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The Finest of Them All
The Finest of Them All: A Profile of Weiss Industries







The Symbol of Weiss Industries (also the Weiss Family Emblem)




“The finest of them all.”

-Prominent advertisement slogan of Weiss Industries​


Perhaps the largest company in the world with revenues of up to 600 billion thalers, assets worth up to 550-600 billion thalers, over a million employees (mainly from their fastfood sub-company (these stats don’t include franchises)), and a market valuation of just under 900 billion thalers, Weiss Industries has been ranked amongst the top 10 companies by Entrepreneur Weekly Magazine for the past decade as well. However, how did it arise and what is it like behind all those cars, games, phones, planes, and other products with their snowflake emblem.


The legendary Weiss Industries corporation was founded in 1900 by Nicholas Weiss in Mainz to make and sell automobiles with the Weiss “Liberty” car being first developed in 1905 and with a break due to the Great European War, would be manufactured until 1927 due to its cheap manufacture and Nicholas Weiss utilizing the concept of an assembly line for manufacturing them with up to 20 million being built. Nicholas Weiss headed the company throughout the Great European War as well, evacuating the factories of the company to Saxony to avoid the factories from being captured by the French. It was during this time that Weiss Industries became well-known for manufacturing cheap trucks and even the first Maximilian Schwarzburg landships using the same model that the Liberty automobiles were manufactured both pre and post-war.







A truck built by Weiss Industries during the Great European War


By the end of the Great European War, Weiss Industries was thriving and had taken the first step towards becoming the massive titan it would become one day as the first Sengupta built by Weiss Industries was built in 1914 and the unification of Germania led to Weiss Industries setting up its first shipyard in Hamburg in 1919. During the Era of Good Feelings, the company thrived and grew as it acquired interests in the construction and retail industries during the 1920s but Nicholas Weiss would be forced to retire due to ill health in 1927, leaving control of the company to his son-in-law Jacques, who would take the Weiss name after marrying Willow Weiss a year earlier.


Due to the French Flu, Jacques Weiss would carry out a notorious action which would forever mark his legacy to preserve the company. He would rely heavily on cheap labor and slashed wages to ensure his company’s survival due to the economic crisis. He was also a devious businessman who knew how to use political connections to his advantage with him having many contacts with the rising Centralist Party and its leader Augustina Sternberg. After Augustina Sternberg became leader of the Kingdom of Germania when the Centralist Party won the 1934 elections, Jacques Weiss became highly connected with the German government and so won lucrative contracts with the German military and government. This would result in many German landships being built during the War of the Danube being built by Weiss Industries and the main German landships being designed by Weiss Industries. However, Jacques Weiss would be infamous for his covert ties to the Revivalists as his company continued doing business with Revivalist Lithuania until late 1941. Even today, the East Slavic Federation is one of the main countries where Weiss Industries products are relatively uncommon as a result of Jacques Weiss continuing to do business with Revivalist Lithuania through dummy businesses for so long.




The Charlemagne Landship, a Weiss Industries design which entered service during the middle phase of the War of the Danube


Despite how Jacques Weiss was closely connected to the German government, his relations with General Bertolt Brecht was cold at best. This was the result of how he infamously argued with General Brecht over landship design in March 1940. Other arguments would be triggered during Operation Barbarossa and Operation Schwarzburg as General Brecht was unhappy with Jacques Weiss regarding how quality of the Charlemagne landships was poor as they often broke down, which General Brecht confronted Jacques Weiss over with infamous comments regarding the labor practices Jacques Weiss being given by General Brecht.


After the War of the Danube and the fall of Revivalist Lithuania, Weiss Industries was amongst the first companies to invest in post-Revivalist Lithuania as well, owing perhaps to how Jacques Weiss had continued to deal with Revivalist Lithuania until 1941. Weiss Industries started strengthening their motion vitagraphy and newspaper subsidiary, Weiss EntertainMedia, which was amongst the first companies to develop a TV channel as well. In addition, Jacques Weiss set up The Melting Pot, a cheap fastfood restaurant which would prove to be very popular, selling food on the same model that cars were made in his factories.


However, not all was well in the industrial titan Jacques Weiss had made as wages for his workers were generally low and working standards were poor. The controversial business practices that Weiss Industries had during his tenure included using connections to the German government to help the company grow in size and drive the competition into bankrupcy and making underhanded deals with dictatorships. These increased his profits and made him extremely wealthy as well.


