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"Hitler ist dead!"
On March 4th, 1943, Adolf Hitler died from a stroke. As much as he boasted of his iron nerves, it appears that stress bested him. A week later, there was an immense funeral as Germany mourned the death of their admired leader, attended by numerous government functionaries.

It also meant one thing: who will succeed him?

Hitler's Last Will and Testament indicated he wanted Goering to succeed him and the offices of President and Chancellor to be separated. Despite what Hitler thought, he did not own Germany. Bormann's influence within the Nazi Party allowed to him be elected Chancellor and to withhold Hitler's will from the public. Without a President, Bormann would assume the duties of that office as well as per the Constitution.

However, many did not like Bormann, least of all Goering who would have become the leader of the Reich. Bormann's policies were becoming more brutal then Hitler's, churches were being closed and there were rumors within the army that there will be a Soviet-style purge. Those rumors were likely false given the state of war, but it allowed for the impetus of a coup orchestrated by Beck, Canaris, Goebbels, Guderian, Speer, and others.

On May 4th, reserve units instituted military control, disempowering the Gauleiters and the Party. Goebbels made a speech over the radio, soothing the German people during the turmoil of the coup and pledging democratic rule after the war is over.

Beck, Goering, and Speer lead the Council of Regency, functionally the administrative equivalent of the Reichstag, Presidency, and the Chancellory combined into one office. Goebbels would become Foreign Minister. The German Military Staffs were given free reign, although were dependent on strategic decisions made by Speer over war equipment.

Conditions in the concentration camps were decreed to change, becoming more like American internment camps, except that prisoner labor was required. German war production was set to increase rapidly, as housemaids, women, POWs, and more were to be integrated into the total war economy, and industrial output was set to be expanded in the occupied territories.

While the damage has been done, with partisan resistance throughout Russia caused by the brutal occupation, efforts were made to expand local and ethnic sovereignty, along with the dissolution or privatization of collective farms.

The air war was to be dealt with through an increase of fighter production at the expense of bombers.

The operational tempo in the war in the east was to be reduced.

A tentative peace offer was declined by the allies.
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