comprising the Francophone provinces of Hainaut, Liège, Luxembourg, Namur, and the arrondissement of Nivelles in the then-province of Brabant.

Greater Germany
Outside of what was directly annexed into Germany were the regional territories created in occupied lands. In many areas, occupied territories called Reichskommissariat were set up. In the occupied Soviet Union territories, these included the Reichskommissariat Ostland (Byelorussia), Reichskommissariat Ukraine, Reichkommisariat Moskau, Reichskommisariat Kaukasus and Reichskommissariat West Siberien. While Reichskommisariat Ukraine, Moskau and Kaukasus were established for German resettlement, Reichskommissariat West Siberien was established for housing concentration camps housing Slavs for slave labor for industrial enterprises and on the estates of the German farmers west of the Urals.

In 1950, Germany granted the former Soviet republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia independence and made them sattelite states of the Reich. The oil centre of Baku remained under German control.

Economy
When the Nazis came to power the most pressing issue was an unemployment rate of close to 30%. The economic policies of the Third Reich were in the beginning the brainchildren of Hjalmar Schacht, who assumed office as president of the central bank under Hitler in 1933, and became finance minister in the following year. Schacht was one of the few finance ministers to take advantage of the freedom provided by the end of the gold standard to keep interest rates low and government budget deficits high: massive public works funded by large budget deficits. The consequence was an extremely rapid decline in unemployment - the most rapid decline in unemployment in any country during the Great Depression. Eventually this Keynes-like policy was to be supplemented by the boost to demand provided by rearmament and swelling military spending.

Hjalmar Schacht was replaced in September 1936 by Hitler's lieutenant Hermann Göring, with a mandate to make Germany self-sufficient to fight a war within four years.Under Goering imports were slashed. Wages and prices were controlled--under penalty of being sent to the concentration camp. Dividends were restricted to six percent on book capital. And strategic goals to be reached at all costs (much like Soviet planning) were declared: the construction of synthetic rubber plants, more steel plants, automatic textile factories.

While the strict state intervention into the economy, and the massive rearmament policy, led to full employment during the 1930s, real wages in Germany dropped by roughly 25% between 1933 and 1938. Trade unions were abolished, as well as collective bargaining and the right to strike. The right to quit also disappeared: Labour books were introduced in 1935, and required the consent of the previous employer in order to be hired for another job.

Another part of the new German economy was massive rearmament, with the goal being to expand the 100,000-strong German Army into a force of millions. The Four-Year Plan was discussed in the controversial Hossbach Memorandum, which provides the "minutes" from one of Hitler's briefings. Nevertheless, the war came and although the Four-Year Plan technically expired in 1940, Hermann Göring had built up a power base in the "Office of the Four-Year Plan" that effectively controlled all German economic and production matters by this point in time.

Following the end of the Second World War, Nazi Germany has emerged as one of the two largest economies in the world, mostly due to the series of Four-Year Plans implemented by Adolf Hitler, the capture of some of the largest industrial sites in Europe (those of the former Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union), foreign credits seized in occupied territories and the large force of labour workers.

However, with massive military budgets, incessant slave revolts, crippling counterinsurgency programmes and astronomical space programme budgets, many suspect that Germany could collapse by 2020.

Foriegn Relations
Upon coming to power in 1933, the Nazi regime was faced with the implications of the Treaty of Versailles which restricted Germany's presence on the international stage. The treaty forbade Germany to build war machines deemed to be aggressive, such as aircraft, submarines, and large battleships. Further Germany was not allowed to have any political union with German-populated Austria or Danzig.

During the 1930s, Hitler and the Nazi regime performed a number of political maneuvers to increase German power. The regime demanded that the international community allow Germany to increase the size of its navy so that it could adequately defend itself, this was agreed to in 1935, with the Anglo-German Naval Agreement. The regime also pursued defying the Treaty of Versailles further by endorsing a plebicite in German-populated Saar which resulted in it returning to Germany in 1935, after being held by France as a protectorate since 1919. In 1936, with no British or French forces remaining in the Rhineland (which was to be permanently demilitarized of German forces), Germany once again defied Versailles by sending military forces into the Rhineland.

From 1936 onward, Germany steadily proceeded on an interventionist foreign policy approach, beginning by supporting the fascist nationalist forces of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War against the republican forces which were supported by the Soviet Union. German aircraft took part in attacks on Spanish republican forces as well as the infamous bombing of civilians in the Basque town of Guernica in 1937.

Expansionism
The regime also pursued defying the Treaty of Versailles with a expansionist foreign policy. With plans for Lebensraum for the German people, they annexed territories with a German-speaking population.

