Biography

You were born on 12 January 1893 in Rosenheim, Bavaria. Your father, Heinrich Ernst, a former cavalry officer, had a respectable diplomatic career. Your family was rather large—your father had five children from a previous marriage, and you were the fourth of five children by your father’s second wife, Franziska Tiefenbrunn, a Bavarian peasant. Your godfather is Hermann Ritter von Epenstein, a wealthy physician and businessman your father met in Africa. Before the Great War, Epenstein provided the family with a family home in a small castle called Veldenstein, near Nuremberg. Following not only in your father’s footsteps but also the expectations of the upper classes, you were interested in a career as a soldier from an early age. In short, you had a childhood of moderate affluence and connections to the educated professional middle class.

But all was not always rosy. For example, when you were six-weeks old your mother left you in the care of friend in Bavaria while she moved with your father to Haiti—you did not see her again until you were three. After you were sent to boarding school at age eleven you ran away from the military-style school and then pretended to be sick until your parents relented and did not send you back. You also became aware that your mother had become Epenstein’s mistress.

Your career path nonetheless was clear. At sixteen you were sent to a military academy at Berlin Lichterfelde and graduated with distinction.

You joined the Prince Wilhelm Regiment, 112^(th) Infantry of the Prussian army in 1912. The next year you learned that your mother had had a falling-out with Epenstein and the family was forced to leave Veldenstein and move to Munich; your father died shortly afterward. All of this was soon of little importance. In 1914 the world war began.

You became one of the most distinguished soldiers of the war. Leaving your infantry regiment behind, you joined the new air force in 1916.

There, you became one of Germany’s first and greatest aces, decorated with the Iron Cross First Class, seriously wounded in combat, and given command of an air wing. As you scored additional victories (an incredible twenty-two confirmed enemy planes), you received additional awards, culminating in May 1918 the most prestigious of all—the Pour le Mérite. In July 1918, you were made commander of the famed Flying Circus, Jagdgeschwader 1, formerly led by Manfred von Richthofen. Yes, you had a reputation for arrogance, but your repeated victories and command abilities meant that no one dared to challenge your authority in the squadron.

But the war ended disastrously. You were repeatedly ordered to withdraw your squadron. After the armistice, you were ordered to surrender the aircraft to the Allies; as a patriot you refused and many of your pilots instead intentionally crashed their planes to keep them from falling into enemy hands. You quickly came to understand that Germany had been stabbed in the back by the November criminals—Marxists, Jews, and republicans.

In the post-war chaos, you remained in aviation—barnstorming, working at Fokker, and later in Sweden for Svensk Lufttrafik, a Swedish airline.

Here, you met your future wife, Baroness Carin von Kantzow née von Fock.

Though she was married, you began an affair in 1921. You left for Munich to study political science at the university while Carin obtained a divorce and followed you to Munich, where you married in 1922.

Yet you remained politically engaged and were one or the first to join the NSDAP in 1922. With your talents, you were given command of the SA in 1923. The SA was little more than street rabble, but you imposed military discipline and turned it into a well-oiled machine. You and party leader Adolph Hitler are now close friends, and your wife often hosts meetings of party leaders. You also participated in the Munich Putsch of 1923. Alongside other war heroes such as Hitler and Ludendorff, you led the march on the war ministry, where you were shot in the leg. Fourteen comrades were killed and many, including Hitler, arrested. Your wife helped to smuggle you to Austria.

It was there, recovering from surgery, that you first experienced morphine. You will not discuss this matter publicly, but you know that this necessary painkiller has had dangerous side effects, and that, at times, it has distracted you from your duties. Nonetheless, you evaded the government’s attempt to hunt you down, relying on NSDAP sympathizers abroad and moving to Italy, where you met one of the NSDAP’s idols, Benito Mussolini.

But the years since 1923 have been difficult. The side effects of morphine led to complications. Carin illnesses have worsened and she can no longer help out as she once had. She even lost custody of your stepson. In 1925 doctors in Sweden even placed you in Långbro asylum in 1925; it was brutal but you weaned yourself from the morphine.

