Germany

"The truth is much more complicated than you think."

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The skyline of Berlin, capital of the German Democratic Republic in 2064, showing the Fernsehturm Berlin television tower, the dome of the Berlin Cathedral and several high-rises built after contemporary times.

Germany is a country in Central Europe which played a central role in the history of Relic Technology and the events surrounding World War Three, as the origin of the Urkunde-01 relic and the country where Persicaria and Lycoris founded 90WISH. Germany was ruled by many forms of governments since its inception during the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, but the governments relevant to Girls' Frontline's universe are the Third Reich during World War Two, the Federal Republic of Germany in the west and the German Democratic Republic in the east during the Cold War, the reunified Federal Republic of Germany starting from 1990, and the new German Democratic Republic after World War Three. The German cities of Bremen and Berlin are respectively the main stages of chapters Dual Randomness and Mirror Stage.

Organizations

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic (德意志民主共和国, Deutsche Demokratische Republik) was the official name of East Germany, later current Germany after World War Three, led by the Volkskammer (People's Chamber), and informally by the political elite colloquially called Pankow. The Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei, SE) controls the Volkskammer and is thus a powerful entity in its own right.

The exact administrative situation of the German territory after World War Three is still hazy and appears to merge aspects of both Cold War-era East and West Germany. Gilda Ulrich is said to have been born in West Germany in 2029, yet the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen, which was part of West Germany during the Cold War, is also said to be part of East Germany (this confusion could be due to using “East” and “West” as cardinal directions rather than political entities with no differentiation possible through context). The country is led by a chancellor like in West Germany and Federal Germany, while the East German Volkskammer, controlled by the Socialist Unity Party, is the most important organ of the country (the West German and Federal German Bundestag is never mentioned), and the “post-war unity of the nation” is an important concept for German politicians. The 2052 Weihnachtsmärkte Incident is also said to have been a border incident within the country. Similarly, the situation of Germany relative to the Pan-European Union is uncertain. Gilda Ulrich, a prominent member of the PEU, was based in the German city of Bremen.

The largest state-sanctioned television broadcaster in the country is Deutscher Fernsehfunk (abbreviated DFR instead of DFF for unclear reasons), the resurrected Cold War-era state television broadcaster, one branch of which is the Berlin Television Broadcasting where Shadowless works.

Ministry for State Security

The Ministry for State Security (国家安全部, Ministerium für Staatssicherheit, MfS), commonly known as the Stasi, was formed in 1950 in East Berlin, dissolved in 1990 during the German reunification, and eventually revived along with the German Democratic Republic.

The Stasi is renowned as one of the most effective secret police and intelligence agency in the history of mankind. Using an extensive network of agents, it dealt with political opponents through psychological and direct action tactics and conducted espionage and covert operations abroad through its Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, HVA), notably headed by Markus Wolf. Moreover, the Stasi maintained close relations, such as intelligence sharing and liaised agents, with their Soviet counterparts of the KGB, and later with the Neo-Soviet Bureau of State Security.

Senior agents of the Stasi use a single letter as their codename, based on the legend saying that the first 26 agents of the Stasi all had a different first letter in their name. Modern agents usually choose their letter based on a word instead. Light wanted to use the letter U, for “Unknown”.

Polizei and the Stasi often butt head during operations.

Members

• Erich Meyer (Vice-Chief)
• K (Senior agent)
• J (Senior agent)
• Light (Junior agent)

Polizei

Law enforcement agencies in Germany are divided into Bundespolizei, the national Federal Police, and Landespolizei, the regional State Police. Polizei and the Stasi often butt head during operations. The GSG 9 is a famous police tactical unit of Bundespolizei, some members of which were sympathizers of the German Independence Party and the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, BfV) in 2064. Landespolizei Mobile Einsatzkommando (MEK) attempted to disrupt Angelia's operation in the Bremen refugees camp in 2064.

