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[Music] In 1864, the German Empire had been nothing more than a motley collection of squabbling principalities.
Explores an alternate history where Germany won WW1, detailing political, social, and global impacts in the Kaiserreich universe.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
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Key Takeaways
- Germany’s victory in WW1 drastically altered European and global political landscapes.
- Internal political reforms and military autonomy shaped the fragile post-war German state.
- Diplomatic efforts under new leadership prevented further immediate conflicts.
- Cultural and ideological shifts in Germany reflected broader societal changes in the 1920s.
- The Kaiserreich universe presents a complex alternate history with lasting global consequences.
What the video covers
- The German Empire unified in 1871 under Otto von Bismarck, initially pursuing peace but shifted to aggressive militarism under Kaiser Wilhelm II.
- The Triple Entente formed as a coalition of Britain, France, and Russia to counter Germany’s rising power, leading to the Great War.
- Contrary to history, Germany and its Central Powers won WW1 by late 1919, reshaping global power dynamics.
- Post-war Germany faced internal strife, economic hardship, and political tensions between military leadership and civilians.
- Military leaders Hindenburg and Ludendorff held near-dictatorial power during the war but lost influence after the conflict ended.
- Progressive constitutional reforms transformed Germany into a parliamentary monarchy, though the military retained significant autonomy.
- Chancellor Wilhelm Solf helped stabilize Germany through diplomacy, avoiding further conflict and improving Germany’s global standing.
- The 1920s saw a cultural renaissance in Germany, with Berlin becoming a hub for artists, intellectuals, and political radicals.
- The video explores the ideological and geopolitical shifts in Europe, including the rise of Syndicalism and German-led Mitteleuropa.
- The documentary sets the stage for future episodes exploring the alternate history of the Kaiserreich universe.
Chapters
- 00:00The Formation and Ambitions of the German Empire
- 02:00Germany's Victory in the Great War
- 04:23Post-War Political and Military Struggles
- 06:51Constitutional Reforms and Military Autonomy
- 08:36Cultural Renaissance and New Political Ideologies
- 10:42The Kaiser’s Rule and Rising Nationalism
- 15:12Geopolitical Shifts and the Rise of Mitteleuropa
- 31:00The Future of the Kaiserreich Universe
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
When the Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, embarked upon his great mission to unite the fragmented remnants of the Holy Roman Empire, perhaps not even he could have foreseen the outcome of his ambitious project.
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The German Empire unified in 1871, initially presenting itself to the world as a keeper of peace.
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In Bismarck’s own words, Germany was to be an “honest broker” between nations. This, however, began to change in 1890.
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The new Kaiser, Wilhelm II, embarked on an entirely new foreign-political course, in an effort to achieve the same hegemonic ambitions as the long-established European powers of Britain, Russia, and France.
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Germany’s erratic, undiplomatic behaviour on the global stage and her massive build-up of both the navy and the military scared the powers of old.
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To challenge Germany, centuries-old rivalries and conflicts were suddenly set aside. Instead, France, Great Britain, and Russia formed a united front against the young, vigorous, and aspiring Germans.
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The Triple Entente. Bismarck’s famous “nightmare of coalitions” had become a reality. In many ways, a Great War between these great powers was inevitable.
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[Gunshot] What many believed would be a short war, however, became a long and bitter war of attrition.
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As a generation of youth was slowly ground to dust in the killing fields of France, the hoped American intervention did not come.
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The United States declared their neutrality, Russia faltered, Britain sued for peace, and the Entente collapsed.
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In late 1919, Germany and her Central Powers allies emerged victorious from the Great War.
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Their so-called ‘Weltkrieg’. Against all odds, a country that was barely 50 years old had asserted itself against France, Britain, and Russia, the dominant powers of the last century, on two fronts.
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Unbeknownst to Germany at the time, this watershed victory would become a catalyst for worldwide turmoil.
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From the collapsing French, Russian, and British Empires, new ideologies such as Syndicalism would emerge to challenge Germany.
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But they would do so as underdogs, in a world now dominated by the German Empire and her subjects.
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In 1920, Germany had finally found her place in the sun, and the world would witness the age of the Kaiserreich.
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[Music] By 1920, Germany had emerged from the Great War and was now beginning to enjoy the fruits of victory.
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Her foes were now utterly beaten. France and Russia found themselves in the midst of leftist revolutions, and Britain had all but retreated to her island.
