Soviet-Germany 1933-

Soviet-Germany B1 - Prelude





Established after defeat in the Great War and on the brink of revolution in 1918, the Weimar Republic faced a number of challenges during its lifespan. Strong anti-democratic atmosphere, bitterness for the dreaded Versailles Treaty and economic crisis led to that anti-democratic parties and radical political movements gained much strength. Support for Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Workers Party (NSDAP) rose from year to year during the 1920s at the same time as the German Communist Party (KPD) was one of the strongest in Europe. National Socialist paramilitary forces, the Sturmabteilung (SA) and its communist counterpart, the Rotfrontkämpferbund (RFB) encountered each other in bloody street fights regularly and the parties constantly threatened the democratic order in their speech. During the first years of the 1930s, the great depression hit the German population hard with unprecedented deflation and unemployment rate reaching the peak of 42% in 1932. In times of extraordinary crises the appeal to extremism increases. Street violence got tougher and the people’s trust in the Weimar Republic was diminishing rapidly and just as the unemployed working class rallied around the KPD, the frightened middle class increasingly flocked around the NSDAP.
Both parties had one thing in common; they were bent on destroying the Weimar Republic, with or without the help of elections. The democratic way was not the KPD’s natural way to power, while the NSDAP had learned the hard way that they could not seize power without the consent of the army. After the elections of 1930, the NSDAP and KPD combined number of seats in the parliament amounted to nearly 30%. With Hermann Müller’s “Grand Coalition” in pieces and so many parliament seats in the hands of non-democratic powers, the Reichstag was unable to form a majority government. In the eve of political stalemate, the aged president Paul von Hindenburg took the right to form a government by a presidential degree. These powers were provided to the president in case of emergency according to article 48 of the constitution. Hindenburg had Heinrich Brüning form a cabinet with a lukewarm support from the Reichstag.

In February 1931, as Adolf Hitler was returning to his car after a meeting in the outskirts of Berlin, an adjacent truck stacked with explosives blew up. Hitler and two other party leaders were killed by the blast. The authorities and the National Socialists blamed the communists for planning the act but the KPD denied allegations. Either way, Hitler’s assassination was a serious blow to the National Socialist party which was felt immediately. The party had lost its unifying figure; the popular demagogue who guaranteed mass support, and the Führer, whose persona was the base of National Socialist ideology. Party factions soon battled each other; the so-called National-National Socialists under Josef Goebbels and the Socialist-National Socialists under Gregor Strasser fought for ideological dominance. In the middle was Hermann Göring, the new party leader; powerless as the SA under Ernst Röhm became semi-independent with all its physical power. The SA, bitter and uncontrolled, retaliated against the communists. Street fights and political violence, murder and sabotage skyrocketed across Germany. The capital virtually became a civil war zone throughout the remainder of the year. In August, Chancellor Brüning managed to get the SA and the RFB banned but the police was unable to execute the ban. The paramilitary forces had become the real political force in Germany and would remain so, lest President Hindenburg with the German Army by his side took matters in his own hands.


The Hindenburg Dictatorship

And this he did. In April 1932, chancellor Brüning offered his resignation since his government was unable to take on the social and economic problems of the nation. What really set him off though was the Reichstag fire, three days earlier; an act organized by Goebbels in order to stage an ill organised coup, from which he backed down immediately. Now Hindenburg had only two options before him; have the dismantled NSDAP form a government, probably under Göring’s weak chancellorship or have the army restore order under himself. He went with the latter choice; to bid the communists to form a government was never a possibility. For the second time in his life, Hindenburg headed a military dictatorship in Germany, with himself as president and head of the army and General Kurt von Schleicher as chancellor.


