An Unspoiled Eden V2.0

"Fascisman" won't work. "Fascism" is a standard "-ism" like Catholicism, Communism, etc., etc. Yes, it takes a terminal vowel in Italian, so what? If you're going to Anglicize it, you make it fit the existing pattern. If the actual Italian word was kept, that might be possible, not what you've got. Sorry.
 
That is not dead which can eternal lie/For in strange aeons even death may die...


Chapter One
The Turn of the Screw (Part One)


"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people."
-Oscar Wilde

"Politics is the art of postponing decisions until they are no longer relevant."
-Henri Queuille (1884-1967[0]), French radical politician

From "The Admirable Rearguard: A History of the Third Reich[1]" by Hans Eberhard, Eagle Press, Berlin, 1988

1923 was an eventful year.

In that year, every single problem that would haunt the republic right until the end manifested itself in a most immeadiate (and dangerous) way. Further proof of the government's subservience to the Allies (at least in the public image) came with the Franco-Belgian (the British declined to send forces) occupation of the Rhineland, and the utter failure of passive resistence in the aforementioned region, with the whole thing being set off by hyperinflation and Germany's failure to pay the Versailles reparations...which themselves were proof of Germany's subservience to the Allies. The economy fell apart, radical groups of every sort attempted rebellions, and the ultimate solution only hurt the Reich in the long run. And through it all the Reich was unable to settle on a single man as Chancellor, preferring unstable minority governments.

Nonetheless, to the (rather undeserved) surprise of the German government, that on January 11, 1923[2], the troops marched into the area, which contained at that point a sixth of German industry. The government quickly came into accord-this could not be allowed to stand, but there could not be any military action, which would simply be painting themselves as the aggressor the French made them out to be.

Perhaps it was Wilhelm Cuno's greatest folly to think that "passive resistence" could do any good against miliary might. His gamble for the support of he world, while a sound concept on paper, was overoptimistic about exactly how much sympathy Germany had in the world at the moment, and the only support that came to the Reich were a couple of private, unauthorized statements made by British diplomats. The United States advised the French Prime Minister, Raymond Poincaré, that occupation of a rich area would not be the best strategy for inducing reperation payments, but they didn't actually do anything. Having failed in politics, Germany came to a grim realization: there was absolutely no way for them to put up any kind of effective fight against France so soon after the catastrophe of the Great War.

The Occupation also had an effect that, while seemingly beneficial to the Reich, only hid and delayed an underlying fissure at the heart of Deutschland-the labor-capitol divide. An accident at a steel mill involving French troops saw the owners of the mill arrested. The reactions to the resulting unified outcry from labor and capitol were mixed; optimists saw it as proof that love of the Fatherland could overcome all divides, and maybe even resolve an issue that had been a major factor in the November Revolution[3]. The pessimists (and, unfortunately, realists) simply saw it as giving the affair more time to simmer before it boiled over...[4]

Perhaps it is indicative of human nature that mere yearsd after the conclusion of the Great War, the Reich fell back upon the exact same policies that it had pursued during the war-loudly proclaiming a magical alliance of all political parties and factions that would overcome all obstacles facing Germany so long as they believed-even the SPD called up nationalist rhetoric about France's Rhineland policy stretching back to Louis XIV. A popular story of the time was that France had broken Versailles, so Germany had had its diplomatic freedom fully restored. The SPD's policy of "limited fulfillment" had fallen into disrepute-as had the Reich itself, which was increasingly being regarded as a whimm imposed by the Western powers. The Thied Reich is perhaps the exception that proves the rule in Santos' Lake Theorum[5]-at the heart of it, the common man genuinly believed that democracy was incompatible with the German culture and people (naturally, the codifiers of this theory had the most to gain from a return to authorotarianism). Of course, the Theorum was proveen correct in the end, but that is a matter for another book.

Moving along, the resistance was of course not all passive-the Reichswehr (Third Reich Army) was greatly strengthened by the whole episode, forming strong bonds with various paramilitary rightist organizations as well as providing generous support to the guerilla groups that sprung up in the Rhineland.

Passive resistence itself, as noted at the beginning of the chapter. The civil workers in the Rhineland, who followed Cuno's orders not to cooperate with the occupation authorities, were simply expelled, and the Franco-Belgian troops managed to take over the local railroads, and, worst of all, there was pretty much no foreign support, making all passive resistence futil. But the real blow came with the non-passive resistence-the Prussian government, which had placed a formal ban on resistence in the Rhineland (which it had technical suzeiranty over) was accused of "national treason", and NSDAP activist Albert Leo Schlageter, who was executed by the French for his assault on a supply depo, became a martyr to the right.

Then it got worse.

The German economy collapsed, and the mark became almost worthless. Stores ceased accepting paper payments, and would open for only a couple of hours a week. The KPD[6] flourished, stealing massive swathes of the SPD electorate to ride to victory in a number of regional elections in 1923. It seemed that order had collapsed.

And it may have, were it not for Gustav Stresemann. The leader of the German People's Party (DVP) had had a long political career despite his young age, and was a good centrist (not to be confused with Centrist, a member of the Center party). After the Cuno government finally fell in August 1923, President Ebert called up Stresemann to head the Reich in its time of crisis.

