Sternreich

The Sternreich is the coloquial contraction of Deutsches Sternreich, or German Star Empire. The Sternreich was the successor of the German Empire, formed from her stellar colonies.

Post Great War
Germany emerged from the Great War defeated but not crushed. As with many countries, the heavy burdens of the Great War had created a great deal of sympathy for socialist ideologies and causes. After the Treaty of Brussels was signed and Germany ceded Alsace-Lorraine to France, public sentiment worsened and would-be revolutionary groups played up rhetoric that the Kaiser had led Germany to defeat.

In 1919 Crown Prince Wilhelm met with his father to try and convince the Kaiser to abdicate in his favor, as a means of alleviating some of the social tensions and disarming the revolutionary propaganda. Socialist agents had become aware of the meeting however and in a prelude to a general uprising they planned to assassinate both the Kaiser and the Crown Prince. Since they could not get close enough for a handgun to be a reliable means, they opted for a bomb. The plot was successful and killed both Kaiser and Crown Prince as well as many bystanders.

The general uprising did not go as planned, however. The assassination turned out to be a grave miscalculation and it swayed public sentiment towards sympathy for the Hohenzollern family. The various local uprisings collapsed as the military and freikorps units moved in to suppress the revolutionaries.

The young son of the murdered Crown Prince would become Kaiser Wilhelm III at the tender age of 13. His uncle, Prince Eitel Friedrich would act as regent. The young Kaiser also relied heavily upon his uncles Prince Adalbert and Prince Oskar for advice.

Public sentiment rallied around the young Kaiser and social unrest quickly dissipated in a new wave of German patriotic sentiment. The slogan became common that although they had lost the war, Germany would win the peace.

Economic Resurgence
By the end of the Great War, Germany was experiencing famine and starvation starvation due to allied blockades. Humanitarian relief, chiefly from the United States, alleviated the worst of the food problems, but the early post-war years would be dominated by scarcity of resources. The initial period of acute shortages lasted until 1921. From 1921 to 1923 the widespread availability of even basic goods was still significantly limited. By 1925 the economic recovery was in full swing. Not until the end of the 1920's would most Germans have returned to a pre-war level of prosperity and standard of living.

By 1930, the German economy was beginning to enter a boom phase. This was further fueled by German economic agreements with the Kuomintang Chinese national government. Germany provided industrial and military expertise, as well as the availability of substantial loans to the Kuomintang government in exchange for raw materials and natural resources. This largely barter based trade relationship was immensely beneficial for both parties.

Germany would have a difficult time surpassing the United States in manufacturing simply due to the sheer scale of American industry and natural resources. However, The German Empire secured a firm hold as the world's second largest economy and second largest industrial manufacturer.

In 1946 Germany and Austria would sign the German-Austrian Pact establishing the Pan-German Free Trade Zone. From the late 1920's onward Austria had implemented a variety of import tariffs with the intent of protecting the fledgling industrial guilds of the new Austrian distributist economic system. The G.A.P. extended to Germany special status that removed all tariffs and made transport of goods and materials across boarders cheap and easy. In turn, German markets were opened up to Austria as well.

Mid-Century Diplomacy
Germany foreign policy from the 1930's up until the First Contact War centered around economic alliance with Austria, trade competition with the United States and England, and opposition to the Comintern.

Relations with England and the United States were relatively friendly following the war. The United States in particular provided humanitarian aid to Germany which fostered good will. The Anglo-American block and the German-Austrian block were in competition economically, but also cooperated when it was mutually beneficial. Significant trade disputes, or tariff wars were uncommon as the costs of such measures were generally regarded as outweighing the benefits. In addition, the Germans had common cause with the English and Americans in opposing the Comintern and it's efforts to spread communist revolution.

Despite their anti-communist sentiment, the German Empire never directly supported the White Army cause in the Russian Civil War. Germany did not wish to see either side win the Russian Civil War and thus be able to form a united Russia once again.

Relations with France were tense following the Great War, to say the least. The situation only became worse with the Syndicalist takeover. When Syndicalist France called the Third Communist International and became the leading force of the Comintern, Germany restricted trade with France and also travel to and from France.

Relations with Syndicalist France were not fully normalized until shortly before the First Contact War.

Space Race
Young Kaiser Wilhelm III read and loved Johannes Kepler’s novel Somnium and avidly devoured Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars. The romantic adventure of space travel lead Wilhelm III to establish the Reichs Zentrum Astronautik in 1926 and to push for the exploration of space. Wilhelm’s desire was that Germany should land on the moon by 1940.

Wilhelm III made sure the RZA was well funded and recruited the finest physicists and engineers Germany had to offer. From 1926 to 1930 the RZA worked carefully and deliberately with the 1940 goal in mind. By 1930, however, it became apparent that both Britain and the US intended to pre-empt Germany and thus began the Space Race.

The RZA would be the first to achieve space flight with the launch of an unmanned satellite in 1932. However, the would not be first in manned flight, or first to the moon. Those milestones were achieved by the Americans and British respectively.

The Germans would, however, beat their goal of landing on the moon by 1940 and land a German astronaut on the moon in 1938. This would be followed in 1939 by a legal dispute between the Germans, English, and Americans over ownership of the moon. The dispute was resolved in favor of Great Britain, with Germany receiving other concessions.

Solar Colonization
Germany's next big step into space would come in 1940 with the plans for the first orbital space station. The three great powers were all looking eagerly towards colonization of the solar system and exploitation of the resources that this may bring. The Orbital Space station would be a strategic jumping off point for German exploration and colonization. Somnium Station would be completed in 1943, though it would continue to see upgrades and expansions as new technologies became available.

It would take another twelve years to establish the first German extraterrestrial colony. In 1951 the RZA established an oupost, Tycho Station, on Mars for scientific research and exploration. Four years later this outpost would serve as the site of the first German colony.

During the same time that Tycho was being founded on Mars, exploration expeditions were being sent to other possible colony locations throughout the solar system. The next outpost would be founded on Europa in 1958, followed by an outpost on Ganymede in 1961

When outposts and colonies began to proliferate throughout the solar system shipping of resources inevitably followed. Unprotected ships full of valuable resources would eventually prove too tempting of a target. The first incident of piracy occurred in 1964. This made clear the need to military space faring vessels to protect the trade lanes as well as the outposts and colonies themselves. Germany would contract Blohm and Voss to manufacture their first military ship. The parts would be ferried up to Somnium Station and assembled in space. The SMS Jaguar launched in 1965.

Stellar Colonization
In 1971