Kaisertum Wieserreich. The Empire of Wiese - country so unique, so peculiar, with its own path to do things. Foreigners didn't understand. It was not a matter of nationalities or political ideologies, or whatever. It was clearly a matter of cultures. A Franconian would have nearly as much trouble understanding Wiese as a Kyivan or as an Oikawan would.
But what is the so-called Kaisertum? An "Emperordom." An Empire in the Wieserreich, the realm of plains and meadows between the Alps in the south and the various hilly territories on the border with Ascheburg and Franken to the north, spanning from Lusitania to the West to Sarmatia in the east. The name wasn't random - it was a geographic descriptor paired with a governing descriptor. The Empire was an Empire in the literal sense - a realm ruled by an Emperor, situated in the Wieserreich, or Wiese as English speakers called it.
A cluster of five electoral states and an underprivileged counterpart of theirs that had survived the collapse of the 725-year-old Holy Germanic Empire in 1644. There were one Kingdom, one Archduchy, and four Duchies. Overall, there were five sovereign monarchs in the country, with a total of seven sovereign monarchies if you counted the Empire itself. There was the King of Swabia for starters. Who was also the Archduke of Saxony since 1809, when the Saxon archdukes inherited the nominally superior Swabian throne. And then you had the junior monarchs, the Prince-Electors and Dukes of Schaumburg, of Braunschweig, of Mecklenburg and of Thuringia.
And then you had the Imperial Cabinet with the Reichsrat or Imperial Council, and the Reichstag or Imperial Diet. The government and two houses of parliament of this country. Each of the six Imperial States also had its very own government and diet too. And on top of that you had the military, the police corps, and several very powerful corporations in the hands of the powerful nobility of the country.
And yet... an Emperor. A truly superior, absolute force. The junior monarchs were virtually powerless before him, or so people thought. In truth they had power they never exercised. Was it out of fear? Was it out of profit? How come the coups of the past were almost never against him? Why did this seemingly diverse society work together? What could possibly be the glue in between the many different parts of this state? As you were raised by the remnants of the once-totalitarian successor of the most chaotic state Germania ever came up with, you would immediately be confused if you compared it to anything.
This place often gave the semblance of a democracy, but it certainly was not one: the Emperor was absolute. The Emperor was Wiese. Nobody wanted to argue against that - out of their own free will, none the less. The answer was simple: education. Like totalitarian communist and fascist states, Wiese had traditionally streamlined its education to make a terrifyingly fit and uniform education system, spreading the basic values of what it called "stratocracy" - a state ran by a military. Which it wasn't yet was, but this is another story.
There were three traditional values in this otherwise surprisingly... liberal-minded education system. They were coded well into the conscience of almost every child getting out of it. Unyielding loyalty to the Empire and your superiors, endless honour above everything else for both one's person and one's family, and lastly, and courage in life and death as well as war and peace.
Loyalty was often the most stressed - to some, it meant to the Empire as an entity, while to others it meant to the Empire as an idea. The communist KPW valued Loyalty as much as the nationalist DNF or the centrist KVP and the centre-right CDU. Each entity had very different political ideas, but at least nominally, everything stemmed from their loyalty to the Empire, whether that meant the land, its people, or the Emperor. Overall, education worked wonders. On first sight, it ended up showing Wiese as your archetypal disciplined, loyalist, German country that was ruled with the good principles of Dominican Catholicism, had a homogeneous population and virtually no social problems of any kind. Again, the impression you got is wrong, for you do not think like a Wieser likes to think. Wiese's daily culture was peculiar.
It was a culture that had its age of consent at 14 for both homosexual and heterosexual couples, its age of marriage at 16, and its age for both pornography and prostitution at 17. It was the country that allowed marijuana for medical purposes yet furiously cracked down on any illegal use of abused legal application of it. It was the country with the five political parties in the lower house of its parliament, the Reichsrat, which was democratically elected, that due to election laws they either had to work together or had to accept rule from the unelected, appointed upper house, the Reichstag. It was the country where you worked to produce, produced to enjoy, and enjoyed to work.