As Jacques Weiss grew older, succession became a problem as he had two daughters and a son. While his older daughter Elsa was more interested in politics (she would become German Prime Minister from 1977 to 1982, 1988 to 1991, and from 1993 to 1995 as head of the centrist Progressive Party), both his younger daughter Siglinde and his son Waldemar wanted to take over the Weiss Industries corporate empire. These two siblings would be very different as Siglinde was educated at Beacon Academy where she made many friends with the famous writer Ruby Rose Branwen, musician and minority rights activist Blake Belladonna, and future Chancellor Yang Xiao Long being her closest friends there while Waldermar Weiss was educated in Vienna University and was well-known for having sociopathic tendencies there with few friends. After an outburst Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss gave at the Weiss Industries Christmas Gala, Jacques planned to disinherit her. However, he would die before he could reveal his plans and alter his will from a stroke on February 4, 1955. Despite this, a legal fight would ensue between Siglinde and Waldemar Weiss over control of the company due to the conflicting copies of Jacques Weiss’ will. Said legal fight would conclude with a court judgement on November of that year that Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss was the legal heiress to Weiss Industries. Her first action as head of the company, a position she would hold for almost 50 years, was to increase wages of workers and improve labor conditions. However, a negative side-effect of this was that anger over this (even though Siglinde tried to patch up relations with him with him becoming Chief Financial Officer of the company) was why Waldemar Weiss was recruited to become an Aankhein agent in December 1955 as he was approached by a man who claimed to be an Indian tourist visiting Germania but in reality was an Aankhein agent.


During the Great Asian War, as previously mentioned, Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss strengthened the company with the purchase of Bayern Aerospace, which enabled Weiss Industries to become one of the largest companies in the world. However, Waldemar Weiss would prove to be a massive thorn on Siglinde’s side as he would be infamous for transmitting parts of the blueprints of the P-51 to the Indians along with logs of Weiss Industries production until his arrest (and subsequent execution for espionage) in March 1959.


Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss would also use the Great Asian War as a chance to reorganize the Board of Directors, famously remarking to them on the first board meeting after the US declared war on the Unified Indian State that "You don't have a clue! None of you do! You're all just standing around, talking about nothing: worrying about your hair, your money, your stupid problems that don't mean anything!" Said statement would be given after the Board of Directors meeting gave an overly conservative estimate of how long it would take for Weiss Industries factories to shift to a war footing (they estimated it would take until mid/late-1959). As a result, of the 20 members of the Board of Directors at the start of the Great Asian War, only 9 would remain in the Board by January 1959 and after the arrest and execution of Waldemar Weiss for espionage, only seven would remain and they were all loyal allies of Siglinde Weiss. The new Board of Directors was comprised of technocrats who, to Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss, would be better suited to running the war effort for Weiss Industries with Markus Simmel being the best-known of these “new men”





Markus Simmel, second-in-command of Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss during the Great Asian War


Markus Simmel would define the image of the replacement Directors that Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss had selected for her Board of Directors. He was an outsider to the company and had not been connected to Jacques Weiss in any way, having just joined the company in 1956 as he had been hired by Siglinde Weiss on that year as Chief Human Resources Officer and by 1958, he was Chief Operating Officer of Weiss Industries. Together, the two would increase production to the levels needed for supporting the war effort that Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss gave at the first Board Meeting three months ahead of schedule (she gave it at December 1958 but output reached said levels on September 1958) through usage of experts to manage the fields necessary for the war effort, giving factories more autonomy/”self-responsibility”, increasing the number of shifts in factories, bringing in more women as workers to replace men conscripted to the front, a strict attention to detail, a more efficient allocation of resources, and other innovations which increased productivity. Said innovations would be adopted by other major companies shifting to wartime production and by official government bodies of all the major powers making up the United States.


In addition, her methods to increase production in Weiss Industries would draw her to the attention of the government of Volker Braun as she would be named head of the “Ministry of Armaments”and the “Board on War Production” by Volker Braun on December 1, 1958. As Minister of Armaments and Chairwoman of the Board on War Production, she would introduce her reforms that she had implemented in Weiss Industries onto the entire German war economy, which, to some historians, sped the Great Asian War’s conclusion by up to a year via how war production was streamlined under her supervision.


After the end of the Great Asian War, Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss would leave the Volker Braun cabinet but would use her connections to Volker Braun to acquire factories and electronics taken from the former Unified Indian State. Her connections would also enable her company to be amongst the first to take up roots in occupied India with Weiss Industries factories being set up in the Deccan even before the end of 1960. In addition, many Indian technological experts were hired by Weiss Industries due to their skills by Weiss Industries. Weiss Industries was arguably amongst the companies which benefited the most from the defeat of India as it allowed them to become the massive conglomerate that it has developed into in the modern day due to how much Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss had used her connections to have her company be amongst those who were the first to benefit from the defeat of India.


