This thread has several fine "government-in-exile" posts, I think largely because it's an inherently weird set up.
An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government
- Thread starter Ephraim Ben Raphael
- Start date
- Status
Very true. But the AOR was the first one to come to mind.
Gross National Happiness is a smokescreen for repression IOTL anyway, but yeah Bhutan is an ongoing proxy war in the Asian Cold War.Gross National Happiness must be quite low ITTL.
I'll be honest if you took OTL Taiwan, especially from the 50s and 60s, what with claiming all of China and maintaining the security council seat and the having Legislators representing mainland constituencies you could get it in this thread.
Stretch
Donor
I had thought of this idea about an elected monarchical system. Basically, there are a number of approved royal families who every say, 5 years, have a campaign for the public to vote which family should be the new rulers. The current ruling family lives in the main royal estate, and when not in power has their own princely estate they reside in.
Submission approved by EBR
The Free German Reich
As I step into the streets of Nuremburg, my eyes are greeted with whimsical Romanesque spires cloaked with shimmering glass and Swiss granite. Ice cream sellers greet a band of Hitler Youth while policemen in green clothes play a friendly game of kickball. Across the multiverse, the Free German Reich has built itself a strange reputation for its whimsical cities, its friendly people, and most of all, its unusual system of government. To get to the bottom of this, I’ve scheduled an appointment with Zoltan Dietrich, the Chairman of the newly formed Reichstag Committee on Trans-Universal Affairs. The thing that makes this one of my most unusual interviews isn’t Mr. Dietrich’s politics or his relative lack political experience. The strange thing about Zoltan Dietrich is that he’s only sixteen years old. To understand the government of this so-called Jungenreich, one must first understand the downfall of Third Reich. As the German economy suffered throughout the “Screeching Sixties”, Adolf Hitler would blame the economic downturn on the “old leaders” of the Reich such as Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering.
To weaken the influence of the old leaders, Hitler began plans to militarize the Hitler Youth, the largest Nazi youth organization in Germany. After the Führer’s death, President Rudolf Hess attempted to stop the Youthful Revolution, only to be replaced by Foreign Minister Alfred Rosenberg. As the revolution continued, Rosenberg declared Hitler to be the “Eternal Führer” of the Third Reich, an act that managed to unify the politically fractured nation. However, this would not be enough as a cabal of Wehrmacht generals attempted to overthrow Rosenberg in a swift coup during the Iron Putsch of 1984. Upon hearing this, Rosenberg ordered the nuclear annihilation of the “Provisional German Government” in Cologne, plunging the Reich into a period of warlordism. During the war, forces loyal to the Hitler Youth, led by Reichsjugendführer Paul Schäfer publicly denounced Rosenberg and established the Free German Reich in Munich.
While some Nazi states turned to occultism or militarism during the war, Schäfer would begin a new path for German fascism by creating the doctrine of Jungenfaschismus. Schäfer believed that the downfall of the Third Reich (and most countries) was due to the corruption and greed that perverted the nation’s leadership. To solve this, the government would be led by a pure and incorruptible body of children between the ages of fourteen to twenty-one, giving a whole new meaning to Hitler’s campaign against the “old leaders”. Meanwhile, Schäfer continued to revere Adolf Hitler as the savior of the German people and the position of Eternal Führer remained within the Free Reich. Across the world, Free Reich would be met with a mix of suspicion and ridicule by the international community. However, Schäfer managed to defy all expectations after the war as living standards skyrocketed while the Free Reich saw one of the highest GDP rates in Germany. However, this success would not be credited to the Reich’s unusual system of government. Journalists and ambassadors across the world would instead praise the Free Reich for its efficient bureaucracy of economists, diplomats, and generals, all of them fully grown adults. As of today, the Free Reich continues to prosper economically despite accusations of wealth inequality, government corruption, and political violence.
However, I put these thoughts aside as I enter the Reichstag building to hold my first interview in this strange world. The inside of the building has a sleek design with rainbow walls, despite looking like a medieval fortress from the outside. Soon enough, I come face to face with my contact, who greets me with a firm handshake and a pearly white grin. Zoltan Dietrich is a blond smiling youth a head taller than me dressed in the uniform of the Hitler Youth. After introducing myself to Mr. Dietrich, I began my interview by addressing the elephant in the room, his age.
“You know, people from outside this world love talking about that when they meet me. Their jaws will just drop open and they’ll something like “you’re just a kid!” or “my son is older than you!” It might seem strange that most of the government is too young to drink but the thing is, we don’t really deal with things that some might consider serious. Things like… foreign policy. When ambassadors come through the Nutshell, they go to the Office of Trade or the Office of Foreign Affairs. But when tourists come to our world, then they go to us.”