Hindenburg’s first act was to release the army upon the SA and the RFB. Of course, the organizations continued to function underground but membership was severely cut with mass arrests of members. In order to cripple the Communist Party, Ernst Thälmann, the party leader, was arrested and dragged before a court. Despite the lack of evidence, he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for the organizing of political violence and for Hitler’s murder. For violence and the burning of the Reichstag, a few top leaders of the National Socialists, including Goebbels himself were also sentenced to jail. To tackle the SA, its ruthless leader, Ernst Röhm was virtually bought by the Army. He was offered the position of a Mj.General with far-reaching benefits. Fearing a worse fate, he accepted, leaving the SA headless. Having lost Hitler, Goebbels and Röhm, the Nazi movement was paralyzed. The SA declined in numbers each month, and Göring had lost what little trust as party leader he had had. In September, Heinrich Himmler, who had taken over the remnant of the SA, left the movement and formed a new party; National Storm, and Strasser left with the left-wing faction and joined the newly formed Socialist National Front (SNF). Göring’s weak NSDAP now differed little from the other right-wing nationalist parties in the Reichstag. Strasser however became a leading figure in the anti-democratic SNF, a party which included mostly former Nazis and nationalists, too socialist for the NSDAP, and socialists, too nationalist for the traditional Marxist parties.

In December 1932, the eighty-five year old president Hindenburg died, thus ending his military rule. The army was left in command as chancellor Schleicher remained the head of government without a head of state. The junta had managed to bring stability to Germany, but the economic problems were still unsolved. Unemployment had reached new heights and the socialist parties who gained enormous support, cried out for a change of social system. In the parliamentary polls as well as in the labour unions, support shifted from the Social Democrats (SPD) to the radical anti-democratic movements; the KPD, Strasser’s SNF and other minors.
The death of Hindenburg created a power vacuum in the government which seemed hard to fill. It was clear that there was no will, nor practicality in returning to full parliamentarianism, yet Schleicher understood he must keep some elements of democracy intact to keep the organised labour from initiating a general strike. Schleicher decided to step down, but keep the army in power with a political cabinet in reference to the elected Reichstag. Thus in January 1933, elections were held, where, much to the army’s dissatisfaction, the KPD emerged as the victors with 26% of the votes. The political stalemate continued. The national-conservative Reichswehr leaders could not have Göring form a government, since the NSDAP had dropped down to a minor party, as were the other right-wing parties. To have the KPD form a government seemed out of the question and the SDP refused to participate in a military government in a coalition with either right-wing parties or communists. The KPD was the strongest political movement in the country but they were far from having a parliamentary majority, and its leadership, still shaken after Thälmann’s imprisonment, was in no way able to seize power from the Reichswehr in vanguard revolution.


The Strasser Cabinet

From Hindenburg’s death until March 1933, an unusual series of events took place that led to a revolutionary change in government. Some voices in the Reichswehr leadership claimed that in order to keep the labour unions from striking, the KPD must enter government, under military surveillance to hinder it from staging a coup. Schleicher understood this but reluctantly dragged on. He continued hopeless negotiations for a possible majority government of the right-wing parties and the SPD. In January 1933, the Socialist People’s Front (SPF) was formed; a league of non-democratic socialist and communist movements in Germany including the KPD, the Socialist National Front and others (note: not a party but a coalition of parties and movements). The socialist nationalist and former associate of Hitler, Gregor Strasser hated the communists but when he was offered a future chancellorship, his resentment turned into cooperation.
The Socialist People’s Front was a well planned KPD strategy. The coalition had a wide range of supporters encompassing people who, previously would never had supported the communists. Second, it demonstrated to the army leadership that the KPD was ready to enter government in a coalition with other socialist parties, thus not only representing themselves and the mother party in Moscow. Schleicher finally gave in and entered negotiations with the SPF on the precedents that he himself would take on presidential duties. Many constitutional breeches had been made since the Reichswehr took power in 1932 and this was only one of them. But by doing this, Schleicher was trying to slowly move back to constitutional legality without losing the army’s grip on government. By keeping the presidency for himself as an army representative, he could, according to the emergency laws still in effect since 1930, remove the government if he found it taking too drastic socialist measures. Elections were delayed until after the political crisis had been dealt with. Some democratic voices rejected heavily, but the events since 1930 had shown that the economic and political crisis would not be solved by elections. The new government was announced on February 2 1933 as General Schleicher became a non-elected head of state and Strasser, a former National Socialist, became Chancellor