You returned to Germany when an amnesty was declared in 1927 and resumed working in the aircraft industry. The NSDAP was in a period of rebuilding. The SA was now run by Franz Pfeffer von Salomon (you were actually relieved not to have to deal with it). Still, you have no love for those who took advantage of your absence. After all, your international connections, personal diplomacy, and popularity as an ace pilot have made you an essential part of the party leadership. Hitler certainly sees you as an asset and made you head of the NSDAP Reichstag faction (you were elected in 1928).

You now have one overriding goal: assist Hitler in seizing state power and correcting the course of German history. Though Hitler cannot serve in the Reichstag since he is not a German citizen, his leadership is absolute for you. There is no NSDAP without his leadership; there is no future for Germany without Hitler.

Yet there is a threat in your party; some members do not fully understand the nature of the movement. Some left-wing comrades cannot be fully trusted. You demand full party loyalty and discipline. Anyone who dares to contradict the Führer is anti-German. They have no place in Germany let alone in the NSDAP. Should any party member violate the words and spirit of your leader, you will demand that they be disciplined.

Objectives

The Constitution and the Republic

You want to destroy the Weimar Republic. The Reichstag is a Quasselbude (twaddling shop—NSDAP slang term for the Reichstag). In the end, the entire constitutional shambles of Weimar must be eradicated and replaced with a government made up exclusively of true race-conscious nationalists. That is to say, you desire a state with no political parties, just the NSDAP national movement headed by the Führer. Others may join you, but they may not lead.

Is it possible to have a government operating by presidential decree?

Yes, but only if the chancellor is Hitler. Ultimately, even the role of Reich president must be in the hands of the Führer. Thus, Hitler should run for president in the scheduled elections for 1932. However, there is a technical problem. Hitler is not a German citizen. There are ways around this, however. With the support of the leaders of the DNVP or von Schleicher, an arrangement could be made whereby Hitler is given a ceremonial post in a local government that would automatically confer citizenship.

You are not opposed in principle to a putsch. However, upon Hitler’s release from prison on 20 December 1924, he convinced the Bavarian authorities to lift the ban on the NSDAP. But he reformed the party under his undisputed leadership. The new Party was no longer a paramilitary organization and officially disavowed any intention of taking power by force. The party and the SA were kept separate and the legal aspect of the party’s work was emphasized. In a sign of this, the party began to admit women. SA members had to all be regular party members. In effect, in all public statements, the official stance of the Party is the Legality Strategy. You must disavow any desire by the Party, including the SA, to overthrow the German state in an insurrection. Nonetheless, you must find ways to explain the street fighting of the SA and the Party’s frequent use of revolutionary rhetoric in terms of legality. Easy enough—you only see violence as a possible necessity to DEFEND Germany, especially in the event of a Marxist uprising. You assert that any actions by the SA and any statement that does not bear the official party seal is not an official party statement and thus does not have anything to do with the NSDAP, expressing only the views of a single member.

There is occasional talk in the Reichstag of banning parties. Under no circumstances should you allow this—even against the KPD. You know that the NSDAP was banned once already and you do not want to see that fate again. You oppose all efforts to limit the freedom of parties to operate. Of course, once in power, this restriction no longer applies.

Remember—you are just playing by the rules of democracy in order to abolish it in favor of a People’s State under Hitler.

Possible coalition partners: You must destroy the forces of Marxism from the KPD but also the SPD. These parties should be fought on every front and have no place in Germany, let alone in government. However, any other party willing to accept Hitler as chancellor could be included in a coalition.

But everything hinges on one overriding goal—your leader, Hitler, must become chancellor. Any other position in government is utterly unacceptable. You will not become the pawn of parliamentarians. The chancellorship for Hitler or nothing. How you achieve this, though, is a tactical question: a coup, a coalition, election as the majority party, or appointment to a minority government by the Reich president.

