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May 4, 2007
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Kaiser's Germany An 1914 AAR

Ok before a start a few out of game details. Number one this is my first AAR and in fact my first post here. Number two I am doing an AAR on HoI2 1914 mod version .4 without the Doomsday expansion. Number three while this is very different from what really happened I do try to have Germany react in a way similar to how I think Germany would have reacted in such position. Number four I am starting on January 1st 1897 and I will go until the end of what seems like a war similar to WWI. My next post will start the AAR, and any feedback is much liked. Any suggestions to make the writing of the AAR better is again much liked but I will not listen to any suggestions of what to do in the game. As a note I got my inspiration for this from Allenby's 'British interests; British honour; British obligations' AAR.
 
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Good luck with this one. May Germany avoid the fate that befell her in OTL.
 
Foreign threats and the road to war?​

January 1897

January first eighteen hundred and ninety seven dawned over the city of Berlin, Germany at about 7 in the morning. The dawn over the cool foggy sleeping city saw Kaiser Wilhelm II on his balcony looking over this scene. Although this morning his thoughts took him far from Berlin and even far from the Fatherland that he ruled over. He was thinking about matters of national security and foreign policy.
To the south there was Austria-Hungry and Italy both of whom were allied with the Fatherland, he knew he could count on Austrian help if the need should ever arise but he was not all too sure of Italian help. The Kingdom of Italy was small and seemed more concerned about itself rather then its allies so it seemed safe to say that Italy would bail in times of trouble or if it did not any help from it would be limited in size and duration.
To the west stood the French and their allies, Russia, stood to the East. The Kaiser figured that a pincer from France and Russia was the most likely thing to happen in a matter of war.
To the north stood Denmark, not that much of a threat if you asked the Kaiser. No there was not much to worry about from that direction unless the Russians decided to add a third direction for the pincer and went through Scandinavia and then south through Denmark. That was a possibility as none of Scandinavia could withstand much battle.
To the Northwest was the Nordsee and on the other side was the British Empire and on the waves was the very formidable British Royal Navy. If the Kaiser got into a war with the British he would have to be on the defensive. There is no way the Reichsmarine could stand up to the Royal Navy but the Royal Army can not stand up to the Reichsheer.
He smiled when he thought of the Reichsheer. It was the fourth largest army size wise in the world. The bad thing was the largest was Russia and Qing both tied in size with France having a slightly larger army then Germany. The Reichsmarine was no were near the size of its competition. In fact it was rather small with only twenty six ships and five destroyer flotillas. It was half that of the French Navy and less then one third of the size of the Royal Navy.

As he went inside after thinking that, Baron Marschall von Bieberstein was just waking up to find out that over the night he was removed from his position of foreign secretary. von Bieberstein was thrown into a rage, how could the Kaiser do that to him. He was one of the best diplomats since von Bismark, or so he told himself. The only reason was lack of patriotism, slowly it dawned on him that the reason was most likely because he had become slightly biased towards other countries. By that time he slowly sat down and was just thinking. After the outrage, comes acceptance and he was reaching that stage now.
In a house in another part of the city celebrations were just starting. Graf von Bülow was just learning of his surprise appointment to the position of foreign secretary. He knew von Bieberstein was going to retire but not yet. As far as he knew it was in a few months still.

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Graf von Bülow



On the evening of January fifth Graf von Bülow slowly begrudgingly walks back into his office. He just did his first job as foreign secretary and to him it was below him. It is a trade agreement with the Austria-Hungarian Empire, they would send 31 units of much needed rare materials for 64 units of metal. The only good thing is now the German industrial factories that ran the entire country could now run at full capacity. Overall it was a short very normal boring trade agreement.


