Alternative History
The following Yellowstone: 1936 page is under construction.

Please do not edit or alter this article in any way while this template is active. All unauthorized edits may be reverted on the admin's discretion. Propose any changes to the talk page.

This Yellowstone: 1936 page is a Proposal.

It has not been ratified and is therefore not yet a part of the Yellowstone: 1936 Timeline. You are welcome to correct errors and/or comment at the Talk Page. If you add this label to an article, please do not forget to make mention of it on the Main Discussion page for the Timeline.


Greater German Reich
Großdeutsches Reich
Timeline: Yellowstone: 1936
OTL equivalent: Germany, Luxembourg, West Poland, Czech Republic, Austria
Coat of arms
Motto: 
"Eins und unteilbar" (German)
"One and Indivisible
Anthem: 
Horst-Wessel-Lied
Location of Germany (Yellowstone: 1936)
Location of Germany
Capital
(and largest city)
Berlin
Official languages German
Other languages Polish, French, Czech
Ethnic groups  German, Polish, Luxembourgish, Austrian, French, Czech
Demonym German
Government Nazi single-party state Totalitarian dictatorship
 -  President Günter Deckert
 -  Chancellor Udo Voigt
 -  Deputy President Karl Richter
Legislature Reichstag
Establishment30 January, 1933
Population
 -  2011 estimate ~90 million 
Currency Reichsmark
Time zone UTC/GMT (UTC+1 hour)
Date formats DD/MM/YYYY
Drives on the Right

The Greater German Reich (German: Großdeutsches Reich), more commonly known as Germany, is a single-party presidential nation-state in central Europe. The nation, with a population of around 90 million, has a moderate, seasonal climate and is one of Europe's leading industrial, agricultural and scientific powers.

Formed following the appointment of Adolf Hitler to the chancellery on January 30, 1933, his government managed to consolidate power, and eliminate opposition groups from the national stage with the passing of numerous acts in the national legislature (the Reichstag). After the death of President Hindenburg on 2 August, 1934, Hitler became sole leader of the German state, merging the positions of President and Chancellor to become the sole Führer (leader) of Germany. After the Yellowstone Eruption of July 18, 1936 and the first of the volcanic winters of the Decades without Summer, famine was induced, leading to discontent among many citizens. This led to the general mobilisation of the army (Wehrmacht), and the return to stability in mid-1937. The three years that followed saw an increase in territorial invasion and annexation of nearby nations in an effort to acquire farmland to feed the citizens and new territory to resettle the German population. The violence and conflict that marked this period would later become known as the Great European War.

Currently, Germany has been described as a single-party "totalitarian dictatorship" by many international observers. The ruling National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) has often been called out for frequent human rights abuses such as the silencing of political opposition, the state ownership of many large businesses and executions and imprisonment without a proper trial. The party has also been attacked on their anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, and extreme nationalistic views, exemplified in the stance of the nation's President and Chancellor, Günter Deckert and Udo Voigt respectively.

History[]

Germany has been inhabited by human beings for over 50,000 years, with the origins of a "Germanic" people going back to the Nordic bronze age period (between 1700 and 600 BCE). Subsequent wars against the Roman Empire, and the centralization following the decline of Rome saw the formation of a number of states within the Germanic region, which, over time, came together to form the Holy Roman Empire. The Napoleonic wars would later lead to the dissolution of the Empire, but German nationalism would flourish in the early-to-mid 19th century, when the Kingdom of Prussia led the way for the formation of a modern German nation, the German Empire.

Pre-Eruption[]

See Pre-Eruption History of Germany

​Eruption[]

On 18 July, 1936, the Yellowstone National Park erupted, sending thousands of cubic meters of ash, rock, dust and debris into the atmosphere. Thousands died over the first days following the eruption as the mid-west of the continental United States was blanketed in volcanic material, and the debris left in the upper-atmosphere would lead to spectacular worldwide sunsets, as well as a the cooling of the temperature (falling by as low as 3° C by December). In Germany, the then incumbent Nazi party were forced to deal with the outcome of the eruption, with the period after which becoming known as the "decades without summer"; a twenty to thirty year period (though some claim was only a ten to fifteen year time-span) following the Yellowstone event that saw a drastic decrease in the Earth's temperature, leading to and epidemic of crop failure, and famine.

Whilst the more major effects of the world-wide famine were semi-realized in two of Europe's most powerful nations (France and Britain; the majority of the latter's population emigrating in an event called the Great Exodus), Germany, with its large southern agricultural base, managed to fare better during the first volcanic winter (1936-1937). Adolf Hitler, the then Führer of the nation, attempted to keep many major cities stable, and until mid-1937, he managed to succeed in that goal through the extensive use of the Ordnungspolizei (order police) and the Sicherheitspolizei (security police) to threaten and detain those who were capable/able to cause widespread dissent against his government. However, an extremely cold summer (respectively) would end a lot of the stability that helped keep country together in the immediate aftermath of the eruption; with widespread discontent arriving in the major cities following a insufficient mid-year harvest, and the lack of supplies arriving internationally. 

German Police Interrogation

German police interrogating a rioter in September 1937; those participating in the riots were usually arrested after their "interrogations"

By September, "food riots" broke out in cities such as Berlin, Munich, Stuttgart and Hamburg, as starving middle and lower class workers protested against the Nazi government. To keep order in these cities, Hitler ordered a general mobilisation of the defence forces (Wehrmacht) in early-October, leading to the October Massacre, a period of almost two months in which protesters and rioters fought back against the military. At one point during the height of the riots, the Krolloper building (the building in which the Reichstag convened), was set on fire in a similar manner to that of the former Reichstag building. It would not be until late-November in which the violence would cease across the majority of Germany, with some small towns continuing to see riots up to January of 1938.

Expansion and the Great European War[]

After the return to stability in early-1938, Hitler and the NSDAP government began to set their ambition towards the south, looking towards the state of Austria as a means to expand the nation's Lebensraum ("living space"), as well as acquire the extensive Austrian farmland that would be able to adequately feed the populace. For several years prior to 1938, the "Heim ins Reich" movement was putting pressure on both the Nazi German, and Fascist Austrian governments, those in favour of Anschluss (political annexation) were beginning to push for a true political union between the two countries. However, the volcanic winter caused by Yellowstone put an end to the immediate talks that were happening during the year the eruption occurred, and both nations remained unstable in the year and a half after the event. Unlike Germany though, the Austrian state's main imports dried up in mid-1937 (grain and produce from Italy), and without a good harvest that year, the government was at risk of collapsing into a civil war, similar to the one the nation experience just four years prior. Violence engulfed the capital of Vienna, the protests and destruction baring stark similarities to that of the Berlin food riots, and it would take the eventual intervention and co-operation of both the Austrian army (the Bundesheer) and the Wehrmacht in late January 1938 to put down the insurrection.