A short history of the German Empire

[FlyingDutchie]

A short history of the German Empire

For some reason my favoured method of breaking writers block is starting a new AAR. Since my two active AARs are both narrative stories, I’ve chosen to write a historybook AAR this time. As the title suggests it will chronicle the history of the German Empire during its darkest hours. Since I’m General Secretary of the Kaiserreich Mod, I doubt anyone is surprised I’m using the Kaiserreich Mod.

Index:
TBA

[Kurt_Steiner]

First in.

Let's see what happens.

[FlyingDutchie]

Part I: a place under the sun

His Imperial majesty Wilhelm II von Hohenzollern, German Emperor and King of Prussia. Under his leadership Germany gained the place under the sun he had always desired.

The Weltkrieg
The history of Europe changed forever on that fateful day on the 28th of july 1914, when the Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip assasinated the Austrian archduke Franz Josef, unknowingly plunging Europe into the fires of war. The German Empire supported their Austro-Hungarian allies, while Russia stood staunchly behind their Slav brethren in Serbia. This in turn led to the entrance of France into the war, bound by treaty to support Russia, but looking for a way to avenge the loss of Elsass-Lothringen after the French-German War. The German attempt to knock France out of the war by an invasion through neutral Belgium drew the British Empire into the war.
The war in the west quickly bogged down to the mechanized slaughter that was trench warfare, while in the East the Russians where quickly defeated at the Mazurian Lakes and at Tannenberg. The war dragged on for four years, with Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and the Ottoman Empire getting involved in the war as well. However, the United States remained neutral throughout the conflict, although the unrestricted submarine warfare brought the Americans dangerously close to declaring war.

The 1918 and 1919 offensives
Early 1918 was the beginning of the end for the Allied war effort. Russia was in the throws of revolution and the Bolshevists signed the humiliating Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending the war in the East. Later that year Ludendorffs innovative use of stormtroopers and his ‘infiltration tactics’ brought an end to the war in the Balkans, as German, Austrian and Bulgarian troops managed to pin down the Allies at Salonica, while making a move on Athens. The loss of Greece and the prospect of a major German offensive in the West led to the British withdrawl of most of their troops from the Middle East, saving the Ottoman Empire from defeat. The Great Offensive the Allies feared was launched on early march 1919, when the German armies struck near St. Mihiel, south of Verdun. The French high command was forced to weaken their lines in the North to defend their lines in the South. Then a second offensive was launched near Rheims, splitting the French armies. Within a month the Germans where at the gates of Paris. At the same time a large offensive was launched at the Italian lines, but not at the Isonzo. The assault came from Trento, forcing the Italian High Command to reinforce their troops in the Veneto or face encirclement of their main armies.
In both cases the allied defences failed to hold back the fury of the Central Powers. Vicenza and Verona fell near the end of March, encircling the Italian armies near Venice. In France Rheims and Nancy fell in German hands, the Marne was crossed and the BEF was about to be evacuated from the mainland, the last British troops left the continent in june. With most of their forces pinned down, Italy was defenceless, with Milan, Firenze and even Rome falling into enemy hands without a fight. The Italians sought terms in August, shortly after the capitulation of Venice. In the meantime France too was ravaged by a general strike, which was soon supported by the army itself. The French sought terms on october 4th 1919, ending the war on the continent. The war dragged on for two more years, with the British and German navies clashing a few times, most notably during the Second Battle of Jutland in 1919 and the Battle of Rockall in 1920, but the Germans, the British and their respected allied understood the pointlessness of this struggle and on the 11th of november 1921 the German and the British Empire signed the Peace with honour, ending the Great War that had ravaged Europe for seven long years.

The aftermath of the war
It was clear the War had changed Europe for good. In the East Germany was able to redraw the map, setting up new states and friendly states with German monarchs in the Baltics (the United Baltic Duchy), Lithuania and White Ruthenia. Finland and Poland regained their independence, as did the UkraineThe German Empire itself began to rival the British Empire in size, with Indochina, Madagascar, Dahomey and both the French and Belgian Congo added to the Empire.
Unfortunately there couldn’t be any rest for the tired German troops yet, with both Russia and France in the throes of revolution. In the case of France the revolution had managed to coup the Briand administration shortly after the peace was signed. With the French soldiers defecting en masse to the revolutionaries, and all counterrevolutionary forces already being evacuated to Algiers, the German High Command decided that a continuation of the war would be too risky. In the case of Russia, where the counterrevolutionaries where still quite powerful, the Germans did intervene, culminating in the Battle of Tsaritsyn, where the joint forces of the Russian General Denikin and a German expedition led by General Groener broke the Red Armies back after weeks of vicious streetfighting. Germany had pacified its eastern border, but the Kerensky government never managed to truly capture the hearts of the people.