Should the party ever achieve power either via a putsch or election as chancellor, you should immediately:

Announce that the Reichstag has been set on fire by the KPD who are clearly planning an insurrection

Ban the KPD and call for new elections

Demand that the Reichstag pass an Enabling Act granting the government martial law powers

You many now dictate any and all policies on any matters.

Foreign Relations (Foreign Ministry)

Freedom Law and Young Plan

Germany must repudiate the Versailles Treaty. Ideally, the government simply renounces the treaty in its entirety. At an extreme minimum, the most humiliating clauses must be abolished. To that end, you want to see an end to all reparations. You also demand the elimination of the War Guilt Clause, Article 231. The Freedom Law must be passed.

The Young Plan is a national humiliation, just like its predecessor the Dawes Plan. It is based on accepting the Versailles Treaty. Any party that supports it denies German self-determination and is not patriotic.

Every effort must be made to defeat it.

Liquidation Treaty with Poland

You oppose the Liquidation Treaty since it insults Germany by surrendering legitimate economic claims and paying for the privilege of Poland not mistreating Germans! It also does nothing to address the real issue—the annexation of ethnic German territory as dictated by the Allies in the Treaty of Versailles. Supporting this treaty only reconfirms the Republic’s slavish devotion to the parameters determined in 1919! Poland has no right to exist let alone to enslave ethnic Germans—the same applies the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, Alsace and Lorraine in France, Malmedy in Belgium, and all of Austria. One must not accept any territorial borders that deny ethnic Germans statehood in Germany. Living space must be secured for the Aryan people, and Poland is the natural historical area for this expansion. As Slavs, Poles are an inferior people in any event.

Military Affairs (Defense Ministry)

Germany’s future military greatness can only be achieved with a professional army. Thus, the Reichswehr must be preserved. You oppose any smear against the Reichswehr and your members proudly boast your military credentials from the war. German military honor may never be insulted.

Naval Bill

Your party favors construction of armored cruisers and the appropriation of the necessary funds annually.

Paramilitaries

Many of your followers, especially in the SA, demand control of the SA over the Reichswehr and the creation of a sort of people’s army. This rhetoric is good for recruiting members, but it would be disastrous if implemented. It also alienates the leaders of the Reichswehr—a force not to be taken lightly and one that you would rather have as an ally.

Perhaps some sort of compromise on the role of the SA can be worked out whereby the SA members are integrated into the Reichswehr, providing security for them.

Importantly, since you see Weimar as illegitimate, street fighting is an essential tactic to destabilize the hated Republic, to show the broad base of support for your movement, and to win over working-class members of the KPD and SPD. The SA must be allowed to operate.

Eugenics and Sexuality (Justice Ministry)

Sterilization

You embrace race hygiene (eugenics) in all its aspects. The chaos and demoralization afflicting Germany as an illness of the Aryan race.

Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, “Anyone who wants to cure this era, which is inwardly sick and rotten, must first of all summon up the courage to make clear the causes of the disease.” The diagnosis to the disease is racial. The only “culture-creating” race, the Aryans, have permitted themselves to be weakened to the point of endangered survival by the “destroyers of the culture,” the Jew. The nation has become weak, corrupted by dysgenics, the infusion of degenerate elements into its bloodstream. In contrast, the ancient Greek state of Sparta is a model.

It was the first völkisch state where deformed children were killed rather than allowed to live and weaken the state. For Germany, then, the path of national regeneration is clear. At the 1929 Nuremberg Party Congress, Hitler called for a program of negative eugenics that would weed out 800,000 genetically unfit children annually. You agree.

Mandatory sterilization of broad categories is essential.

Mothers’ Day

Relatedly, women must embrace their biological role as mothers—the font of the racial health of the nation without which nothing can prosper.

They are the natural physical nurturers of the next generation and nothing should impede them in this duty. They should accept this role and bear as many healthy children for the fatherland as possible.

Mothers’ Day should be a national holiday in this racial sense.