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However, as often, appearances can be quite deceiving. Like their defeated enemies, the Central Powers had been pushed to the breaking point.
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Hunger and poverty were rampant, an entire generation sacrificed to win the war to end all wars.
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Even in victory, the Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans were on uneven footing, barely clinging on to their vast multi-ethnic empires, while the Bulgarians struggled to establish themselves in their now vastly overstretched tsardom.
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In Germany itself, the situation was not any better. Already in September 1918, socialist agitators had tried to launch an uprising in various northern German cities, though without much success.
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These so-called “September Insurrections” only further increased the far-reaching power of the military. Over the years, the German Supreme Army Command had concentrated around Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff.
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In many ways, these two men established an indirect wartime dictatorship over the country. While all relevant democratic institutions remained in place, the legendary reputation and perceived irreplaceability of the two generals practically gave them a political blank cheque.
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This enabled this diarchy to enforce the dismissal of unpleasant rivals and the halt of political reform, bending all matters of state towards the needs of the military.
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After the end of the war, long-boiling tensions between the military leadership and the German people began to surface.
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The general populace, represented by their parliament, the Reichstag, and even the Kaiser, became openly hostile to the military.
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With the economy in shambles and societal upheaval threatening the borders of the empire, the German people headed to the streets to demand political reform and stable foreign relations with France and Russia.
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While Ludendorff opposed any kind of political concessions, he was eventually overruled. Now that the war was over, the military leadership was not seen as indispensable anymore and thus, Ludendorff had lost his last bargaining chip.
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The final nail in Ludendorff’s coffin was the Caesarian betrayal of his longtime ally Hindenburg, who sided with the Kaiser and the government in exchange for protecting the military against reform.
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In February 1920, Germany’s once widely feared supposed “dictator” was ousted in the most unspectacular way possible, simply being dismissed by the Kaiser.
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Now, nothing stood in the way of the long-awaited reforms anymore. Only a month later, the government, in accordance with the Reichstag, passed a set of progressive constitutional reforms that would finally turn Germany into a parliamentary monarchy in all but name.
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Thanks to Hindenburg's secret deal, the army remained largely untouched by these reforms and continued to enjoy a vast degree of autonomy.
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It would take some time for Germany to recover both politically and militarily from the effects of the Great War.
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Luckily, the Empire was blessed with the appearance of new, talented statesmen to help Germany navigate the difficult post-war years.
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The liberal and internationally respected diplomat Wilhelm Solf was appointed chancellor after Germany's first peacetime election.
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Immediately, Solf withstood his trial by fire by negotiating Germany away from a new Franco-German war in the Haute-Savoie crisis of May 1920.
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Thanks to his cabinet's keen action, peace and stability quickly returned to the European continent, and Germany’s global reputation began to improve again.
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By the first half of the 1920s, it seemed like Germany had finally found her place in the sun.
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As the age-old saying goes: To the victor, go the spoils. [Music] Germany's new diplomatic foreign policy was to herald a new era of German hegemony.
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At the start of the 1920s, things began looking less bleak for the victorious Empire.
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Having found a newfound sense of optimism, the political winds were shifting in Berlin. Bolstered by progressive reform, the city's liberal elite had begun a rapid transformation.
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With London in decline and Paris in the throes of revolution, the sprawling German metropole saw an enormous influx of foreign artists, dignitaries, writers, and intellectuals.
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New music and art influences raged throughout the German Empire, bringing with them a sense of exoticism and hope.
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Germany was now the center of the world, after all, and her bars and cafes were bustling day and night with all the ambitions of a newly formed European elite.
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While the idea of a German-led Europe was a project of imperialists and technocrats, that did not stop the Empire’s young radicals from dreaming of a new European world order.
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In their eyes, German victory in the war could be the catalyst for a future where democracy and monarchism went hand in hand.
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Some spoke of this federation of equals as Mitteleuropa. A wider economic bloc with a common currency at the heart of Europe, and perhaps one day the world.
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Immediate German post-war politics were defined by a sharp break between old and new. The conservative and national liberal old guard suddenly found themselves in the opposition against progressive forces that only a few decades prior had been defamed as enemies of the empire.
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These progressives were social liberals, Catholics, and Social Democrats. The first two post-war cabinets under Chancellor Solf and his successor Erzberger were the first German governments with participation of the Social Democratic Party, SPD.