The fall of Ludendorff and the Tirpitz reforms
The Hindenburg /Ludendorff tandem that had gained control over the German government maintained its extraordinary powers even after the end of the war. Yet Ludendorff, clearly the driving force behind the dual dictatorship, became increasingly resented by the German people. It was not until 1924 that a man dared to stand up against him. It was then that Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz managed to take the dictatorship down. The direct cause of Ludendorffs downfall wasn't his petty dictatorship, it was a tragedy within the Royal family that brought the Quartermaster-General down. Shortly after the end of the war, the provisional government in Ireland had offered the crown of Ireland to Prince Joachim. However, Marshall Collins quickly withdrew the offer after noticing Ludendorffs hesitation to accept the offer and the strong republican sentiments within his IRA. The prince, already mentally unstable, tried to commit suicide, but failed, after this humiliation. The news was covered up in the media by order of Ludendorff himself, trying to cover up his role in the tragedy. In 1924 the scandal was made public by Tirpitz sympathizers, turning the Junkers against Ludendorffs rule. At the same time Tirpitz had managed to convince both Emperor Wilhelm and Marshall Hindenburg to publicly withdraw support for Ludendorff. Before the end of the year both Ludendorff and the puppet chancellor Michaelis where removed from their positions and Alfred von Tirpitz was made the new chancellor. Hindenburg was allowed to stay on as Chief of the General Staff.

Grand Admiral Alfred von Tirpitz (1849-1930). State Secretary of the Navy from 1897 until 1916 and chancellor from 1924 until his death. He is regarded as one of the greatest leaders Germany ever had, on par with Otto von Bismarck, the Iron chancellor himself.

Tirpitz first challenge as chancellor was the aftermath of the British revolution and the dissolution of the British Empire in 1925, when a coalminerstrike had escalated into a fullblown revolution, leading to the government and the royal family being exiled to Canada. Under Tirpitz orders most of the British Empires strategic ports and possesions, including Malta, Suez, Ceylon and Singapore where secured by German troops, as where most of the British African colonies. Germanies large African Empire was then restructured on the model of the former British Raj in India, with Fieldmarshall Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck becoming its first Statthalter. The influence of the Empire grew even further after the 1926 intervention in China, when Xu Shichang asked the Germans to save the ailing Chinese Republic from the warlords in exchange for a restauration of the Qing and far reaching economic concessions in Southern China. Under chancellor Tirpitz Germany changed from a petty dictatorship reeling from the losses of seven years of war into a powerful Empire, which dominated Europe, Africa and Asia.

Troubles on the horizon
The whole nation mourned the death of the Great Chancellor in 1930. Fieldmarshall Oskar von Hutier was appointed as the new chancellor, but the Hero of Paris proved to be unfit for the task, trying to run the nation as he had run his army. After his death in 1933, Franz von Papen became chancellor of the Empire through intruige and currying favour with the Emperor. Papen had proven to be somewhat competent, but highly impopular and many foresee a clash between Papen and other notable politicians within the ruling Deutschkonservative Partei in the near future.

Franz Joseph Hermann Michael Maria von Papen zu Köningen, better known as Franz von Papen. A former diplomat, general staffer and natural at intruige, Von Papen left the Zentrum party to join the ruling Deutschkonservative Partei (DKP) and quickly managed to rise through the ranks, managing to become Germanies first Catholic chancellor.

At the same time the syndicalists in France and Britain have rebuild much of their former power, with the Republican Navy matching the Hochseeflottes power, while the French armies are growing in size every year. In the mean time Germanies old ally Austria-Hungary is falling apart, Russia remains an unstable factor, while Japan is greedily eying Germanies Asian and Pacific possessions.

The year is 1936 and Germanies future is about to change for good…

[Zhuge Liang]

I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with this, I don't think I've ever seen a German KR AAR get particularly far.

[trekaddict]

I like!

[c0d5579]

Yeah, German KR AARS seem to flame out early for some weird reason. It can be a very frustrating country to play - relatively free hand in eastern Europe, then France can go ape if you blink.