I joke with Mr. Dietrich about how it would be safe to assume that the Reichstag mostly deals with public relations.
“Well, Mr. Chana you’re a hundred percent right! Reichstag members mostly lead rallies and hold interviews with the media and people such as yourself. You see, Schäfer made sure that the Reichstag would be a tool of the German people to represent their desires to the government and right now, we’re continuing his legacy. We have sessions with the other bodies of government to discuss laws and policies every week or so. And unlike other “democratic” nations, these sessions are all transparent and televised.”
I then ask why it is best that the young should be chosen to represent the nation.
“It can be a bit strange to see someone as young as myself in the government. But what you have to remember is that the government doesn’t choose Reichstag members, the people choose them. They know that the young can provide a new point of view for the civil servants and the government officials so they elect us to represent the future. Another thing that a lot of people don’t understand is that there aren’t any age limits for a member of the Reichstag. Most Reichstag members just choose not to run for office again when they become adults to make way for the next generation.”
I then refer to another elephant in the room. Namely, a massive portrait of Adolf Hitler next to the smiling face of Paul Schäfer.
“Now, Hitler did have some… outdated views, the Free Reich doesn’t deny that. But we also recognize that he was a product of his times. Joseph Stalin and President Kennedy made plenty of anti-Semitic remarks in private and they weren’t very kind to racial minorities. And of course, the Holocaust was an incredibly tragic event, but there isn’t enough evidence to prove that Hitler played any role in the whole affair. You see, Hitler gave orders to transfer the Jews and Slavs back to their “homelands” in the far east. Now, it wasn’t the right thing to do, but Hitler truly believed that he was helping them.
You see, in our world, it was Himmler who ordered the construction of concentration camps and the extermination of minorities without Hitler’s knowledge. Originally, Himmler was supposed to be Hitler’s heir, but when Hitler found out about the Holocaust, he did everything in his power to stop him. I know that there are plenty of other worlds where Hitler ordered the Holocaust, but there are also worlds where he became a communist and worlds where he became an American president. But in this world, Hitler was the man who rebuilt Germany from the ground up and improved the lives of millions of people across Europe.”
Despite my concerns regarding the educational curriculum of the Free Reich, I nod my head and ask Mr. Dietrich if he has any parting words before I end our interview.
“Some countries think that the young shouldn’t be given a say in what goes on inside the government, but we just don’t believe that. The Free Reich allows all of its people to share their opinions on politics and the country. It may seem strange, but our system works and frankly, it’s far better when you compare it to the other Reichs. We’re not some tyrannical government that sells slaves or dresses up as knights, we’re a democracy that lets its people choose the future of the country.”
I bid farewell to this young politician and take a bullet train to Paris to meet my next contact, Valentin Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt began his career as one of the first French journalists to travel to Burgundy and later gained popularity for his exposes on government corruption in the Free Reich. With a blue neon jacket and a cigar between his teeth, Mr. Schmidt greets me with an eager shake of the hand before asking a few questions about my “adventures across the multiverse”. It appears that his years as a journalist have made him think like the interviewer of this conversation. After warming up to my curious host, I begin my interview by referring to Mr. Schmidt’s critical views on the Jungenfaschismus system.
“You see Mr. Chana, child politicians shouldn’t be seen as your congressman or a member of parliament. Think of them as a child actor employed by the government. Now, the Free Reich calls itself the most democratic country in Germany, but that’s just another lie from the Hitler Youth. The Reichstag basically has zero say on what goes on inside the government and most of the sessions you see on the TV are scripted. This is because the bureaucrats know that is because the younger a person is, the more… erratic they can be. But what they also know is how easily children can be influenced. Whenever a child runs for the Reichstag, their campaign is always run by family members who use their connections to make sure that their kid can get into office.
They may call themselves democratic, but it’s very hard to get a candidate of the Reichstag approved by the government. They have to be a member of the Nazi Party and go through these weird tests, so the parents need a lot of money or influence to put their kid on the ballot. Most of the time, it’s some kind of oligarch who’s running the whole thing from behind the scenes. That kid you interviewed, Zoltan Dietrich? His father is the President of German Railways. Honestly, it’s depressing that there are people who are sacrificing the freedom of their own children just so their companies can get a few more government contracts. The stress really takes a toll on these children and when Reichstag members grow up, some of them turn to drugs and crime. However, most of them end up becoming another cog in the machine.”
I ask Mr. Schmidt if he could elaborate.