Offering chancellorship to the non-communist Strasser was a twofold strategy by the KPD. First, it appeased Schleicher who would never have let the KPD in government without having a nationalist non-communist as its head. Second, the idealist Strasser, knowing this was his only opportunity ever to gain such power gladly agreed to give the important posts of the defence and security ministers KPD members. The army was satisfied and withdrew from active government duties. The Strasser government lasted roughly a month, during which communists consolidated their grip on the security police and through the ministry of defence, incorporated RFB members and other loyal communists into the army and lower officer corps.

Soviet-Germany B1 - C1


The March Coup

On March 18-27, 1933, the Communist Party of Germany carried out a small but well organized coup. During the first few days, a bunch of army generals were removed quietly and replaced with communists. This alarmed the army leadership and especially acting president General Schleicher, who realised his powers as head of state were failing to contain the communists. He was beginning to realize that by returning to constitutional rule with the help of the communists, he had dug his own grave, and that of the republic. On March 21, he was arrested by the security police and two days later Gregor Strasser was forced to resign the chancellorship to Anton Ackermann; a communist with a peaceful record. A series of arrests followed across the country, raising some popular dissent. The KPD dared not have the top leadership of the Reichswehr, apart from Schleicher, arrested. The leadership was naturally alarmed and in order to appease it, army representation in government was resumed with a new head of state. Walther von Seydlitz-Kurzbach, a low ranking professional officer with leftist sympathies but no ties with the KPD, was offered the post. Thus, the army was still perceived as the force holding the government together and all other non-KPD cabinet members kept their ministries. Real power was in the hands of the KPD through Ackermann and control of the police. On March 30, 1933 some constitutional changes created a legal frame by which the People’s Republic of Germany was proclaimed.


Three factors kept the Reichswehr generals from reversing the coup and re-imposing a military dictatorship. First, with the execution of Schleicher, it no longer possessed a political leader devoted to government leadership on behalf of the army and most of the politically minded army leaders had been removed before and during the coup. Second, through the KPD-friendly defence minister and chief of staff Arno von Lenski, the communists had direct influence over the army trough its hierarchy. Von Lenski’s double role as a nationalist army general and a socialist sympathiser would become vital to army-government cooperation throughout the next years. Third, with Seydlitz-Kurzbach as head of state, the army had a political representative with veto powers on the government. Unlike his predecessor though, Seydlitz-Kurzbach had no potential to rival the communists and was kept mostly at their heel, but through him, the army was able to assert its influence on future policy as will be discussed later on.




The Party-State






Foreign Relations

Battle bunny said:

Let's see if this Germany does a better job at Marxism than the Soviet Union did IRL.

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Indeed, stay tuned!

Soviet-Germany B1 - C2

Socialist Economy

Germany was devastated by the Great Depression when the Socialist People's Front came to power in 1933. The government’s immediate goal was to get the industry back on its feet and erase unemployment and this was to become its main objective during the next five years. The first step towards a state-socialist economy was taken already in early may. Huge wave of nationalisation swept through the country, where all the largest industrial enterprises were transferred into public ownership. All mining and large raw-material industries were taken over by the state as well as all banking and financial companies. The state took on monitoring and steering production through planned economy policies although for the time being, this applied only to the large newly nationalised enterprises. Free intuitive was still allowed for small industries and agriculture was left intact as communist plans for Soviet-style collectivization of farming could not be incorporated to the SPF policy.
On April 23, 1933, the government issued the first one-year plan. It's backbone was the subsidising of heavy industries and funding the construction of new factories. Of course, all of this demanded enormous amounts of funding. Taxes were raised, especially on the wealthy, but the largest share of the one-year plan was covered by an American loan, originally acquired for paying the heavy reparations to France. Additionally the Central Bank issued new banknotes to be printed to solve the budged issue even though this would lead to higher inflation. An increased funding to research projects was initiated, and teams of scientists working directly under the ministry of industry were hired to accelerate industrial growth. Military theorists and industrial scientist also began working on new military technology. Rise of a army would become a vital step in the SPF’s plan for economic recovery and for safeguarding the new order.