It is especially worth noting that Stresemann, while a former monarchist, had toyed with the idea of a dictatorship, he had decided that the SPD was vital if the Reich (which he had grudgingly come around to support) was to survive.

Moving on from his views, one of Stresemann's first actions was to accept the inevitable and end passive resistence. His preferred alternative, negotiations "with a strong will", was at first impossible, as Poincare was...Poincare, and he had British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's support in his calls for total capitulation. Nonetheless, the existing strategy was doing more harm then good.

Focus shifted to the economy, where Economic Minister Hans Luther came up with the Rentenmark, a new currency based entirely on land values. Though a gamble, it paid off, and the currency was relatively stabilised by November.

Interestingly, that is also the month that the right-wing aspirations almost came to fruit-the leaders of the movement were getting restless, ready to move and overthrow the government. The plan, which involved numerous members of the right-wing establishment, failed largely due to Hitler independantly and prematurely launching a Putsch who's failure set back right-wing momentum and put the governmant on guard. In a twisted way, it could be said that Hitler saved the Reich.

Nonetheless he did not save Stresemann's government, and in early December 1923[7] over the pretext of a miners' strike the SPD opted to depart from the cabinet. The coalition swiftly collapsed, and though ideas of a dictatorship or election were floated, in the end it was decided that Center Party Chairman Wilhelm Marx would become the head of a minority government, with Stresemann retained as Foreign Minister. Marx was handed a tall order, albeit softened by the increasing turn of the right wing away from violence.

1924 would be interesting.


0) I was almost about to put his OTL death year (1970), when my house was leveled by an angry butterfly (no really; I had a dream about cosmic buterflies last night). Also note that (though this may be retconned) he never becomes Prime Minister in TTL.

1) The common term for the state we (and TTL's westerners) would call he Weimar Republic. "Third Reich", on the other hand, is used by most of Germany's historians throughout the 1980s and early 90s. Note also that that one Western reviewer called The Admirable Rearguard "The most balanced thing to come from Germany since the '"20s". Take that as you will.

2) To all you people who insist on using the (obviously inferior) system of writing dates that the whole non-American world uses, I say-Hah!

3) The 1918 revolution that overthrew the Kaiserreich and established the
Weimar Republic.

4) The incident is OTL. Actually, OTL one of Hitler's great achievements in his takeover was the use of nationalism to provide a unifying cause to labor, capitol, and military (not always seperate classes, mind).

5) Democracy is the lake at the the base of the mountains-no matter how winding they are, all streams end there. More on that later.

6) The commies, remember.

7) November OTL.
 
Yes, its baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Aplogies for the lack of AHiness-I tries to fit in some of 1924, but I realized that the required background material for the Rhineland crisis was easily enough to fill an update. I will also apologize in advance for the likely turbulent schedule of updating likely in the next few weeks.

Speaking of those updates, I'm afraid we're going to stay on German politics for a bit before we step back and take a world view at, say, 1928/9.Then we move on to the *Depression. Sound goos?

"Fascisman" won't work. "Fascism" is a standard "-ism" like Catholicism, Communism, etc., etc. Yes, it takes a terminal vowel in Italian, so what? If you're going to Anglicize it, you make it fit the existing pattern. If the actual Italian word was kept, that might be possible, not what you've got. Sorry.

Whoa, didn't see you there!

Fascismanism is the ideology in question, a country following it is Fascisman, a follower is a Fascismanist. As far as I know, that conforms to English grammar rules, but if not, I'll say that its irregular. This is English we're talking about, you know.
 
It is especially worth noting that Stresemann, while a former monarchist, had toyed with the idea of a dictatorship, he had decided that the SPD was vital if the Reich (which he had grudgingly come around to support) was to survive.
Hm, technically it is perfectly obvious that Stresemann would support the Reich without reservations, but it is possible that events in Germany have made Reich something of a dirty word to Germans, as in OTL; from Stresemann's perspective, however, the Reich would be a term for Germany, but the present government of the Reich (that is, the Republic) might be something less desirable.;)
2) To all you people who insist on using the (obviously inferior) system of writing dates that the whole non-American world uses, I say-Hah!
Oh, I have no problems with it being written like that, except that it might not be that likely for a German to do so. It's when it is just numbers things get problematic.
 
Hm, technically it is perfectly obvious that Stresemann would support the Reich without reservations, but it is possible that events in Germany have made Reich something of a dirty word to Germans, as in OTL; from Stresemann's perspective, however, the Reich would be a term for Germany, but the present government of the Reich (that is, the Republic) might be something less desirable.;)

Well, maybe I should have put Third Reich, i.e the social democratic republic set up after the November Revolution. Stresemann certainly isn't opposed to the idea of Germany-he only has occassional feud with the people running it, as you say.

As for why it is called the Third Reich TTL, I can only say that it is the opposite of the reason you pose (that "Reich" is a dirty word).
 
Wow, this is awesome! The funny, the sad, the attention to detail, it all overwhelms! Definetly keep it coming!:)

Update Tuesday, with amy luck.
 
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