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Why did Germany and Poland decide to just invade the Soviet Union? To "stop the spread of Bolshevism" or something like that? What was the casus belli?

I've also thought about this quite often too because I would have thought any militarist German government would throw their lot in with the Soviets to partition Poland - as had happened OTL and I'm pretty sure Von Schleicher actually supported such an idea. What cements my view is how the Polish fought with the Germans over Posen militarily and inflicted disastrous defeats, presumably this memory would greatly harm their relations with them.

It seems very odd that the whole impetus for the invasion was political consideration rather than external events.

Kanan can enlighten us.
 
This may have been asked before, @Kanan , but do you draw your ridings freehand in paint/photoshop for the various country infobox maps/New England ridings, or are you using some version of GIS software? Been curious, because they're some of the most professional-looking that I've seen, and I've worked RL politics!
 
23rd Canadian Ministry; 24th Canadian Ministry; Premiers of Canada
I am super excited to return to Canada (just in time for the upcoming irl election!) with a nice dosage of Canadian politics done fully and 100% by @canadian902! All likes should really flow to him, and both of us will be free to answer questions. This is a fully canon addition to the timeline, so enjoy! I will respond to the questions asked here either later today or this weekend. I promise!

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Wow! I just had to say something after spending a good week laboriously going through this entire thing reading EVERYTHING. I cannot possibly explain how impressed I am with this. I have been a long time fan of alternate history and this is the best thing I've ever seen. Just when I thought I couldn't be more impressed, you come out with a wikipedia box or something that just blows me away! Anyway, just wanted to give you some love and let you know that you have another fan here.
 
Who are those candidates on the graph who (presumably) dropped out?

The candidates in the graph were:

Charlie Baker
Marco Rubio
Pedro Rosselló
Nan Hayworth
Rob Portman
Mike Pence
Jon Tester
Rick Snyder
Dean Heller
Jim Webb
Austin Peterson
Paul Ryan

That's quite the London. How much of it is rural?

A very small amount. Most of it is developed, in either suburban or urban regions. There is no extant green belt.

What is Moonrise Kingdom like ITTL? I assume that Sam and Suzy’s dynamic would be different given that Suzy in ITTL’s version of the film would be a New Englander and Sam would be likely be different. Very few actors would actually be New Englanders, except Edward Norton, whose mother would be American and whose father might be a New Englander, Kara Hayward, and Harvey Keitel.

Hmm. I would assume it would be a different dynamic overall, yeah. I'm afraid I have no heard of Moonrise Kingdom so I feel like I cannot speak on it and do it justice.

What does Germany think of this?

All of Germany's parties reject the idea of unification of Namibia.

Do you have any more information on Hurueno (and/or Cameroon)?

Soon!!

Also, sorry if I am missing something here (I don't follow the TL that closely after all), but what are Lesotho and Natal like in the view of this totalitarian North-Korea type Apartheid South Africa?

Lesotho and eSwatini were both invaded by South Africa, but like Natal were liberated by the Commonwealth invasion.

Actually, another small question popped up. This article says that one of the last communist holdouts was in Bavaria. Where would the Reds have held out in Bavaria? Maybe in my hometown of Memmingen? Or somewhere in the nearby mountains? Actually, Bavaria in OTL is one of the most conservative states of Germany. Thus why I find it very interesting where the last communist holdout(s) of Bavaria were.

Mostly in the mountains. They were radicals from the cities that fled to the mountains and engaged in guerrilla tactics.


Really awesome, that includes nearly the whole history of Germany! I just now got around to read it all!

I didn't quite get two things, though:

  1. Was Franz von Papen elected democratically? In a free and fair election, in a rigged one? Was the/a Great Depression the reason why previous governments of Weimar Germany lasted for under a year (the last pre-von Papen government lasted for 18 days only!)?
  2. Why did Germany and Poland decide to just invade the Soviet Union? To "stop the spread of Bolshevism" or something like that? What was the casus belli?
And a few questions about the German parties - their infoboxes are just as lovely and extremely well-made as all the other Germany-related content of this post!

  • What are the (main) differences between DVP, NPD and Zentrum? The NPD seems to be Euroskeptic, but otherwise centrist or even centre-left? How nationalist is the NPD?
  • Why is the Zentrum party rated as centre-left? These policies in OTL would be centre-right, even right-wing.
  • How far left-wing is the Green Party ITTL?
  • How different are SPD and PAP?
  • What party is Angela Merkel be in ITTL? I find her sharing a party with Bernd Lucke implausible, but policy-wise, she should be in DVP.
  • Also, what would OTL AfD/right-wing populist voters vote in OFC's Germany?
  • Are any parties banned in TTLs Germany?
  • What parties not represented in the Reichstag are most notable?

1) The election was pretty rigged. Germany was exceptionally unstable at this time and the DNVP had goons going around making sure the *right people* voted, and those who were not the *right people* were persuaded to not. They generally kept finding a way to dissolve the Reichstag whenever they seemed to lose control.
2) See below!