“When the politicians are too old to be in the Reichstag, they end up using their connections to get a government job with a lot of influence or they use their connections to build their own companies in the private sector. Nowadays, that’s becoming a lot more common. After getting themselves money and a family, they start to use their influence to get their own children on the ballot for the election and the cycle repeats itself again and again. The people know the system is corrupt, but generally speaking, they’re too apathetic to do anything about it.”
I then ask why apathy seems to be the norm for the everyday citizen of the free Reich.
“Even though the wealth inequality is appalling, the people have no way to change the system democratically. And of course, a revolution is out of the question. The Hitler Youth has the power to go after anything they see as anti-government whether it’s a rival business or a local government. Another big reason why people don’t care about changing the system is because of Paul Schafer. Schafer claimed that any German could become powerful if they had the right genetics for intelligence and compassion. Obviously, this isn’t true, but the rich believe it and so do the poor. The Free Reich may not be as anti-Semitic as it was under Schafer, but the country still has the same obsession with eugenics it had the 1930’s. The elite marry their kids to other members inside the party, and the poor are unwilling to change their situation because they think that it’s the system they deserve. They may not dress up as knights, but the society of the Free Reich is just as much of a hierarchy as Burgundy.”
As our interview continues, I refer to Mr. Dietrich’s claim that Hitler had no role to play in the Holocaust.
“Honestly, the idea Hitler of all people didn’t know about the Holocaust is laughable. Himmler and Hitler didn’t fall out because Hitler suddenly had a crisis of conscience! It was because Himmler was even crazier than him and he wanted Hitler to use nukes against the British! Besides, even if Hitler had no idea that millions of innocents were being killed, then why did he cover up the concentration camps? And sure, some argue that Hitler stopped the Holocaust, but the reason why he did that was because he realized that the economy needed a bunch of cheap labor to recover. I mean how else did Germany recover from the Screeching Sixties? You have to understand that entire generations have indoctrinated their children into seeing Hitler as some kind of German demigod instead of the monster he truly was. They’ve been fed this twisted version of the Holocaust and the Youthful Revolution until the whole country believes it.”
Curious, I ask about Mr. Schmidt’s version of the Youthful Revolution.
“Another thing they don’t tell you Mr. Chana is that the Hitler Youth have always had a bloody history. The Free Reich loves to paint the Youthful Revolution as this time when the German people came together to make their country a better place. What they don’t tell you is that the Hitler’s Youth greatest enemy was itself. After they got guns, the youth groups split into factions that shot each other over petty feuds that had nothing to do with preserving fascism. Schafer didn’t want this to happen again so he used the Reichstag as a peaceful way for the different factions to represent themselves. But when the veterans of the Civil War grew up, the power of the Reichstag was weakened and their bickering took place in the backrooms instead the streets.”
I then ask Mr. Schmidt if he would like anything else to say before I return to the Nutshell.
“You know, people from other worlds love traveling to the Free Reich because of how… weird it is. They come here so that they can say “Look at me, I visited a country where their parliament is a bunch of kids and their leader is a crazy artist who’s been dead for fifty years!” What they don’t realize that beneath all of that is something sinister, it’s a system that abuses the young and weak so the powerful can keep on ruling. People from across the world visit so they can take pictures of those weird castles and brag about it to their friends. But I tell you, if they found out what was really going on, no one would ever visit the Free Reich again.”
The Free German Reich
As I step into the streets of Nuremburg, my eyes are greeted with whimsical Romanesque spires cloaked with shimmering glass and Swiss granite. Ice cream sellers greet a band of Hitler Youth while policemen in green clothes play a friendly game of kickball. Across the multiverse, the Free German Reich has built itself a strange reputation for its whimsical cities, its friendly people, and most of all, its unusual system of government. To get to the bottom of this, I’ve scheduled an appointment with Zoltan Dietrich, the Chairman of the newly formed Reichstag Committee on Trans-Universal Affairs. The thing that makes this one of my most unusual interviews isn’t Mr. Dietrich’s politics or his relative lack political experience. The strange thing about Zoltan Dietrich is that he’s only sixteen years old. To understand the government of this so-called Jungenreich, one must first understand the downfall of Third Reich. As the German economy suffered throughout the “Screeching Sixties”, Adolf Hitler would blame the economic downturn on the “old leaders” of the Reich such as Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering.
To weaken the influence of the old leaders, Hitler began plans to militarize the Hitler Youth, the largest Nazi youth organization in Germany. After the Führer’s death, President Rudolf Hess attempted to stop the Youthful Revolution, only to be replaced by Foreign Minister Alfred Rosenberg. As the revolution continued, Rosenberg declared Hitler to be the “Eternal Führer” of the Third Reich, an act that managed to unify the politically fractured nation. However, this would not be enough as a cabal of Wehrmacht generals attempted to overthrow Rosenberg in a swift coup during the Iron Putsch of 1984. Upon hearing this, Rosenberg ordered the nuclear annihilation of the “Provisional German Government” in Cologne, plunging the Reich into a period of warlordism. During the war, forces loyal to the Hitler Youth, led by Reichsjugendführer Paul Schäfer publicly denounced Rosenberg and established the Free German Reich in Munich.
