History Characters / TNOGermany

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome: The glory days of military conquest in World War II have long since ended and Germany has now stagnated, with economic problems growing out of their moribund slave system and widespread corruption infecting nearly their entire colonial empire.

* {{Minigame}}: Bormann's central mechanic is "Das Kartenhaus", a system that tracks the loyalties and powers of all the sectors of German society under Bormann and allows him to interact with these factions to either manage their loyalty or their power. Getting enough control in Das Kartenhaus serves as the precondition to triggering [[ThePurge the Dismantlement]][[spoiler:[[ThePurge s]]]].

-> '''Ideology:''' Ultramilitarism[[note]]Ultranationalism[[/note]], Reformed National Socialism[[note]]National Socialism[[/note]] (Assertive Reformist Speer route)

* PragmaticVillainy: Despite the Nazis' heavy focus on racial purity and genocidal ambitions, some populations of deemed ''untermensch'' still exist in Germany, like the Polish in Wartheland and Bialystok. Though treated as second-class citizens, they are not killed outright because extermination would deprive those states of useful labor.

Usually, partisans and resistance fighters cooperate. Their fight is public. [[WellThisIsNotThatTrope Not in the case of Revolutionäre Zellen]]. Their battle against the NSDAP resembles a surgeon's precise incisions. Isolated, rare but devastatingly effective, their attacks target all sectors of the state. The little information recovered from them come from pamphlets, yet they never, ever name their leader.

** He is also a personal foil to Willy Brandt, just as his organization is to Reichsbanner Schwarz-[[red:Rot]]-[[gold:Gold]], fitting given it was his spy network that disgraced and embarrassed Brandt's administration in our world. Both are mysterious figures and the heads of anti-Nazi rebel groups, and just as in real life both have been fighting the Nazis since even before the second world war. They even share socialist sympathies. However, while Reichsbanner Schwarz-[[red:Rot]]-[[gold:Gold]] seeks to recreate the Weimar Republic from before the fascists took power, Revolutionäre Zellen hopes to bring about a brave new communist state. Even their means of hiding are foils to one another; Brandt hides his identity behind a disguise and the nom-de-guerre of "Spartakus," while Markus Wolf prefers complete anonymity, ensuring neither his name nor his face is known to anyone who could possibly leak that information to his enemies.

* DraftDoging: To avoid being drafted into service, Kiesinger joined Germany's foreign ministry.

* RichardNixonTheUsedCarSalesman: Konrad Adenauer, the first German Chancellor after World War II, is the Bürgermeister of Cologne in Speer's facelift teaser, until he is sentenced to death for treason.

* EveryoneHasStandards: Of all the plans that the Nazis pursued, Erhard is most disgusted by Generalplan Ost, believing that it decimated the economic potential of many regions that were deemed not Aryan enough. A major component of his reforms is rebuilding these areas and opening more economic opportunities to the Reich's ethnic minorities.
* GoodIsNotNice: Erhard is rather stubborn and ill-mannered on a personal level, but he is genuinely dedicated to reforming Germany into a democracy.

* CassandraTruth: {{Subverted}}. According to his teased biography Erhrad wrote a controversial article predicting Germany's defeat in World War II. In OTL, this obviously turned out true. Here, not so much.

* GoodOldWays: Marshal Tresckow hails from the ancient Prussian warrior nobility. Disgusted with how corrupt and morally debased the Wehrmacht has become, he wants to reform it in accordance with the old Prussian virtues of discipline, loyalty, honour, dedication, and patriotism.

->'''Role:''' Leader of the Institutional Reformists (Speer and Bormann)

* EnemyMine: In the Bormann facelift teasers, Oberländer is joined by former Speerites, despite having previously clashed with his idiosyncratic Nazi supporters. However, with their old boss gone, they've decided to throw their lot in with the next best option to rival Bormann's control faction as the Institutional Reformists.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: Despite his professed controversial views in the Speer and Bormann clade teasers, Oberländer has attracted a wide following with his charisma, attracting those who are neither aligned with Klopfer's reactionaries or the Speerites.

* DoWrongRight: He blames the corruption and regression of German society on the NSDAP, perceiving its higher echelons to be too corrupt to purge disloyal opportunists who have sullied the Reich's glory. For this reason, he serves as a rival to Bormann in his facelift teasers, being the figurehead of "Axmann's Clade".
* EvilReactionary: Axmann upholds extremely strict gender roles. As said in his clade's teaser, Axmann believes that the men must work or serve in the military, while the women stay at home and raise the next generation of soldiers.

