When the European War finally concluded with a resounding German victory, Adolf Hitler was able to realize his wildest dreams. He had crippled the Soviet Union, Germany’s greatest enemy, and now he was able to realize the ambitions he had laid out in his book, Mein Kampf. This, however, proved easier said than done. Knowledge of Germany’s heinous crimes spread to the outside world and the United States and the British Empire soon imposed an expansive embargo on the German Reich and its sphere. The Reich was not deterred, and the Soviet Union began to receive millions of refugees expelled from the newly-conquered Eastern territories of the Kaukasus, Moskowien, and Ural. This marked the beginning of what Germans dubbed “the Isolation”- a period of intense international ostracization for what would later be admitted by the German regime- the removal of groups deemed too inferior to live.
The Isolation, however, did not hinder the Reich’s continued internal development. It had the industry of the Russian heartland at its disposal as well as the breadbasket of the Ukraine. But the main task was the wholesale depopulation of the native Slavs and replacement by Germans, as outlined in Generalplan Ost. The plan was simple- a mass starvation campaign whereby food intended for the people of the area would instead be used for domestic consumption or sold to the Reich’s sphere of influence. This was supposed to starve over 60 million Slavs, and any survivors would be deported to the Soviet remnant in Siberia. The rest would be either enslaved or, if the Slavs in question had desirable racial features, “Germanized.”
All seemed well within the Reich. At least, well for the German citizenry. The Slavs were starving to death. The Jews had been mostly annihilated. More undesirables would follow them to the gas chambers. Everything went according to the timetables, spreadsheets, and calculations of apathetic bureaucrats and psychotic ideologues.
Except when it didn’t.
In 1948, Adolf Hitler, Germany’s Führer, died from health complications coupled with a disastrous medical regime prescribed by Theodor Morell, the Führer’s personal physician. Hitler’s death was a traumatic blow for the millions of people who had given up everything to fight for his cause. His funeral lasted for two weeks and was attended by the leaders of Germany’s closest allies, as well as four million grieving German citizens. No Allied leaders were invited to the festivities.
The funeral was grandiose, with processions conducted throughout the capital. However, there was an exception; Joseph Goebbels gave an impassioned speech about Hitler’s life, from the days in the Great War to the Beer Hall Putsch. All the struggles he and the nation experienced, from the days of Weimar to the Judeo-Bolshevik War, said Goebbels, were for Germany. Hitler was portrayed as the national personification of the German people, bringing them to glory. Germany grieved for the man who had brought them from Weimar to Empire.
But even as the processions went on and on, Hitler’s inner circle began to jockey for power. Whoever won this struggle would become the next Führer- a position that in the shadowy world of the Reich, meant absolute power.
Three men emerged as likely candidates for the title- Hermann Göring, the Luftwaffe commander and Reichsmarshall, Heinrich Himmler, the SS leader, and Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister.
Immediately after Hitler’s death, Goebbels began to organize the ranks of the National Socialists and draw their support for a provisional election. As a result, opposition to this grew and many senior figures within the Party threatened to not recognize this. Both the Luftwaffe and the SS began to actively place their candidates into office- either by vote or by force. Göring in particular was infuriated, since he was Hitler’s designated successor. Goebbels, however, made use of his oratory skills to denounce Göring and Heinrich Himmler’s claims to office. The German Heer surprisingly sided with Goebbels, while the Luftwaffe was divided between Hitler loyalists (and thus Goebbels loyalists) and Göring’s men. The SS remained unquestionably loyal to Himmler.
Battles immediately commenced throughout the Reich. The Heer fought the Luftwaffe, the Luftwaffe fought the SS, etc. Eventually, Goebbels gained the upper hand due to innovations in air defense, and defeated Göring’s faction. Rather than be captured and executed, Göring committed suicide by ingesting a cyanide pill.