German Independence Party

The German Independence Party (Deutsche Unabhängigkeitspartei), shortened the GIP (DUP in German), is an influential ultranationalist far-right political party, promoting economic and political reforms focused on developing White and Green Zones, abandoning efforts to administer contaminated areas, and preventing immigration. They were outlawed in the early 2060s for their violent actions, including organized murders in refugees camps of Bremen. GIP members are also anti-Rossartrism and proponents of the Volksgemeinschaft concept. They use the Iron Cross, reintroduced as a military decoration by Germany during World War Three, as their insignia since many GIP members are retired veterans of the former Germany, including former Kommando Spezialkräfte (Special Forces Command, KSK) platoon leaders and the BfV (devolved into a Third Reich restoration group) agents Franz Schreck.

Locations

William's former home.

Bremen is the capital city of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen in northwestern Germany, and the home city of Gilda Ulrich. Bremen also contains the Flora Botanical Institute, where Leone worked for Paradeus. The Berle Orphanage outside Bremen was one of the orphanages participating in child trafficking for Paradeus.

Berlin is the capital of Germany, sitting in the northeastern part of the country. It is the place where international tensions burst into World War Three in 2045 and one of the best successes in decontamination work. The headquarters of Stasi is located in the city, probably in their original building of the Lichtenberg district, and William's former home was a manor in the (fictional) Neu-Tempelhof district. In September 2064, the bar “Athena's Owl” in Alt-Berlin was used by Griffin Lyons as his base of operations as the city was targeted by Paradeus in a massive terrorist operation. The Paradeus community of Bohnsdorf is located southeast of Berlin.

Magdeburg is a large city in central Germany, where the Neo-Soviet Army’s External Group Force were based in 2064.

The Black Forest (Schwarzwald) is a large forested mountain range in the southwesternmost regions of Germany, which was a military theater during World War Three.

History

World War Two

While Tsarist Russia has been the first nation to study Relic Technology, the Third Reich’s Organization Todt excavated the most important relic site to date in the Nordhausen-Harz mountains near Leipzig at some point during the interwar period. Codenamed Urkunde-01 and nicknamed “First Relic”, the Nazis identified it as a production facility filled with dangerous and mysterious substances. Drilling into crystal capsules, presumably filled with Collapse Fluid, proved disastrous and the area was nearly destroyed by explosions. The infamous Doctor Josef Mengele was particularly interested in the disease caused by the incident, which would later be called ELID, but this avenue of research was shut down by the Reich. After World War Two began, research into Urkunde-01 was shelved but its covert labs were used to house nuclear weapons and V-weapons research programs.

The Soviet Union caught wind of Urkunde-01 when interrogating POWs in 1943, and their Alsos teams quickly moved to secure the First Relic and all on-site intel before US salvage teams, paving the way for the Soviet Union's fast technological development after the war, most of all the Tabasar-B proving grounds that would produce the Pikes. Moreover, the Soviets captured Mengele, giving them an insight into the dangers of ELID.

Cold War

On 1 November 1962, Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic Otto Grotewohl tasked the Ministry for State Security's Bureau of Foreign Intelligence to form a special committee with investigating the Soviet Moron Project to ensure the safety of East Germany, being wary of KGB Chairman Vladimir Semichastny's promise to never use it against other socialist countries. A special team from the Karl Marx University in Leipzig would act as technical specialists while the National People’s Army would ensure the secrecy of the project, especially from Soviet allies. The project was headed by Markus Wolf, who was reticent due to his lack of prior work on Relic Technology and his ongoing foreign intelligence work.

By March 1963, the project was progressing slowly, with the teams suffering casualties when analyzing the remains of Urkunde-01 and the Soviets refusing to share any kind of information. Only by December 1965 did a breakthrough occur through a hint Aleksandr Sakharovsky, director of the KGB’s Foreign Intelligence Bureau, gave to Wolf about the 16th Directory working on ternary logic computers during a meeting in Russia. Electrical and computing specialists were immediately sent to the relic site and by December 19th, electrical signals were found and a long analysis and decryption work began at Leipzig. An electronic surveillance center was established on site and designated Listening Post 90, but Wolf eventually renamed it “Wrack” due to security concerns with the standard listening post nomenclature, and also renamed the First Relic Investigation Working Group to “90Wunsch” (“90Wish”), thus imbuing it with his hopes for the reunification of Germany.

