Interior of an HKH in San Francisco, PSA
Considered the largest restaurant chain in the world, HKH (
Himmlers Köstliches Huhn, “Himmler’s Delicious Chicken”) has changed a lot since its beginnings. Founded in 1949 by Heinrich Himmler, a German tycoon who fled to Südwestafrika after the Fall of Germany and was known for his “Chicken Master Race”, it was originally just a couple of restaurants created in an attempt to diversify his poultry farming business. As time passed and his establishments grew more and more popular he started to take the restaurant business seriously. Himmler opened new restaurants in several of the main cities of Mittelafrika, including the capital Dar-es-Salaam, and imitated the strategies of other restaurant chains (like McDonald&Kroc’s in the Pacific States), effectively turning HKH into a fast food company, with low prices, quick service and good food. This also meant that he needed to forget some of his principles in order to succeed, like allowing blacks to eat and work in the same condition as their fellow Germans in his establishments, though he remained a white supremacist all his life [1].
At the time of Himmler’s death in 1965 HKH had restaurants all across Mittelafrika, and soon began to expand to other African countries like South Africa, Kongo or Somalia. Its expansion outside of German-aligned Africa didn’t commence until the late 80’s (due to few hopes of success internationally and the 1977 Oil Crisis) but once the first smiling chickens of HKH logo started to appear in Australasia and South America it grew wildly, especially in the Co-Prosperity Sphere’s countries, where it rivalled MD&K’S in popularity. Since the end of the Cold War the company has also opened new establishments in Syndicalist countries, though like all the foreign companies it has been forced to adapt its franchises to a mutualist system.
HKH has become one of the symbols of the modern world, with its restaurants being present everywhere from the frozen streets of Vladivostok to the suburbs of Cape Town, truly framing the new, globalized world.
[1]Though Himmler learned to present a cheery and tolerant image and to keep his opinions to himself, documents like his diary and letters to friends and familiars show his virulent racism, antisemitism and ultranationalism, calling blacks “sub-humans” and Jews “hideous weaklings” and proclaiming the necessity of “reclaiming the Fatherland from the red hordes”. HKH has always tried to escape from the shadow of its founder’s ideology, financing anti-racism campaigns and projects and maintaining a strict code of conduct to avoid discrimination of any kind.