The year 1932 had seen Hitler's meteoric rise to prominence in Germany, spurred largely by the German people's frustration with dismal economic conditions and the still-festering wounds inflicted by defeat in the Great War and the harsh peace terms of the Versailles treaty. A charismatic speaker, Hitler channeled popular discontent with the post-war Weimar government into support for his fledgling Nazi party. In an election held in July 1932, the Nazis won 230 governmental seats; together with the Communists, the next largest party, they made up over half of the Reichstag. Hindenburg, intimidated by Hitler's growing popularity and the thuggish nature of his cadre of supporters, the SA (or Brownshirts), initially refused to make him chancellor. Instead, he appointed General Kurt von Schleicher, who attempted to steal Hitler's thunder by negotiating with a dissident Nazi faction led by Gregor Strasser. At the next round of elections in November, the Nazis lost ground—but the Communists gained it, a paradoxical effect of Schleicher's efforts that made right-wing forces in Germany even more determined to get Hitler into power. In a series of complicated negotiations, ex-Chancellor Franz von Papen, backed by prominent German businessmen and the conservative German National People's Party (DNVP), convinced Hindenburg to appoint Hitler as chancellor, with the understanding that von Papen as vice-chancellor and other non-Nazis in key government positions would contain and temper Hitler's more brutal tendencies.Hitler's emergence as chancellor on January 30, 1933, marked a crucial turning point for Germany and, ultimately, for the world. His plan, embraced by much of the German population, was to do away with politics and make Germany a powerful, unified one-party state. He began immediately, ordering a rapid expansion of the state police, the Gestapo, and putting Hermann Goering in charge of a new security force, composed entirely of Nazis and dedicated to stamping out whatever opposition to his party might arise. From that moment on, Nazi Germany was off and running, and there was little Hindenburg or von Papen—or anyone—could do to stop it.
The year is now 1938. Hitler has called Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg to Berchtesgaden, Germany, preparing for a meeting for the annexing of Austria to Germany. Heinrich Himmler has enlisted a group of SS officers native to the small area or the surrounding environment. Among them a fearsome giant with a hellish reputation for his abilities to completely outmatch his enemies; Adrian Vogelscheuche...
A rumbling noise ran through the desolated dirt rod climbing up the steep mountain, dust being kicked up as a massive motorcycle with a behemoth of a driver sped towards the Eagle's Nest. A great tail stuck out of the rider, pointing a bit upwards to as to neither drag on the ground nor get run over by his own vehicle. The jet black scales as well as equally coloured uniform were sleek, wet with rain and polished finely. The green eyes of the serpent were fixed well ahead of him, unmoving, unblinking, as if transfixed, though navigating well on his machine...
Topic: Under the Grey Eagle (Read 1328 times)