Parties:

These are the broad interpretations of it. Real Life politics have very little bearing on the OFCUniverse for Germany, so these are just the vague idea of how they are.

1) the NPD is basically a euroskeptic, populist party. FPÖ in Austria is a good counterpart for them. The DVP tracks closely to the CDU/CSU, but is much more nationalist. Think of them similar to the UK Conservatives in their policy and their positions with respect to nationalism. "Germany is an exceptional country, and long a leader in x field." Zentrum can be understood to be the left-wing of the CDU/right-wing of the SPD.
2) Germany's "overton window" is shifted a lot farther to the right. It's historically a right-wing country, only the SPD/PAP has not shifted further to the right like the rest of the country.
3) Think Kretschmann.
4) The PAP is a bit more socialist/left-wing in general than the more moderate SPD.
5) Most likely the DVP, if not on the right-wing of the SPD.
6) DVP, most likely. It's hard to quantify it, as those voters wouldn't exist really.
7) There are currently no banned parties.
8) The most notable would be the fascist "German National Social Reorganization Party," which advocates for the establishment of a totalitarian regime to bring back traditional values of order to Germany. The National Monarchist Party also exists, which holds that the revolution that deposed the Kaiser was illegitimate and the throne should be restored to the Hohenzollerns.

I've also thought about this quite often too because I would have thought any militarist German government would throw their lot in with the Soviets to partition Poland - as had happened OTL and I'm pretty sure Von Schleicher actually supported such an idea. What cements my view is how the Polish fought with the Germans over Posen militarily and inflicted disastrous defeats, presumably this memory would greatly harm their relations with them.

It seems very odd that the whole impetus for the invasion was political consideration rather than external events.

Kanan can enlighten us.

Keep in mind, the development of German animosity in this timeline came directed mostly at the United States for their "mediation" which gave Poland a disproportionate amount of land in the referendums and the subsequent boundary drawing. Coupled with the rise of anti-Communism in the country (and attacks against the KPD), the big bogeyman was the Soviet Union. As both Poland and Germany accelerated towards military dictatorships, they adopted the purely pragmatic agreements on how to move forward. The secret treaties signed to actually invade the Soviet Union would have seen Poland annex Lithuania, while Germany obtained Latvia, Estonia, and a large area around St. Petersburg. Germany would be (mostly) restored to is imperial borders with Poland in some boundary changes, while Poland would also annex all of Ukraine to the Dnieper, and a German-backed Ukrainian state would control the rest of Ukraine to the east. Crimea would be directly annexed into Germany. Both sides did agree that this would be a mutually beneficial alliance.

Germany got far more from working with Poland than they would the Soviet Union. Ramping up the propaganda for the "evil Bolshevik menace" and the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" talk saw nationalists shut up quickly about the alliance with Poland. I've attached a map that I had previously worked on that is from a DBWI I was working on showing how the treaties would have gone (in one scenario). This should give you an extent of the ideas that Germany had planned with Poland.

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This may have been asked before, @Kanan , but do you draw your ridings freehand in paint/photoshop for the various country infobox maps/New England ridings, or are you using some version of GIS software? Been curious, because they're some of the most professional-looking that I've seen, and I've worked RL politics!

All electoral boundaries I do are done using outside data, modified extensively to meet the different standards of Our Fair Country, and then drawn in Illustrator. I do not use QGIS or any GIS software for my maps. Thank you so much for that!! I hope to have a decent update out soon regarding a new election.

Wow! I just had to say something after spending a good week laboriously going through this entire thing reading EVERYTHING. I cannot possibly explain how impressed I am with this. I have been a long time fan of alternate history and this is the best thing I've ever seen. Just when I thought I couldn't be more impressed, you come out with a wikipedia box or something that just blows me away! Anyway, just wanted to give you some love and let you know that you have another fan here.

Thank you so much!! I'm glad that even after all this time there's people willing to slog through the whole thread!! Welcome and I'm glad to have you as a reader :)

@Kanan What's Stan Lee been up too ITTL, and does Disneyland Paris still exist? Or was it built somewhere else in Europe ITTL?

I would assume Stan Lee has had a similar life, although in general comics and the like will be a bit different, given the lack of a defined WW2 which shaped the development of that genre.

Disneyland Europe most likely exists in western Germany or the United Kingdom.

On that note: how did the comic book medium develop ITTL?

I'd assume in a similar fashion.
 
Mostly in the mountains. They were radicals from the cities that fled to the mountains and engaged in guerrilla tactics.

That's interesting. So one could think of a red remnant guerilla cell/guerilla force near Bad Hindelang or Pfronten or something like that?

Zentrum can be understood to be the left-wing of the CDU/right-wing of the SPD.
5) Most likely the DVP, if not on the right-wing of the SPD.

With those two answers, I think Merkel would most likely be a Zentrum politician.
 
