| This Mere Men article has not been expanded past 1947 yet. |
| German Republic Deutsche Republik (German) Timeline: Mere Men
OTL equivalent: Germany | ||||||
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| Motto: Schwerter zu Pflugscharen |
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| Anthem: Auferstanden aus Ruinen |
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| Capital (and largest city) | Berlin | |||||
| Official languages | German | |||||
| Religion | Catholic, Protestant, irreligious, other | |||||
| Demonym | Germans | |||||
| Government | ||||||
| - | President | |||||
| - | Prime Minister | |||||
| Legislature | Volkstag | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Unification | 1 January 1871 | ||||
| - | Monarchy deposed | 9 November 1918 | ||||
| - | German Democratic Republic | 1948 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 378,578 km2 146,170 sq mi |
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| Currency | German mark | |||||
| Time zone | CET | |||||
Germany, officially the German Republic (German: Deutsche Republik), is a country in Central Europe, bordered by Denmark to the north, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France to the west, Switzerland and Austria to the south, Bohemia and Moravia-Slovakia to southeast and Poland to the east.
History[]
Second World War[]
Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, sparking the Second World War, and quickly divided the country with the Soviet Union. Although France and the United Kingdom promptly declared war on Germany, no fighting occured between them during the period known as the Phoney War. German leadership expected the war to move to Scandinavia, where it was buying iron ore from Sweden and began preparation for an invasion of Norway. Britain, however, launched its own invasion before Germany, starting the Battle of Scandinavia. In an attempt to force the Allied troops to leave Scandinavia, Germany invaded France through Belgium in May 1940, overrunning the country in a few weeks and causing the new government on Philippe Pétain to sign a ceasefire. Germany then turned its attention to Britain, but had to postpone the planned invasion indefinitely because as the course of the Battle of Britain inclined towards British victory. In early December, Germany signed the Fourpartite Pact with governments of Italy, Soviet Union and Japan.
In 1941, Germany invaded Yugoslavia to help Italian forces in their war against Greece, violating the Fourpartite Pact signed only a few months before, which promised Yugoslavia into the Soviet sphere of influence. From the second half of 1941 until 1943, Germany fought in North Africa and the English Channel against the Allies and in Switerland and Yugoslavia against the army remains and partisans while simultaneously expanding its naval and air production for the eventual invasion of Britain. In 1943, however, the Soviet Union launched a surprise attack on the German forces in Poland. Although initailly the Red Army made advances into the former Polish territory, German forces soon stopped the attack and even pushed back in several places, but the frontline quickly entered a stalemate. The Allied invasion of Italy also forced the Wehrmacht to divert resources to a second frontline. Ultimately, the German army, whose land forces were neglected by the German leadership since the fall of France as the Chief of Luftwaffe Herman Göring insisted the air force get priority because of the air war with Britain and whose industry was continuously bombed by the Allies, succumbed to the pressure and in 1945 the Red Army started advancing again, occupying Berlin in 1946. Adolf Hitler, the German Führer, committed suicide, while Hermann Göring, who he appointed as successor, died while trying to escape Berlin and his successor, Rudolf Hess, was captured by the Red Army while trying to flee the city and forced to surrender. The Schutzstaffel, led by Heinrich Himmler, briefly assumed control of the remainder of unoccupied Germany and attempted for one last time to negotiate ceasefire with the Allies, but in 1947 all German resistance was destoyed by the Soviets.
Communist regime[]
Shortly after Berlin was seized, the Soviet Union installed a provisional government set up from German emigrés before the invasion led by Erich Weinert. At the Havana Conference between the Soviet Union, United Kingdom and United State, the Allies promised to recognise the Soviet backed government of Germany and shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Potsdam with the Allies the German Democratic Republic was proclaimed in 1948 with a new democratic constitution, discontinuing the use of German Reich as the official name after 77 years. Later the same year, parliamentary election was held. Although presented as the first democratic election since 1933, all legal political parties ran on a shared ticket of the Democratic Bloc (Demokratischer Block) led by the communist Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands). Wilhelm Pieck, one of the two SED's General Secretaries, was appointed as Chancellor (Kanzler), although at this time the position began being referred to as the Prime Minister (Ministerpräsident) instead. In the subsequent presidential presidential, writer Fritz Erpenbeck was elected by the Volkstag to succeed aging Weinert. Shortly after, the SED passed a constitutional amendment through the Volkstag that solidified the party's leading position in the German government. The Sovietization policies of the new government increased the living standart caused unrest in some regions, especially the Ruhr area, but the protest were suppressed by the government.
In 1952, after another Democratic Bloc election, Walter Ulbricht succeeded Pieck as the head of goverment, replacing him and Otto Grotewohl as the sole General Secretary of the SED earlier. Ulbricht's administration prepared a new constitution for Germany that removed elements of the 1948 constitution that the party viewed as "bourgeois", including the presidency and chancellorship. The new constitution was adopted in 1953 after Erpenbeck's term as President expired and Ulbricht became Chairman of both the State Council, the new collective head of state, and Council of Ministers, temporarily merging them together with the position of General Secretary of the SED under one person. Ulbricht intended to appoint Grotewohl as the Chairman of the Council of Ministers and therefore the new head of government, but, presumably under the influence of Lavrentiy Beria, the new Soviet government led by Georgy Malenkov, who replaced Joseph Stalin after his death, instead recommended Wilhelm Zaisser, the Minister for State Security.