The Dissenting

[Kaiser Martens]

Close to the former "German-German" border, as of lately a house has been showing on its top the old Communist Germany flag. It is the return of what had once been called n"ost"algia, when the Eastern Germans from the ancient Communist Regime started to grow nostalgic of their past...only that nowadays, the situation instead would take place in the south.

They had their reasons. Although the Southern Red State was ultimately doomed to fail, and although some of its older policies - such as the control wristband - were nowadays held to be infamous, for a long time it was essentially the strongest state in Europe and gave their people a very high quality of life - yet the opponents may add to this: "As long as you did not step out of line". Indeed, their Revolution seemed at a point ready to make a red-revival of Nordlandic Expansionist Dreams, and nowadays with the resurgence of France in the form of Communism, such a possibility may seem only natural.

But while the Communist Germany was easily the strongest state in Europe and in spite of the fact that in some regards the modern Germanic Union has still not overcome the high standards set by the precedessors, all it did seemed to turn to dust due to political issues. Most of the Nostalgics seem to think to themselves: "What if?" Scenarios.

What if the state had fought on with all its resources until the end instead of giving in? What if the loyal citizens hadn't emigrated? What if FA had been handled differently? And some of them would wish to prefer to go back in time, while others would prefer their "DDR"-type of flag to fly all over the Union, even though in many places flashing the flag may as well be the same as showing the flag of Nazi Germany or glorifying a portrait of Stalin - something enough to stir less civilized minds to violence and even a moderate government to healthy skepticism. Though in spite of its flaws, the Southerners did not ever really commit such crimes, so the hatred was surely the result of years of (Discontinued) propaganda from the time in which Northern Germany was, basically, a third world nation with Twentyfive Nuclear ICBMs. A starved, weak man...with a great machinegun and a great fighting spirit. In the end, victory had been achieved in spite of the odds, leading to the current matter of affairs. If the North had been defeated, then likely the Nostalgia feelings would be reversed. Another "what-if" scenario.

Said Nostalgia seemed to be everywhere as of lately, coating Germanic society. In the east, we had a few still considering themselves "Prussia", the state which had been most harshly hit by the post-nordlandic crisis, losing 70% of their assets within a year. Some of the people there, believing themselves to be the driving force behind the former North Germany, would simply believe that the current government is too liberal and may prefer to have a closed economy once more. The Nobility, once wielding power across the diverse Reichs, was now only a piece of leftover symbollism. Even the Martens family only held power due to reasons other than nobility, which to many seemed unthinkable. Furthermore, they felt severed as the Orange-Nassau part of the family had been killed by Western Extremists. This was a wound still visible in the ones who had once been known as "Dutch".

Things had really changed in the North. The Dutch had joined Germany, had been willingly annexed by Germany, but in a cultural, linguistical and demographic sense it were them who seemed to take over Northern Germany. There were nearly no people who favored a return to the Dutch state, but the Dutch language, now with easier spelling under the Runic alphabets and with more Germanic loanwords to replace Latinate terms, now known as "New Low German" or "New Dutch" depending on the translation preferences, was gaining terrain quickly in the terrain known as Low Germany, where once dutch-like Dialects had been spoken everywhere, serving to put up a small yet existing cultural barrier between them and the "Hochdeutschsprächende Deutsche". Berlin had achieved its goal of permanently elliminating Dutch Identity, but in the process, had become quite "Dutchified" themselves in many area of the Union. They welcome this, but it has downsides nevertheless, as they distance themselves from the Southerners, considering themselves to be the source of all Germanic extremism: Communism, Christianity and National Socialism.

The most conflictives zones were the Metz area and the formerly-Danish Zones. Metz and its whereabouts, while almost exclusively populated by Germanic Peoples, had been given to France while it was at the height of its strength, and so the locals did not trust the Government, and wondering: "Will they trade us away like pawns when the Western Communist Frenchmen come knocking at our door to try to annex us again?" - They felt like the rope in the middle of a tug from both sides, or like human currency. Some had used their own flag, the flag of Elsass-Lothringen, the Germanic Nation once invaded by France so many years ago. But in the rest of the Elsass-Lothringen area, the flag and feelings were not popular in any way.

The "Danish" areas were similar. They had changed hands so many times, that they did not know which country they had allegiance too. Traditionally, the Islands had been under Scandinavian Influence while the entire Peninsula under mainland-Germanic influence. There were such a mix of demographics in the area that as soon as one would set foot on Hamburg or Lybaek, one could not decide if one were dealing with Germans, Dutch, Danes, or even old-guard Nordlanders and Martencists. It felt like a bunch of neighbors that could not get along, even within the same bloc.

Everything was simple. While there were foreign threats to the Germanic Nation, why would there be any dissent for the enemy to exploit? They had to band against a common enemy. Now, in the most prosperous times yet since the Silver period, some of the population started to show its preferences. Perhaps, it may be time for the Government to be less centralized...