* BrokenPedestal: In the immediate post-war period, the NSDAP promised great riches and rewards for the youth, after everything their fathers did for the country. During the Lost Decade, as described in the Germany starting situation teaser, the NSDAP failed to meet these vows, so many dissatisfied students grumbled at the status quo, either supporting the radical "Revolutionary Nazis" or the underground political opposition.

* VisionaryVillain: In the German starting situation teaser, the Partificationists do not just want all major officials to be NSDAP members; they want the Party to subjugate every organ and governance structure in Germany, not dissimilar from the old USSR. Led by Bormann, the once-weak Party apparatus has subsumed the constitution and completed the Reichsreform to advance their goals. Much work still remains, but if they succeed, Germany will be completely remolded to their whims.

* TheRemnant: His collectivist version of Nazism has largely fallen out of favor in the 1960's, but Eigruber and a few sympathizers are shown in the clade's teaser, having not given up on the ideology just yet.
* VisionaryVillain: According to his clade's teased description, he sees the NSDAP as a tool for total social change, which will render social class meaningless and create a collective national whole as a "Volksgemeinschaft".

->'''Role:''' Leader of the Social Revolutionaries (Speer)

* NoTrueScotsman: Pape accuses the current NSDAP of employing "fake National Socialists", as said in the Speer clade teaser.

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Flag of Schutzzone Germania]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/schutzzone_germania_5.png[[/labelnote]]]]

By chance, circumstance, or even fate, Hitler's Reich had triumphed in WWII and brought Europe under a new order. But with costly settlement replacing profitable conquest in peacetime, Hitler found his dreams crushed and his Reich falling out of his grasp: the economy stagnated, the government oligarchized, and the society despaired and dissented. As "a thousand years" turned into "a lost decade", the Reich finds its future held in the grips of the desolate Führer's Inner Circle, each with their own vision to remake not just the Reich, but Europe as a whole.

** Most Nazis hold nothing but hatred for the SS led by Heinrich Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich, as even they find their Esotercism and Spartanism, respectively, too extreme and self-destructive.

* {{Foil}}: The Einheitspakt shares and contrasts traits with the Organization of Free Nations and the Empire of Imperial Japan, other collective bodies of several nations.

* TheBadGuyWins: If Speer [[spoiler:successfully manages to resist both the Gang of Four and the Nazi hardliners and institute his true Fascist Reich, he will create a Nazi Germany that is actually terrifyingly efficient, giving him a ''very'' good chance to ''win'' the Cold War and lead Fascism into the modern age.]]

* EarnYourBadEnding: In the Reformed National Socialist path, Speer not only has to contend with the Gang of Four, but also ensure that Oberländer's hardliners know their place, or else wind up as ''their'' PuppetKing. [[spoiler:It takes a considerable effort, but it ''is'' possible for him to emerge as the unquestioned ruler of Nazi Germany, free to conduct his greatest engineering "project" of all and ensure that fascism would be seen as a viable ideology by the rest of the world, instead of a discredited one like in real life.]]

* FateWorseThanDeath: In the [[spoiler:Paternalist and National Socialist paths. He's stuck as a defanged PuppetKing and has to watch as either the Gang of Four completely dismantle the Nazi dictatorship, or as Oberländer's clique reverses the reforms and once again sets Germany on the path to ruin, and in either case, no one will help him.]]

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Although Speer is the best candidate to lead the Reich, he's still an avowed fascist who made extensive use of slave labor to aid the Nazi war effort, just as he did in real life. In this continuity, he took it even further and helped to establish a codified slavery system for the entire Reich. It's unclear how much of his drive for reform is rooted in genuine remorse or a pragmatic desire to save the Reich from destruction, though it has been confirmed that he is genuinely remorseful for creating the slave system. He's regretful, but primarily because it gets in the way of his dreams for his Nazi utopia, and that a paid laborer with legal personhood is far easier to tax. He is ultimately still A Lighter Shade of Black, but because he is a PragmaticVillain and not because he is an InternalReformist.

* NaziNobleman: As his full surname ''Graf Schwerin von Krosigk'' would indicate, Krosigk was born in a noble family before joining the NSDAP.

Head of IG Farben in the upcoming Speer facelift

Head of Reichswerke in the upcoming Speer facelift. For tropes related to his role in Reichskommissariat Kaukasien, see his entry in Characters/TNOEasternEurope.

By chance, circumstance, or even fate, Hitler's Reich found victory in WWII and remade Europe under a new order. But Hitler's millennium vision would be shattered in just a decennium, as the turn from profitable conquest to costly settlement plunged the Reich into a "Lost Decade": the economy stagnated, the government oligarchized, and the society despaired and dissented. Externally maligned and internally moribund, the Reich's future now fell into the grips of the Inner Circle standing beside the old and dying Führer, each of with their own vision for Europe's future.