It was the country where 86 million Germans lived with 3.5 million Jews, 1.8 million Slavs, 900.000 Portuguese, just as many Oikawans, and yet just as many others from various other groups. Wiese was the country where men and women had to serve for 42 to 56 months of their lives, as soon as they turned 18, the Reichswehr or military, or its Landwehr reserves via a semi-voluntary conscription method, and then spent their lives until their 40th birthday or later as members of a paramilitary force, the Landsturm. For these masses that didn't -because around half the recruits ended up not to- there was the Volkswehr, or Civil Defence, which oddly enough was also a compulsory thing to do for several weekends or weekdays or whatever of your entire life, and which included the Landsturm.
In heart Wiese was a military with its own country. The term "civilian" didn't exist in the Wieser vocabulary - it was "citizen-soldier", as opposed to normal soldiers or "active-duty soldiers" and reservists or "reserve-duty soldier." For the Landsturm, the term "reservist soldier" was preferred. The military include the politicians, who often held military ranks, and so forth and so forth; the military essentially included all four previously mentioned bodies, it included the police, it included the tanks of the Imperial Army as much as it included the car of the prime minister and the Crown Jewels.
And at the top of it, the Reichswehr and the Landwehr. The professional, career military and its year-long manned reserve. The Emperor acted as its commander-in-chief, with no special rank - he was the Emperor, with the very constitution saying his word was law. Then there was the Generalissimo, a wartime rank for that Emperor who chose to not put his academic military knowledge in action; and so forth and so forth. And to make matters more certain for the Emperor, practically every high-ranking officer was a noble too, and if he or she wasn't born a noble she was ennobled upon promotion at a certain point of their careers. In the end, the entire ruling elite of the country, the entire business elite, and the entire population was, institutionally, member of two castes - the warrior caste, with the Emperor at its top, and the people's caste, with the Emperor at its top.
Nobles were a third caste, with the Emperor yet again at its top. Theoretically, he could rule like an absolute dictator; and definitely fail despite the assurances. Simply put, a bad Emperor without charisma would definitely be removed by the Prince-Electors and the army, if not the people out-right. One of the fundamental principles of this society was the Communist "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." A social state that could kick out its Emperor and his divine mandate, and elect a new one with the Prince-Electors. But this was very rare, for nobles above all else, were raised with the idea that they had as much social responsibility as they had wealth and power. And they should use it accordingly. Young monarchs-to-be and nobles are indoctrinated from an early age, to work for society one way or another. Most join the military and also do business.
This trend began in the 19th Century around the time after the Napoleonic Wars ended, and has culminated to a noble-controlled economy that effectively doubles as a state-controlled economy. Why? Remember: the nobles are the state and the military elite. And they have responsibilities to the society, such as charity and public gifts, as well as responsibilities to their commander-in-chief, the omnipresent Emperor. In the end, the Emperor is an inflated position. It's third to God, for the Pope is a tolerated second. The Emperor is elected by the five Prince-Electors even though succession is near-dynastic, to ensure that the Emperor is always a good, indoctrinated individual. An Emperor eventually obtains a cult of personality, if completely unwillingly.
The present one, Friedrich Wilhelm II or "Fred Willy" is a tolerant figure, a model of a lurking emperor who will seemingly never die -he turns 100 this year- and who uses his superpowers only when the theoretically perfect system malfunctions. Wiese is a well-oiled machine, where tradition and military practicality meld together to define society. It runs so silently, that many forget it is a machine; but when it malfunctions and makes a noise, the Emperor is there to fix that problem with his infinite wisdom. Infinite, because that is what the people believe; wisdom, because of the indoctrination he's had since his childhood.
The system has been efficiently evolving and changing for 1080 years and counting, with its problems showing up, plaguing the system, and eventually being assimilated or corrected one way or another. The Divine Mandate given by the Pope a thousand and a hundred years ago persists to this day. And if you think that this federal and constitutional monarchy with the autocratic functions side-by-side with equality and democracy looks as much of a fascist state as it does with a communist, you might be correct. For the Empire watches, and the Empire evolves like an unspeakable, lurking aberration that exists solely for the purpose of existing, its original purpose now long-forgotten.