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This progressive government of the German Empire was, unfortunately, not to be long-lived. Already during the mid-20s, the social democratic SPD was forced to the opposition bench again.
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Too ambitious social reforms had scared the political establishment and conservative members of the coalition.
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To make matters worse, constant squabbles within the cabinet had made even the more progressive parties wonder if the SPD was truly fit to govern the country.
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The difficulties faced by the civil government were only exacerbated by the whims of Kaiser Wilhelm.
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Now Europe's first monarch among equals, he was a capricious and incoherent ruler at best, and victory had not made the German Kaiser mild.
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As an old-style ruler, fruitful cooperation between the monarch and the more left-leaning ministers turned out to be quite difficult.
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Thus, for the rest of the decade, Germany would be ruled by a new broad coalition of Liberals, Catholics and Conservatives, commonly referred to as the “March Coalition.” This new, more conservative coalition aimed to maintain the accomplishments of the 1920 March Constitution without radical reform.
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This entailed excluding both the left-wing SDP and the far-right from government affairs. The champion of this political constellation was Chancellor Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, who served from 1924 until his death in 1928, and under whose guidance Germany weathered the hardships of the troubled mid-20s.
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After Brockdorff’s passing however, things began to slowly decline. Over the following the March Coalition would remain in power, but their popularity began to slowly erode. Germany’s emerging European order seemed to be more and more challenged by her resurgent neighbors.
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The German people feared that the Reichstag's weak foreign policy had gambled away Germany’s had-earned victory for their own interests.
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In the years before, nationalists felt Germany had not done enough to contain the defeated powers to the East and West.
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The price of German inaction was yet another dangerous geopolitical encirclement of the German bloc, just like in 1914.
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These fears would weaken Germany's moderate cabinets, strengthening the opposition on both the left and the right.
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The effects would be far-reaching, eventually leading right-wing intellectual Ulrich von Hassell’s nationalist Fatherland Party to gain enormous popularity in the late twenties.
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Meanwhile, internal leftist agitation was still snaking through the Empire, \ threatening to tear apart the old constellations of power.
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This gave momentum to Germany's rising nationalism, seeking a newly assertive foreign policy for a darker age.
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In the early 1920's, fearing the rise of Syndicalism, Germany began an attempt to normalize relations with Great Britain.
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With France in the throes of Syndicalist revolution and Russia in tatters, Germany realized a second stabilising monarchy was needed to keep Europe on the right track.
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Relations between the former Central Powers had cooled, mostly over disputes about former Russian territory, so Germany hoped the British Empire could be a balancing counterweight in the West.
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These attempts at diplomacy would fail however, as hate across the channel ran deep. Germany could not have relations with Great Britain, London claimed, while at the same time working to undermine the pound as global currency, then Britain's last lifeline for her tattered economy.
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In the end, the proud Germans decided not to pursue further relations, but to focus their attention inward.
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After all, many of Germany's dependencies still faced post-war turmoil, and the scarlet shadow was still haunting continental Europe.
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Apart from internal stabilization, the first order of business for the post-war governments was to re-establish order and rule of law in the newly conquered Eastern European territories.
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In autumn 1921, the final peace treaty between Germany and the Russian Provisional Government was signed, forcing the Russians to recognize the new German order in Eastern Europe, and proving to the German government that their late change in Eastern Policy had paid out.
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In 1918 and 1919, when the former Russian Empire was still locked in a brutal civil war, the Germans had initially gambled on the victory of the Bolsheviks.
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While this was naturally a very controversial decision, the German Foreign Office believed that it would be easier to keep an entirely isolated and unstable Russian socialist regime under German control than a Russia dominated by revanchist White forces.
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Germany would change her approach after the assassination of Lenin. With the leader of the Revolution dead, and much of the Red Army routed out of Southern Russia, the Bolshevik front began to see major setbacks.
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At this point, the war could still tilt either way, but the Bolsheviks emerged as the less reliable and more internally divided partner.
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To Berlin, it became apparent that the hidden hand of Germany was needed once again to steer history in the right direction.
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The Germans finally adopted a policy of reluctant pro-White support. Via proxies in the east, Germany began supplying weapons to the Russian government.
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Ironically, most of these weapons had been captured from the Imperial Russian Army during the Eastern Offensives mere months earlier.
