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This article covers the Nazi Germany in the MachineGames series, the current continuity. For the "classic" portrayal, see Nazi Germany (Classic).

Nazi Germany, or The Greater Germanic Reich or officially The Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation, also known as The Third Reich (before taking over whole Europe), The Great German Empire (after taking over whole Europe), The Thousand Year Reich, is the primary antagonistic governmental party of the modern Wolfenstein series, an aggressive interplanetary German totalitarian fascist state that has conquered and brutalized 75% of Earth by 1960, and began to colonize the Moon and Venus. It is ruled by a single party, the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (National Socialist German Workers' Party), commonly called just the NSDAP or the Nazi Party.

Nazi Germany was built on extreme far right pillars of antisemitism, ultranationalism, extreme militarism, anti-communism, and pseudo-racial delusions about the "Aryan race" and its supposed supremacy. The party created and supported the ideology of National Socialism or Nazism. The party was created to draw workers away from communism and into völkisch nationalism.

Initially, Nazi political strategy focused on anti–big business, anti-bourgeois, and anti-capitalist rhetoric. This was later downplayed to gain the support of business leaders, and in the 1930s the party's main focus shifted to antisemitic and anti-Marxist themes. It wound up completely divorced from the ideals of socialism - after all, Adolf Hitler was determined to "take Socialism away from the Socialists" and make a nationalistic definition of 'socialism'.

For a list of Nazi members and assets in the series, see this article list.

Background[]

By the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles began, on June 28, 1919. Being the primary belligerent of the losing side, Germany suffered harsh and humiliating terms, including crippling war reparations, near complete disarmament, numerous territorial concessions, and admission of guilt for causing the war. On September 19, 1919, Adolf Hitler, a World War I veteran and Corporal of the Army, joined the German Workers' Party (German: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated DAP) at the beer hall in Munich, the capital city of Bavaria in Germany. Through the power of his oratory skills and sheer force of personality, he manipulated its Leader Anton Drexler and eventually usurped him two years later, transforming this little party into a burgeoning political movement. the German Worker's Party was renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, abbreviated NSDAP), or later on Nazi Party.

Hitler based the Nazi platform on reversing the Treaty of Versailles, restrengthening the nation, and on a stab-in-the-back notion that the German military did not "lose" the war but was rather betrayed at a critical moment by traitorous civilians like Communists and Jews, thereby causing the war effort to fail. These policies proved popular among those embittered by the Treaty. The Great Depression allowed the party's popularity to grow even faster as impoverished Germans flocked to Hitler's banner. The Nazi Party grew steadily until it became the largest political entity in the Weimar Republic in 1933. Having more seats than any other party in the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler was appointed as "Reichskanzler" in January 30, 1933. The NSDAP quickly moved to silence all opposition to its power by passing the Enabling Act of 1933. This act spelled the end of the Weimar Republic by granting Chancellor Hitler emergency powers, abolishing all other political parties, and stripping away almost all powers of the Reichstag. In 1934, after the death of President Hindenburg, Hitler used the Enabling Act to merge the offices of "Reichspräsident" with his own (Reichskanzler) into a new one: "Führer und Reichskanzler", although eventually Reichskanzler was quietly dropped and Hitler was more commonly referred to as "Der Führer" (The Leader) thus making him the head of State and Government altogether. In this new government, Hitler wielded absolute power and German bureaucracy became a collection of factions "working towards the Führer": Hitler issued vague instructions on many policies and expected his subordinates to work the details out on their own.

In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment with massive military spending and extensive public work projects, such as the continued construction of the Autobahn. These acts boosted the regime's popularity. Driven by a desire to avenge the punishments of the First World War and its hated Treaty of Versailles, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive military actions. First, in 1935, the state reintroduced mass conscription, transformed the Reichswehr (Reich Defense) into the Wehrmacht (defence force), and in 1936 it moved to occupy the Rhineland region, both actions constituted direct violations of the Treaty. Then, in 1938, it annexed Austria and through the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland as well, a German-speaking region in Czechoslovakia before conquering the rest in 1939, pushing Europe ever closer to war. Finally, on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland (According to Ramona's diary), igniting World War II, as both France and the United Kingdom declared war against Germany to defend Poland's sovereignty.

