German Civil War?

[Raellus]

Revolution? Counter-revolution? I'm not sure what to call it, but please hear me out.

I just finished a Netflix documentary (A Perfect Crime) on the assassination-style murder of the West German official in the former East Germany shortly after the Berlin Wall came down. I knew the the former DDR remained economically depressed for decades after reunification (and, to a degree, still is), but the documentary revealed that there were major protests against the Bonn government's crash course of capitalist market reforms in the former East Germany. At one point during the first phase of the privatization and liquidation of state-owned/run industries, unemployment in the former DDR was at 50%, and a lot of East Germans were aching for the return of socialism. There were major popular demonstrations in East Berlin and Leipzig. In several instances, these turned into riots. There is some evidence that the remnants of the Stasi were trying to foment a revolution during that time as well. The Stasi were suspected by some of orchestrating the assassination of West German official, Detlev Karsten Rohwedder (the subject of the doc).

Full disclosure, I am a hard-core a v1.0 timeline apologist. I really don't like the v2-2.2 timelines at all. But, if you want to include the fall of the Berlin Wall in your campaign timeline, what follows might add a little something.

Imagine, if you will, a counter-revolution in East Germany starting in 1991. It would be made up of several elements- a genuine peoples' (i.e. unemployed East Germans) movement, fomented and supported by Stasi agitators, cashiered NVA officers, West German Red Army Faction terrorists, and Soviet/Russian intel (KGB, GRU, et al.). Imagine an insurgency with massive street demonstrations, bombings, assassinations, and the like, all of which happened IRL (but the hypothetical counter-revolution would turn it up to 11).

Let's posit that the West German military is called in to put down the rebellion. This further divides the people of the former East Germany (see, the West is even worse than the former DDR gov't!), and puts the Soviet/Russian gov't (depending on how you handle the dissolution of the USSR) on edge.

From there, you could have the Soviets/Russians roll back into the DDR on premise of proactive self-defense (but probably more in an attempt to recover at least a rump buffer state). This would, I'm sure, cause a major diplomatic/military crisis that would, in any case, lead to WWIII.

Thoughts?

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[Ewan]

It certainly would be an interesting scenario and raises a number of questions on wither NATO would get involved in an internal German matter if no Soviet/Russian involvement.
Might say France use this as an excuse to push their agenda in Europe, would the 1991 Maastricht Treaty creating the EU be signed?

[RN7]

A German civil war in the Twilight War would be just a crazy scenario.

Organised Stasi and communists die hards engaging in sabotage and guerrilla warfare against West German and NATO forces in East Germany, and then communist sympathisers in West Germany (Red Army Faction etc) causing more trouble in West Germany. German nationalists like the Friebroderbund and Neo-Nazi types against everyone all over the place, maybe even some extremist Muslims in the large West German cities. Then add hundreds of thousands of American, Soviet, British, French and Canadian troops in the country, nuclear weapons, and its a dream scenario.

[cawest]

just got this from a facebook group Defensionem-The WarBible. 17th of June 1953 is the date you might want to look at.

ex-Kriegsmarine U-boats for East Germany? First, it was "Da", but then it was "Nyet"!

In the early 1950's, the Soviets wanted to arm East Germany. They envisaged an Auxiliary East German Navy, equipped with 13 ex-Kriegsmarine Type VII U-Boats. The subs would be based on Rugen island, in the Baltic.

In early 1953, East Germany started sending officers and enlisted personnel to the Soviet Union where they would start training on two ex-Kriegsmarine Type VII U-Boats. All was going according to plan... Until the 17th of June 1953 when the East Germans revolted against the Soviet occupation. East German leaders were called to Moscow for consultations and the Soviet Occupation Troops in East Germany crushed the uprising.

It took several weeks to pacify the revolt: It is thought up to 1 million East Germans took part in the unrest. However, by the time the revolt was put down, Moscow had lost confidence in East Germany.

Plans for an East German army were temporarily shelved. The country received the authorisation to create its own Armed Forces in 1956 and the NVA ended up becoming one of the best armies within the Warsaw Pact... But its Navy (Volksmarine) never ever received any subs or any offensive weapons.