With the Luftwaffe taken care of, Goebbels turned his attention towards the SS. Using the Heer’s size and the newly-formed Volkssturm’s fanaticism, he began pushing them from their holdings in the East, slowly but surely wiping them out. By the end of the Moskowien Crisis, Gotenland was the last major seat of SS power, and Goebbels made sure Himmler’s dream army would be a relic of the past. He gave out a simple directive, reminiscent of the Commando Order- surrender and return to the nation, or face immediate death once captured. By the end of it all, Theodorichshafen- the heart of the SS- became a pile of rubble, with Himmler fleeing the scene. Eventually, he was found attempting to sneak into Iran, and committed suicide in Baku via cyanide, like Göring.
In eight months and at the cost of 50,000 dead, Goebbels had mastered the Reich.
Soon afterwards, Goebbels introduced his own vision of National Socialism, although he was careful to maintain outward loyalty to the Hitler mythos. As his first decree, he proclaimed Hitler "the Eternal Führer," of the German nation. All succeeding leaders of Germany were to use the newly-created position of “Leading Minister”.
Next came the 25 point program- which was ignored for the most part of Hitler’s reign. It was restructured into a new, simpler, 15 point program. Titled “The National Socialist Program for the Greater Germanic Reich,” the program emphasized the socialist elements of National Socialism, while also codifying expanding upon the racialist-eugenicist concepts espoused during Hitler’s reign. Some of its most important points were:
The German nation is an indivisible nation, it’s people will be united under the common ideals of National Socialism and the principles of the volk.
The Eternal Führer, Adolf Hitler, is a man that saved the country from international Bolshevism, and shall be remembered in history as the greatest savior.
Only a member of the German race (or a Germanic) can become a citizen. This is to preserve the integrity of the German people from outside impurities. Consequently, no Jew can ever become a German citizen.
The citizenry of the Greater German Reich must be equal to one another, as hierarchy is the bane of socialism.
The German nation spans wherever the German race is. It is not confined to a mere nation. It is a community, a volk, and that volk will never die out.
One of the major keystones of Goebbels’ policy was creating continued conflict between the Allies and the Reich. Goebbels believed that continued conflict would keep the German people unified and strong. He therefore began to support African liberation movements within the British Empire and the Free French remnant. The Congolese Liberation Front, led by Patrice Lumumba, and the Mau Mau uprising were only the beginning, as the Reich and the United States fought a series of proxy conflicts through Africa, Asia and Latin America known as the Blind War.
Goebbels also sought to expand the German people’s economic productivity. Through the “People’s Economy” program, the German Labor Front was given more bargaining power with the national industries- provided the unions under it met the productivity quotas and standards of loyalty. In addition, German workers who filled productivity quotas were given hefty bonuses and time off to spend on state-funded leisure activities. That way, they could feel that their work was being rewarded with more than just acknowledgement by the State.
Goebbelism’s greatest cultural triumph was the Aryanization of German culture, creating a uniform ethos that demanded loyalty to the German state and the superiority of collective work over American individuality. The long-dead Neoclassical art style was revived and soon came to shape many of the Reich’s greatest buildings, such as the Great Hall of the German People.
The symbol of Joseph Goebbels Thought is commonly used in international textbooks to discern it from traditional Hitlerism. This contrasts to the official symbology of Joseph Goebbels Thought, which is a simple black swastika on a white field; however, there have been reports of the Leading Minister taking the international symbol well due to its syncretism of socialist and National Socialist elements.
The symbol is so- a golden bushel of wheat and a hammer surrounded by a black-and-white circle against a black-and-red swastika. The swastika is the symbol of Aryan supremacy and the circle of life, of which Germany is a part of. The gear represents the industrious, hardworking nature of the German people. The wheel represents the movement of time towards a Thousand Year Reich. Meanwhile the wheat represents the agrarian origins of Germany and the hammer represents the workers of the nation. The red, white, and black are the colors of the German Reich, while the gold is meant to show the value of the agrarian and working class.