In the second half of January General von Hahnke commander of the VII Armeekorps and General von Waldersee of the II Armeekorps started getting reports from their patrols along the Rhine that was large heavy French troop movements on the other side of the Rhine. On the 20th the two meet and talk about these reports. They decide that it is of great importance to the Kaiser and it may mean that France is preparing for war with Germany. That would also mean a war with Russia. While the II and VII Armeekorps have five divisions each and intelligence say there are three sets of three French divisions. So if war started they were almost sure that they could hold back the French army but they should let the Kaiser know. By January 23 Wilhelm had the telegram on his desk and he sent warnings out to the Reichsheer raising the level of warning, having them get ready to march for a Russian and French invasion. He sends out telegrams to General von Haeseler commander of the III Armeekorps near Königsberg and General von Hausen commander of the IV Armeekorps near Posen for Russian Army movements. von Hausen reports no Russian movement but von Haeseler reports local movements. The reports are somewhat heartening because there is only small local movements of Russian troops which seem to indicate that the Russian army is not preparing for war. Because of these reports there are no redeployments of the Reichsheer were ordered, but the Reichsheer did stay on the higher level of alert. Luckily by the end of January the movements stopped and it is assumed by many to just be normal redeployments but the Kaiser still thinks that it is indictive of a future French and Russian invasion that could happen at any second.




February 1897

February was a pretty normal month for Germany with nothing more then the normal small menial matters of the state that all heads of state must see to. But on February 25th something did happen. In the morning Graf von Bülow met with Kaiser Wilhelm to discuss an urgent matter of state. Their topic of conversation is the Cretan rebellion, being called the Cretan Crisis. There are two real sides to the matter and a few more things that weigh heavily on the issue. On one side the Cretans are Christian Greeks and not Islamic Turks. On the other hand the Ottoman Empire is a Great Power, if only a minor one now in present times, and the upstarts in Athens interfeared in the whole event sending their Prince to visit the Cretans and they even lent an army commander to the Cretans. If Crete is handed over the balance of power in the Mittelmeer would be changed and it might encourage the other Balkan states to rebel which would lead to the hastened death of the Ottoman Empire. The easy and practical solution would to have an autonomous Crete inside the Ottoman Empire but the Russians have suggested that, and Wilhelm is still suspicious of the Entente's army movements of last month. The hours slowly ticked by as the two of them debated the pros and cons of the two options, let Crete join with Greece or make an autonomous Crete. By that evening they had decided that the Ottomans would never regain true Great Power status and was already on the decline. They also agreed that the balance of power would not shift much and if they could get Greece to join their alliance with Austria-Hungry and Italy then the balance of power would shift in their favor. This event was also seen as a way to oppose the Russians and possibly help lessen their power over Europe. The next day telegrams were sent out to all the Great Powers and any other leader involved in this matter. Germany was officially supporting the Cretan rebels in their struggle. Their reasons were publicly that the Cretans were Greek and should be allowed to join in a union with Greece as that was clearly their wishes. A stipulation was added though, Germany did not condone the Greek intervention. As this was happening von Bülow left Berlin and headed to Athens to start negations that would hopefully end up with Greece joining the alliance. With German support for the Cretans the other Great Powers decided that they would carve up the Ottoman Empire for when it finally died. Germany belatedly claimed Central Anatolia.
 
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March 1897

March was not a busy month for most of the German government but to one person it was very busy. Ever since the Cretan Crisis von Bülow had been going back and forth from Berlin to Athens. Sure he could have the German diplomat to Greece do it or he could even do this by telegram but he figured if the foreign secretary himself did it it would make all that more impression on the Greeks. As to why he didn't stay in Athens well he far preferred his house in Berlin to the accommodation he had when he visited Athens. As he ran back and forth he made great head way but he was not getting anywhere on the alliance matter.

On March 28th the Greeks were put on the back burner so to say. A dock worker strike in Hamburg happened, it was broken up quite quickly but it did raise a large question. The Social Democrat Question was the fancy name for deciding if the government wanted to repress the Communist and Socialist movements in the Autocratic Germany. von Waldersee used this strike to try to farther his own agenda. He petitioned for the removal of Prince Hohenlohe and von Waldersee suggested that he succeed the Prince. He also tried to pass a lot of legislation which would start preventive action against a possible socialist revolution by the working class. Wilhelm decides to back the legislation but does not like von Waldersee's attempt to take over the Chancellery and does not remove Hohenlohe.
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Alfred Graf von Waldersee

On that same day Rhinemetall lightens the mood by announcing that they have finished a 3 month project that ends with several new agricultural advances and equipment that will help the German farmer's get more crop yields which will theoretically help provide for growth of Germany.