On July 25, 1934, eight Austrian Nazis who entered the Chancellery building shot and killed Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß in an attempted Nazi coup d'état (the so-called July Putsch) as a prelude to the Anschluss. The Vienna murder was accompanied by Nazi upheavals in the Salzkammergut and southern Styria regions, resulting in further dozens of dead. Immediately after the assassination Italian armed forces mobilized at the Austrian-Italian border to deter any German invasion of Austrian territory. However, the Nazi assassins in Vienna surrendered and were executed. Kurt Schuschnigg became the new chancellor and dictator of Austria.

They switched focus and turned to the German-populated Saarland. In January 1935 they endorsed a plebicite in the protectorate which resulted in Saarland returning to Germany in 1935, after being held by France as a protectorate since 1919. On March 7, 1936, with no British or French forces remaining in the Rhineland (which was to be permanently demilitarized of German forces), Germany once again defied Versailles by sending military forces into the Rhineland.

After Italy became isolated in 1936 due to sanctions by the League of Nations following their invasion of Abyssinia in 1935, the Italian government had little choice but to work with Germany to regain a stable bargaining position in international affairs. Germany, as a non-member of the League of Nations, was not compelled to establish sanctions on Italy, showed solidarity by increasing trading and support their military action, and soon became the Italians main trading partner and ally. The two nations proceeded to form the Rome-Berlin Axis, more commonly known as the Axis Pact, in 1936. Italy's earlier protests of the Nazi regime's intentions to annex Austria quelled as the Nazis and the Italian Fascists exchanged essential concessions to secure good relations.

On March 11, 1938, German troops entered Austria and annexed it in the Anschluss, this time without protest from Italy.

During the summer of 1938, tensions rose between Nazi Germany and Czechoslovakia over the Sudetenland. Hitler claimed that the Czechs supressed the German minority living there, and demanded that the Czech goverment should cede Sudetenland to Germany, or else they would take it by force. While both sides mobilised for war, the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain feared that war was looming over Europe, and wished for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.

Chamberlain met Hitler in Godesberg on September 22 to confirm the agreements. Hitler however, aiming at using the crisis as a pretext for war, now demanded not only the annexation of the Sudetenland but the immediate military occupation of the territories, giving the Czechoslovakian army no time to adapt their defence measures to the new borders. To achieve a solution, Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini suggested a conference of the major powers in Munich and on September 29, Hitler, Daladier and Chamberlain met and agreed to Mussolini's proposal (actually prepared by Hermann Göring) and signed the Munich Agreement accepting the immediate occupation of the Sudetenland. At about 1:30 AM on September 30, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Benito Mussolini and Édouard Daladier signed the Munich Agreement.

Following the Czech refusal to cede the Sudetenland, Hitler initiated the invasion of Czechoslovakia on October 1, 1939, without meeting resistance from the French and British governments. On March 15, Nazi Germany along with Hungary had defeated Czechoslovakia, and the territories of Sudetenland, Bohemia and Moravia was formally annexed on May 1, 1939.

In the early hours of 23 March 1939, after a oral ultimatum had made a Lithuanian delegation travel to Berlin, the Lithuanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Juozas Urbšys and his German counterpart Joachim von Ribbentrop signed the Treaty of the Cession of the Memel Territory to Germany in exchange for a Lithuanian Free Zone for 99 years in the port of Memel, using the facilities erected in previous years. Hitler had anticipated this aboard a Kriegsmarine naval ship, and at dawn sailed into Memel (Klaipėda) to celebrate the return heim ins Reich of the Memelland. German forces seized the territory even before the official Lithuanian ratification. The United Kingdom and France, as after the revolt of 1923, did not actively protect the autonomy of the territory. It was under these conditions that the Seimas was forced to approve the treaty, hoping that Germany would not press any other territorial demands upon Lithuania. The reunion with Germany was welcomed by the majority of the population, both by Germans and by Memellanders.

For quite some time, Germany had engaged in informal negotiations with Poland regarding the issue of territorial revision, but after the Munich Agreement and the reacquisition of Memel, the Nazis became increasingly vocal. Poland refused to allow the annexation of the Free City of Danzig.

Germany and the Soviet Union began talks over planning an invasion of Poland. In August 1939, the Molotov Pact was signed and Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to divide Poland along a mutually-agreed set boundary. The invasion was put into effect on September 1, 1939. Last-minute Polish-German diplomatic proceedings failed, and Germany invaded Poland as scheduled. Germany alleged that Polish operatives had attacked German positions, but the result was the outbreak of World War II, as Allied forces refused to accept Germany's claims on Poland and blamed Germany for the conflict.

From 1939 to 1940, the so-called "Phony War" occurred, as German forces made no further advances but instead, both the Axis and Allies engaged in a propaganda campaign. However in early 1940, Germany began to concern that the British intended to stop trade between Sweden and Germany by bringing Norway into an alliance against Germany, with Norway in Allied hands, the Allies would be dangerously close to German territory. In response, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway ending the Phony War. After sweeping through the Low Countries and occupying northern France, Germany allowed French nationalist and war hero Philippe Petain to form a fascist regime in southern France known as the "French State" but more commonly referred to as Vichy France named after its capital in Vichy.

