Germany
From Victory In Europe
Germany (German: Deutschland), officially the Federal Republic of Germany is a country in central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea, to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic, to the south by Austria and Switzerland, and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. Within its borders are a portion of the Alps mountains, the famous Rhine and Danub rivers, and the Black Forest.
Contents |
History
Germany is often attributed as being the nation who started World War II, which is a true fact. The reasons for this unprecedented agression as date back to several years if not decades before 1939, when the war finally broke out.
Germany had become a major power in 1871, when it was finally unified as a nation state. Prussia already had established itself as a great power in Europe and it remained in possession of large parts of German territory even after 1871. The German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm I, and his better-known Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, followed a strict realpolitik in foreign affairs, carefully negotiating a variety of treaties with other European powers to ensure that Germany never gets caught in a two-front-war (Zweifrontenkrieg), which Bismarck saw as the greatest threat. He was proved right decades later. After being sacked by Wilhelm I's successor, Wilhelm II, Bismarck could no longer negotiate with other nations and the German foreign relations to other countries fell into despair. A series of conflicts about colonies and spheres of influence brought the European countries at the brink of war in the early 1900's. Bismarcks worst nightmare then became reality sixteen years after his death in 1898: World War I broke out in 1914. After a lengthy war of attrition where Germany and its (few) Allies, namely Austria, fought the French and British in the west simulatenously with the Russians in the east, Germany surrendered after a revolution broke out in November 1918.
The victorious Allied forces forced Germany to accept harsh conditions in the peace treaties, of which the best known is the Treaty of Versailles. This was (for good reasons) seen as a psychological and economical humiliation of the German people. Although Germany was now a Republic with its first ever democratic elections, extremist politicans on the left and right spectrum destabilized the country and kept the hatred towards the Allies high. Previously existing prejudices against the Jewish population were fueled by the extremists, especially by the newly founded National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). Despite a short "golden era" in the late 1920's, the Weimar Republic (as it was known because of its seat of parliament in Weimar), collapsed in the early 1930s and the NSDAP came to power under the lead of Adolf Hitler. He was quick to abolish what remained of the working parts of the democratic institutions and established full Nazi control over all aspects of German life.
Preparations for a war began early during his rule. While officially still restricted by the Treaty of Versailles, the German armed forces, renamed Wehrmacht in 1935, began training and testing equipment, as well as bringing the manpower well above the allowed numbers. Due to the appeasement policy of the British and the French, Germany could without any effort gain control over neighbouring territories in Austria (which became part of Germany in 1938) and the Czech Republic (parts of which were annexed in 1938 and 1939).
Just when Hitler had thought he could do the same thing in Poland, the Allied powers finally declared war on Germany in early September 1939. They did nothing to stop the Germans from easily crushing the Polish forces within weeks. Soon other European territories got under German attack. It wasn't until 1940 before the Western Allies began fighting the Germans on land, but they lost pathetically in France, paving the way for German control of all European continental territory (with the exception of the neutral countries such as Switzerland or Spain). In late 1940, the Luftwaffe began to focus their attacks on the United Kingdom in what is now known as the Battle of Britain. During this battle, which probably couldn't have ended any closer, the British repelled the German waves of fighters and bombers and prevented an invasion of the British Isles. That was the first setback for Hitler.
He then made his largest mistake by attacking the Soviet Union, which had signed a non-agression pact with Germany just two years earlier, in Summer 1941. Just like everyone else who tried to invade Russia, the German offense eventually came to a freezing halt in the cold winter in Russia. After the infamous Battle of Stalingrad, probably the bloodiest battle in human history, German forces in the east were slowly but steadily pushed back to the west. Meanwhile, famous German Generalfeldmarschall Rommel tried to outfox the Allies in North Africa, but eventually failed because supplies didn't reach him properly due to the Allied naval superiority in the mediterranean. It was also in December 1941 when Hitler, for unknown reasons, declared war on the United States after the fellow Axis power of Japan had launched its assault on Pearl Harbour. The US now started to support their European Allies more seriously than before, and troops were shipped to Britain to prepare for an invasion of mainland Europe. The Allies got their first foothold on continental Axis territory in Italy in 1943. The second, much better known invasion took place in France in 1944. Hundreds of thousands of Allied troops, mainly British, US and Canadian forces, assaulted the Normandy and established a bridgehead. From now on, Germany was engaged in a two-front-war again (three fronts even if you consider Italy and North Africa, which was abandoned in 1943). Inevitably, the exausted German forces that were in strong need of fuel and other resources, to which Germany had no or only very limited access, were pushed back towards their fatherland. Allied forces reached core German territory in Winter 1944. Every last-ditch German counterattack, most famously the Battle of the Bulge, failed. In Spring 1945, all fighting took place in German territory, and every battle was quickly won by the Allies, although some local strongholds held out for longer than the surrounding territories. Most famously Berlin, but also small towns like Ewok's hometown, Weyhe. Undisturbed, the Soviets encircled Berlin in April 1945 and finally forces the Germans to capitulate on May 8, 1945. This is called Stunde Null (Zero Hour) in Germany.
Germany remained under Allied military control for four more decades, although it regained much sovereignity in 1949, when the Federal Republic of Germany was formed. Due to the Cold War, the country was split in half, the eastern half becoming the Socialist German Democratic Republic. The focus of the world's problems remained in Germany for the next forty years, as it was the central theatre of the Cold War. Had it ever erupted into a Hot War, Germany would have been the primary battlefield.
In West Germany, an economic upturn of unprecedented dimensions started in the 1950s, thanks partially to US relief aid (Marshal Plan) but mostly to the dedication and work of the German people. East Germany remained in a disastrous condition for years.
Due to a highly unlikely and very lucky chain of events, Germany was reunited in 1989-90. This was probably the happy ending for a century dominated by Germany in every negative (and finally, positive) way. In German, the 20th century is often called the "German Century" because of the key role the country played in the history of this era, and the Germans have some trouble carrying the heavy burden of their dark past. It wasn't until 2006, when the country hosted the football world cup, when the World learned that the Germans could be happy and patriotic without attacking Poland within the next few hours.
Written by Ewok and based only on his personal knowledge of German history as taught in school...no external sources were copied for this text
Homeland for ViE players
Some of ViE's best known players are from Germany in real life, most notably Tournament Administrator ozzerer, former TA and tournament veteran Ewok, former Server Administrator Groove, Major Tom, Kicker and Randall Flagg. Recently (ViE#7), EarnyC, German BFE-vet, also made his reappearance. Even though the German players form a relatively small group in comparison to Americans, Canadians or Swedes, they play a big role within the ViE community, often being asked for help to translate information in German or from English to German to be used for and by players on the Axis side.
Territory in ViE
Germany also is a territory in ViE, it is often of key strategic interest for both armies, as it lies in Central Europe and provides attack routes to many other territories. Especially for Allied commanders, it is very tempting to attack Germany because a victory in the Axis homeland is very prestigious. This, and the strategic importance mentioned above, make Germany one of the most frequently attacked territories in ViE, even though it is usually represented by a strongly Axis-biased map.
Homeland for ViE divisions
Traditionally, as in BFE, Germany is the homeland to most Axis divisions in ViE. These include the
- 1. Gebirgsjäger-Division (ViE#1)
- 2. Kreuzer-Flottille "Niedersachsen" (ViE#2)
- 4. Fallschirmjäger-Division (ViE#4)
- 5. Panzerjäger-Division (ViE#5)
- 90. Leichte Afrika-Division (ViE#10)