By May 1971, 90Wunsch was no closer to decrypting the signals of the relic, but analysis of its patterns enabled the development of new electronic and radio components that proved useful to counter NATO's electronic warfare. That year, newly named Chairman of the State Council Erich Honecker ordered to cease the exploration of the relic. Wolf later regretted the directive, thinking it had robbed East Germany of the opportunity to build a national economic management network like the Soviet OGAS to save their economy and prevail over West Germany, but they had still gained an enormous advantage in the Cold War: 90Wunsch had detected and located NATO's Berlin Ground Station, their most powerful surveillance system in Europe.

Built on a mountain nicknamed Der Zauberberg near West Berlin, the Berlin Ground Station could jam or alter the high frequencies used in the Warsaw Pact and even transmit fake orders to their aircraft pilots. 90Wunsch's discovery became the core of the Soviet infiltration of NATO's intelligence system by collaborating with the KGB's radio espionage and counter-espionage directorate. They could now send fake intel and hide their own signals, and 90Wunsch investigated the possibility to relay fake orders back to NATO Command. Over the next 10 years, the West remained oblivious to the extend of East Germany's degrading economic situation, greatly facilitating the reunification of the country in 1985. 90Wunsch itself was disbanded when all Relic-related research was stopped under the Relic Arms Reduction Treaty, its data being vetted by Wolf and handed to Mikhail Tsvigun. Many members of the group left for the United States, where they contributed to the foundation of the United Nations Relics Agency.

Collapse

After the Northern Lights Incident of 2035, ten German states were heavily contaminated: Thuringia, Saxony, Brandenberg, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the East, Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg in the North, North Rhine-Westphalia in the West and parts of the Black Forest in the South, causing the German population to flee to the south of the country. Germany's capital was moved from Berlin to Frankfurt, but North and South America's rejection of the refugee housing plan of the European Union in September 2035 meant that the added numbers of Northern Germany and Eastern Europe quickly flooded Western and Southern Europe. Protests by Southern Germans erupted against what they perceived as the invasion of their home, but they were quelled by the government.

During the German elections of 2037, left-wing parties and the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) supported the alliance between the United States and the Neo-Soviet Union rather than the neocolonialist policies gaining traction in Europe to combat overpopulation. However, the alliance was broken the year after, leaving Germany no choice but to take part in the new rush for Africa, and the German government suppressed left-wing parties to silence protests. Some rehabilitation projects of German contaminated areas bore fruits, but by 2039 no large-scale project had been undertaken and living conditions were harsh, meaning that a big part of the returning population were actually East European refugees who had been chased from Southern Germany refugees camps. A divide appeared in the German population, with the Southern Germans supporting external expansionism while Northern Germans called for rehabilitation programs of their lost home and supported left-leaning policies.

Lycoris joined the Leipzig University as a junior exchange student from the Lomonosov State University of Moscow in late 2040, attracted by its advanced automation department, and was soon after approached by the Rossartrist agent Griffin Lyons posing as a news editor for WAVE. At the university, he was recruited by Persicaria into the Bundeswehr Special Technology Development Group to produce an advanced automation framework that would enable multiple robots to make complex decisions and work autonomously as a unit, an ambitious project meant to distance Germany from the industry-oriented designs favored by other countries in the race for automation. While studying materials procured by the government, he found 90Wunsch's research and applied it to the project, leading to its success in 2043. Lycoris and Persica also founded 90WISH at Leipzig.

Down spiral to War

When Ukraine was split in two following a civil war in 2043 and the United Nations broke down in early 2044 over neocolonialism in Africa and the increasingly aggressive foreign policies of the United States, the German government increasingly feared secessionism from the East German population. When the parliament voted the 2045 budget in September 2044 and slightly favored overseas development, all social democratic parties unanimously demanded the dissolution of the parliament and a new election, and obtained it due to their voting majority, angering the Christian Democratic Union and liberal democrats. Moreover, the social democrats proposed the enactment of the National Emergency Act, suspending the authority of local governments granted by the German Constitution in the Eastern and Northern Länder to promote interventions of the central government in these regions. In November 2044, the act was voted by a slim margin. In a spectacular backfire, all social democrat members of the parliament were expelled on national security concerns permitted by the suspension of the Constitution, and Bundespolizei and Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution agents arrested many of their members, especially in West Germany-based parties.