However, despite this, one must not ignore the role of the “new men” that Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss brought in to run the company as they were men and women who promoted innovation in the company they were brought in to run and were often also engineers as well. Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss’ policies regarding wooing talent also promoted technological innovation as inventors, engineers, and software designers hired by Weiss Industries were given leeway on personal projects of theirs (20-25% of employees time is alloted to such side-projects) with some of Weiss Industries’ greatest innovations like the Spark console starting out as side-projects by Weiss Industries employees who had been given time by Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss to indulge their pet projects. Siglinde Weiss also was well-known for how she used high wages and personal bonds to keep employees to her company loyal to her in particular.


By the end of the 20th Century, Weiss Industries had become one of the largest industrial conglomerates in the world due to a mixture of competent business decisions, risk-taking, efficient administration which emphasized merit of managers, some political connections, and sheer luck. Despite the bumpy road of the 1980s caused by the Ningbo Stock Exchange Crash and Harry Kellner’s attempts to break-up the massive conglomerate due to allegations that it was “stiffling competion”, Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss had been able to steer Weiss Industries through the Information Revolution and the rise of the Internetwork and come out as one of the pioneers of such technology along with video games. However, she did not neglect the company’s traditional field of automobile manufacturing as Weiss Industries developed a reputation for fielding popular cars which were cheap, functional, and practical, which extended even to their luxury and sports cars, which were more reliable and cheaper than rival companies.


Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss had taken Weiss Industries from a middle-sized company to an industrial titan but the company has had to cope without her after her death in 2003 and even without her, the company has prospered under her two daughters, who she had placed in charge of the company after her death. In addition, Seraphina Plessner-Weiss, her granddaughter through Gunther Plessner-Weiss, has shown lots of promise as an administrator and developer and by 2005, was now Chief Operating Officer of Weiss Industries.


As for the current state of Weiss Industries products, they are often considered to be amongst the best in the world due to the emphasis on a combination quality, affordability, and consumer confidence that Weiss Industries has placed over the years for their products. From cars to smartphones to airplanes and to video games, the snowflake logo of Weiss Industries has been associated with quality, accessability, and reliability over the years as well.


In the field of video games, Weiss Industries (or more accurately, Weiss Technology/EntertainMedia) is one of the biggest video game companies in the world, producing The Dreamscape series of consoles and developing some of the most popular video games in the world. One of their most popular game franchises is “Battle Complex”, which is a first-person shooter series focusing on “story arcs”in the major conflicts of the 20th Century with Battle Complex 4, released in 2004, with its focus on the Great Asian War from the POVs of German, Indian, Chinese, French, Vespuccian, and Italian soldiers being very popular with DLCs adding “story arcs” from the POV of Hungarian, Korean, Nusantaran, Aceh, Lusangese, and British soldiers fighting in the Great Asian War. Another popular game series created is Twilight Invasion, a sci-fi RPG game from the POV of Commander Neumark and detailing how he/she struggles to unite a galaxy oblivious of the threat facing it. Another major game that Weiss Industries created is After the End, which features an alternate history where the Great Asian War didn’t occur but a nuclear war occured later, causing “The End”. Aside from that, Weiss Industries is well-known for its lines of strategy and simulation games. Their most famous strategy games are their series grand strategy games, which include The World of the Ancients (focusing on the rise and fall of Rome), A Game of Thrones (which is set in medieval Afro-Eurasia from Iceland in the west to Hokkaido in the east and from Scandinavia in the north to Nusantara and the Swahili coast of Africa in the south), The Age of Exploration (focusing on the Early Modern Age from 1450 to 1800), Industry and Revolution (which is set from 1800 to 1930 and is focused on the Industrial Age), and Darkest Hour (which is set from 1930 to 1965). Darkest Hour III (2003) is famous for its “Frankreich” mod, featuring an Entente victory in the Great European War and its aftermath. Weiss Industries is also well-known for tabletop games with Galaxy Aflame, a dystopian sci-fi tabletop game which is set in the distant future and features the increasingly unstable Galactic Imperial Commonwealth struggling to hang on as alien invaders attack it from all sides and new menaces threaten it, being the most popular and inspiring a TV series and some very popular motion-vitagraphs by Weiss EntertainMedia




The Dreamscape 4, released in 2004



In the field of smartphones, Weiss Industries is very famous for their smartphones, which they were the first to develope with the Synergy series of smartphones being amongst the most iconic smartphones in the world. As a result of Weiss Industries’ reputation, an estimated 24.1% of all smartphones in the world as of 2005 are smartphones developed and made by Weiss Industries.