World War II[]

It can be assumed the Second World War proceeded as it did in the timeline up until mid-1940, with Germany successfully conquering Poland by the end of September 1939, followed by Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France by June 1940. At an unknown point in time during the war, a secret placement of Da'at Yichud was discovered, where the German soldiers stole the scientific and technological secrets inside the placement. All the information was given to General Wilhelm Strasse, where he could develop his advanced weapons for the German Reich at his fortified compound. Since then, the Wehrmacht enjoyed many victories, seizing the Suez Canal and repelling Operation Overlord, and undergoing a heavy reconstruction, with new, incredibly advanced weaponry being deployed and field-tested throughout Greater Germany. Furthermore, SS officers, historically ridiculed and often if not always less successful than their Wehrmacht counterparts, are arbitrarily put in charge of entire districts as the border between the Waffen-SS, the Party Paramilitary Wing, and the Wehrmacht, the national military, become more and more blurred. As the Soviet Union burns under the relentless advance of the German troops and the Caucasus falls, Rommel is mentioned pulling the unbelievable stunt of launching the ground invasion of the British Raj, striking at the Crown Jewel of the British Empire. Meanwhile, the Kriegsmarine won the Battle of the Atlantic, crippling the Western war effort, and reached the Pacific to give the U.S. and Royal Navies a sound beating. By 1948, the USSR has capitulated, with Stalin M.I.A. and the last resistance pockets retreating in Siberia, China has been occupied, India has presumably already fallen, and Canada has been occupied entirely. The other Axis powers, including Finland, the Free State of Croatia, the Empire of Japan and the Kingdoms of Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary have been betrayed by Germany and invaded, as by 1960 Belica (Croatia) is under direct German occupation and Italy's been effectively annexed according to a 1949 newspaper. The Kreisau Circle's map of Europe further hints at this. Japan was allowed to remain independent, albeit under heavy German influence. In 1944, the Allies attempted to liberate mainland Europe by landing troops in Normandy, France, but were repelled. The D-Day invasion was a military disaster, with a total of 156,000 Allies killed in action, while only 89 German troops were killed. In 1946, the Allies attempted to assault Deathshead's Compound, but this attack also ended in a resounding defeat. The war would continue for another two years into 1948, Finally, on December 21st, 1948, Nazi Nuclear Atomic bomb, "Der Bestrafer", annihilated Manhattan, New York City by Luftwaffe pilot Peter Trumbauer, forcing the United States, the last free nation of the world, to surrender thus ending World War II in total German victory.

1946-1961: Global Dominance[]

By 1960, Hitler's Third Reich is a world spanning empire, which includes all of Europe, the majority of Eurasia, much of North Africa and a vast military operation dedicated to the conquest of the African continent, the United States, possibly portions of South America, and territories in Manchuria and Korea. Very few nations remained independent from the Greater Reich including it’s former allies; Japan and Italy were turned into vassal states for the Reich, while South Africa remained nominally independent as of 1960. Controlling a claimed 75% of habitable territory as their "Lebensraum" (in itself a virulently racist term used to sanction any atrocity to expand controlled territory), the Reich was the undisputed master of the 1950's. Having run out of Earth to conquer, the Reich has set their sights beyond Earth and colonies on the Moon and Venus have been established to effect the spread of the Nazi ideology across the inner Solar System and beyond.[1]

In the most grandest irony of all human history, all this technological achievement was made possible by cracking the secrets of Da'at Yichud, a Jewish sect of master creators, whose achievements were used by Deathshead and his successors to develop highly advanced robotics, anti-gravity vehicles, directed energy weapons, crack genetics, attempt climate control, and, as mentioned, begin large scale colonization of the Solar System. While these technologies would create an utopian reality in saner hands, the Nazis used it to impose their twisted, horrific ideology on the world, carrying out genocide on an unspeakable scale and erecting their concrete edifices on the bones of the peoples ground into dust. Jews were the first to be targeted, and many more followed them into the ovens by 1960.