The purge sparked numerous protests from East Germans and social-democrat parties members, forcing the federal government to enforce a curfew on 11 November. By 13 November, bloody confrontations between protestors and Polizei had occurred in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Munich and Nuremberg, leaving hundreds injured or dead. On 14 November, the Berlin police raided the Palace of the Republic, viewed as the headquarter of the protests as the seat of the former East German Volkskammer, resulting in hundreds of injuries and close to a hundred deaths. This incident became known as the Palace of the Republic Murders.

On 18 November, East German Bundespolizei units led an organized revolt and took control of key cities before being joined by Bundeswehr garrisons in East and North Germany the next day. On 20 November, direct combat occurred between Bundespolizei and Spezialeinsatzkommandos (SEK) in East Germany. Three days later, every loyalist Bundeswehr, Bundespolizei and SEK units in East Germany had been destroyed, and the SPD announced before the Brandenburg Gate the success of the East German uprising and their break from the Federal Republic of Germany. The European Union formally asked the government to solve their internal situation on 24 November, and on 26 November the loyalist Bundeswehr launched an attack on the Eastern Länder. In two days, the army reached Berlin, but on 30 November they were surrounded by a rebel Bundeswehr armored brigade and two brigades of mechanized infantry, leading to the surrender of the loyalist Bundeswehr units after a three-days battle.

Incapable of settling the matter alone, the government asked rapid-response teams from the European Union for help, but they were again too late: in the second day of the uprising, the SPD had asked the Neo-Soviet Embassy in Berlin for their support in the uprising. Considering that the federal government had overstepped its legal bounds by suspending the constitution the old Soviet Union had agreed to along with the other victors of World War Two, and confident in the ability of East Germany to pull off their uprising after their victory in Berlin, Moscow accepted to intervene. The Baltic Fleet made landfall at Rostock while Neo-Soviet paratroopers dropped into Berlin. On 1 December 2044, Neo-Soviet airborne troops eluded EU radars in Poland and landed at Schönefeld Airport to provide tanks and heavy weapons to the East Germans before the EU rapid-response forces could act. On 7 December, the EU forces entered Berlin without resistance, but found barricades prepared by the Soviet Army on Straße des 17. Juni. The German Civil War had become an international matter.

For the Neo-Soviet, the German Civil War had been an incredible opportunity to expand their sphere of influence westward in retaliation for the European Union's intervention on their turf during the Ukrainian Civil War a year earlier. The conflict dragged on, and after the US became involved, the entire world soon tipped catastrophically into World War Three on 2 March 2045.

World War Three

In May 2047, the US military launched a series of invasions into Germany. It might be during this offensive that Captain Yegor fought in the depth of the Black Forest. In the closing months of 2047, the Neo-Soviet Union held Tripoli and fought advancing German forces at Bir al-Ghanam and Sabratha in Libya. By May 2049, the US military had stalled during their attack on Heidelberg and had resorted to guerilla tactics. The Neo-Soviet Paldiski Submarine Base in Estonia stockpiled weaponry to support the advance of their Northern Forces in Germany and Finland.

Lycoris had received a letter from the Neo-Soviet embassy asking all expatriates to leave Germany as soon as September 2044. At some point in 2045, presumably before the start of the war, Persicaria was added to the list of technical and research institutes personnel to be relocated on orders from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Both remained in the country, moving their work to the Max Planck Institute for Informatics in Saarbrücken, where they met the institute's director Rudolf von Oberstein and his daughter Lunasia. In January 2049, Persica left the country and Lycoris, knowing the Americans wouldn't let a Russian national enter the West in wartime, returned illegally to the Neo-Soviet Union.