Though war can make a new order, it cannot make a new reality. After ''Endsieg'', the turn from profitable conquest to costly settlement forced the decennial reality onto the Reich's millennial vision: the economy stagnated, the government oligarchized, and the society despaired and dissented. Externally maligned and internally moribund, the Reich's future is in the grips of the Inner Circle standing beside the old and dying Führer, each of them powerful, cunning, and ambitious.

* EarnYourBadEnding: In the Fascist path, Speer not only has to contend with the Gang of Four, but also ensure that Oberländer's hardliners know their place, or else wind up as ''their'' PuppetKing. [[spoiler:It takes a considerable effort, but it ''is'' possible for him to emerge as the unquestioned ruler of Nazi Germany, free to conduct his greatest engineering "project" of all and ensure that fascism would be seen as a viable ideology by the rest of the world, instead of a discredited one like in real life.]]

* EvilAllAlong: By 1972, Speer is revealed to be, at the end of the day, committed to his own "efficient Fascist" vision of National Socialism above all else, and would do anything to suppress reform if it gets out of hand and starts pulling Germany away from Nazism. [[spoiler:TheReveal of his true nature comes after the Slave Revolt - in the Fascist path, Speer forces the Gang of Four to follow the party line, refuses the democratisation proposals by the rebels, and reaffirms his commitments to Fascism, and while he can still establish the [[FictionalUnitedNations Koalition der Nationen]], [[https://i.redd.it/ju3x1ftgz2d51.png the event which he does so]] reveals his intentions are to empower Germany as the head of a global power bloc, [[PragmaticVillainy to effectively conquer the world with diplomacy when his opponents would try and fail with warfare]], going so far as to [[VillainousLegacy believe he is acting as the true heir to Adolf Hitler's throne]]. In the [=Paternalist=] path, where the Gang of Four reduces Speer to their pen pusher, he berates himself for "failing" the cause of National Socialism.]]

* FullCircleRevolution: Speer's end goal in the Fascism path is revealed to be this, in effect. He has no real intention of actually instituting a democratic government. Instead, he uses a reformist veneer to re-engineer Nazi Germany in ''his'' image of Nazism.

* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Although Speer is the best candidate to lead the Reich, he's still an avowed fascist who made extensive use of slave labor to aid the Nazi war effort, just as he did in real life. In this continuity, he took it even further and helped to establish a codified slavery system for the entire Reich. It's unclear how much of his drive for reform is rooted in genuine remorse or a pragmatic desire to save the Reich from destruction, though it has been confirmed that he is genuinely remorseful for creating the slave system. He's regretful, but primarily because it gets in the way of his dreams for his fascist utopia, and that a paid laborer with legal personhood is far easier to tax. He is ultimately still A Lighter Shade of Black, but because he is a PragmaticVillain and not because he is an InternalReformist.

* MeetTheNewBoss: Speer can reorganize Eastern Europe into a series of Reichsländer, which are puppet states with native fascist collaborator governments that have limited self-rule but are still treated as integral parts of the Greater Germanic Reich; in essence, [=RKs=] with a coat of "native rule" paint.

* RedAndBlackTotalitarianism: The Nazis obviously use the red-and-black swastika as their flag and they've built one of the cruelest regimes in history, built off of police suppression, slavery, and the graves of millions of civilians.

** The Nazis will balk at an independent Serbia, but they will absolutely not tolerate a Red Serbia in their sphere of influence, invading them to install Jonić in their place.
** Even though the Segundo Ejército Patrióta are the least powerful side in the Colombian Civil War, they still can't be counted out of the game because they have the backing of Germany, a fellow National Socialist superpower, to take over the Republic and eliminate the other factions. Not only would this add to the Pakt's global influence, it would also deal a dent to the American sphere, which has traditionally covered all of Latin America.

** With controversy stirring in Iceland about the American presence, Germany will dabble in their 1971 election to get the anti-OFN coalition in power, which would make Iceland leave the alliance and cripple the United States' spear directed at Europe.

* AllForNothing: If the Gang of Four [[spoiler:have their way, Speer's reformist pretensions and drive to stay in power ultimately lead to him becoming nothing more than a glorified figurehead, while they proceeds to undo the Nazi dream. It's also possible for something similar to happen in the Fascism route, with him becoming a puppet of Oberländer's hardliners should the latter grow too powerful.]]