[yourworstnightm]

German KR and Dutchie! Certainly a winner!

[FlyingDutchie]

Lots of replies for a first update. Not that I'm complaining though .

@ Kurt_Steiner: quick ninja post between the leader and the first update Sir.

@ Zhuge Liang, c0d5579: I plan to take this German AAr a bit further, at the very least ending with the destruction of the perfidious Internationale. Germany is quite fun to play with, as long as you don't take your eyes from the French.

@ Treckaddict, Yourworstnightm: thanks for the vote of confidence.

[FlyingDutchie]

Part II: the looming storm.

The Barons cabinet
One diplomat once described Von Papen as a man who “enjoyed the peculiarity of being taken seriously by neither his friends nor his enemies. He was reputed to be superficial, blundering, untrue, ambitious, vain, crafty and an intriguer.” Furthermore, the fact that his cabinet existed almost solely of noblemen (with the notable exception of Dr. Schacht) while the SPD was the largest Party in the Reichstag didn’t exactly endear him to the people. His cabinet was often described as the ‘Barons cabinet’, or ‘monocle cabinet’, where key appointments where given to personal friends rather than the best men for the job. Yet the German political system, where the Reichstags opinion could be ignored without too much peril, kept Von Papen in charge.

Chancellor Von Papen conversing with his most trusted advisor, General Kurt von Schleicher. The two men befriended eachother when both where cadets. Some claim Schleicher has his eyes on the chancellorship himself though.

The von Papen administration
Chancellor and Prime Minister of Prussia: Franz von Papen
State secretary for Foreign Affairs: Friedrich-Werner Graf von der Schulenberg
Stare secretary for Finance: Doctor Hjalmar Schacht
State Secretary for the Interior: Johann Heinrich Graf von Bernstorff
State Secretary for the Navy: Ludwig von Reuter
State Secretary for Economic affairs: Johann Graf Schwerin von Krosigk
State Secretary for Justice: Wilhelm Freiherr von Gayl
State Secretary for Agriculture: Magnus Freiherr von Braun
State Secretary for the Post: Paul Freiherr von Eltz-Rübenach
State Secretary for the Colonies: Heinrich Albert Schnee
State Secretary without Portfolio: Kurt von Schleicher

Note that the Imperial German political system does not include a minister of defence. Instead the Chief of the Imperial Staff, Fieldmarshall Hans von Seeckt, furfills the tasks normally given to that cabinet minister in other countries.

The Beck-Souchon memorandum
By 1936 the German armed forces where still the most formidable fighting force in the world, its armies guarding German interest around the world and the Navy larger than the combined fleets of the Union of Britain and the Commune of France. Yet the tactics, training and armament where rapidly going obsolete in the face of developments in the Syndicalist world. The British had recently launched the RN Rebecca, a carrier outclassing the two German Zeppelin-class carriers to the point both where obsolete just a few years after being built. At the same time the Commune was reforming its army from a popular militia into a more professional force, supplemented by several tank divisions.

Generaloberst Ludwig Beck (b. 1880). Beck had served with distinction during the Chinese intervention, but often clashed with his superiors over army modernisations after the intervention. Subsequently he retired from the army.

Fearing for Germans security retired Generaloberst (Colonel-General) Ludwig Beck, a hero of the Chinese intervention, and Admiral Wilhelm Souchon co-authored a memorandum deeply critical of the state of the German armed forces as a whole. Beck argued that a false sense of superiority had led to complacency, while Germanies enemies where pioneering innovative new tactics and armaments, Germany was planning to fight a repeat of the Weltkrieg. All dissenting voices where silenced by ‘promoting’ them away, or retiring them. As an example, Beck gave te fate of generalmajor Guderian, author of the acclaimed work Achtung Panzer. Instead of being involved in the development of Germanies armoured divisions, the general was being regarded as difficult to work with and send to the Pasific to command the division guarding Truk island. Beck argued for a large scale modernisation of German armaments and the implementation of new weapons as the tank to rebuild the German armies to their former glory.
Admiral Souchon was even more critical than Beck had been. According to Souchon Germanies perceived naval dominance was solely build on the policy of keeping a large amount of antiquated ships afloat. Ships as old as the SMS Ostfriesland where still active in the main battle fleets, while even a number of predreadnoughts continued to serve as coastal defence ships in Souchons Ostsee-command. Furthermore, the navy was severely lacking in light cruisers and modern destroyers to accompany the capital ships and protect Germanies supply lines from the Communes submarinefleet. In his characteristic undiplomatic words Souchon described the navy as being a brontosaur, too large for its own good and forced to either adapt or go extinct.