While some Nazi states turned to occultism or militarism during the war, Schäfer would begin a new path for German fascism by creating the doctrine of Jungenfaschismus. Schäfer believed that the downfall of the Third Reich (and most countries) was due to the corruption and greed that perverted the nation’s leadership. To solve this, the government would be led by a pure and incorruptible body of children between the ages of fourteen to twenty-one, giving a whole new meaning to Hitler’s campaign against the “old leaders”. Meanwhile, Schäfer continued to revere Adolf Hitler as the savior of the German people and the position of Eternal Führer remained within the Free Reich. Across the world, Free Reich would be met with a mix of suspicion and ridicule by the international community. However, Schäfer managed to defy all expectations after the war as living standards skyrocketed while the Free Reich saw one of the highest GDP rates in Germany. However, this success would not be credited to the Reich’s unusual system of government. Journalists and ambassadors across the world would instead praise the Free Reich for its efficient bureaucracy of economists, diplomats, and generals, all of them fully grown adults. As of today, the Free Reich continues to prosper economically despite accusations of wealth inequality, government corruption, and political violence.
However, I put these thoughts aside as I enter the Reichstag building to hold my first interview in this strange world. The inside of the building has a sleek design with rainbow walls, despite looking like a medieval fortress from the outside. Soon enough, I come face to face with my contact, who greets me with a firm handshake and a pearly white grin. Zoltan Dietrich is a blond smiling youth a head taller than me dressed in the uniform of the Hitler Youth. After introducing myself to Mr. Dietrich, I began my interview by addressing the elephant in the room, his age.
“You know, people from outside this world love talking about that when they meet me. Their jaws will just drop open and they’ll something like “you’re just a kid!” or “my son is older than you!” It might seem strange that most of the government is too young to drink but the thing is, we don’t really deal with things that some might consider serious. Things like… foreign policy. When ambassadors come through the Nutshell, they go to the Office of Trade or the Office of Foreign Affairs. But when tourists come to our world, then they go to us.”
I joke with Mr. Dietrich about how it would be safe to assume that the Reichstag mostly deals with public relations.
“Well, Mr. Chana you’re a hundred percent right! Reichstag members mostly lead rallies and hold interviews with the media and people such as yourself. You see, Schäfer made sure that the Reichstag would be a tool of the German people to represent their desires to the government and right now, we’re continuing his legacy. We have sessions with the other bodies of government to discuss laws and policies every week or so. And unlike other “democratic” nations, these sessions are all transparent and televised.”
I then ask why it is best that the young should be chosen to represent the nation.
“It can be a bit strange to see someone as young as myself in the government. But what you have to remember is that the government doesn’t choose Reichstag members, the people choose them. They know that the young can provide a new point of view for the civil servants and the government officials so they elect us to represent the future. Another thing that a lot of people don’t understand is that there aren’t any age limits for a member of the Reichstag. Most Reichstag members just choose not to run for office again when they become adults to make way for the next generation.”
I then refer to another elephant in the room. Namely, a massive portrait of Adolf Hitler next to the smiling face of Paul Schäfer.
“Now, Hitler did have some… outdated views, the Free Reich doesn’t deny that. But we also recognize that he was a product of his times. Joseph Stalin and President Kennedy made plenty of anti-Semitic remarks in private and they weren’t very kind to racial minorities. And of course, the Holocaust was an incredibly tragic event, but there isn’t enough evidence to prove that Hitler played any role in the whole affair. You see, Hitler gave orders to transfer the Jews and Slavs back to their “homelands” in the far east. Now, it wasn’t the right thing to do, but Hitler truly believed that he was helping them.
You see, in our world, it was Himmler who ordered the construction of concentration camps and the extermination of minorities without Hitler’s knowledge. Originally, Himmler was supposed to be Hitler’s heir, but when Hitler found out about the Holocaust, he did everything in his power to stop him. I know that there are plenty of other worlds where Hitler ordered the Holocaust, but there are also worlds where he became a communist and worlds where he became an American president. But in this world, Hitler was the man who rebuilt Germany from the ground up and improved the lives of millions of people across Europe.”
Despite my concerns regarding the educational curriculum of the Free Reich, I nod my head and ask Mr. Dietrich if he has any parting words before I end our interview.