As of lately, old uniforms were being purchased. Old uniforms from the older germanies, from Martens' Germany to the easily and cheaply available GDR uniforms. While wearing uniforms was relatively common in the union, a general-lookalike such as the following fellow would get more than a few nasty looks at Berlin.

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/Lynneth_del_Serpentas/AE/CNRP/VDL/Commies.png[/img]

It would all initiate a barfight...him and a number of "Northerners" involved would go to jail. One of the Northerners, however, was killed by this man using a bladed weapon. This seemed to agitate the Germanic Society into showing certain animosity...as if they wanted to continue the old war.

Edited December 14, 2010 by Kaiser Martens

[Kaiser Martens]

Justice was swift. The offender got condemned to ten years of Thralldom, which will be served in the mines of Nordheim. The majority seemed pleased by the result, while others had called out for his death. The remainder of the jailed have been given six months of Penal Batallion Service.

Since then, the Government has announced that they will have no tolerance for such incidents. That the GDR flag will from now only be allowed to be shown in Museums, and that all those who find themselves to agree with them can apply for a Country-Departure Bonus willingly, otherwise, when they were discovered, they would be exiled without any bonus. Since then, two would-have-been Communist Terrorists have been arrested, several kilos of improvised explosives and GDR militaria found on their homes.

Intelligence resources would be increased by 3% as Berlin starts to wipe out its inner conflictive leftovers. This whole situation has sparked a protest at the North-South former border by GDR veterans, a protest of approximately three thousand people, which soon degenerated into rioting aimed specifically at business which were initiated by Northerners after the war, claiming that they do not belong here. An Infantry Division backed up by Armored Cars was sent to end the rioting, while elsewhere, another thousand of people applied to the Departure Bonus...

Berlin requested Innsbrück's cooperation in dealing with these issues.

[Bacharth]

"Why the hell do they like their old communist past?" Tyr asked a few advisors in the parlor room of his alpine castle.

"Indoctrination by the AI construct? Someone of that position and, well, being a robot, can be quite persuasive."

"Yes, but under the Gothic rule, they can own property, money, and most of all, their lives without having a damn wrist communicator on them."

"Well, I don't know why. But they're doing it, so Herr von Lübeck, what is your decision?"

Tyr thought for a moment. "All GDR flags not in a museum are to be burned. There shall only be references at all to the old ways, and they will be in the museums. The rest will be destroyed. As for the riots, send in the armored cars. I want a couple tanks loaded with tear gas sent over. I don't want any live rounds sent though, if a rioter were to die, it would only further their cause."


[size="2"]From the[font="arial, sans-serif"] Württemburg military base, an infantry division along with armored cars and tear gas armed tanks were sent to the protest. The guns were loaded with tranquilizer and pain rounds that would only incapacitate. Only a few highly trained squads were given live rounds, in case the protesters turned on the troops and tried to take their weapons.[/font][/size]

[Kaiser Martens]

The manifestations would not last for long, not once that non-lethal weaponry started to be used. However, some of the targets of the GDR-Supporter violence actually would use their very own weapons to fight back. These were loaded with lead, not rubber. In the end, 4 people are killed, over fifty arrested, while the rest simply fled. The Government has taken no action against the shooters due to the fact that they were considered to be entitled to defend their property.

Such a situation could only be temporary. It had taken the GDR over thirty years to turn these people into the fanatics they were after many decades of other ideas. Due to the fact that most GDR supporters had already left, it was expected that reversing this trend would take fifteen years.

One way or the other, the people would need to re-learn their Nordlandic and also learn New Dutch/Low German, while High German would be used only in most former-GDR regions and some North German regions. The State would make sure that this would happen. It was decided that in the long run only one Language would be desireable for the Nation, but such a change may take at the very least fourty years. Right now it was up to High German, Dutch and Nordlandic. High German was in decline, Dutch was on the rise, and Nordlandic continued to be the sort of enrichened Germanic Esperanto it had always been, spoken by all on the streets but only in Iceland and Nordheim at home. At this point, nobody knew for sure how it would all turn out.

[Bacharth]

On the internet, many communist supporters of the old GDR would speak out against the government intervention in the so-called "peaceful protests". Those who viewed the biased blogs, tweets, news reports and nothing else would view the protests as a way to try to stamp out communist viewpoints for good in the nation. For that reason, Viennese teenagers wore their red shirts with pictures of the old AI construct on their shirts. Although the government could not make them take the shirts off, other children, who support the Gothic tradition, would bully these kids into submission, through no support of those in power.

It was much harder in the south to quell the old communist past. As Gothic Germanicism became more prevalent, Communists and Socialists were ostracized by the rest. One child of GDR-supporting parents killed himself because his parents disliked him being a Gothic, and his peers viewed him as a Communist, no matter what he did. A new educational ordinance was released, stating that if a kid is caught bullying another kid, it is an offense that can lead to expulsion, depending on the severity. If the child hurt himself or committed suicide because of it, the bully would be sentenced to 6 months of youth-oriented Thralldom.