Adolf Hitler, following his victory in World War II, was elevated to a godlike status in Nazi propaganda. While Hitler has actually retired from the public eye due to ill health, leaving the day-to-day functions of the Reich to various subordinates such as the Überkommandants and notable figures in powerful ministerial positions such as Wilhelm Strasse. Below him are paramilitary groups such as the Schutzstaffel, which appears to have been merged with or had outright replaced the Wehrmacht, judging by the SS runes that appear on most German soldiers. The SS became the single most powerful organization within the structure of Nazi Germany, absorbing other organizations outright or maintaining control of them (like the Gestapo). Other newly created governmental positions such as the Ministry of Advanced Research are also mentioned to be active within the Reich. The Wehrmacht does still exist in some case (like the Africa front) but has mostly been controlled by the SS or by Deathshead altogether.

1961-1980: Decline[]

Despite having most of the world in their grasp, the Nazi empire was not impervious to harm. With nothing to lose, resistance movements continued the fight against the fascists, including the Kreisau Circle, Black Revolutionary Front, American Resistance, the Maquis, Soviet resistance fighters, and many more. New cells formed overnight, as the Nazi brutality persisted - and the shift to "peacetime" footing after defeating the world's major nations led to a rise of carelessness and arrogance in Nazi ranks. Even their most powerful and secure machines and facilities like the Ausmerzer or the Oberkommando on Venus were riddled with security flaws, apparently with the assumption, that no unauthorized personnel would ever come near them.

At the apex of their power, in 1960, the Nazis made a critical mistake: They underestimated their opponents. Believing themselves to be genuinely superior and undefeatable, the Nazis let their guard down which sealed their fate and their reich. The return of B.J. Blazkowicz that same year was the catalyst for the destabilization of the Nazi regime and the global reich. B.J. liberated Kreisau fighters from a Berlin concentration camp, the Eisenwald Prison, linking up with the Berlin cell and leading a series of precise strikes at critical parts of their operations. Nazis' carelessness and pathological inability to respect their opponents intellectually allowed the Kreisau Circle to not only severely damage the London Nautica and impact numerous critical programs, but also take control of Eva's Hammer and infiltrate the Nazi lunar base, which eventually culminated in the second assault on Deathshead's compound and its destruction, together with the infamous Wilhelm Strasse, the malevolent genius responsible for Nazi successes in World War II.

The Nazi's grip on the world begins to loosen as the death and destruction of Deathshead and his compound crippled their entire Research Division and deprived the Nazi empire of one of the only leaders capable of respecting their foes. Irene Engel, rewarded by Nazi leadership with rule over North America after her mauling at Camp Belica, survived Deathshead and was capable of accurately estimating Nazi opponents and even outwitting them (as was the case with B.J., lured to Mesquite, Texas, and captured there). However, she dropped her guard after B.J.'s execution, allowing the resistance to take the initiative by assassinating her on Live Television and eventually launch the Second American Revolution - after destroying the Oberkommando on Venus, taking out key Übercommanders across North America, and adding the Ausmerzer to its arsenal. The loss of North America and its immense reserves of manpower, resources, infrastructure, and other imperial essentials weakened the Nazi empire considerably.

What did it in was the assassination of Adolf Hitler in the late 1960s by B.J.[2] The loss of the retired leader deprived the Nazis of a unifying symbol, fracturing Nazi leadership and leading to the emergence of cliques vying for control over the Empire and two decades of struggle, as the empire frayed at the edges. By 1980, Nazi Germany was no longer a global power. A series of defeats, rebellions, and ongoing wars consuming ever increasing amounts of men and materiel has left the regime a shadow of its former self. The space colonization program was shuttered, and the Reich withdrew from many of its colonial conquests. The former Soviet Union was abandoned, but not before being viciously bombarded with nuclear weapons to prevent any sort of habitation there, while the Afrika Korps, once on the cusp of dominating the continent, were forced to retreat and assume a defensive posture in North Africa. The North African Front became an endless battlefield, fed men and materiel unceasingly for four decades by 1980.[3][4] The front also gave birth to one of the most credible threats to humanity, General Lothar Brandt. Celebrated by Nazi propaganda as an African hero,[5] Brandt was determined to take power and replace the SS and the Berlin establishment he saw as incompetent. Considering himself to be the true heir of Adolf Hitler, Brandt founded the Fourth Reich, a clandestine military organization to wrest control of the Nazi empire from Berlin and the SS. He began with a coup to revitalize the Gestapo and take control of it, with the intention of using it against his foes.[6] By 1980, the Gestapo in Neu-Paris was completely independent of the Nazi imperial power structure, allegedly running things more smoothly than the SS could ever hope for.[7]

1980 - Fourth Reich[]

By 1980, the Reich's control shrunk to just Europe,[8] under the rule of an Unnamed Reichskanzler as head of state with the title of "Der Führer" reserved symbolically for the long-deceased Hitler.