April 1897

German papers on April third eighteen hundred and ninety seven where full of outrage and Anglophobia and general hatred for the British Empire. How dare they be so blatantly imperialistic. They annexed Mahdiya in Africa. The worst part of this was German East African colonies were near by. Could this be the start of a British bid to create a hegemony over Afrika? Only time would tell.

Fritz Haber was in the news on April 24th with news that he had created a new modern military engineer corps. He says that he had been watching engineers work for civilian uses for quite some time and then started thinking how useful they could be for the Reichsheer. The Kaiser personally shook his hand and congratulated him on his great patriotic contribution to his country. Haber was given the Iron Cross for this the ceremony was held on the 25th and was filled with great pomp and circumstance.

On April 27th the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Guarde-Infanterie-Divisions were finished with their training and send to the area near Memel to hold the expected Russian invasion. They are elite divisions and are expected to have the brunt of the first invasion as they are holding the far flung areas of Prussia in an area that Russia is assumed to want. They were organized into the XI Armeekorps, General von Golz was assigned to be their leader. As soon as they got to their area they started extensive training maneuvers to be ready for the invasion when it happened. They are expected to know that land better then their hometowns by the time they have to defend it. They have to know the best way to every defensible patch of land and the best of these places. Their orders are to hold at all costs and only retreat if death and surrender are the only other options. The Kaiser wants to hold the land but knows that if his elite troops are killed then the Russians will still the land and he will not have troops that are trained well enough to take the land back.
 
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May 1897

The seventh of May saw a great deal of yelling in the Reichstag. The Prussian government proposed a law that would on one hand repel the laws regarding the union of association, which was very much accepted, but the bill also had several other less popular measures attached. The other measures gave added power to the police, allowing them to break up any meeting held by Socialist, Communist, Social Democrat, or Anarchist groups who's, in the police's opinion, purpose was to "overthrow the current government". The Radicals, Liberals and other left leaning groups stripped the bill of these other measures but the Landstag reattached the measures. By the end of the day the Reichstag was still locked deep in debate over these measures and Wilhelm II was called in to break the deadlock. Unsurprisingly the Kaiser supported the bill as it was which was unpopular with the left but they were not going to try to oppose the Kaiser.

May 12th had some great news. Mauser Werke came out with a new type of train that they claim to be armor plated and will withstand some small arms fire, the Kaiser is not impressed but it is better then nothing. However later that day the news was dimmed with Austria-Hungary's announcing of the end of the trade agreement for the much needed rare materials. The day did end up ending on a brighter note thanks to the fast acting of von Bülow. By the end of the day he had made an agreement with the USA in which the US would send 28.8 units of rare materials for 50 units of metal.

May 15th saw the end of the Greek issue. It took 2 months and 18 days but Athens finally agreed to become a minor partner in the Triple Alliance, however to make Greece feel slightly better and create the illusion that Greece was on equal footing with the other three members the name was changed to the Quadruple Alliance. The Kaiser had a large celebratory dinner that night with von Bülow and the Greek diplomat, of course the Junker nobility and other important Germans were invited.


June 1897

The start of June was very much focused on the Reichsmarine. With the June 3rd announcement of the Brandenburg and Wittelback classes of battleships by the Kaiserliche Werft Wilhelmshalven. The Wittelback class is seen as a lot better and it is assumed that there will be few Brandenburg class ships created and a great deal of Wittelback class ships created. This advancement is seen as a way to start the expansion of the Reichsmarine which hopefully will soon be able to be able to stand up to the French and possibly even the Royal Navy. However there are no battleships started today.

