Siegerkranz: Germany's Place in the Sun
is an After-Action Report of Hearts of Iron II, chronicling an Alternate History Germany that manages to be both plausible and unexpected. Currently still ongoing.
It all begins in 1933, with Adolf Hitler failing in becoming Chancellor. Instead, a Field Marshall by the name of Kurt von Schleicher remains in control. But even as the Weimar Republic unravels, with both the Nazis and Communists only part of the problem, he and his colleagues manage to keep it together...only reform it into a more powerful Germany.
The result is a Third Reich that is very much different from what our world would recognize. But if there is a trait similar with Nazi Germany, it's a fierce determination to undo a humiliating defeat and rise back to glory...no matter the cost.
This work contains examples of:
- Black-and-Grey Morality: The Germans come across as more sympathetic and heroic, although some of their methods in regaining their place in the world are at times questionable.
- Blue Blood: In addition to the Hohenzollerns, the Junker nobles also see a return to more significant influence.
- The Chessmaster: Apparently the Hohenzollerns' bread and butter. Wilheim III in particular catches on to Schleicher's reputation early on and eventually dumps him.
- Civil War: Both the Nazis and Communists attempt to pull this off to usurp the Republic early on. They both fail.
- Democracy Is Bad: What some, including Schleicher seem to think. Though given the time period and context of inter-war Germany, it's not like you could blame them.
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: The Reich, while decidedly more pleasant (and arguably more liberal) than Nazi Germany, is rather paternalistic with shades of sexism being brought up.
- False Flag Operation: Schleider's death in the Spanish Civil War is this, although it's shown that it deeply pained the Kaiser despite knowing why it had to be done.
- Game Mod: The AAR makes use of Mod33, which moves the game's starting date to January 1933.
- Gone Horribly Right: The covert attempt to reinstate the Ottoman Sultan was originally intended to build a bridge that would complete the Berlin-Istanbul railway line. Instead, it helped unleashed a hybrid Islamist-Secularist powerhouse that forces the Kaiser to change course.
- High-Class Glass: Some among the Prussian military caste still use monocles.
- In Spite of a Nail: There are still some similarities with Nazi Germany such as the disdain over the Treaty of Versailles as well as a (later) Anschluss, though these are relatively few and far between.
- It's revealed later on that like their Nazi counterparts in real life, the Imperial Germans renounce Versailles...but for different reasons. Namely it happens much earlier and that it was meant to salvage their Turkish adventures.
- Manipulative Bastard: Schleicher's success owes much to being this. He would not hesitate to shift allegiances at the drop of a hat if it serves his goals. Although this does come back to bite him later on as the Kronprinz effectively ousts him from power for that very reason.
- Necessarily Evil: Schleider is increasingly seen as this for the Germans, finding his actions questionable at best even while acknowledging the results. Eventually, the Kaiser decides to have him killed by proxy in Spain just as he starts becoming a liability.
- The Purge: Schleicher has the Nazi and Communist factions banned.
- Rags to Riches: The Volkmann family, while not exactly dirt poor had gained much from the Restoration, becoming more prominent at least in the military.
- Victory Is Boring: The German Empire finds itself in a situation like this later on, with various socio-political consequences.