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Now, they were smuggled back into war-torn Russia under this unusual alliance of convenience. German support went further inside her own sphere of influence.
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In the German-occupied territories in Eastern Europe, selected White-aligned detachments, like the Western Volunteer Army, were built and trained from scratch.
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While many Russians despised Germany, the collapse of the Entente and American neutrality meant that White forces had lost precious allies on the world stage.
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Eventually this alliance of former enemies helped the Whites to push back the red menace successfully, finally leading to the end of the Russian Civil War in 1921.
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The Bolsheviks were defeated, but it was not to be the end of the red menace for Europe.
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In the West, other revolutionaries saw more success. Germany had allowed the French Syndicalists to claim full control of Continental France, relegating the remaining loyalists to a rump state in Africa.
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While the German old guard balked at this foreign-political course once again, the government stuck to their pragmatic approach this time.
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It was thought that a socialist, internationally isolated France would have no possibility to ever breach containment, thus remaining firmly in the German sphere of influence.
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The Commune of France, unlike the old Republic, promised to uphold the Treaty of Versailles and cooperate with the German Empire.
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While the Prussian elites of the Empire did little to hide their contempt for these spineless Frenchmen, it was generally agreed upon that France was no longer a threat to the German bloc.
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If the Revolution could not spread from mighty Russia, it definitely would not spread from puny France.
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History would prove otherwise. Two years later, the Kaiser would open his morning papers to discover a Syndicalist revolution had taken several cities in Great Britain.
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Having learned from their own Revolution, the French had been secretly agitating and arming the British Syndicalists as well, forming an effective partisan force to take control of the Isles.
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The British Syndicalists, later united under Arthur Cook, emerged from the shadows in a coup de grace and claimed full control over the heart of the British Empire, once the vanguard of stability, within less than one and a half years.
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As British nobles fled to Canada, shock spread through Germany who saw the supposedly stable British Empire fall to Syndicalism in one fell swoop.
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Initially, the British Syndicalist revolution was not seen as a credible threat by German intelligence, and the fall of London came as a surprise.
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[Music] Facing popular anti-war sentiment, Germany was not able to respond to these new threats in any effective way.
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Mere consideration of an intervention was met with overwhelming protests in the streets of Berlin.
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This led to the Stresemann crisis of 1924 that eventually toppled the government and gave power to the March Coalition.
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It was, as the French said, a fait accompli, a done deal. With two former Great Powers now under Syndicalist sway, a new ideology began spreading through Europe.
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This new branch of Syndicalism, called Sorelianism, began agitating not for peace with Germany, but for peace under a Syndicalist world order.
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For the first time ever, Germany understood, and feared, the words ‘World Revolution'. When we informed the Reichstag of the British revolution, they scoffed at the idea that our old enemy would ever be able to challenge us again.
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Who could blame them? The nobles licking the Kaiser's boots were safe in their manors in Berlin, redrawing the European map.
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But they were not in London, like we were, when the revolution came. I saw early on that these Syndicalists were no disorganised rabble like the Bolsheviks had been.
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The repression in the Union of Britain was swift, brutal, and deadly. In a matter of weeks, the old regime had fled or disappeared from the initial sites of revolution.
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I warned Berlin then, but they would not listen. The British Empire would not be able to endure without the guiding hand of London, and no empire dies easily.
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It would not have mattered even if we had known. The German Empire in 1926 was asleep at the wheel.
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We had been lulled into a false sense of security by the progressive governments of the early 1920's, by an easy victory in Russia, and by our own illusions of German grandeur.
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While we enjoyed our place in the sun, something was growing in the shadows. In the dark crevices of Europe and in the minds of men everywhere was an idea of revenge.
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Revenge, not just against our homeland, but against everything Germany represents: the very idea of monarchy and empire.
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The pillars upon which we had built our Empire were now seen as the rotting relics of a bygone era.
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With socialism on the rise, we found ourselves in the position of the Ancient Regimes in the 19th century, and every day we slumbered, the Syndicalists grew in power.
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We had defeated the French and British, yes, but gave no consideration to what came after.
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Our politicians would do well to remember that, when you push against history, history will always push back.
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Not long after, German fears of encirclement had become a bitter reality. Years after the fall of Britain, another and perhaps even more concerning development was occurring on Germany's Eastern flank.