While the government in Berlin remains the formally in control, infighting between various factions has caused widespread instability within Germany and Europe. Although Nazi Germany continues to view other nations with contempt and disdain, in particular the reborn United States, this instability and territorial losses rendered it largely incapable of waging offensive war again, becoming a defanged predator. The Apocalypse unleashed by Hitler's assassination, created as a side-effect of Hitler building a doomsday device that would be activated as a failsafe should he be assassinated or killed, is largely ignored, passed off as naturally extreme weather patterns. Rather than prepare for it, the Reich has decided to shut down its European borders, turn away refugees, and pretend nothing is happening - aside from toying with the idea of declaring the extreme weather periods as a new, fifth yearly season, the Sturmzeit.

Berlin's attempts to put Lothar and his Fourth Reich down were unsuccessful. Despite a brutal attack against Lothar by loyalist forces sent from Betlin, Brandt escaped with his concubine into the underground, posing as French resistance fighters and taking over the Parisian cells. Manipulating the unaware Blazkowicz twins with Juju, Lothar resecured his control over Neu-Paris by eliminating key officers loyal to Berlin. Coupled with new setbacks, including a major defeat at the Strait of Gibraltar,[9] the situation was ripe for a coup and Brandt eventually pulled the trigger. His real goal was to try to initiate Operation Accession by using the Da'at Yichud's inter-dimensional gate to escape the dying Earth, abandoning humanity and subjugating another dimension.

While his coup is initially successful and Brandt was briefly installed as Hitler's rightful successor, the Blazkowicz twins survived the purge of the resistance. They counter-attacked and killed Brandt atop the Siegturm, liberating Paris. His ally General Messer succeeded him as Führer of The Fourth Reich and began preparations for a retaliatory attack on Paris.

Government[]

Nazi Germany is organized as a unitary nazi one-party fascist state, ruled by a authoritarian-totalitarian military dictatorship that tries to exercise total control over society and, ideally, the world. The Reich is also an autocracy because the ruler has full authority and the final say over the entire country. The Führer und Reichskanzler (the Führer and Chancellor of the Reich) also known as the Führer is the official Head of State, Government and is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Military. The toxic Nazi ideology of Nazism or National Socialism combines virulent racism with Anti-Semitism, eugenics, and Pan-Germanism with the goal of creating a German hegemony over the world and hell for everyone else. Something that would lead to their downfall and a motive for the resistance act against, with defections happening to some Germans who never accepted Nazism and began to side with the resistance by letting some groups survive no matter what the party says.

Who was considered German? Rejecting the notion of citizenship equating nationality, the Nazis embraced bizarre, pseudo-scientific notions of race. Blood determined who was German (Deutsche) and through it, a member of the mystical Volk of Aryan peoples. Anyone of German blood (usually meaning having German ancestry and culture; despite trying for years, Nazis couldn't find any scientific basis for their racial ideas, as there was none) could be a member of the Volk. Related peoples, like Scandinavians (Swedes, Danes, Norwegians etc.) or West Europeans (French, Dutch, Brits etc.) were also considered Germanic. Many other Europeans were borderline cases, determined according to the current political needs of the Reich.

Those not considered German faced fates worse than death. The Untermenschen (subhumans) encompassed the vast majority of the global population, including Slavs, Romani, Africans, and especially Jews or people of Jewish blood. Many would be murdered outright by Nazi death squads or herded into concentration camps to be killed after being exploited as slaves. Due to their overwhelming successes, organized extermination campaigns seem to have taken a backseat, in favor of brutal exploitation, and then death: Instead of being killed immediately, they are killed after propping up the Nazi regime through forced labor, as per the tradition of European colonialism.