Race and Culture (Interior Ministry)

Jews (Antisemitism Option)

To restore German virtue and power you must eliminate the influence of Jews in German culture, society and politics. They should be banned from all of these fields. Ideally, they would be collectively declared non-citizens. There can be no exceptions, not even for veterans. The question, though, is what tactics to follow until you are in power. One has to walk a fine line—you can denounce Jewry in general terms, but proposing specific legislation in the Reichstag would likely be unpopular. The people are not ready. For now, hammer home indirect propaganda linking Jews to their atrocities such as the Treaty of Versailles and their role as November criminals during the war when those topics come up.

Censorship

Censorship of anti-German Jewish-Marxist-bourgeois filth is essential.

Books by Remarque, so-called art by Grosz, and Negro music all undermine the German spirit, corrupt the morals of youth, and prevent the rejuvenation of the German spirit. If the Weimar state will not censor degenerate art, then the NSDAP must take action and disrupt it!

Regarding All Quiet on the Western Front, as a member of the NSDAP you could read the critique of established authority and its betrayal as a justification for your revolutionary demands to create a new, integrated community that sweeps away those who threw away so many lives and replace them with the New Men hardened by the front experience. The new social model is the common bond of the front soldiers—a deep sense of loyalty beyond class, religion, and region found in the SA—unlike the old identities of the Kaiserreich. Thus, while loathing Remarque’s pacifist spin, you do not disagree with the tempering and radicalizing depiction of the soldiers—it is just that Remarque fails to politicize it properly. The soldiers are instead to be revolutionaries in a national renewal that destroys all traces of the old and corrupt world that betrayed them. As a result of Remarque’s false political conclusion, the book and movie are insulting to the sacrifices of the soldiers. Remarque has made heroes into broken victims, insulted the glory and even necessity of martial struggle, and emasculated a generation. His interpretation of the events is the same as that of the November criminals. Not only should All Quiet be banned; Remarque should be arrested as a traitor!

Industrial Relations (Economic Ministry)

Austerity

Economic issues are playing into your hands. The Grand Coalition is flailing over the issues of austerity—sharply divided on cutting social spending for the unemployed. The NSDAP program champions the right to employment, and calls for the institution of profit sharing, confiscation of war profits, prosecution of usurers and profiteers, nationalization of trusts, communalization of department stores, extension of the old-age pension system, creation of a national education program of all classes, prohibition of child labor, and an end to the dominance of investment capital. All of this is pro-labor.

However, this must be kept in context. Germany cannot function without big business. The point is to harmonize the classes—bourgeois and proletariat—as part of a united Germany. The party program must therefore be understood more as a critique of Jewish capital. You do not want to alienate big business but must still appear to be the friend of labor. In this case, however, you must come out consistently against austerity as hurting workers and the middle classes.

Nationalization

At this moment, nationalization of banks makes sense ONLY as part of Aryanization (eliminating Jews from economic life). You have no principled opposition to nationalization of banks if it stabilizes the economy, ends unemployment, and strengthens military production—but the matter can only be judged on a case-by-case basis. In any event, you have no desire to hand the Marxists a victory. After all, it is not just about putting the economy in the hands of the state. It is about putting it in the service of the Volk. As long as the SPD or bourgeois parties are in control, you do not support nationalization. But you must defend the principle, just not its application under current circumstances.

Aryanization, though, should occur immediately. In the end, the economy must serve the Volk. So you respect all private property—unless it is owned by Jews (who only stole it in the first place) or is used against the Volk.

Agricultural Affairs (Food Ministry)

Until quite recently, the Party has focused on urban voters, but with disappointing results as most workers remain loyal to Marxist parties.

The Party has therefore decided on a decisive shift to win over rural constituents. Most rural Germans have long considered the NSDAP to be anti-private property due to its avowed socialism, but farmers are generally staunch defenders of their ownership of land. To overcome this stigma, you now support an aggressive pro-farming policy that links specific policies to a glorification of the German farmer as the font of Aryan virtues.