After World War Three

When World War Three ended in a ceasefire, Germany had been conquered by the Neo-Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic was reinstated, though under a different form (see above). Internal tensions remained, and a border incident nearly ended in a bloodbath between the population and Neo-Soviet military during the 2052 Weihnachtsmärkte Incident, avoided thanks to the intervention of Gilda Ulrich.

Germans and Neo-Soviets collaborated on a number of matters after the war. In September 2064, the Neo-Soviets and Germans successfully tested a new type of decontamination facility in Berlin and more technological and environmental cooperation projects were planned. Germany also pledged assistance to the Neo-Soviet Union against terrorism in North-Ossetia-Alania. Paradeus sourced Nyto subjects from German orphanages, one of which was identified during K's investigations in Southern Germany, leading him to become a liaised agent to Statesec in order to investigate the terrorist group. In 2064, K coordinated a Statesec counter-terrorism operation to protect peace talks between the Pan-European Union and the Neo-Soviets in Belgrade. As the commanding officer of repudiated Statesec agent Angelia, he participated in the operation against Paradeus in the Paldiski Submarine Base in Estonia, and invoked his authority as a Stasi officer to request a air bombing from the Neo-Soviet Air Force.

Gilda Ulrich and Rossartrist Stasi agents later continued to provide resources to Angelia as she launched her independent investigation on Paradeus in the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen to find the hiding place and identity of Paradeus leader William, arranging fake identities and an air drop into the city for her and the Tactical Dolls from Task Force DEFY and covering her tracks as she took down Paradeus' allies in the city. By provoking the Bremen refugees camp riots however, Angelia overreached and she was captured by rival agents of the Stasi and brought to Berlin for interrogation before being released thanks to Griffin Lyons, who also brought the Griffin Commander to Berlin to assist Ange in foiling Paradeus' terrorist plans in the city, starting by kidnapping Machlian from the Paradeus community in Bohnsdorf, near Berlin. Angelia was however captured and DEFY wiped out when they tried to investigate William's old residence in Berlin's Neu-Tempelhof district.

Trivia

• The emblem of the Stasi in Girls' Frontline is quite different from its real-world counterpart, which is either a shield with a variant of the flag of the GDR laying on a cavalry saber, or a shield with the name “Ministerium für Staatssicherheit” and an arm presenting a rifle with bayonet, flying a variant of the GDR flag. In the game, the emblem is a small shield with a diagonal stripe, laying on a sword and hammer in a Greek cross, laying on an eagle spreading its wings and claws, laying on another shield, and the name “Ministerium für Staatssicherheit” on a banner at the base. The sword and hammer in a Greek cross is similar to the well-known communist symbol of the hammer and sickle in a saltire cross, but quite different from the national emblem of East Germany, which is a compass laying on a hammer. The use of the eagle with spread wings and claws (Reichsadler) as a symbol of Germany dates back to the Holy Roman Empire.
• The name "Sozialistische Deutsche freie Partei" appears in an unused story background from Dual Randomness. It is unmentioned in the rest of the game.

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References

General List of Characters (Minor Characters) · List of Locations · Timeline · Rossartrism · Eurosky Low-Emission Infectious Disease · Epiphyllum · GAVIRUL Technology Assault Artillery · Automaton · Collapse Technology · Magrasea · OGAS · Parapluie virus · Pike · Relic Technology · Shrike · Tactical Doll · Weight Bearing Events Beilan Island Incident · World War Three · Operation Couatl · Incident Zero · Butterfly Incident · Safe House 3 Raid · Plan Parapluie · Great Retreat · Paldiski Incident · Fireworks Incident · Battle of the Dead Sea · First Antarctic War Factions 90wish · Antarctic Union · Fox Sisterhood · Germany · Global Rescue Foundation · Griffin & Kryuger · KCCO · Neo-Soviet Union · Pan-European Union · Paradeus · Sangvis Ferri · Union of Rossartrist Nations Coalition · United Nations · United States · Varjagers Corporations 16LAB · 42LAB · B.R.I.E.F. · Cyber Media · Galatea Corporation · Girard Group · I.O.P. · Svarog Heavy Industries · Ultilife · Universal Anything Services · WAVE