However, even when one belongs to the privileged group of overlords, they tread a very fine line. The Nazis use total surveillance and a vast network of informants to enforce conformity. Anyone found deviating from the Nazi ideal will very quickly find themselves shipped off to a concentration camp to die, in particular LGBT people, under the repressive Paragraph 175.[10]

Organizations[]

Other newly created governmental positions such as the Ministry of Advanced Research are also mentioned to be active within the Reich, solely placed under the control of Deathshead to continue the Reich's scientific advancements.

According to Airship station at Brother 2 tower in New Paris, outside of Germany, the cities of London, Lisbon, Bacău, Rome, Uppsala, Moscow, Lyon, Kyiv, Athens, Vienna, Antwerp, and most of Europe have Airship station with flight lines and are supposedly under Nazi control.

Ideology[]

Central to the Greater Germanic Reich is the idea that the German people, and by extension, the Aryan race are chosen by God himself, and are inherently physically and intellectually superior to all other races, with various other races often relegated to slavery by the Reich at best (in the case of the African-American population of the American Territories), or mass extermination in concentration camps at the worst (in the case of the Jewish population worldwide). By 1961, the idea of German culture being inherently superior to all others has taken an extreme turn, with cultural assimilation projects being undertaken by the Reich. These range from subtle influencing, such as in Korea, where locals are supposedly prompted to abandon all aspects of Buddhist and East Asian culture in favor of Germanization and the technological advancement it brings, or outright enforcement, such as in the American Territories, where plans to enforce mandatory speaking of the German language in public under pain of re-education or death are being undertaken. Food across the world has been gradually Germanized, local staples such as fish and chips in Britain are denigrated and dismissed as being inferior, while select 'foreign' food such as the hamburger are fused with German ingredients. Traditional 'authentic' German food is now required to make up at least 50% of the menu at any American establishment. Super Spesh bitterly calling it "the age of sauerkraut".

With regards to race, the Reich has deemed a variety of other ethnicities and groups of people as "Untermensch" (subhuman). While the prime target of the Reich's aggression has been the Jewish population in Europe (which later extended to a global genocide, with death camps existing as far as New Mexico in the former USA), other races have received varying treatment by the Reich. Slavs are seen to be tolerated to the barest minimum in occupied Europe, contrary to the original plans for supplanting Europe's Slavic populace with German settlers, most likely by exterminating the former.

Asians are also tolerated to an extent, particularly those of Chinese, Japanese, or Korean ancestry, with Koreans in particular often encouraged to adopt German culture, and China and Japan are still around as vassals. Africans have on the other hand, been at the receiving end of a good portion of the Reich's most brutal practices--ranging from the mass relocation and extermination of Africa's population as part of the Wehrmacht's campaign to conquer the continent, to the re-imposition of chattel slavery for African Americans in the American Territories. Native Americans are also shown to be under extermination with the existence of death squads in South America dedicated to purging the local native tribes of Peru.

Conversely to the immense racial discrimination on the part of the Reich, many white populations in territories occupied by the Reich are (at least in propaganda) supported and encouraged by the Reich to be proud of their race, and to be thankful to the Germans (at least in America) for having secured an era of "prosperity" for whites. White supremacist groups such as the Ku Klux Klan in America, as a result, have been drawn to becoming allies with the Reich's government, while gaining tremendous power and influence. Ironically, the Germans tend to view their racial allies with a mixture of contempt and derision, with German soldiers often bullying and making fun their American counterparts.

The Reich also places extremely stringent regulations for personal fitness, with obesity seen as an impediment and disfigurement, with strict dieting and hygiene encouraged in Reich propaganda. Euthanasia centers exist across the Reich, likely an official continuation of Aktion T4, the program intended to weed out incurable illness and mutation in civilians (including children) through mass-murder. This appears to no longer be a clandestine program. Irene Engel freely admits she had considered having her only daughter euthanised due to her weight. It is implied that the Reich's "strength through joy" program has been expanded in the wake of their victory in the Second World War, with recreation centers and resorts being built across the Mediterranean coast. Those who suffer from mental illness and birth defects, ranging from dementia to physical deformities, are destined only for one of two fates, experimentation or extermination. The Reich's standards on human perfection are indiscriminate and extreme, emphasised in their closure and "cleansing" of an asylum in Poland, and the murder of Klaus Kreutz's son for having a club foot.