The latest model of Synergy smartphones (c.2005)



Due to Weiss Industries owning Bayern Aerospace, it has one of the main shares of airliners in the world as Weiss/Bayern airliners comprise 48.3% of the global market for airliners in a “duopoly” with Chinese airliner manufacturer Fengzheng. While the Bayern 500, the Bayern 525, and the Bayern 575, Weiss Industries is best-known for building the only supersonic airliners in the world, the Bayern “Swiftbolt”. It was introduced in 1978 and has been in use ever since with 150 being built in total. 70 of them are for airlines and 80 are for personal/business use with the very first Swiftbolt being built for the personal use of Siglinde "Schnee" Weiss as a private jet.



Artwork of the Bayern “Swiftbolt” supersonic airliner

However, despite all this, Weiss Industries has not neglected their traditional field of automobiles as Weiss Industries has a market share of 8.8% of all automobiles sold worldwide. In recent years, Weiss Industries has had a reputation as a leader in the field of environmentally-friendly automobiles as all cars produced after 1998 have had the ability to use biodiesel or ethanol while newWeiss Industries cars have all switched to hybrid engines since 2002. Two of the most iconic hybrid cars developed by Weiss Industries have been the Trailblazer and the Falcon, both introduced in the same year.





The Trailblazer and the Falcon, Weiss Industries’ new hybrid cars.


In other fields like restaurants, Weiss Industries would also be amongst the most prominent companies with many remarking at how omnipresent Weiss Industries apparently is due to its massive prescence in many fields of everyday life. Weiss EntertainMedia is amongst the largest entertainment and media companies in the world with Weiss EntertainMedia owning several superhero franchises along with “Universal Cinemas”, one of the main motion-vitagraphy studios in the world. In addition, they own the “International News Channel”. The INC is amongst the most popular cable channels in the world. Other networks they own include “The Motion Vitagraphy Channel”, which is also famous for its hit in-house TV serieses as well with The Circumvental War being one of their hit TV serieses. Weiss Industries also has partial ownership of the social-networking site SocIntNet (Social InterNetwork)


The administration of Weiss Industries is fairly complicated as while ownership of the company is centralized under the control of the descendants of long-time CEO and Chairwoman Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss, the sub-companies of Weiss Industries maintain a degree of autonomy to do business in what way they could as long as they don’t interfere with policies set by the “Cabal”, as the Board of Directors is often known, of Siglinde’s descendants, personal friends, and the managers selected for their competence. A web of responsiblities and interlocking shareholdings are other factors which keeps the company together as well.


As for the personal wealth of the Weiss family, it is reported that the Weiss family, owing to the huge wealth they have accumulated, have a total worth of over 125 (some say up to 160) billion thalers with the wealth being divided up amongst the Weiss family members. Jacqueline is the richest member of the Weiss family and even then, she only has 60 billion thalers of wealth. The Weiss family’s wealth has been invested heavily in a large degree of mansions with the Weiss family being reported to have over two dozen mansions ,seven yachts (including the world’s biggest yacht), and modified airliners as private planes. However, the Weiss family is well-known as well for their philanthropic enterprises where they’ve donated billions of thalers to charity.


A future vision for Weiss Industries was illustrated by its long-time head before her death as she penned “Project Dust” as part of her will. Project Dust was inspired by how as a young student at Beacon Academy, she was a fan of the writings of Zygimantas Gediminaitis along with her close friends. Project Dust consisted of a long-term plan to increase humanity’s space prescence through a privately-funded Moon mission “by 2025” and said plan envisions Weiss Industries to have spearheaded a manned mission to Mars “by 2050” and for asteroid mining, moon bases, manned landings on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, and even a semi-permanent Martian outpost to be a reality by the end of the century. In addition, plans for an AI and virtual reality were also articulated in Project Dust with AI and virtual reality development in Weiss Industries being very quick in the past few years.


However, controversy regarding Weiss Industries remains as reports indicate that Weiss Industries secretly gave the Crimean Yarı sektörler company things needed to make high-quality electronics and how Weiss Industries guards in various poor/unstable areas to protect facilities there are often seen with Crimean-esque weaponry. In addition, many people feel Weiss Industries is too powerful with its size and degree of influence.


Despite all this, with a system which promotes the acquisition and loyalty of talent and their quick promotion, it seems that Weiss Industries would retain its spot as one of the largest companies in the world for the concievable future with Siglinde “Schnee” Weiss’ descendants in charge, especially with the potential Seraphina has shown lately.

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