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A new, populist leader by the name of Boris Savinkov had begun rallying large sections of the Russian populace with a distinct anti-German rhetoric.
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Savinkov capitalised on the deep-seated frustration and hatred of the Russian people against their humiliation in the Great War.
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His Motherland party promised a return to the greatness of the Russian Empire, and on the streets of Moscow, it was whispered Savinkov would not just be President, but a leader, a Vozhd, of all Russian people.
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The rising Russian threat not only deeply worried Berlin, but even more so the various German client states in Eastern Europe.
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These so-called “Oststaaten”, or Eastern States, were slowly becoming a central pillar of Germany’s post-war economic order.
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This project became known as Mitteleuropa, or the Central-European Bloc. This economic alliance had been a political project of a group commonly referred to as the National Liberal Bourgeoisie.
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National, because this faction ultimately sought to expand Germany's power. Liberal, because they did so through economic predominance, rather than agressive foreign domination.
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It didn't hurt, of course, that they consisted mostly of bankers and industrialists, all of whom stood to gain personally from an economic approach to Germany's eastern flank.
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Together, they leveraged their economic power and political influence to vastly expand their holdings in the East.
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The aim of Mitteleuropa, ultimately, was to secure German economic hegemony over the continent, with heavy protective tariffs for non-member nations.
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Chief among these treaties was the economically exploitative, Vilnius agreement of 1926. Unequal treaties such as these played no small part in the rise of Russian nationalism, spearheaded by Savinkov.
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The economic bloc had more uplifting goals as well, of course. Mitteleuropa fostered far-reaching cooperation between the various bloc members over the years, leading to the establishment of a complex alliance network colloquially referred to as the “Reichspakt”, the Imperial Pact.
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To understand the new German order in Eastern Europe however, we must first travel back to 1918, and the last chaotic months of the Great War.
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In 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk had signed away enormous swathes of land in Eastern Europe to Germany.
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Even during the war, the Germans had sought close cooperation with the budding independence movements in these areas, well-aware that German-aligned client states would have a greater value than direct annexations.
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In Eastern Europe, Realpolitik, pragmatism and level-headedness would prevail over the far-right’s extreme demands for territory.
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Nonetheless, the various newly-formed nations would have wildly varying degrees of autonomy. While nominally independent, the Kaiserreich ensured strong German ties would influence their national awakening.
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Some of these nations were outright placed under German monarchs, others were controlled more subtly, through advisors and economic policy.
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Through these new satellite states in the East, Germany began realizing the concept of a united ‘Mitteleuropa’.
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Six countries were of special importance for this vision: the United Baltic Duchy, Lithuania, Poland, White Ruthenia, Ukraine, and Finland.
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Along the Baltic Sea, two client states protected the Northeastern frontier of the German bloc. The United Baltic Duchy and the Kingdom of Lithuania.
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Of all the Oststaaten, the Duchy was without a doubt the one with the closest ties to Germany, mostly due to the prominence of the local Baltic German elite in the administration.
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From the beginning however, the region had been plagued by Latvian and Estonian resistance, as a majority of the population was treated like second-class citizens by their German overlords.
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The situation was notably different in the Kingdom of Lithuania, however. Germany initially had their very own plans for the country, but was overturned by the Lithuanian State Council, which instead elected the German prince Wilhelm Karl von Urach as their king.
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Von Urach ascended to the throne as Mindaugas II, and despite German protests, became a popular leader.
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While Lithuania enjoyed an economic boom under the adept rule of Mindaugas, the Duke would pass in 1928 and be succeeded by his wildly unpopular son.
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In both the United Baltic Duchy and Lithuania, growing German influence did not sit well with the middle and labour classes.
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These sections of the population used their limited representative democracy to press against growing German meddling.
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Often, the Kaiserreich would find itself having to intervene in matters of state. These political pressures made it painfully clear to the people of the Baltic States that their independence was only nominally so, and that they may have traded Russian oppression for German technocracy.
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Surprisingly, Germany would fare better in Poland, of all places. The Polish question had been one of the Central Powers’ most contentious issues for the duration of the war, as Germany and Austria severely struggled to agree on a common policy in the region.
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After years of conflict, it was agreed upon that the former Congress Poland would fall entirely into the German sphere, and that a German Prince would be elected as its sovereign, much to the disdain of Vienna.