* EvilAllAlong: By 1972, Speer is revealed to be, at the end of the day, committed to his own "efficient Fascist" vision of National Socialism above all else, and would do anything to suppress reform if it gets out of hand and starts pulling Germany away from Nazism. [[spoiler:TheReveal of his true nature comes after the Slave Revolt - in the Fascist path, Speer forces the Gang of Four to follow the party line, refuses the democratisation proposals by the rebels, and reaffirms his commitments to Fascism, and while he can still establish the [[FictionalUnitedNations Koalition der Nationen]], [[https://i.redd.it/ju3x1ftgz2d51.png the event which he does so]] reveals his intentions are to empower Germany as the head of a global power bloc, [[PragmaticVillainy to effectively conquer the world with diplomacy when his opponents would try and fail with warfare]], going so far as to [[VillainousLegacy believe he is acting as the true heir to Adolf Hitler's throne]]. In the [=AuthDem=] path, where the Gang of Four reduces Speer to their pen pusher, he berates himself for "failing" the cause of National Socialism.]]

* PuppetKing: Führer Speer [[spoiler:can eventually become a puppet of either the Gang of Four or the NSDAP's hardline conservatives led by Theodor Oberländer. In the game, when this happens, Germany's ideology (and Speer's, by extension) changes from National Socialism to Oligarchy or Idiosyncratic Nazism, representing the Gang of Four's and the Oberländer clique's views (respectively), instead of Speer's. The biography for the Gang of Four version, however, implies that Speer might be beaten, but he is not entirely defeated, and he is actively plotting to get out from under the Gang's control]].

** In his Fascist route, [[spoiler:he prepares to kill Schmidt and sidelines the rest of the Gang of Four. In the Paternalist route, he fails and is threatened to sit down or his involvement with Nazi atrocities will be revealed to the world.]]

* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer: An otherwise competent example, but he mainly sees Germany and its place in the world as one giant engineering "project" that he could tweak and modify to his heart's content, whether others want it or not. This is true whether it's in the [=AuthDem=] or Fascist path.

* FromNobodyToNightmare: By 1962, the RAF is a very marginal group in Speer's support base, which is already not very large in the first place; in fact, they never come up or are mentioned in any events if Speer wins the civil war. It is not until the end of the first decade of Bormann's route that they can [[spoiler:kill Walther Hewel]], and potentially seize control over Germany later on as part of [=TNO2=] content.

* BlatantLies: In its teased national spirit description, the EEC is nominally an economic community of equal European partners. However, everyone knows that the organization is actually a means for Germany to asserts its economic dominance over the continent, as the primary beneficiary of the arrangement.

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: In their dedicated starting situation teaser, Germany's economic sphere, the European Economic Community, shares its name with the OTL predecessor to the European Union. The idea of an economic bloc in Europe has been enetertained by various groups since the turn of the century in numerous forms, but the Nazis have adopted this idea for their colonial exploits and a means of controlling their puppet states.

* HollywoodAtheist: Many NSDAP politicians are openly hostile towards organized religion, with the German starting situation showing that the Germany has an official policy against it. Ideologically, they argue that Christianity descended from Jews and dull the German race by promoting a "servile" morality. Pragmatically, the churches, especially the Catholic Church, are a rival power base and a source for dissidents. The NSDAP would pursue an open policy of "Kirchenkampf" to break the church's influence, but the only reason it's dormant is because a lot of Germans are still Christian and open conflict with the churches would have dire consequences.
* AHouseDivided: As shown in the Germany starting situation teaser, hose in the Inner Circle have been engaged in a wild power struggle for decades, plotting against each other so that their vision can succeed Hitler's. When the aged Führer is gone, a SuccessionCrisis will inevitably spill over.

* SettlingTheFrontier: A core element of Nazi ideology is the colonization of Eastern Europe with German settlers, organized through Generalplan Ost. Its third phase (1958-1963) is seen in the German starting situation teaser, where every legal citizen in the eastern territories will either be a German settler or a native who has assimilated into the culture, if they are deemed "racially viable". Already, German settlements can be divided between "Strongholds" and rural "Marks" that aim to be 25% and 50% German, respectively.

* YouCannotKillAnIdea: Despite the German government's best attempts in their starting situation teaser, they have failed to dislodge religion and its institutions in their country, as most Germans are still practicing Christians. Some anti-clerical members wish to restart the Kirchenkampf, but more [[PragmaticVillainy pragmatic Nazis]] argue that it would not be worth pursuing and risking the social unrest.

After a series of stunning victories against France, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, Adolf Hitler's new order was to reign supreme for a thousand years. Instead, cruelty, arrogance, corruption, and incompetent leadership brought the Reich to the brink of economic and military collapse. As the new decade turns, Germany's status as a dominant world power is threatened by a dysfunctional economy reliant on forced labor and many enemies, both external and internal. As the Führer's life draws to an end, ambitious men plot to take over the crumbling empire by any means necessary.