In 1941 Germany's invasion of Yugoslavia resulted in that state's splintering. In spite of Hitler's earlier view of inferiority of all Slavs, he supported Mussolini's agenda of creating a fascist puppet state of Croatia, called the Independent State of Croatia. Croatia was led by the extreme nationalist Ante Pavelić, a long-time Croatian exile in Rome, whose Ustashe movement formed a government in the territories of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Ustashe were allowed to persecute Serbs, while Germany contributed to that goal in German-occupied Serbia.

From 1941 to 1944 the end of the war, Germany was engaged in war with the Soviet Union in its attempt to create the Nazi colonial goal of Lebensraum "living space" for German citizens. The German army, after request made by the governments of their allies Finland and Lithuania, liberated Latvia and Estonia, and put their pre-war autocratic leaders to power, in order not to create dissent among the people later on. The German occupation rauthorities also set up occupation and colonial authorities called Reichskommissariats such as Reichskommissariat Ostland and Reichskommissariat Ukraine. The Slavic populations were to be destroyed along with Jews there to make way for German colonists, which was completed by 1958.

Relations with Italy
Hitler had attempted to befriend Mussolini in the past to no avail, as Mussolini had little interest in his political activity. Also, Mussolini opposed Hitler's anti-Semitic beliefs, for a number of Fascists were Jewish, including Mussolini's mistress Margherita Sarfatti, the director of Fascist art and propaganda. Furthermore, there was little support amongst Italians for anti-Semitism.

On July 25, 1934, eight Austrian Nazis who entered the Chancellery building shot and killed Austrian chancellor Engelbert Dollfuß in an attempted Nazi coup d'état (the so-called July Putsch) as a prelude to the Anschluss. The Vienna murder was accompanied by Nazi upheavals in the Salzkammergut and southern Styria regions, resulting in further dozens of dead. Immediately after the assassination Mussolini promised the Austrians military support if Germany were to interfere. The Italian armed forces therefore mobilized at the Austrian-Italian border to deter any German invasion of Austrian territory. However, the Nazi assassins in Vienna surrendered and were executed. Kurt Schuschnigg became the new chancellor and dictator of Austria. This promise helped save Austria from annexation in 1934.

After Italy became isolated in 1936 due to sanctions by the League of Nations following their invasion of Abyssinia in 1935, the Italian government had little choice but to work with Germany to regain a stable bargaining position in international affairs. Germany, as a non-member of the League of Nations, was not compelled to establish sanctions on Italy, showed solidarity by increasing trading and support their military action, and soon became the Italians main trading partner and ally. The two nations proceeded to form the Rome-Berlin Axis, more commonly known as the Axis Pact, in 1936. Italy's earlier protests of the Nazi regime's intentions to annex Austria quelled as the Nazis and the Italian Fascists exchanged essential concessions to secure good relations, by Germany abandoning support of Germans in South Tyrol and Italy introducing anti-Semitic laws.

Public appearances and propaganda constantly portrayed the closeness of Mussolini and Hitler and the similarities between Italian Fascism and German National Socialism. While both ideologies had significant similarities, Italian Fascism only became closely linked with Nazism because of Italy’s need to have Germany as a partner to avoid international isolation and to pursue a war to expand the Italian Empire.

On May 22, 1939 the foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Count Galeazzo Ciano signed Pact of Steel, known formally as the Pact of Friendship and Alliance between Germany and Italy.

The Pact consisted of two parts: the first section was an open declaration of continuing trust and cooperation between Germany and Italy while the second, a 'Secret Supplementary Protocol' encouraged a joint military and economic policy.

The Pact of Steel obliged Germany and Italy to aid the other country immediately, militarily or otherwise, in the event of war being declared, and to collaborate in military and wartime production. The Pact ensured that neither country was able to make peace without the agreement of the other. The agreement was based on the assumption that a war would occur within three years.

Today, Italy, along with Hungary and Lithuania, are the closest allies of Nazi Germany, both in terms of politics, but also in terms of military and culture.

Relations with Hungary
The German-Hungarian relations was among the most important foreign relations of the Reich, which began as early as 1935.

Along with Germany, Hungary had particular interests in parts of Czechoslovakia's territory. For years they had wanted a revision of the Treaty of Trianon, which included the unification of the Hungarian-populated parts of the ČSR, if not the whole of Slovakia, with Hungary.