Disneyland Europe most likely exists in western Germany or the United Kingdom.
Might I instead suggest Italy or Greece instead? Germany and the United Kingdom are a bit too chilly for Disney's theme park standards (Disneyland Paris existing in Paris at all was a big fluke IOTL). The cold really messes up outdoor Audio-Animatronics (that's why there's no Jungle Cruise equivalent at DLP), so choosing a place that has a warmer climate similar to that of California or Florida, like a Mediterranean state, would be better. And since Spain seems to be in a bad place ITTL, I suggest Italy or Greece, which already have huge amounts of tourists going in and out to see all those ruins.
 
Might I instead suggest Italy or Greece instead? Germany and the United Kingdom are a bit too chilly for Disney's theme park standards (Disneyland Paris existing in Paris at all was a big fluke IOTL). The cold really messes up outdoor Audio-Animatronics (that's why there's no Jungle Cruise equivalent at DLP), so choosing a place that has a warmer climate similar to that of California or Florida, like a Mediterranean state, would be better. And since Spain seems to be in a bad place ITTL, I suggest Italy or Greece, which already have huge amounts of tourists going in and out to see all those ruins.
Rome, Italy seems an obvious but wise choice here.
 

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What’s Elizabeth Warren’s current status in New England? I assume she is a member of Labour, given her OTL policies.
Will you ever make infoboxes for the US parties? Take your time- I do understand how hard it is to make them, but I’m just asking out of curiosity.
Finally, were white supremacists as big in Maine ITTL as they were IOTL?
 
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The secret treaties signed to actually invade the Soviet Union would have seen Poland annex Lithuania, while Germany obtained Latvia, Estonia, and a large area around St. Petersburg. Germany would be (mostly) restored to is imperial borders with Poland in some boundary changes, while Poland would also annex all of Ukraine to the Dnieper, and a German-backed Ukrainian state would control the rest of Ukraine to the east. Crimea would be directly annexed into Germany. Both sides did agree that this would be a mutually beneficial alliance.

...wow. I had speculated that Germany and Poland had some crazy nationalistic fantasies in regards to their treatment of the east, but this is spectacular. I was expecting a lot more puppet states and a lot less direct annexations- a la Kaiserreich. Was Poland planning to reform into some sort of Polish-Lithuanian-Ukrainian commonwealth? Otherwise, I cannot see how they would ever justify these conquests- as they naturally want to elicit support from the international community.

I also wonder how many "wehraboos" there are in Germany and elsewhere- I reckon that without the holocaust, German apologia will be more acceptable ITL.

Great content as always, Kanan!
 
New England-centric question (I know you're building out the wider world right now!), @Kanan , but did any of the provinces have an upper house at any point, and if so, when did they get abolished? I know they're all unicameral at this point, but wondering if any had a similar legislative/developmental history to the OTL Canadian provinces/Australian states (which retain their upper houses, save Queensland).
 
2017 Erzgebirgeland general election
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The 2017 Erzgebirgeland general election was held on 20 August 2017 to determine the composition of the Erzgebirgeland Regional Diet and the regional government of the Free Province of Erzgebirgeland. Incumbent Minister-President Lothar Steinmann's Conservative Party won the most seats in the election, but less than the amount needed to form a majority, or a minority government with supply and confidence of the Erzgebirgeland People's Party. After being unable to form a majority, Czech President Milan Chovanec offered opposition leader Markus Becker the chance to form a government. On 27 September 2017, United for Czechia! and the Socialist Green Party were able to agree to a coalition, ending the two-term government headed by Steinmann.

The election was held amidst the Central European Banking Emergency, in which much of the eastern Zollverein was experiencing a sharp contraction of their money supply, triggered by the German Central Bank announcing a new round of currency reductions aimed at curbing inflation, as well as the failure of several banks and large industrial companies across the region. Erzgebirgeland was hit hard by the loss of industrial demand, both for its raw materials and its industrial output. Support for more state controls over the economy were popular, as well as increasing social welfare policies.

The Conservatives attempted to backtrack on their long-standing policies of reducing the total scope of Erzgebirgeland's welfare apparatus, and promised to bring reforms to the banking sector and funding to be allocated solely for the purpose of supplementing worker's wages. This stood in opposition for United for Czechia's plans to introduce a nation-wide banking recovery plan and new retirement plan that would be in addition to Czechia's national plan. The Socialist Green Party went further, seeking to allow the regional government to open their own banks to compete with national ones, as well as nationalisation of a large number of the region's failing industrial businesses. The Erzgebirgeland People's Party, meanwhile, promised to cut taxes and would not support "socialism in Erzgebirgeland and Central Europe."

The election saw the Socialists make the most gains, four seats, with United for Czechia! gaining two. The Conservatives lost five seats, while the People's Party lost one of theirs. The coalition talks between United for Czechia! and the Socialists commenced almost immediately, even while Steinmann attempted to form a government. The eventual deal that was reached saw nationalisation of industries taken off the table, but the President's Speech included the promise to offer a government-run banking alternative, as well as plans to double the amount spent on welfare and social programmes, funded by new taxes.

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