Coming next: Excerpts from the Empire.
But what is the so-called Kaisertum? An "Emperordom." An Empire in the Wieserreich, the realm of plains and meadows between the Alps in the south and the various hilly territories on the border with Ascheburg and Franken to the north, spanning from Lusitania to the West to Sarmatia in the east. The name wasn't random - it was a geographic descriptor paired with a governing descriptor. The Empire was an Empire in the literal sense - a realm ruled by an Emperor, situated in the Wieserreich, or Wiese as English speakers called it.
A cluster of five electoral states and an underprivileged counterpart of theirs that had survived the collapse of the 725-year-old Holy Germanic Empire in 1644. There were one Kingdom, one Archduchy, and four Duchies. Overall, there were five sovereign monarchs in the country, with a total of seven sovereign monarchies if you counted the Empire itself. There was the King of Swabia for starters. Who was also the Archduke of Saxony since 1809, when the Saxon archdukes inherited the nominally superior Swabian throne. And then you had the junior monarchs, the Prince-Electors and Dukes of Schaumburg, of Braunschweig, of Mecklenburg and of Thuringia.
And then you had the Imperial Cabinet with the Reichsrat or Imperial Council, and the Reichstag or Imperial Diet. The government and two houses of parliament of this country. Each of the six Imperial States also had its very own government and diet too. And on top of that you had the military, the police corps, and several very powerful corporations in the hands of the powerful nobility of the country.
And yet... an Emperor. A truly superior, absolute force. The junior monarchs were virtually powerless before him, or so people thought. In truth they had power they never exercised. Was it out of fear? Was it out of profit? How come the coups of the past were almost never against him? Why did this seemingly diverse society work together? What could possibly be the glue in between the many different parts of this state? As you were raised by the remnants of the once-totalitarian successor of the most chaotic state Germania ever came up with, you would immediately be confused if you compared it to anything.
This place often gave the semblance of a democracy, but it certainly was not one: the Emperor was absolute. The Emperor was Wiese. Nobody wanted to argue against that - out of their own free will, none the less. The answer was simple: education. Like totalitarian communist and fascist states, Wiese had traditionally streamlined its education to make a terrifyingly fit and uniform education system, spreading the basic values of what it called "stratocracy" - a state ran by a military. Which it wasn't yet was, but this is another story.
There were three traditional values in this otherwise surprisingly... liberal-minded education system. They were coded well into the conscience of almost every child getting out of it. Unyielding loyalty to the Empire and your superiors, endless honour above everything else for both one's person and one's family, and lastly, and courage in life and death as well as war and peace.
Loyalty was often the most stressed - to some, it meant to the Empire as an entity, while to others it meant to the Empire as an idea. The communist KPW valued Loyalty as much as the nationalist DNF or the centrist KVP and the centre-right CDU. Each entity had very different political ideas, but at least nominally, everything stemmed from their loyalty to the Empire, whether that meant the land, its people, or the Emperor. Overall, education worked wonders. On first sight, it ended up showing Wiese as your archetypal disciplined, loyalist, German country that was ruled with the good principles of Dominican Catholicism, had a homogeneous population and virtually no social problems of any kind. Again, the impression you got is wrong, for you do not think like a Wieser likes to think. Wiese's daily culture was peculiar.
It was a culture that had its age of consent at 14 for both homosexual and heterosexual couples, its age of marriage at 16, and its age for both pornography and prostitution at 17. It was the country that allowed marijuana for medical purposes yet furiously cracked down on any illegal use of abused legal application of it. It was the country with the five political parties in the lower house of its parliament, the Reichsrat, which was democratically elected, that due to election laws they either had to work together or had to accept rule from the unelected, appointed upper house, the Reichstag. It was the country where you worked to produce, produced to enjoy, and enjoyed to work.