During the Invasion of Czechoslovakia in October 1938, Hungary mobilised between 200,000 and 350,000 ill-trained and ill-equipped men on the Slovak and Ruthenian borders, ready to invade and capture these territories. On October 20, they joined the Germans, and on March 15, 1939 they had, along with Germany, conquerred Czechoslovakia, which was subsequently split up. As Hungary had supported Germany in the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and had now regained some of its lost territories, a close alliance and friendship was established between the two countries, and they came only in second to that of Germany and Italy.

The relations worsened somewhat when Hungary refused to participate in the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, but they were accepted into the Anti-Comintern Pact on November 20, 1939. In 1940, the Kingdom of Hungary joined the Tripartite Pact and demanded the concession of Transylvanian territory from Romania. German Führer Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime helped Hungary receive significant portions of Transylvania while avoiding a war with Romania. However, Hitler demanded that the Hungarian government follow Germany’s military and racial agenda in order to avoid potential conflict in the future. Anti-Semitism was already an established political cause by the far-right in Hungary and the Hungarian government aided Nazi Germany in the deportation of Jews to concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Hungary joined Germany and Italy in their invasion of Yugoslavia in 1941. Hungary was allowed to annex the Bačka region in Vojvodina which had large numbers of Serbs, as well as the regions of Prekmurje and Medjimurje that had a large Slovenian and Croatian majority respectively. Other ambitions such as those on Croatia were halted by the creation of the Independent State of Croatia and Nazi Germany’s alliance with Romania against the Soviet Union. Fearing a potential turn of support to the Romanians, the Hungarian government sent a number of soldiers to help the German campaign against the Soviet Union.

Today, the German's relations with Hungary is among the most important, sharing a close alliance (due to both nation's membership of the Anti-Comintern Pact) and friendship.

Anti-Comintern Pact
Nazi Germany is the Nominal Head of the Anti-Comintern Pact.

The Anti-Comintern Pact was concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on November 25, 1936 and was directed against the Communist International (Comintern) in general, and the Soviet Union in particular.

"recognizing that the aim of the Communist International, known as the Comintern, is to disintegrate and subdue existing States by all the means at its command; convinced that the toleration of interference by the Communist International in the internal affairs of the nations not only endangers their internal peace and social well‑being, but is also a menace to the peace of the world desirous of co‑operating in the defense against Communist sub­versive activities"

In case of an attack by the Soviet Union against Germany or Japan, the two countries agreed to consult on what measures to take "to safeguard their common interests". They also agreed that neither of them would make any political treaties with the Soviet Union, and Germany also agreed to recognize Manchukuo.

On November 6, 1937, Italy also joined the pact, thereby forming the group that would later be known as the Axis Powers.

Military
The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany. Established in 1935, the intention of the name was to combine all functions of the General Staff in a single management organisation, and therefore Wehrmacht consisted of the Wehrmacht Heer (army), the Kriegsmarine (navy), the Luftwaffe (air force) and the Waffen-SS.

Wehrmacht Heer
One od the most powerful armies on the Earth, their commando squads on par with the SAS and Delta Force. They also have an impressive array of tanks, with the Leopard IV being their main battle tank and is fully capable of taking on an M1A2 1 on 1.

Kriegsmarine
Following WWII, the Kriegsmarine was expanded farhter with the Introduction of the Aircraft carriers Graf Zepplin and Peter Strasser, and the H-class Superbattleships Hindenburg, Götz von Berlichingen and Ulrich von Hutten. the Building of the H-Class ships was opposed by Karl Doenitz, who wanted a pure submarine force, citing the victory of the U-Boats in the Battle of the Atlantic, but he was overruled by Hitler. By 1970, the Kreigsmarine had the 4th largest navy in the world after the Imperial Japanese Navy, US navy and Royal Navy. Which now included 9 Aircraft Carriers, the Modernized H-class battleships and the Smaller Bismark Class, as well as a large fleet of frigates and destroyers, plus the worlds largest submarine fleet.

However, the death of Hitler in 1972, caused a huge loss of funding. Hitler, to the disattisfaction of his ministry and the Luftwaffe and Army, had always had a soft spot for the Navy, and with his death, spending was cut on many super projects, including a "Floating Island" to have been built in the mediteranian, a new series of Super Battleships to replace the ageing H-class, the deacreasing of n order for 10 new Nuclear powered supercarriers to take on the US Navys New Nimitz class and the Royal Navys Queen Elizibeth Class carriers from 10 to 4.

Waffen-SS
the newest branch of the German Military, the Waffen SS originated in the SS-VT which saw service in Czeckoslovakia and Poland.

Following the victory in Europe, The German Army has fought a long, bloody and at times expensive anti-insurgency campaign against various Communist, pro-Soviet and anti-Nazi guerillas, resistance movements, with the heaviest fighting on the German-Soviet frontier and the eastern territories of Germany.

However, the military top brass distrust the SS because of its growing power. Their main fear is with that unchecked power, the SS could mount a coup.