“Some countries think that the young shouldn’t be given a say in what goes on inside the government, but we just don’t believe that. The Free Reich allows all of its people to share their opinions on politics and the country. It may seem strange, but our system works and frankly, it’s far better when you compare it to the other Reichs. We’re not some tyrannical government that sells slaves or dresses up as knights, we’re a democracy that lets its people choose the future of the country.”
I bid farewell to this young politician and take a bullet train to Paris to meet my next contact, Valentin Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt began his career as one of the first French journalists to travel to Burgundy and later gained popularity for his exposes on government corruption in the Free Reich. With a blue neon jacket and a cigar between his teeth, Mr. Schmidt greets me with an eager shake of the hand before asking a few questions about my “adventures across the multiverse”. It appears that his years as a journalist have made him think like the interviewer of this conversation. After warming up to my curious host, I begin my interview by referring to Mr. Schmidt’s critical views on the Jungenfaschismus system.
“You see Mr. Chana, child politicians shouldn’t be seen as your congressman or a member of parliament. Think of them as a child actor employed by the government. Now, the Free Reich calls itself the most democratic country in Germany, but that’s just another lie from the Hitler Youth. The Reichstag basically has zero say on what goes on inside the government and most of the sessions you see on the TV are scripted. This is because the bureaucrats know that is because the younger a person is, the more… erratic they can be. But what they also know is how easily children can be influenced. Whenever a child runs for the Reichstag, their campaign is always run by family members who use their connections to make sure that their kid can get into office.
They may call themselves democratic, but it’s very hard to get a candidate of the Reichstag approved by the government. They have to be a member of the Nazi Party and go through these weird tests, so the parents need a lot of money or influence to put their kid on the ballot. Most of the time, it’s some kind of oligarch who’s running the whole thing from behind the scenes. That kid you interviewed, Zoltan Dietrich? His father is the President of German Railways. Honestly, it’s depressing that there are people who are sacrificing the freedom of their own children just so their companies can get a few more government contracts. The stress really takes a toll on these children and when Reichstag members grow up, some of them turn to drugs and crime. However, most of them end up becoming another cog in the machine.”
I ask Mr. Schmidt if he could elaborate.
“When the politicians are too old to be in the Reichstag, they end up using their connections to get a government job with a lot of influence or they use their connections to build their own companies in the private sector. Nowadays, that’s becoming a lot more common. After getting themselves money and a family, they start to use their influence to get their own children on the ballot for the election and the cycle repeats itself again and again. The people know the system is corrupt, but generally speaking, they’re too apathetic to do anything about it.”
I then ask why apathy seems to be the norm for the everyday citizen of the free Reich.
“Even though the wealth inequality is appalling, the people have no way to change the system democratically. And of course, a revolution is out of the question. The Hitler Youth has the power to go after anything they see as anti-government whether it’s a rival business or a local government. Another big reason why people don’t care about changing the system is because of Paul Schafer. Schafer claimed that any German could become powerful if they had the right genetics for intelligence and compassion. Obviously, this isn’t true, but the rich believe it and so do the poor. The Free Reich may not be as anti-Semitic as it was under Schafer, but the country still has the same obsession with eugenics it had the 1930’s. The elite marry their kids to other members inside the party, and the poor are unwilling to change their situation because they think that it’s the system they deserve. They may not dress up as knights, but the society of the Free Reich is just as much of a hierarchy as Burgundy.”
As our interview continues, I refer to Mr. Dietrich’s claim that Hitler had no role to play in the Holocaust.
“Honestly, the idea Hitler of all people didn’t know about the Holocaust is laughable. Himmler and Hitler didn’t fall out because Hitler suddenly had a crisis of conscience! It was because Himmler was even crazier than him and he wanted Hitler to use nukes against the British! Besides, even if Hitler had no idea that millions of innocents were being killed, then why did he cover up the concentration camps? And sure, some argue that Hitler stopped the Holocaust, but the reason why he did that was because he realized that the economy needed a bunch of cheap labor to recover. I mean how else did Germany recover from the Screeching Sixties? You have to understand that entire generations have indoctrinated their children into seeing Hitler as some kind of German demigod instead of the monster he truly was. They’ve been fed this twisted version of the Holocaust and the Youthful Revolution until the whole country believes it.”
Curious, I ask about Mr. Schmidt’s version of the Youthful Revolution.