In late October 1934, the government announced the first one-year plan over, four months behind schedule. On January 8, 1935 the ministry of industry released a highly detailed economic recovery policy (ERP) and in February the first phase of the two phased Autobahn project was finished. It was an extensive highway building project that created hundreds of jobs. The second phase was due to finish in mid year 1935.




The New Economic Recovery Policy

The New Economic Recovery Policy, issued in January 1935, was a manifestation of the economic system described above, narrowed down to minor details. Based on the experiences of the one-year plan and the latest studies in socialist economics, it was the work of a special committee under the ministry of industry which included, among others, five central planning specialists from the Soviet Union. It also triggered a new series of nationalisation of enterprises and more realisation of state-socialist economic principles. The grandest part of the ERP was a new heavily professional and detailed four-year plan, divided in two two-year phases.
Last but not least, it included a new research schedule - a kind of a centralised state effort for research. Tech teams from various institutes of science, technology and theory were rallied into universities and research centers run by the ministry of education. Additional funding would be acquired on a step-by step basis, parallel to the projected rise in state income during the next four years. All was part of the grand four-year plan. The tech teams would continue researching military and industrial technology.


In May 1936 the first phase of the four-year plan was completed. Eight new industrial complexes were opened, generating new jobs and adding to the total industrial strength of the nation. According to the research plan, new funds were allocated to the research centres in May, giving them state-of-the art tools and equipment and allowing more scientists to be hired.
In September 1937, the gigantic, country-wide projects in infrastructure were completed, thus putting an end to the second phase of the four-year plan, four months ahead of schedule. The economic recovery was about complete. Industrial efficiency had reached the 1930 rate and industrial capacity was higher than ever all the while unemployment had been reduced magnificently. Despite this, the country was still ridden with inflation, which had grown after the SPF takeover and even though the free market still played a considerable role in the economy the flaws of central planning became obviously visible. Overproduction here and underproduction there went hand in hand with overstocking of industrial goods. Living standards of the population had indeed improved since it was now able to purchase cheap consumer goods which were, in contrast to the Soviet Union, relatively up to date to western standards. Deals were made with the Soviet Union where Germany traded finished industrial goods for raw materials but this did not entirely replace lost imports from the West. Trade declined with the West due to the inflation and the lack of currency but political reasons also played a role in this regard.



Having taken a decisive step towards state-socialist planned economy and overcome Germany's troubled economic problems, the SPF government felt it had achieved the impossible task. The regime gained increased legitimation with the people and the emphasis on the military-industrial complex had satisfied the Reichswehr. But the task was not complete. The Communist Party leadership, urged by Moscow and the imprisoned leader Ernst Thälmann, wanted to bridge the gap between the people's democracy and the soviet republic. At the same time, tensions between communists and fascists in Southern and Eastern Europe were mounting while Spain had been torn apart by civil war since 1936. Alarmed by this international development and having funded extensive research into military theory and technology, the government and the army now looked towards a rebirth of the German military machine. But in order to fulfill both of these objectives at the same time, the SPF government had to secure its standing regarding the Reichswehr. A final blow to the counter-revolutionary elements within Germany had to be dealt before the revolution could be continued and saveguarded.

NikephorosSonar said:

Why isn't Thallman the leader?