Agrarian Tariffs

You support agrarian tariffs against all foreign food in order to protect the German farmer, to promote German self-sufficiency (autarky), and to liberate the nation from all outside influences. After all, one of the causes of the defeat in the Great War was the dependence of Germany on imported foods, which was cut off by the British blockade.

Food riots and strikes brought on by the starvation of upwards to 750,000 Germans in the last winter of the war completely undermined the war effort. A strong Germany requires agrarian autarky, which can only come with protective tariffs.

On the other hand, the Prussian Junker policy of agrarian tariffs is a waste of precious national resources. However, it may be necessary to compromise on this point to secure the support of the military in reaching the chancellorship. Of course, if the party can come to power without supporting grain tariffs, that is acceptable, too, and will ingratiate the party to the small farmers—a vital constituency.

Small Farmers’ Relief

The Party now argues that small farms should be exempt from foreclosure and large landholders exempt from expropriation by agro-Bolsheviks.

After all, the farmer is the ideal German; they embody the principles of Blut und Boden (blood and soil)—the racial connectedness to the German land. The Jewish bankers with their bloodsucking loans are driving the small farmer into penury. One has to be cautious, however, not to direct the anger of the small farmers against the Junkers. The Party is not about class warfare—all Aryan Germans, from the small farmer to the wealthy Junker, have a role to play. The anger must be redirected against the Jews who run the banks, the bourgeois politicians whose policies crush the small farmers, and the Versailles victors who use the treaty to unfairly disadvantage the German farmer. What Germany needs is more land for its farmers—Lebensraum (living space) in the East where the inefficient and racially subordinate Poles mismanage their lands.

Given the importance of small farmers, you advocate some degree of land reform (redistribution) and debt relief that will protect the small farmer. The party platform addresses the matter in Point 17, but Hitler has clarified the true meaning of Point 17: “Gratuitous expropriation concerns only the creation of legal opportunities, to expropriate, if necessary, land which has been illegally acquired, or is not administered from the view-point of the national welfare. This is directed primarily against the Jewish land-speculation companies.”

Other Issues

Stability Index

Desiring, as you do, the demise of the Weimar Republic, the lower the Stability Index (-50 or lower) the more victory points you will be awarded.

Presidential Election in 1932

You will support NSDAP leader Adolf Hitler.

Committees of Inquiry

These can be used to expose the corruption of other parties, and when so used you support them. However, the targets of assassinations have generally been November criminals and Marxists—you have little sympathy with them. Indeed, the NSDAP’s paramilitary wing is involved in street fights already. To support such a committee runs the risk of these committees being used against the SA. The parliamentary system should not be allowed to undermine these extra-judicial executions of traitors.

You should actively work against any such committee.

Responsibilities

Coordinate with members of your faction to determine party positions/votes ahead of time.

Ensure complete loyalty to the party line as dictated by Hitler.

Use the SA to undermine parliament.

Powers

Paramilitary (SA) Leader: see addendum

NB: This power goes to zu Reventlow (NSDAP #6) if in play; otherwise to Strasser (NSDAP #2) if in play. Give the Paramilitary Addendum to the relevant player.

Führerprinzip

You have the right to appeal to party leader Adolf Hitler to discipline (including expulsion) discipline (including expulsion) any member at any time for any reason. You do this by writing directly to Hitler (the GM).

A decision by the Führer is not subject to any review. Naturally, there is a danger in this action in that the threatened member may be informed of this letter by Hitler, opening you up to counterattacks. Nonetheless, it is a powerful tactic in order to enhance your standing in the party by removing those above you blocking your rise to power.

NB: If Goebbels (NSDAP #4) or Buch (NSDAP #8) is in play, he is the head of the powerful party Inquiry and Mediation Board (USCHLA). This commission is feared among the Party’s followers because it behaves rather like a Party secret police force. The USCHLA’s headquarters are at the Brown House in Munich—in close proximity to Hitler. The head has extreme power for settling internal Party disputes. They may render judgments freely, against which there is no appeal, except by Hitler.