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The choice fell on the Kaiser's fourth son, Prince August of Prussia, who ascended to the formerly vacant Polish throne in early 1920.
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The Prince, however, was challenged by the parliament, the Sejm, an influential institution conceded to the Polish People in exchange for their fealty to the Kaiser.
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The Sejm found allies in the Polish nobility, and the effeminate and coquettish August was deeply unpopular with his Polish subjects.
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For now however, the Polish people were ready to let bygones be bygones, and focused on the rebuilding of their nation.
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Over the 1920s, Germany progressively let go of her anti-Polish policies in Prussia and relations between the countries normalised.
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German capitalists began heavily investing in the East, and the railway boom saw the Polish economy make enormous strides.
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This period of relative calm was in stark contrast to the chaos in Western Europe and Russia, and gave Germany hope that a German-led European order was indeed in the making.
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This German order would be difficult to sell to some allies, however. Germany would encounter stiff resistance in the more autonomous frontier of the German sphere, as was the case in White Ruthenia, for example.
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[Music] For most of the war, Belarus, or White Ruthenia as it was known in the West at the time, had not even been a declared German war aim.
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This was mostly because the government in Berlin did not understand much of a distinct “Belarusian” culture.
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The country was arguably the last nation in Eastern Europe to begin its national awakening, and even in 1918, Belarusian national consciousness barely existed outside of the small intelligentsia.
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The population of Belarussians in the Russian Empire was almost completely made up of poor and illiterate peasants, their identity limited to their own villages, only vaguely aware that they were neither Polish, nor Russian, nor Jews.
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The arrival of German troops on Belarusian soil began to change things. In March 1918, the Germans advanced up to Minsk to pressure the Bolsheviks into signing a peace agreement, and the Belarusians seized upon that opportunity to proclaim the White Ruthenian Democratic Republic.
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The German occupation forces did not bother to recognize the fledgling state at first. Soon, however, they began to work with local independence activists against Russia.
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During the final peace treaty with Russia in 1921, Moscow was forced to recognize Belarusian independence on top of the nations already freed by the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.
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After independence, White Ruthenia found itself with the dubious honour of being the least developed nation in the Mitteleuropean bloc.
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Left-leaning democratic leaders would be tasked with building a new nation out of the rubble of centuries of Russian neglect.
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While the Belarussian story became one of happenstance, her southern neighbour Ukraine had created quite the myth around her own independence.
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In the streets of Kyiv, it was proudly said that Ukraine was not given independence, but rather that she took it herself.
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In truth, the Ukrainian revolution of 1917-1918 was indeed successful at driving out the Bolsheviks, but only thanks to massive Austrian and German military aid.
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Under the leadership of the determined and widely-respected Cossack hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, the large country became the most important German-aligned bulwark in the East, enjoying without a doubt the most far-reaching autonomy of all the Oststaaten.
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However, while nominally an independent state, rural Ukraine existed only with massive German economic aid, and the authoritarian leadership of the Hetman slowly turned the peasants and the working class against him and his German backers.
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[Music] The poorest of Ukrainian society blamed the Hetmanate for the country's economic woes. Demagogues conjured exaggerated images of fat German businessmen enriching themselves with Ukraine’s natural resources, bolstering the powerful syndicalist Borotbist faction in the countryside.
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Looming tensions with bordering Russia would only further increase instability in the Hetmanate. Luckily, the Germans would find a more stable and reliable allies in the far North.
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At the northern fringes of the Empire, Finland had gained its independence by using the chaos of the October Revolution and the Civil War to oust the Russians in late 1917.
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[Music] The subsequent Finnish Civil War only ended with a decisive defeat of the Bolshevik forces due to Germany’s intervention in March 1918.
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Not long after the end of the civil war, the German Prince Friedrich Karl von Hessen was elected to the Finnish throne by the government in Helsinki.
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Thus, when Finland was invited into Mitteleuropa after the war, they were not treated as a semi-autonomous puppet state, but rather, as an allied brother nation.
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With their strategic position at the Gulf of Finland and their border only kilometres away from Russian Petrograd, the proud Fins would become a stalwart ally in the struggle against Russian influence.
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Finland, Belarus, Ukraine, the United Baltic Duchy, Lithuania and Poland. These six nations formed the core of Germany's ambitions for a new European order.
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Each nation had been built, sometimes from the ground up, with German support. Rather than imperial annexation, German rule promised autonomy and economic collaboration.