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Good question. The only reason Thälmann is still in prison is because when the event triggered in the savegame, he was not included. I checked the files and he did not even exist as a minister (at the time of play which is not current version). I dont know If I could agree with the moderator's choice of ministers, but no matter the the story just turns and folds around the game as it is

Soviet-Germany B1 - C3



Rearmament

According to the disarmament clause of the Versailles Treaty, Germany was forbidden to possess military airplanes, submarines, tanks and an army larger than of 100.000 men. This was a serious insult for a nation whose military tradition was strong and in turn the national-conservative army leadership was bitter and outraged. On April 3 1933, a week after the communists had put the knife to the Reichswehr’s throat by executing General Schleicher and deposing Gregor Strasser, SPF General Secretary Wilhelm Pieck and chancellor Anton Ackermann met with the Army High Command to settle their disputes. The army leadership was introduced to the government’s foreign policy which would ensure their cooperation. As was mentioned in Chapter I, this policy opted for a future rearmament and nullification of the disarmament clause, sheltered from the Allies by a defense treaty with the Soviet Union. As was seen in chapter II, the army was able to influence the socialist government from the first one-year plan up till 1937 with regards to funding military technology and theory.

In 1935, at the last disarmament conference held, the German commission declared that, as a socialist society, The People's Republic of Germany could no longer do nothing while the armies of the capitalist neighbours grew larger and planned a counter-revolutionary war. The government refused to attend any further negotiations on general disarmament and withdrew from the League of Nations in protest. When the four-year plan was completed in 1937, the nation had recovered from the worst economic crisis and the new state-run industries had created vast new industrial capacities. They were overstocked with cheap industrial goods and the Reichswehr pushed the government to increase armaments production and enlarge the army. In August 1937, the government announced the next four-year plan to include a rearmament of the army. The West, especially France, was shocked but in contrast to what some communists feared, it had no intention to start another world war over the Versailles system or to dispose of a socialist government.


On September 21, 1937 the government introduced a new Military Act, releasing the army from the Versailles shackles. Two year conscription was introduced and the professional army was opened up for young men to enlist. The officer corps was extended where the communists made sure their own men were prioritized for recruitment. This created new jobs and unemployment rate went further down, reaching a historical 5% in November. Also in November, the second four-year plan commenced. State investment now shifted from investment in new industries to armaments production in existing ones. The Reichswehr scheduled six new motorised infantry divisions to be ready in one year. As each division consisted of 20.000 men, a total of 120.000 new recruits would be enlisted to the professional army during the next year.



Thälmann’s Return

During 1933-1937, the stirred relationship between the army and the government slowly normalised by each year. The army considered itself more and more excluded from government affairs and came to see the government more as the legitimate political authority, rather than coupists and usurpers. The reactionary army leadership would from time to time remind Ackermann that his government was dependent on the army, thus implying that in case of disaster or controversy, the Reichswehr was still ready to step in. As time went by, this kind of talk became more and more irrelevant. It was also the result of the SPF’s constant effort to recruit communists and government-loyal officers into the ranks of the army. In time, this strategy would not only relieve the government of the Reichswehr’s influence in government but eventually end its troublesome autonomy. As the government had begun a project of strengthening the army, with aims at making it a powerful force in the hands of the proletariat, party leaders began in early 1938 to fear if this would make reactionary army leaders grasp the opportunity and try and overthrow the government.