With regards to society and interaction, the Reich promotes heterosexual relationships and stringent family planning for many of its citizens, with would-be newlyweds forced to undergo processing at ministries dedicated to enforcing familial regulations, only those of demonstrable non-Jewish, Aryan ancestry could marry, to avoid Rassenschande, the 'dirtying' of pure Germanic blood. It is likely that the Reich's conception of a patriarchal society has been maintained by the 1960s, however, the rise of General Irene Engel to the top brass of the Reich suggests some liberalisation in terms of gender equality, provided, of course, that women adhere to the Nazi ideology. Indeed, Engel's gender appears to be a non-issue amongst the Nazis and is greatly admired during her career and long after her death. Despite this, most of the German Wehrmacht remains predominantly male as of 1960-1961. By 1980, the Wehrmacht appears to have partly liberalized in terms of gender equality. It introduce the all deadly female special ops troops known as Jägers can be seen working alongside regular male soldiers of the Wehrmacht, although they actually serve Lothar Brandt, who is far more pragmatically minded than his colleagues in Berlin.

Homosexuals, interracial individuals, and those considered "deviant" on the other hand, are routinely demonized and subject to cruel punishments and extermination by the Reich with the people ostensibly compelled to report infractions such as cross dressing, as symptoms of deviation from the Reich's mandated family planning. They are often scapegoated by Reich media and propaganda, in particular, Ingo Kramer's alternate-history propaganda novel, which depicts an Allied victory during the Second World War, portrays a biased, warped version of an anti-Nazi world run by "Jews, homosexuals, and degenerates".

By 1980, not much has changed with regards to Reich ideology, although the Reich has now began to clamp down on cultural imports from neighbouring, liberated nations. Reich educational policy has also lead to the Nazis teaching the next generation a twisted, alternative history, as a cassette tape recorded by a French citizen refers to the US attacking the Hindenburg in 1937 (likely used to justify any hostility and isolation from the US as well as dissuading the general public from demanding peace with Liberated America). This is likely a desperate attempt to indoctrinate the few territories they still hold into remaining within the Reich without constantly resorting to expensive and costly military pressure, the situation in New Paris shows that even so close to Germany, the Nazis' once ironclad grip is rapidly loosening.

Science and technology[]

Nazi Germany has made various technological discoveries and leaps in the 12 years following the end of the Second World War in 1948, thanks to the Reich's (extremely ironic) discovery of the technology caches maintained by the Jewish secret society known as the Da'at Yichud. While the Reich has discovered only a fraction of these various advanced technologies in vaults located in Cairo and Roswell, it has led to aggressive leaps in technological development on the basis of their clumsy reverse-engineering of Da'at Yichud technology.

Aerospace technology has advanced with the discovery of anti-gravity, with aircraft such as the massive Ausmerzer and high-speed spaceships such as the Haunebu-V making use of powerful anti-gravity engines, in part maintained by the massive "Die Glocke" devices. This has proven pivotal to the Reich's exploration of space, which in real-world terms is nothing short of astounding. The Reich has conducted a moon landing as early as 1951, and by 1961, is in the process of colonising planet Venus, one officer dismissing it won't be habitable for (only) years.

Advances in physics and chemistry have also been made, with developments in energy weapons such as lasers and Tesla-based technology being furthered by the Reich, ranging from laser and plasma weaponry to the eldritch and poorly understood Ubergewehr weapon, as well as super weapons such as the V-3 Rockets (although is a vehicle rather than a Missile), or the infamous Sonnengewehr (Sun Gun), a massive orbital mirror that can annihilate potential threats to the Nazis while minimizing collateral damage. The ultimate expression of the Reich's technological development would have been their development of the atomic bomb; the Reich secured victory against the United States in 1948 with the destruction of New York City by the German-developed nuclear weapon known as "Der Bestrafer" (The Punisher), the most powerful bomb of its type ever built. It is implied that the Nazis sabotaged the Manhattan Project to achieve the bomb first.