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Finally, peace had come to the chaos-torn East. As Syndicalism ravaged Western Europe and threatened the rule of her conservative governments, patriotic forces in the East stood with Germany to form a united front against outside threats.
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By the second half of the 1920’s, Germany had found promising, but uneven success in her nation-building efforts.
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The world to her West and South had not stood still, unfortunately. Soon, the Empire was due for a rude awakening from her post-war slumber.
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As the German Empire rose, across the channel, another world empire had begun to collapse.
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The British Empire had been a defining feature of geopolitics ever since the 17th Century.
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[Music] At its height, Great Britain ruled over almost a quarter of the world's population and land mass.
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Nobody in the world, not even Germany, would have ever suspected a leviathan of this size and scope to be as vulnerable as the empire turned out to be.
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The French Syndicalist revolution of 1919 was not a singular event, but rather became a spark to ignite labour frustration all over the world.
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While the Kaiserreich would weather the Syndicalist storm, their British counterpart was not so lucky.
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With the outbreak of the British Civil War in late 1924, the British Isles, once the central hub for a world-spanning empire, had suddenly gone dark, throwing the delicate network of imperial dependencies into disarray.
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With the Royal Navy sailing off into exile in North America, the remaining colonies and territories of Great Britain were effectively cut off.
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Her vital ports and canals would fall under foreign control, further isolating the battled dominions.
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During the early 20s, the German Empire had watched in glee as various independence movements had chipped away at the British Empire.
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Some time earlier, Ireland, India and Egypt had already declared independence. However, now in 1925, the fall of the Home Isles began to turn into a threat for Berlin as well.
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With the Home Isles gone, the British African and East Asian possessions were completely cut off from any kind of responsible government.
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In Berlin, this stoked ears of reinvigorated native nationalism that would eventually also spill over to nearby German colonies.
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The news became especially dire when reports turned up about secret Syndicalist meddling in the aforementioned areas.
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Suddenly, the world found itself at a crossroads. Germany had upended the world order with her victory in the Weltkrieg, but never suspected the results would be this severe.
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With Syndicalist powers taking on an increasingly anti-imperial and anti-monarchist stance, Germany found precious few allies on the world stage when managing the fallout of the colonial crisis.
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In a macabre twist of fate, it was now British colonial leaders calling on Germany for protection, starting with British Hong Kong in July 1925.
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To many on the German homefront, globe-spanning German interventions would amount to geopolitical suicide, completely disturbing the global power balance and potentially risking renewed conflict with France and Britain.
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As international emergency congresses were called, heated debates raged through the Reichstag, with fistfights and bitter rivalries punctuating the vast divides emerging in German politics.
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In the end, the combination of fear and greed was too much for the empire to resist, however.
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Germany declared herself the protector of the colonial order, a direct counterweight to the rising Syndicalist powers of the world.
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Colonial governors who sought protection would find so under German guidance and were ensured their positions would remain intact.
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The rule of empire, was, after all, a right granted by God and Kaiser. Facing challenges worldwide, the Kaiserreich became one of the struggling inheritors of a world order that was now slowly unravelling.
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At this moment in history, only time could tell whether Germany would succeed in using her new-found strength to reshape the world in her own image: A vanguard of stability and order against the chaos of world revolution.
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The cruel irony was that the very victory that had given Germany strength also fundamentally undermined the world order the Empire had sought to establish.
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With Russia in throes, America absent, and France and Britain stoking the fires, Germany stood alone as a wasting rock amid stormy seas.
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German resolve would be tested as it stepped up to the role of global police force.
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The old order had found a new champion, and the German Empire would, as they called it, Guard the Balance.
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The ancient grudges of the Great War and before were never truly forgotten. They had been transformed, changed colour and shape, yes.
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But ultimately, the world began waking up to the harsh truth. This armed peace would never last.
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There would be another World War, another Weltkrieg. And the coming decade would decide where the battle lines would be drawn.
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Greed. Greed is such an human emotion, is it not? Imagine, if you will, the German noble.
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A fat and decrepit aristocrat, owning so much he does not even know the beginning and end of his own wealth.
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But even that is not enough. These nobles and old regimes exist only to consume, an eternal cycle of growth and decay.
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The Empire exists only to serve the Empire, a snake eating its own tail. And then… there was Syndicalism.
