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(Inspired by a post in the map thread).

I. The Danger of Ideas


"Ideas are more powerful than guns. We would not let our enemies have guns, why should we let them have ideas?"
- Josef Stalin, attributed

1917

The sky was dark, the earth was a maelstrom of shell craters, a desolate plain of broken trees and churned mud, covered in mines and strands of barbed wire. Almost lazily, a high explosive shell fell to the ground, exploding in a trench. In our world, a man, a young soldier, was there - killed instantly, torn to shreds, forgotten save as a name on a war memorial. But in this one, he was outside the blast radius, the storm of shrapnel, by a second - and lived to change the world.

Karl Leitner: A Gargantuan Life

Karl Leitner was born on March 28 1896, in the Bavarian city of Ingolstadt. His early life was usual for the time, and in 1914 he enlisted in the German military just in time for the First European[1] War. After the war ended in German defeat, the frustrated and disillusioned Leitner (who had earned an Iron Cross in the conflict) moved to Munich, where he married Theresa Jaeger in 1920, and began working on a political book, the Manifesto of National Conservatism. The book was published in 1921, and was something of a success. In 1922, Leitner then published a second book, his Theory of Hegemons, which was to profoundly influence thought in Europe...

Political Movements of the Early 20th Century

Nazism: Obscure German movement of the early 1920s, led by Adolf Hitler. Disintegrated after he died[2] trying to take over Munich in 1923 - never recovered from his death.

Theory of Hegemons (Karl Leitner)

...The great wars which Western Europe has suffered are due primarily to one cause: disunity. The wretched idea of the balance of power only serves to exacerbate this problem, by making the rise of a hegemony of one nation in Europe more difficult...

...Consider the Roman example. For hundreds of years Rome ruled the Mediterranean, and in that period there was peace. Oh, there was crime and some degree of civil strife, but between two or more powerful countries (as is the case in Europe) what peace there is is only a pause between wars. The only way to end this cycle of bloodshed is by unity, but as has been stated before, that cannot be gained except through bloodshed...

...the first Charlemagne restored Rome - I intend to restore Germany, and from thereon Europe. For the German nation and indeed the whole of Europe is suffering from a spiritual malaise which only I can cure. Some may call me deluded, but I am only ambitious...

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[1] This will be important later.
[2] A butterfly.
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