Admiral Wilhelm Souchon (b. 1864), a veteran of the Weltkrieg when he served as an advisor to the Ottoman navy. These days he is the admiral in charge of the Ostseeflotte, a mostly ceremonial task.

The aftermath of the memorandum
Both Beck and Souchon had meant for their memorandum to be kept secret from the general public, as neither man was out to humiliate the armed forces. However, for some reason the memorandum found its way to the desk of newspaperbaron Alfred Hugenberg, who promptly published it in his newspapers, using it as a means to disgrace his political opponent Von Papen. The staunch nationalist Hugenberg demanded an aggressive expantion of army and navy both through his control of the media and through the Deutsche Volkspartei (DVP - German Peoples Party) he was a member of in the Reichstag, finding common ground with the rabid nationalists of the Alldeutscher Verband. The motion Hugenberg-Strasser was put forward, demanding more funds to be allocated for the expantion and modernisation of the armed forces.

Alfred Hugenberg (b. 1865), industrialist, mediabaron and leader of the DVP-faction in the Reichstag. He often used his near total control over the German media and his conciderable personal wealth to advance his nationalist agenda.

The reaction in the army and navy to the publishing of the memorandum was mixed. The Chief of Staff, Generalfeldmarschall Hans von Seeckt stated in private that Beck deserved to be shot for humiliating the army in public, but deserved a Blue Max (the Pour le Merité, the highest military Prussian decoration) for finally getting those politicians to give him the resources he desperately needed. In the end Beck was just recalled to active service, being allowed to oversee some experiments in tank warfare. The backlash in the navy was more severe, with the commander of the Hochseeflotte, Grossadmiral Erich Raeder blaming Secretary for the Navy Von Reuter for letting the fleet rust while Britain build its strenght. The feud between both men escalated to the point both refused to speak to eachother again. In the end it was decided that Raeder would get half a year to write up a naval expansion programme on top of the programme already being furfilled (which would include two ships of the newly designed Kanzler-class).

After much deliberation Germany would start with the long overdue military reforms. Unfortunately nobody could have foreseen a certain fateful monday in february…

[Morlak]

I'm thinking that this will be everything but short xD

Good luck with your AAR!

[Andreios II]

Ah mein Gott! At last a KR Germany AAR! This is my favourite nation to play in the mod. my game took me from Paris to London, then across the Atlantic into the heart of the (former) USA. Germany's great to play because you can do so much as her. Also, in an alternate world where more or less everything has gone to pot, the Kaiserreich is one of the few countries that can really make a difference and put a few things right (by which I of course mean destroying those nasty radical leftists)

Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum Deutscher Rhein!

[Zhuge Liang]

Let's hope Germany gets rather more competent leadership sooner or later- while the profilieration of monocles is one of the German Empire's more admirable qualities I don't think posession of one necessairly qualifies you for high office.

[c0d5579]

Ah Hugenberg - like a cross between Howard Hughes and William Randolph Hearst. Wouldn't be surprised if Hugenberg didn't also own a controlling interest in the KR equivalent of Halliburton, and had cornered the market on the contracts with the Turks to exploit the oil fields.

[yourworstnightm]

Hmm, I'm a little bit worried with all those vons. Junkers and other nobles can be good at their jobs, but can easily lose the support of the people. I hope there will be efforts to bring in more Middle Class politicians to high offices.

[Asalto]

Awesome start, keep it up, FlyingDutchie!

[Timmie0307]

Zum Rhein, zum Rhein, zum Deutscher Rhein!

Actually lets visit the Garonne, beautiful in summer, but first we stop at the Wolga?

nevertheless keep it up, will be surely following this

[Milites]

So the Communards went with LeGentilhomme and the blitzkrieg doctrines? And btw, the reactionaries will be buried by the force of the proletariat!

[FlyingDutchie]

@ Morlak: it will be short by my own standards. My other HoI2 AAR still lingers in january.

@ Andreios II: Germany is one of my personal favourites to play with in Kaiserreich, but the challenge varies greatly. Some games saw me crushed by the Commune, CSA and Soviets, others let me breeze to the Pyrenees. I have no idea what this game will bring yet, as I've played just the first few months.