It was the country where 86 million Germans lived with 3.5 million Jews, 1.8 million Slavs, 900.000 Portuguese, just as many Oikawans, and yet just as many others from various other groups. Wiese was the country where men and women had to serve for 42 to 56 months of their lives, as soon as they turned 18, the Reichswehr or military, or its Landwehr reserves via a semi-voluntary conscription method, and then spent their lives until their 40th birthday or later as members of a paramilitary force, the Landsturm. For these masses that didn't -because around half the recruits ended up not to- there was the Volkswehr, or Civil Defence, which oddly enough was also a compulsory thing to do for several weekends or weekdays or whatever of your entire life, and which included the Landsturm.
In heart Wiese was a military with its own country. The term "civilian" didn't exist in the Wieser vocabulary - it was "citizen-soldier", as opposed to normal soldiers or "active-duty soldiers" and reservists or "reserve-duty soldier." For the Landsturm, the term "reservist soldier" was preferred. The military include the politicians, who often held military ranks, and so forth and so forth; the military essentially included all four previously mentioned bodies, it included the police, it included the tanks of the Imperial Army as much as it included the car of the prime minister and the Crown Jewels.
And at the top of it, the Reichswehr and the Landwehr. The professional, career military and its year-long manned reserve. The Emperor acted as its commander-in-chief, with no special rank - he was the Emperor, with the very constitution saying his word was law. Then there was the Generalissimo, a wartime rank for that Emperor who chose to not put his academic military knowledge in action; and so forth and so forth. And to make matters more certain for the Emperor, practically every high-ranking officer was a noble too, and if he or she wasn't born a noble she was ennobled upon promotion at a certain point of their careers. In the end, the entire ruling elite of the country, the entire business elite, and the entire population was, institutionally, member of two castes - the warrior caste, with the Emperor at its top, and the people's caste, with the Emperor at its top.
Nobles were a third caste, with the Emperor yet again at its top. Theoretically, he could rule like an absolute dictator; and definitely fail despite the assurances. Simply put, a bad Emperor without charisma would definitely be removed by the Prince-Electors and the army, if not the people out-right. One of the fundamental principles of this society was the Communist "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." A social state that could kick out its Emperor and his divine mandate, and elect a new one with the Prince-Electors. But this was very rare, for nobles above all else, were raised with the idea that they had as much social responsibility as they had wealth and power. And they should use it accordingly. Young monarchs-to-be and nobles are indoctrinated from an early age, to work for society one way or another. Most join the military and also do business.
This trend began in the 19th Century around the time after the Napoleonic Wars ended, and has culminated to a noble-controlled economy that effectively doubles as a state-controlled economy. Why? Remember: the nobles are the state and the military elite. And they have responsibilities to the society, such as charity and public gifts, as well as responsibilities to their commander-in-chief, the omnipresent Emperor. In the end, the Emperor is an inflated position. It's third to God, for the Pope is a tolerated second. The Emperor is elected by the five Prince-Electors even though succession is near-dynastic, to ensure that the Emperor is always a good, indoctrinated individual. An Emperor eventually obtains a cult of personality, if completely unwillingly.
The present one, Friedrich Wilhelm II or "Fred Willy" is a tolerant figure, a model of a lurking emperor who will seemingly never die -he turns 100 this year- and who uses his superpowers only when the theoretically perfect system malfunctions. Wiese is a well-oiled machine, where tradition and military practicality meld together to define society. It runs so silently, that many forget it is a machine; but when it malfunctions and makes a noise, the Emperor is there to fix that problem with his infinite wisdom. Infinite, because that is what the people believe; wisdom, because of the indoctrination he's had since his childhood.
The system has been efficiently evolving and changing for 1080 years and counting, with its problems showing up, plaguing the system, and eventually being assimilated or corrected one way or another. The Divine Mandate given by the Pope a thousand and a hundred years ago persists to this day. And if you think that this federal and constitutional monarchy with the autocratic functions side-by-side with equality and democracy looks as much of a fascist state as it does with a communist, you might be correct. For the Empire watches, and the Empire evolves like an unspeakable, lurking aberration that exists solely for the purpose of existing, its original purpose now long-forgotten.
Coming next: Excerpts from the Empire.