“Another thing they don’t tell you Mr. Chana is that the Hitler Youth have always had a bloody history. The Free Reich loves to paint the Youthful Revolution as this time when the German people came together to make their country a better place. What they don’t tell you is that the Hitler’s Youth greatest enemy was itself. After they got guns, the youth groups split into factions that shot each other over petty feuds that had nothing to do with preserving fascism. Schafer didn’t want this to happen again so he used the Reichstag as a peaceful way for the different factions to represent themselves. But when the veterans of the Civil War grew up, the power of the Reichstag was weakened and their bickering took place in the backrooms instead the streets.”
I then ask Mr. Schmidt if he would like anything else to say before I return to the Nutshell.
“You know, people from other worlds love traveling to the Free Reich because of how… weird it is. They come here so that they can say “Look at me, I visited a country where their parliament is a bunch of kids and their leader is a crazy artist who’s been dead for fifty years!” What they don’t realize that beneath all of that is something sinister, it’s a system that abuses the young and weak so the powerful can keep on ruling. People from across the world visit so they can take pictures of those weird castles and brag about it to their friends. But I tell you, if they found out what was really going on, no one would ever visit the Free Reich again.”
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This is almost nine years old, but what percent of the population of the Communist but not China belongs to the upper class?
What is that big blob of pink next to the Free Reich? Western Slavic resistance that got out of control when Germany fell?Submission approved by EBR
The Free German Reich
As I step into the streets of Nuremburg, my eyes are greeted with whimsical Romanesque spires cloaked with shimmering glass and Swiss granite. Ice cream sellers greet a band of Hitler Youth while policemen in green clothes play a friendly game of kickball. Across the multiverse, the Free German Reich has built itself a strange reputation for its whimsical cities, its friendly people, and most of all, its unusual system of government. To get to the bottom of this, I’ve scheduled an appointment with Zoltan Dietrich, the Chairman of the newly formed Reichstag Committee on Trans-Universal Affairs. The thing that makes this one of my most unusual interviews isn’t Mr. Dietrich’s politics or his relative lack political experience. The strange thing about Zoltan Dietrich is that he’s only sixteen years old. To understand the government of this so-called Jungenreich, one must first understand the downfall of Third Reich. As the German economy suffered throughout the “Screeching Sixties”, Adolf Hitler would blame the economic downturn on the “old leaders” of the Reich such as Heinrich Himmler and Hermann Goering.
To weaken the influence of the old leaders, Hitler began plans to militarize the Hitler Youth, the largest Nazi youth organization in Germany. After the Führer’s death, President Rudolf Hess attempted to stop the Youthful Revolution, only to be replaced by Foreign Minister Alfred Rosenberg. As the revolution continued, Rosenberg declared Hitler to be the “Eternal Führer” of the Third Reich, an act that managed to unify the politically fractured nation. However, this would not be enough as a cabal of Wehrmacht generals attempted to overthrow Rosenberg in a swift coup during the Iron Putsch of 1984. Upon hearing this, Rosenberg ordered the nuclear annihilation of the “Provisional German Government” in Cologne, plunging the Reich into a period of warlordism. During the war, forces loyal to the Hitler Youth, led by Reichsjugendführer Paul Schäfer publicly denounced Rosenberg and established the Free German Reich in Munich.
While some Nazi states turned to occultism or militarism during the war, Schäfer would begin a new path for German fascism by creating the doctrine of Jungenfaschismus. Schäfer believed that the downfall of the Third Reich (and most countries) was due to the corruption and greed that perverted the nation’s leadership. To solve this, the government would be led by a pure and incorruptible body of children between the ages of fourteen to twenty-one, giving a whole new meaning to Hitler’s campaign against the “old leaders”. Meanwhile, Schäfer continued to revere Adolf Hitler as the savior of the German people and the position of Eternal Führer remained within the Free Reich. Across the world, Free Reich would be met with a mix of suspicion and ridicule by the international community. However, Schäfer managed to defy all expectations after the war as living standards skyrocketed while the Free Reich saw one of the highest GDP rates in Germany. However, this success would not be credited to the Reich’s unusual system of government. Journalists and ambassadors across the world would instead praise the Free Reich for its efficient bureaucracy of economists, diplomats, and generals, all of them fully grown adults. As of today, the Free Reich continues to prosper economically despite accusations of wealth inequality, government corruption, and political violence.
However, I put these thoughts aside as I enter the Reichstag building to hold my first interview in this strange world. The inside of the building has a sleek design with rainbow walls, despite looking like a medieval fortress from the outside. Soon enough, I come face to face with my contact, who greets me with a firm handshake and a pearly white grin. Zoltan Dietrich is a blond smiling youth a head taller than me dressed in the uniform of the Hitler Youth. After introducing myself to Mr. Dietrich, I began my interview by addressing the elephant in the room, his age.