@ Zhuge Liang: Papen chose to ignore the people at his own peril, as even Bismarck cooperated with the middle class. In order to steer Germany through its upcoming ordeals the support of the liberals, nationalists, Zentrum and perhaps the SPD is desperately needed. The question is if Papen is the right man for that job.

@ c0d5579: Hugenberg is even more influential than Hearst could ever dream to be, thanks to Germanies lax anti-trust laws and media censorship. Also, Hearst tried to influence politicians, while Hugenberg has his own party to further his goals. Yet despite his wealth and influence, Hugenberg is a stubborn old man who is too unwilling to compromise to acchieve true political influence.
I'll deal with the state of German industry in the next update, but suffice to say that there is no German Halliburton, or Standard Oil for that matter. Germany just started to develop oil companies recently, and most are in the hands of the mighty chemical industies.

@ Yourworstnightm: a wise man would have invited NLP (National Liberale Partei), FVP (Fortschrittende Volkspartei) and Zentrum ministers in his cabinet, and would have tried to keep a working relationship with the SPD and DVP. Papen is not a wise man...

@ Asalto: thanks!

@ Timmie0307: I like the Rhône myself, but the German aries will get their chance to take a good look at many rivers in due time, from the Mekong to the Amazon.

@ Milites: the next update will give a glimpse at te situation in France, but Le Gentilhomme is indeed in charge of the Communal army. But do not forget, Germany without Panzers is like Christmas without a tree.

The next update is almost ready and I hope to post it today.

[FlyingDutchie]

Part III: Black Monday

Changes in the East and the west
The new year was just a few days old when Russia was thrown into chaos. An unindentified sniper shot president Kerensky on the third of january, while he was giving his new years adress to the nation. The bullet pierced the presidents lung and he died on the way to the nearest hospital. In the aftermath of the assasination both the political left and right accused eachother of the murder. In a chaotic emergency session of the Duma Grand Duke Dimitri Romanov was appointed as acting president by the conservatives. His first act as president was to outlaw the Bolshevist party and arrest its leader Nikolai Bukharin for conspiracy against the state. In spite of the Conservatives wishes, the liberal Kadets and Social Revolutionaries where allowed to keep their seats in the Duma. One of the first acts of the new provisional government saw to send the new foreign minister Vladimir Paley to Berlin, to assure the Emperor and chancellor alike that the new government would be a friend of the Reich.

Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich Romanov (b. 1891). The Grand Duke, a first cousin of the late Czar Nicolas II, had the difficult task of trying to appease both the landowners that had made him president and the common people.

The Commune of France too saw a change in its leadership. Marceau Pivert, the chairman of the Comité de Salut Publique, the executive branch of the French political system, lost a vote of confidence by the Bourse Générale, the assembled trade unions of the Commune. The fall of Pivert brought an end to the moderate travailleur-anarchist alliance that had governed the country. The Sorelians, Jacobins and a number of radical anarchists (like Nestor Makhno) all hoped to take control of the Comité de Salut Publique following the great convention of the Bourse Générale. The convention itself proved to be more moderate in its choices than the radicals had hoped. Most posts went to the moderate Travailleurs, including the delegates in charge of production (Roger Salengro), the Communal army (Paul le Gentilhomme) and the all impost of Chairman of the Comité de Salut Publique, which went to the Russian emigré Boris Souvarine.

Boris Souvarine (b. 1895, born as Boris Konstantinovich Lifschitz). Russian by birth, but living in France since the age of two, Souvarine had bee a member of the SFIO before the Weltkrieg and gained prominence as a writer and newspaper editor. He was the Travailleur candidate to replace fellow travailleur Pivert as Chairman of the Comité de Salut Publique.

The anarchists, moderate and radical alike failed to secure a single delegate within the Comité, as did the Jacobins, whose nationalist rhetorics where considered reactionary in nature. The Sorelians did gain two important posts, the delegates of internal security (Marcel Bucard) and foreign affairs (Angelo Tasca). The last surprise of the congress was the resignation of the President of the Bourse Générale Sébastien Faure, who was replaced by travailleur Beniôt Frachon.