The answer would become the final stepping stone in the complete communist takeover of the country. The main architect behind it would be the former KPD party leader Ernst Thälmann. He was still considered the party’s most respected and senior leader, though his years under house arrest had severely undermined his authority. Under pressure from the army and other non-KPD members of the SPF, the government had delayed his release during the first years of the People’s Republic. By 1937 when Thälmann and his supporters again pressed for his release, the current party boss Wilhelm Pieck had consolidated his leadership. In order to preserve the current stability, he believed that on Thälmann’s release he would best not be made party boss again.
In January 1938, Thälmann was pardoned and released and tensions within the SPF rose immediately. The Stalinist, old-guard “Muscovites”, who had fought by Thälmann’s side for years in the 1920s under Comintern’s flag, would have him immediately back as party leader. Others, the non-KPD members, obviously, and the current party élite; Pieck and his inner circle including Ackermann, wished to preserve the status quo. The Party Politburo eventually decided against reinstating Thälmann. In light of his experience as a street-fighting Weimar-era party boss, Pieck found him fitting as the head of the secret police. This was, in fact, more than only Pieck’s way of securing his own power. By holding on to his own office and keeping Thälmann an important party organist, he could avoid an immediate party split. A split would certainly devastate the government in times when reactionary powers within the army were about to become stronger. Thälmann realised this and accepted the post declaring a party unity, yet he was determent to get the party back under his leadership at a better time.


The Reichswehr Purges

Thälmann became member of the party Politburo and the head of the security police, which from now on was known as the SIPOL (Sicherheitspolizei des Staates). Under his leadership during 1938 the institution was reformed and its jurisdiction widened. Thälmann’s scheme was aimed at the Reichswehr and the SIPOL immediately became much more involved in replacing army officers than before. This caused concerns within the army leadership and in December 1938, two months after the new army divisions had arrived, General Hans von Seeckt, an army senior and one of the Reichswehr old-guard, who long had opposed the SPF, finally stepped forward. He organised a group of generals who, with threats of actions, put forward a set of demands. These included legislation where a military court would be solely responsible for military affairs, thus prohibiting the security police to arrest and/or remove army officials. In addition, Von Seeckt demanded that Thälmann be put back in prison.
The conspirators had prepared a few garrisons under their command to back up their threats, but the government grasped the opportunity and the security police was quicker. On January 18, 1939, Von Seeckt and the six powerful generals that had signed his demand sheet were arrested and tried for treason. As they were executed, ten other high-ranking officers were arrested and brought before a show trial. They were accused of belonging to Von Seeckt’s reactionary military coup attempt and were all sentenced to death. In the following days the army was purged as hundreds of officers of all ranks were removed, including the entire general staff.




New Army - New Foreign Policy

After the army purges in January, the whole armed forces were reorganised. The Reichswehr was renamed the Volkswehr (The People’s Force), consisting of ground forces, the Volksarmee and the navy, the Volksmarine. Loyal communists were placed in its leadership and Seydlitz-Kurzbach, the silent head of state, was forced to resign. In his stead, the Politburo elected none other than Ernst Thälmann himself. Thälmann was elected to president in the first public elections since 1933. (Note: The Weimar constitution was not abolished in 1933. It was only changed and fitted to the needs of the army-backed People’s Republic).
The seeds had been sown for a power struggle, as Thälmann was clearly too big of a leader to be second in command. He and his group of supporters had grown vary of Pieck’s and Ackermann’s “rightist-nationalist tendencies” and since the last obstacle toward creating a soviet republic had been removed, they formed a new left wing party faction. But the showdown would have to wait. Now, important international events were taking place, and the newly rearmed and reorganised Volkswehr was just about ready to enter the arena of foreign politics – a field that, up till now, had been closed off to the People’s Republic.

Viden said:

No Communist Germany AAR can exist without the heimliche Aufmarsch.

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I find Youtube's warning about "potentially offensive or inappropriate" content for this fine song a bit over the top... at least compared to all the other shit that you can find in there.

whatguts said:

what mod is this? DDR mod? i've never seen the PR Germany

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It is the New World Order mod, but the flag and name of DDR has been changed by myself. I did this also for the names of other countries for my own amusement (and applies to all other DH savegames obviously), such as Nationalist Spain = Spanish State, Nationalist China = China, USA = United States of America etc. You might also notice other name changes which I did myself, like Fascist = Fascist State, Leninist = People’s Republic, Stalinist = Dictatorship of the Proletariat etc.