“You know, people from outside this world love talking about that when they meet me. Their jaws will just drop open and they’ll something like “you’re just a kid!” or “my son is older than you!” It might seem strange that most of the government is too young to drink but the thing is, we don’t really deal with things that some might consider serious. Things like… foreign policy. When ambassadors come through the Nutshell, they go to the Office of Trade or the Office of Foreign Affairs. But when tourists come to our world, then they go to us.”
I joke with Mr. Dietrich about how it would be safe to assume that the Reichstag mostly deals with public relations.
“Well, Mr. Chana you’re a hundred percent right! Reichstag members mostly lead rallies and hold interviews with the media and people such as yourself. You see, Schäfer made sure that the Reichstag would be a tool of the German people to represent their desires to the government and right now, we’re continuing his legacy. We have sessions with the other bodies of government to discuss laws and policies every week or so. And unlike other “democratic” nations, these sessions are all transparent and televised.”
I then ask why it is best that the young should be chosen to represent the nation.
“It can be a bit strange to see someone as young as myself in the government. But what you have to remember is that the government doesn’t choose Reichstag members, the people choose them. They know that the young can provide a new point of view for the civil servants and the government officials so they elect us to represent the future. Another thing that a lot of people don’t understand is that there aren’t any age limits for a member of the Reichstag. Most Reichstag members just choose not to run for office again when they become adults to make way for the next generation.”
I then refer to another elephant in the room. Namely, a massive portrait of Adolf Hitler next to the smiling face of Paul Schäfer.
“Now, Hitler did have some… outdated views, the Free Reich doesn’t deny that. But we also recognize that he was a product of his times. Joseph Stalin and President Kennedy made plenty of anti-Semitic remarks in private and they weren’t very kind to racial minorities. And of course, the Holocaust was an incredibly tragic event, but there isn’t enough evidence to prove that Hitler played any role in the whole affair. You see, Hitler gave orders to transfer the Jews and Slavs back to their “homelands” in the far east. Now, it wasn’t the right thing to do, but Hitler truly believed that he was helping them.
You see, in our world, it was Himmler who ordered the construction of concentration camps and the extermination of minorities without Hitler’s knowledge. Originally, Himmler was supposed to be Hitler’s heir, but when Hitler found out about the Holocaust, he did everything in his power to stop him. I know that there are plenty of other worlds where Hitler ordered the Holocaust, but there are also worlds where he became a communist and worlds where he became an American president. But in this world, Hitler was the man who rebuilt Germany from the ground up and improved the lives of millions of people across Europe.”
Despite my concerns regarding the educational institutions of the Free Reich, I nod my head and ask Mr. Dietrich if he has any parting words before I end our interview.
“Some countries think that the young shouldn’t be given a say in what goes on inside the government, but we just don’t believe that. The Free Reich allows all of its people to share their opinions on politics and the country. It may seem strange, but our system works and frankly, it’s far better when you compare it to the other Reichs. We’re not some tyrannical government that sells slaves or dresses up as knights, we’re a democracy that lets its people choose the future of the country.”
I bid farewell to this young politician and take a bullet train to Paris to meet my next contact, Valentin Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt began his career as one of the first French journalists to travel to Burgundy and later gained popularity for his exposes on government corruption in the Free Reich. With a blue neon jacket and a cigar between his teeth, Mr. Schmidt greets me with an eager shake of the hand before asking a few questions about my “adventures across the multiverse”. It appears that his years as a journalist have made him think like the interviewer of this conversation. After warming up to my curious host, I begin my interview by referring to Mr. Schmidt’s critical views on the Jungenfaschismus system.
“You see Mr. Chana, child politicians shouldn’t be seen as your congressman or a member of parliament. Think of them as a child actor employed by the government. Now, the Free Reich calls itself the most democratic country in Germany, but that’s just another lie from the Hitler Youth. The Reichstag basically has zero say on what goes on inside the government and most of the sessions you see on the TV are scripted. This is because the bureaucrats know that is because the younger a person is, the more… erratic they can be. But what they also know is how easily children can be influenced. Whenever a child runs for the Reichstag, their campaign is always run by family members who use their connections to make sure that their kid can get into office.
They may call themselves democratic, but it’s very hard to get a candidate of the Reichstag approved by the government. They have to be a member of the Nazi Party and go through these weird tests, so the parents need a lot of money or influence to put their kid on the ballot. Most of the time, it’s some kind of oligarch who’s running the whole thing from behind the scenes. That kid you interviewed, Zoltan Dietrich? His father is the President of German Railways. Honestly, it’s depressing that there are people who are sacrificing the freedom of their own children just so their companies can get a few more government contracts. The stress really takes a toll on these children and when Reichstag members grow up, some of them turn to drugs and crime. However, most of them end up becoming another cog in the machine.”