Black Monday
By 1936, the German economy was almost completely reliant on its heavy industries, as ironworking, chemistry, car manufacturing, shipbuilding and the aircraft industry. Most of these branches where dominated by either a single monopolist, as was the case with IG-Chemie (a cooperation by Bayer, AGFA and several smaller chemical companies) or Krupp, or by a small number of companies dividing the market between themselves. The Empires heavy protectionism meant only a small number of foreign companies where allowed to operate on German soil, with the German government actively hindering all foreign attempts at penetrating the German market. Germanies protectionism led to an all-out trade war with the United States in the ‘20s, leading to a German ban on the import of American cars, steel, chemical products and aircraft, which did nothing to combat the continued economic depression in the States.
For most of the ‘20s and ‘30s German industry and products managed to dominate the German market. Most of the cars in non-syndicalist Europe are Opels or Daimlers, both build with metal from Krupp and tires of newly aquired Malayan rubber processed by IG-chemie. The innovative Junkers JU 52 outcompeting the Douglas DC-3 as the worlds most prominent passenger airliner, while the reliable Gotha remained the Empires premium transport.

The Junkers JU-52, produced by the Fokker-Junkers AG. By combining Junkers expertise at building transport aircraft with Fokkers skill in building monoseats, Germanies largest aircraft company was founded in the late '20s. Dutch-born Anthony Fokker still leads the company but leaves most of the actual designwork to chief-designer Willy Messerschmidt.

The German economy was not without its weaknesses. The overreliance on heavy industry made the German economy very reliant on continued demand by other big business. By 1936 especially the aircraft industry was noting the market being saturated. Export to foreign countries was limited by trade barriers set up by nations as Japan, Russia and the United States in reaction to Germanies own protectionistic policies. Besides a saturation of the markets the economy faced another dire threat, that of a speculation bubble.
During the ‘20s, the German Empire expanded significantly at the cost of the German Empire, the formation of Mittelafrika and the foundation of the AOG (Allgemeine Ostasiatische Gesellschaft), which had total economic control over a third of China. This in turn led to massive speculation in many of the colonial enterprizes being established. Malayan rubber plantations, Bruneian oilwells, African railroads and Chinese manufacturing plants, if it sounded exotic and profitable, it drew German investors.
The chronic overproduction and the fact most of the colonial investments where far from profitable had caused the German economy to slump for years, but noone could have predicted the tragedy happening on the 3rd of february 1936, when the Berlin Stock Exchange plunged into a free fall. Economics and historians still debate the exact cause of the day forever known as Black Monday, some blame Germanies chronic overproduction, others claim protectionism was the main cause while others claim the colonial speculation bubble was the main cause. Overnight the German economy shrunk by more than 15%, landing many companies into hot water.

Doctor Hjalmar Schacht (b. 1877). After a highly succesfull spell as director of the Reichsbank, Dr. Schacht was invited to join the Von Papen cabinet as an independent minister.

In a reaction to the economc collapse, State Secratary for Finance, Doctor Hjalmar Schacht ordered the Berlin Stock Exchange to close for at least a week to prevent further speculation and to calm the market down. Yet he knew this was just a temporary measure, and that the government needed to find more thorough solutions to save the economy. From a political perspective, the crash couldn’t have come at a worse moment. Just a few days before, chancellor Von Papen had antagonized much of the Reichtag during a debate about the continuation of the 1934 naval expansion programme in face of Admiral Raeders new plan, that would be submitted within months. The two liberal parties, the FVP and the more nationalist NLP both wished to cancel the production of the two Kanzler-class battleships, doubting the wisdom of building soon to be outdated ships. Von Papen not only rejected this proposal, but hinted liberal leader Walther Rathenau must be on the syndicalists payroll, for wishing to see Germany become weak.

Walther Rathenau (b. 1867). Rathenau, a highly succesful German Jewish businesman and liberal politician. His FVP had cooperated with both the Tirpitz and the Hutier administration, with Rathenau even serving as State Secretary for Economics during Tirpitz later years.

This distasteful accusation against a patriot like Rathenau had led to the factions of the FVP, NLP, SPD and Zentrum to leave the hall in protest. Now, days after the incident, Von Papen would need all help from the opposition he could muster…

[Zhuge Liang]

I can't see von Papen surviving after Black Monday- while things were going well for the Empire his position was stable enough but now he's got a crisis on his hands his lack of support is going to leave him badly exposed. I doubt he'll go immediately as he's going to fight as hard as he can to remain in power and politicking is one of the few things he's good at but I doubt the opposition is going to work too hard to keep him in power. Let's just hope he doesn't bring the military reforms down with him, Germany is going to badly need them very soon.