Barvinok said:

What are your doctrine research teams, other than Stahel? What doctrine trees will you be following, actually?

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As of this stage in time, Stahel is the only tech team researching land doctrine. The traditional German doctrine of mobility will be taken if I am not mistaken.

The Spanish civil war had broken out in 1936 and was a violent conflict between the socialist Spanish Republic and reactionary-fascist forces led by General Francisco Franco. As the former was receiving armaments from the Soviet Union and volunteers from all over the world, the latter was supported by Italy. The western democracies stayed out of the conflict.
By 1938, fascist forces were gaining the overhand in the conflict. At this time, Stalin backed out of his support for the republic for economical and political reasons. For some time, there had been loud voices within the SPF leadership claiming that Germany should send aid to the republic. When the Soviet support dropped, many members of the Party Politburo thought that Germany, after its economic miracle, was now both able and willing to carry on with the abandoned Soviet task. Others, including Thälmann, took this idea even further and claimed that if Spain was not to succumb to fascism, Germany would have to actively join the civil war and fight Franco with arms. In March 1939, with the new Volkswehr under strict control, it was decided that the People’s Republic of Germany would send an expeditionary force to the Spanish Republic. When it was clear that the West would not react to this, the Politburo extended the number of divisions to be sent.


However, in April disaster struck that could have jeopardized the whole operation: The communist led Popular Front government of the Spanish Republic collapsed. President Thälmann, eager to engage Franco, convinced his comrades in the Politburo that it was too late to back down, so on May 22, war was declared against Franco’s forces. The new republican government, however, opposed the intervention. They had just recently battled communists in the Popular Front and came to view the German army as occupiers, not brothers in arms. The German expedition was thus sent off unilaterally and without any consultation with the Republic.



Operations in Spain

Three days after the declaration of war, on May 25, the German expedition, consisting of six brand new motorised divisions, landed in Corunna on the Spanish Atlantic coast. The landing place was determined in order to attack the fascist forces from the rear. Operation: “Burgos” was the name given to the strategic plan. It read:

OPERATION: "BURGOS"
​

II and II Armeekorps consisting of six motorized divisions shall execute the Operation in the given time frame: May 28 – June 10 1939.

• The Force moves immediately eastwards maintaining the element of surprise.
• II Armeekorps advances to the northeast toward Santander/Bilbao.
• III Armeekorps advances to the southeast and forms a defensive line at the river Duero and captures Burgos, the administrative capital of Fascist Spain.

• The People’s Navy safeguards the Atlantic coast.

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“Burgos” was a success. The People’s Army proved heavily superior to the fascist forces and the city of Burgos held until June 19, three days before a second offensive was launched. The brilliant success of “Burgos” and the motorised divisions came as a surprise to the German High Command and thus the next move was quite more optimistic than had been previously projected. Reinforcements arrived on June 10, enlarging the expeditionary forces to 13 divisions and Operation: “Condor” was launched on June 22. It read:

OPERATION: "CONDOR"
​

With newly arrived infantry and cavalry divisions, the main concern
of the Operation is to occupy as large area as quickly as possible
in the given time frame: June 22 – September 1 1939.

• The main thrust of the force, II and III Armeekorps, advance south towards Madrid and establish a defensive line at the river Tajo.

• The People’s Cavalry will advance eastward toward the Pyrenees and meet up with republican forces in Catalonia.

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The motorised infantry broke through past the river Duero at a lighting speed but in early August 1939, the expedition faced a serious setback. Fascist forces managed to advance through Bilbao where the German front was poorly defended. The Spanish recaptured Burgas thus cutting the German cavalry divisions of its supply. By August 14, the situation was again under German control and defensive lines were set up at the troubled area. By that time, new infantry divisions arrived from Germany as well as some Soviet units so that the expedition now numbered 16 divisions in total. The advance continued until the objectives of “Condor” had been fulfilled on September 14. The fascist forces were broken.
The German army met up with republican forces in Barcelona and Valencia but this was no meeting of allies. The republican government forbade German military units from entering their territory and when German and Spanish officers met in Valencia, the latter met only hostility from their communist counterparts.