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We exist as cracks in the system. Vandals in the night, stealing away as the imperial police force breaks down the door to the illegal printing station.
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An idea in the hearts of man, that perhaps it is not right that so few own so much, and so many have so little.
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An idea that there are millions of us, and few of them. That if we would only grasp for it, their power would be for naught.
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While the Germans drink champagne in Berlin, we sit in grimy worker bars in Saigon, Shanghai, Cape Town, Algiers, Cairo.
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We are the unseen hand of history, turning the dials of power back to balance.
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And there are more of us every day. The baker from across the corner, he is now a Syndicalist.
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The bowing servant, suffering abuse from his noble master, he is now a Syndicalist. The doctor's daughter, clutching red literature as she exits the black market, she too, is now a Syndicalist.
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This is what the Germans, in their brutish simplicity cannot grasp. Our real army does not ride tanks and have warships.
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Our real power is underground, in their cities, in ours. Hidden behind the smiles of their subjects.
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And all we need is a chance, a weakness, an opening. Hmm. The German empire is overextended, a bloated relic from a bygone era.
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But she is also fragile. All I am looking for now, is that one final straw, to break the camel’s back… Kaiser Cat Cinema needs you!
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Back the attack! Share our content or dash over to our alt-history webshop. And so, we reach the end of yet another titanic documentary episode, this time diving deep into Germany's interwar years.
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Germany has won the Great War, but at what cost? The collapse of the British Empire has thrown East Asia and Africa into turmoil.
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International Syndicalism threatens Germany’s primacy on the world stage. How will the Kaiserreich guard the balance?
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Find out in our future episodes of Kaiserreich documentary. our long-form series exploring the unique timeline of this alt-history universe we all know and love.
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Our first thoughts are always with our crew members at the front line in Ukraine.
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Fortunes have now turned firmly against the corrupt and vicious invader, and more towns and villages are freed from occupation every day.
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I urge everyone to continue to voice their support for Ukrainian people fighting for their right to exist.
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Our people at the front know that this war is far from over and our support continues.
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Our Ukraine fundraiser has surpassed $7,500 in donations and more and more fundraisers are springing up to help rebuild the country.
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Today we must all do our part. For this episode, I want to thank the Keiserreich Germany rework team and they are new chief editor.
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As usual, I want to also thank the entire Kaiser Cat Cinema team for their enormous efforts in producing these high-quality documentaries, highlighting all aspects of the world of Kaiserreich.
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This documentary series also has a second purpose. Together with the World of Kaiserreich project, the script and art generated for these two video series, form the basis for a future World of Kaiserreich Art Book. This titanic project is to
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combine all the lore and artwork from decades of universe development into an epic book project, making the world of Kaiserreich accessible to all.
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We call this mission: A Kaiserreich show on every screen, a Kaiserreich book in every store.
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Sign up to our newsletter to stay up to date with the developments of the World of Kaiserreich artbook project.
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Today I can also proudly announce new milestones for the channel. Our webshop recently shipped it's 10.000th order and the channel is on a road to 100,000 subscribers. The Divided States is now released as a webcomic, and we have many
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more exciting projects in a pipeline this winter. If you would like to support Kaiser Cat Cinema, You can always swing by our alt-history webshop, where you can buy original art prints and merchandise made by myself and other KCC artists. Alternatively, you can swing by
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Flagmaker & Print, art sister project, allowing anyone to design and print their own alt-history country flag.
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Finally these projects would not be possible without the enduring support of our Patreons. Patreons get access to exclusive behind the scenes, updates, working progress content, and can make Cameo appearances in our art and animations, as you can see here.
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I want to tag our top backers, James Carroll, Izail and Mr Knowledge. I would also like to welcome our newest Patreons, Alternate Historian, Cristo Rincon, Vinka, Jinx, Screenlost, Handsome, Denver Defender, Sully, Foxtrot, Salty Lemon, Spectrum, Depresston Rats Spector and Yankee. In the next episodes of
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this documentary series we will look at the other Central Powers and see how victory in the Great War has affected Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary.
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Until that time, I am Vincent De Nil, signing off, proud of the work we did.
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See you for next one, Cats!
Topics:GermanyWorld War 1Kaiserreichalternate historyOtto von BismarckWilhelm IICentral PowersTriple Ententepost-war GermanyEuropean politics