I ask Mr. Schmidt if he could elaborate.
“When the politicians are too old to be in the Reichstag, they end up using their connections to get a government job with a lot of influence or they use their connections to build their own companies in the private sector. Nowadays, that’s becoming a lot more common. After getting themselves money and a family, they start to use their influence to get their own children on the ballot for the election and the cycle repeats itself again and again. The people know the system is corrupt, but generally speaking, they’re too apathetic to do anything about it.”
I then ask why apathy seems to be the norm for the everyday citizen of the free Reich.
“Even though the wealth inequality is appalling, the people have no way to change the system democratically. And of course, a revolution is out of the question. The Hitler Youth has the power to go after anything they see as anti-government whether it’s a rival business or a local government. Another big reason why people don’t care about changing the system is because of Paul Schafer. Schafer claimed that any German could become powerful if they had the right genetics for intelligence and compassion. Obviously, this isn’t true, but the rich believe it and so do the poor. The Free Reich may not be as anti-Semitic as it was under Schafer, but the country still has the same obsession with eugenics it had the 1930’s. The elite marry their kids to other members inside the party, and the poor are unwilling to change their situation because they think that it’s the system they deserve. They may not dress up as knights, but the society of the Free Reich is just as much of a hierarchy as Burgundy.”
As our interview continues, I refer to Mr. Dietrich’s claim that Hitler had no role to play in the Holocaust.
“Honestly, the idea Hitler of all people didn’t know about the Holocaust is laughable. Himmler and Hitler didn’t fall out because Hitler suddenly had a crisis of conscience. It was because Himmler was even crazier than him and he wanted Hitler to use nukes against the Poles. Besides, even if Hitler had no idea that millions of innocents were being killed, then why did he cover up the concentration camps? And sure, some argue that Hitler stopped the Holocaust, but the reason why he did that was because he realized that the economy needed a bunch of cheap labor to recover. I mean how else did Germany recover from the Screeching Sixties? You have to understand that entire generations have indoctrinated their children into seeing Hitler as some kind of German demigod instead of the monster he truly was. They’ve been fed this twisted version of the Holocaust and the Youthful Revolution until the whole country believes it.”
Curious, I ask about Mr. Schmidt’s version of the Youthful Revolution.
“Another thing they don’t tell you Mr. Chana is that the Hitler Youth have always had a bloody history. The Free Reich loves to paint the Youthful Revolution as this time when the German people came together to make their country a better place. What they don’t tell you is that the Hitler’s Youth greatest enemy was itself. After they got guns, the youth groups split into factions that shot each other over petty feuds that had nothing to do with preserving fascism. Schafer didn’t want this to happen again so he used the Reichstag as a peaceful way for the different factions to represent themselves. But when the veterans of the Civil War grew up, the power of the Reichstag was weakened and their bickering took place in the backrooms instead the streets.”
I then ask Mr. Schmidt if he would like anything else to say before I return to the Nutshell.
“You know, people from other worlds love traveling to the Free Reich because of how… weird it is. They come here so that they can say “Look at me, I visited a country where their parliament is a bunch of kids and their leader is a crazy artist who’s been dead for fifty years!” What they don’t realize that beneath all of that is something sinister, it’s a system that abuses the young and weak so the powerful can keep on ruling. People from across the world visit so they can take pictures of those weird castles and brag about it to their friends. But I tell you, if they found out what was really going on, no one would ever visit the Free Reich again.”
As an American, I did not sign up to be attacked like this.
But good work, both for this and micronation Bangladesh!
Logan's Run but with Nazis.
Amused by the blatant whitewashing of Hitler by his cultists there.
Amused by the blatant whitewashing of Hitler by his cultists there.
That's supposed to be Zapadoslavia. Hitler ended up depopulating a good portion of northern Poland but Premier Schelokov managed to put up a puppet state as a bulwark against the Prussians.
Yes, among others.
The blue, green, and purple states are Bremen, Hannover, and Hamburg respectively. They're all Wehrmatch dictatorships that split apart after the generals couldn't decide who was going to be in power. All of them are also French puppets, but all of them are too proud to admit it. The remnants of the SS fled to the dark red state in Burgundy where they've become a police state with government officials dressing up as knights during Pagan holidays. Despite the weirdness, it's becoming surprisingly nice to live there after liberalization policies. In the east, the Kingdom of Prussia is led by Wehrmacht officials who broke Louis Ferdinand out of house arrest and used him as a puppet leader. After King Louis attempted to outlaw bonded labor (basically serfdom), the eastern states broke away to form the Free Territory.
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