Robotics, computing, and artificial intelligence have also advanced at an incredible rate, with robots and automatons in common use across the Reich, in both civilian and military capacities. These range from mundane protocol, cleaning, and mail-sorting robots to weapons of war, ranging from the nimble Übersoldat units to even larger mechanized monstrosities, such as the Autoturrets and Guard Robot units in Europe, the Zitadelle units in America, the iconic Panzerhund robots, and outright weapons of terror like the London Monitor and the prototype Zerstörer robots. Personal computing has seemingly advanced as well, with computer terminals and reel-to-reel machines ever ubiquitous across the Reich. Many appliances, domestic, industrial and military, are fully automated, if not always reliable.

Lastly is the Reich's capacity in developing advanced genetics and biological splicing, most passionately promoted and advanced by the notorious General Wilhelm Strasse. These new medical and genetic technologies allowed the Reich to create ghastly monstrosities such as the Super Soldier, lumbering, vat-grown Frankenstein-esque monsters crafted out of the mutated and deformed bodies of captives or "volunteers". Other technologies based on these highly unethical experiments have been developed, such as the Kampfhund, guard dogs modified by cybernetic augments and injections of various chemicals. Wilhelm Strasse's ultimate goal, however, was to create a merger of the "power of the human brain with the efficiency of the machine", specialised robots known simply as "Machine Men", containing disembodied human brains as central processing units. This nightmarish merger was very possibly Strasse's vision for all of humanity. However, due to the actions of William J. Blazkowicz and the Kreisau Circle, these prototypes were destroyed.

By the 1980s, the Reich's technological development stagnated. Having lost a genius like Deathshead and much of their territories worldwide, the remnant territories of the Reich in Europe have been forced to consolidate their remaining resources and technology, resulting in budget-cutting measures such as the complete cancellation of the space program that sent the Reich to the Moon and Venus along with the expeditions to discover more Da'at Yichud tech vaults, and the continued use of 1960s-era robots and equipment in the Wehrmacht, which, while not exactly obsolete, have clear weaknesses that have been taken advantage of by their enemies. Some minor tech developments have occurred in the nineteen years following the liberation of the United States: A primitive analogue to the Internet within Nazi territory known as the ReichNet (though mostly used by the military) was developed, and the Reich Television Network for TV programs, and floppy disks such as the Laserflop and VHS-style cassettes known as UVK Tapes are ubiquitous in 1980s Europe, available to civilians.

The Reich has modernized its technologies over time, and by the 1980s new designs of infantry body armor, weapons once fielded in limited quantities and various new derivatives were put into service. Most notably Da'at Yichud power suit copies were put into service in single units, likely derived from BJ's old suit captured by the Nazis in Mesquite, Texas in 1961. However, while impressive, many of their technologies are iterative developments of advances pioneered by Strasse all the way back in the 40s, rather than original creations. The sole exceptions are the Lab X upgrades, which include Übersoldaten moving through wormholes, and the proto-star, intended to power his Fourth Reich's research progress. Overall, however, the technological gap between the Nazis and the world at large has been greatly reduced.

Foreign relations[]

Despite having most of the world in their grasp, the Nazi Party is often on the defensive against aggressive and destructive resistance attacks due to the sheer brutality of their rule. The Kreisau Circle, the Maquis and The American Resistance network are only a few of the many mostly isolated movements worldwide that oppose the Nazi regime.

Having the most of the world at their finger-tips, combined with their technology and echo-chamber propaganda has made the Nazis become arrogant and somewhat careless, since even their powerful war machines like the Ausmerzer or secure facilities such as the Oberkommando on Venus are shown to have a lot of otherwise expensive and ingenious systems crippled with basic security flaws that can be exploited by infiltrators. The Nazis' belief in their own inherited superiority and a decade of oppressing mostly unarmed civilians means that they don't take B.J. or the resistance they meet as worthy opponents, largely resulting in humiliating and bloody setbacks. Wyatt and Abby both make a point of devising strategies based solely on the assumption of the Nazis' carelessness and pathological inability to respect their opponents intellectually. Only Irene Engel, through bitter experience, learns to take B.J. even remotely seriously, but drops her guard down immediately following his execution, secure in the idea that the 'terrorists' would crumble without their all-important leader. A former Eisenwald prison guard on Venus can be overheard lamenting the days when B.J. was still a present threat, believing he made 'you focus on the job', but then goes on to fantasize about being the one to somehow land the killing blow.