Following the June 3rd announcement the Kaiser has thought long and hard about how to expand the navy. von Tirpitz leads a group advocating for a battleship based fleet that would be able to stand up in a direct ship to ship battle with the Royal Navy. Another group however wants a cruiser based navy for the protection of the German merchant fleet and raiding of enemy merchant fleets. In response to Tirpitz's claims they say with the faster cruisers they could have short hit and run battles with the Royal Navy while bleeding Britain white. The Kaiser thinks about both long and hard but ends up following von Tirpitz's wish for a place in the sun next to the other Great Powers and have a battleship based navy. Six battleships start construction that day with plans for 34 more as the six finish. Also a light cruiser is started with plans for more following it to act as escorts for the large influx of battleships.

June 9th was again a day about von Bülow as he was ordered to start improving relations with the Qing and to wen Germany off of their dependence for rare materials coming just from the US. He ends up signing an agreement in which Germany would receive 4 units of rare materials while sending 14 units of metal.

June 12th von Tirpitz, now the head of the Reichsmarine, announces that in following up of his battleship based navy he had finished a doctrine that uses battleships to their best potential.
 
Keep it up, I really like altenate history AAR's (obviously :p) and don't be discoraged if people don't post right away, just because they don't post doesn't mean their not reading so keep it up, liking it so far! :D
 
Volga said:
Keep it up, I really like altenate history AAR's (obviously :p) and don't be discoraged if people don't post right away, just because they don't post doesn't mean their not reading so keep it up, liking it so far! :D
Thanks Volga. I am overly critical of myself and find a bunch of things I should have done better and everything. The lack of feedback feeds those overly critical thoughts. Ah well its my first go.
 
July 1897

July 1897 for the Germans could be summed up in one sentence. All quiet on the home front. Nothing of any importance happened and the German government heaved a great full sigh of relief at this month long break.



August 1897

Soon after August started the break the German government had had from the middle of June ended, but only lazily. August 8th saw the creation of better telegrams from Friedrich Krupp AG. The Kaiser heaps a lot of praise to the leaders of the company for creating a valuable intelligence machine. As a side effect it helps civilians and other nonmilitary people send communications easier and less expensively.

After the events of the 8th nothing happened until the 24th. On August twenty fourth Lieutenant General von Hindenburg is placed in charge of the newly formed XII Armeekorps comprised of the 1st and 2nd Guarde-Reserve-Divisions and the Guardes-Erstatz-Division. They are more of the elite divisions that were created earlier that year. They were assigned near Elbing to hold the expected Russian invasion to keep the III and XI Armeekorps from being cut off and to keep Russians from advancing to Danzig.
 
September 1897

Germany again settles down with not much going on in the world. But September goes out with a bang. On September 30th A telegram is placed on the Kaiser's desk. When he sees who it is from he almost burns it without even looking at it. It is from those Russian dogs. Russian Chief of Staff General N.N. Obruchev to be exact. It is a proposition from him to Germany to create a Continental League between Russian, France, and the Quadruple Alliance. This League would isolate the British Empire and attempt to force them into a more friendly relation with the Continent by presenting a united front against them. After thinking long and hard the Kaiser agrees much to the surprise of the Reichstag and the other politicians in Germany. His rationale is now he would get some warning before an invasion and the League would sink the British star relegating it to a minor power while Germany continued to build its military for the confrontation between the Quadruple Alliance and Russia and France. Félix Faure of France got the paper signed by both Tzar Nikolay Alexandrovich Romanov and Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm Albert Viktor von Preußen and he added his signature creating the Continental League. Even in light of this creation Reichsheer did not have any redeployment although both the French and Russians had major redeployments.


October 1897

Two weeks almost to the day after the creation of the Continental League Germany was back stabbed. On October 14th Austria-Hungry declared that did not want to be in an alliance with Russia and France and promptly left the Continental League. The Kaiser reacted with fury and was tempted to declare a state of war between Germany and Austria-Hungry but one thing stopped him. He needed all of Austria-Hungry behind him supporting him and if he declared war sure he would get most of it but the Russians would get some and not give it up. So he sent von Bülow to Vienna on a top priotery mission to get Franz Josef back into the alliance and a full supporter of Germany no matter what.