The war continued for two more months. The German government declared the Spanish Republic to be reactionary and the anti-communist government to be counter-revolutionary usurpers. No agreements were made with them and political legates were sent to the German occupation zone to prepare the Spanish Communist Party to form a new state at the war's end. Of course, both the Soviet and the German ideological authorities claimed the republican government to bee working with the fascists, even to being disguised fascist. Thus some people voiced the opinion that German expedition should attack them too. This, however, was ruled out in order not to provoke the Western Allies.

Therefore, the last two months of the Spanish Civil War were a race between the two anti-fascist factions towards Gibraltar. The expeditionary force’s objective was to occupy as large area as possible before the republicans. The fascists’ retreat turned into a rout and posed no serious obstacle to the advance. General Franco made his last stand in the city of Huelva on the southern Atlantic coast where street fights raged. He surrendered on November 22 1939 and was captured by German forces in the city. The Spanish Civil War was over and the main victor was the external power; the People’s Republic of Germany.


Aftermath of the Spanish War

Celebrations for the victory over the reactionism and fascism were held separately in Madrid and Barcelona. Franco was executed and his body was dragged through the streets of Madrid but it soon became apparent that the civil war was far from over. The government in Barcelona, the new capital of the Spanish Republic, was made up of a coalition of liberal and conservative democratic parties. The only two common elements between the parties and the only unifying force behind their takeover, was their hate of fascism and fear of communism. Their takeover and rejection of German military intervention, which had been welcomed by the former Popular Front government, turned the whole cause for the already planned intervention upside down. In the beginning, the Germans had meant to lead the Popular Front to victory in Spain and let the Comintern handle the complete communist takeover of that government.
Now, Germany was in the awkward position of having occupied a large part of an independent state and were seen as occupiers, not liberators, in the eyes of the rightful government. The Spanish Republic demanded the immediate expulsion of German and Soviet troops from Spain at the end of the war.

The German government didn’t quite know how to react. Were they to leave their conquests and return Spain to a hostile capitalist government? To the communists, this government was after all no better than the fascists, besides, they could not let the dead German soldiers have died in vain. Having consulted with the Comintern and the Soviet ambassador, a decision was made in October. A month before the war was over, The Spanish Communist Party took over administration in the occupied areas and the de jure leadership of the German expedition. It was thus made look like the Germans were in service of a third Spanish faction which had just the same right to claim Spain as did the Republic. On December 3, 1939, Spanish communists proclaimed a People’s Republic in the occupation zone, thus dividing Spain in two sovereign states.



The division of Spain created a very flammable political situation on the Iberian Peninsula; a region of three opposing ideologies. In the east was the relatively strong, yet exhausted, liberal democratic Spanish Republic. In the west was the strong, reactionary Portuguese dictatorship of Antonio Salazar and in the middle prevailed the huge but vulnerable People’s Republic of Spain. Tensions and mistrust existed between all of the Iberian states and none of the parties were satisfied with the current state of affairs. As for Germany, the victory in the war had strenghtened the SPF regime on all fronts The army had been completetly synchronized with the government and the government had legitimised its place among the people.

Despite this, new and more challenging problems aroused in the aftermath of the Spanish War. Relations with the Western Allies had worsened and Stalin and the Comintern had grown suspicious of Germany's increased power. Above all, the internal relationship among the SPF leaders was also becoming ever more suspicious and conspiratory. At the end of 1939, it was clear that the next hot topic in Germany was to become the future of the People's Republic, the relationship with the Soviets and last but not least; the question who was in command. The seeds for power struggle which had been sown in 1938 with Thälmann's return and nurtured by the Spanish War, had now grown into a tall tree with deep roots.