After the events in the New Order, the Nazi's grip on the world began to crumble as the death of Deathshead cripples their entire Research Division. To make matters worse for the Nazis, the loss of General Engel and both Oberkommandos, the compromise of the Venus base, the assassination of all the Übercommanders in the US territory and the capture of the Ausmerzer and Eva's Hammer supercharged the Resistance movement. The cost of keeping the world under heel became overwhelming and the occupation unsustainable.

By 1980, the Nazis have been pushed back to Europe, losing control of the rest of the world. Most notably, the Second American Revolution wrested control of North America, liberating it from occupation by Nazi jackboots and their collaborators, such as the KKK. Perhaps their only saving grace is that many of the newly-liberated nations of the world are focused on rebuilding and preparing for the apocalypse, which leads to lots of international tension and hamstrings attempts to organize a coalition against the monstrous, genocidal regime squatting in Europe.

Trivia[]

  • In German releases of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and Wolfenstein (2009), all references to the Nazis have been replaced by references to the "Wolves", while in the case of the MachineGames titles (sans Youngblood), the "Regime", with the swastika either replaced with the Wolfenstein logo or, in Wolfenstein II, a triangular symbol. This also extended to depictions of the Iron Cross symbol, with Wolfenstein II's German release replacing them with four black squares.
  • Advertisements for cigarettes can be seen in the alternate 1960s-1980s of Wolfenstein, with brands such as "Wolf Cigarettes" apparently being popular in the Reich. This is a discrepancy, as Nazi Germany started one of the world's strictest anti-tobacco regulations, with smoking banned in Nazi Party government buildings by law, although more accepted in the army.
  • The Wolfenstein series comes with a disclaimer that the games are set in alternate timeline and should not be construed or taken as endorsement of the actions and crimes of the real-life Nazi Party. This is likely because the MachineGames series (particularly the New Order) show imagery and characters that directly evoke some of the worst aspects of the Nazis' historical crimes against humanity more explicitly than many World War Two era shooters.

Gallery[]

References[]

  1. A star-map in The Diaries of Agent Silent Death implies they may have gone even further beyond that.
  2. Loading screen: "This is Brother 1, the Gestapo Headquarters. After your father killed Adolf Hitler in the late 60s, General Lothar Brandt organized a coup to revitalize the Gestapo. A bold power move against the Berlin establishment and the SS. Now, the Gestapo completely controls Paris. Hopefully, not for long."
  3. Commander Heinrich, Brother 2 (str_vo_mm_brother2_120_commanderheinrich_sub): "Attention. Today we are shipping Military Vehicles to the African front. Everyone is required to work overtime in order to meet the deadline. Thank you."
  4. Parisian propaganda (str_vo_lw_parispropaganda_021_propagandapa_sub): "Citizens of Neu-Paris. Our brave troops are guarding you from the degenerate barbarians at the Northern African Front. Do you have what it takes to contribute to the war effort? Sign up immediately by talking to your local Military Recruitment Center today! Have a fabulous day! Heil Hitler!"
  5. Die Neue Wahrheit article no.1
  6. Loading screen: "This is Brother 1, the Gestapo Headquarters. After your father killed Adolf Hitler in the late 60s, General Lothar Brandt organized a coup to revitalize the Gestapo. A bold power move against the Berlin establishment and the SS. Now, the Gestapo completely controls Paris. Hopefully, not for long."
  7. "Officer Fritz at Brother 1 (str_vo_mm_brother1_097_officerfritz_sub): "I much prefer the way the Gestapo runs things over the SS. Much more efficient AND friendlier atmosphere."
  8. Roxanne ("#str_vo_lw_sidecharacters_325_henri_sub" ): "[fre]I know, Roxanne. But look at how much the Nazis have lost. They only have Europe left. We will win this."
  9. Abby (#str_vo_mm_generaldialogue_251_abby): "I’m seeing news that the Nazis are getting desperate. They just lost a big fight over the Strait of Gibraltar. They will lash out like cornered animals."
  10. Letters (The New Order), Christa's letter
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