Fascist Revolution: see addendum

Victory Goals Summary

Note: The Victory Points system is part of the full game and is not used in this course’s abridged three-session simulation.

NB: Faction and personal victory goals may conflict.

FACTIONAL VICTORY GOALS

Absolute Victory: Hitler and NSDAP are rulers of a völkisch state, even in a coalition.

Absolute Defeat: KPD or SPD is in cabinet or in power in any way; OR NSDAP ceases to exist.

Stability Index Goal = LOW (-50 or lower)

Presidential Election = Hitler

Type of Government = fascist dictatorship with Hitler as chancellor or president

Indeterminates/Splinters = convince to join your faction

Mandatory Agenda Items

PERSONAL VICTORY GOALS

Absolute Victory: Hitler is president; you are chancellor; OR Hitler is chancellor; OR either Karl Gandorfer or Adam Stegerwald is assassinated.

Absolute Defeat: NSDAP splits; OR Hitler is neither president nor chancellor.

Stability Index Goal = LOW (-50 or lower)

Discretionary Agenda Issues

Special Note on Nazi Antisemitism

Your character is an antisemite (one who sees Jews as a fundamentally different and destructive race). There is no way around this fact for a member of the NSDAP. As you play your character, this aspect will be uncomfortable. Yet you have the unenviable task of presenting these ideas to the class. You must do so without racial slurs or Nazi imagery, per the Gamebook guidelines.

What was Nazi Antisemitism?

Nazis believed that race held the key to understanding the world. They believed that one’s racial (genetic) make-up determined a person’s characteristics, attitudes, abilities, and behavior. In this völkisch thinking, all human groups carried within them traits that were immutably transmitted from one generation to the next. No individual could overcome the innate qualities of race. And all of human history could be explained in terms of racial struggle.

In this ideology of race, the NSDAP drew upon social Darwinism (a pseudo-scientific interpretation of Darwinian evolution). They believed that the science of evolutionary biology proved that geographically separated “races” with distinctive characteristics had evolved. Each race’s inherited characteristics related not only to outward appearance and physical structure, but also shaped internal mental life, ways of thinking, creative and organizational abilities, intelligence, taste and appreciation of culture, physical strength, and military prowess.

The NSDAP (and others) applied the idea of “survival of the fittest” to humans. For them, survival of a race depended upon its ability to reproduce and multiply, its accumulation of land to support and feed that expanding population, and its vigilance in maintaining the purity of its gene pool, thus preserving the unique “racial” characteristics with which “nature” had equipped it for success in the struggle to survive. Since each “race” sought to expand, and since the space on the earth was finite, the struggle for survival resulted “naturally” in violent conflict. Hence, war was a part of nature, a part of the human condition, and thus good.

In this pseudo-science, each race possessed certain characteristics, both positive and negative, of ethnic group appearance, behavior, and culture that were unchangeable and rooted in biological inheritance, immutable throughout time and immune to changes in environment, intellectual development, or socialization. Thus, assimilation of a member of one race into another culture or ethnic group was impossible because the original inherited traits could not change: they could only degenerate through so-called race mixing. This völkisch antisemitism argued that the German race—the one that they claimed had risen to the top of culture and power—was the Aryan race. It was locked in a life and death struggle with other races considered inferior and hostile, especially Slavs, Gypsies, and above all else Jews.

Therefore, hatred of Jews was not about culture or religion but race—and inevitable competition between races. For the NSDAP, this was a fact proven by biology and history. They saw Jews as responsible to some degree for every problem. Indeed, they fully believed in a global Jewish conspiracy to enslave Germany and the world. The NSDAP further believed that only the NSDAP fully recognized this reality: Jews as a race could not be German—each nation was a representation of a racially linked people—Germany for Germans, France for the French, Italy for the Italians. They claimed that Jews, since they were a single and separate people, needed to leave other lands and form their own state.

Read the NSDAP documents carefully on how they articulated their antisemitism.