African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1513 The Merger of the Two Parties
Fraunfeld's ability to say such a thing, to some extent, proves his awkward personality. As an extreme nationalist, he was willing to be subordinate to others. However, this is not surprising, as he had served under Adolf in his previous life.

This also illustrates that even among extreme nationalists, their personalities can be vastly different, just like Adolf of Germany, Franco of Spain, and Benito of Italy, each with their own style.

Adolf was ambitious; he wanted to unify Greater Germany, conquer all of Europe, and eventually rule the world. Benito was fond of boasting and ambitious, but not as fanatical as Adolf. Franco, on the other hand, remained confined to Spain. As for his invasion of the Soviet Union, that was somewhat understandable, given the animosity between the two sides during the Spanish Civil War.

As for Fraunfeld, his political ambition was the unification of Germany and Austria. However, due to the circumstances, he was not satisfied with just the unification of Germany and Austria, but rather the unification of Germany and the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This is similar to how, in this timeline, because the Ottoman Empire won World War I, Kemal did not choose the republican path, but instead opted for a constitutional Ottoman Empire.

Of course, Fraunfeld also understood that the idea of ​​a Greater German Empire, comprised of Germany and Austria-Hungary, was beyond his capabilities. He couldn't even manage Austria, let alone the other regions of Austria-Hungary.

He told Schneider, "The risk of a coup is too great, and even if we join forces, it would be difficult to succeed, so cooperating with the German National Party is the only option."

“I have met with Adolf a few times. If he becomes the German Chancellor and Germany takes the lead in merging the two countries, we will assist him. This would be the most likely way to succeed.”

"Therefore, we will expedite our contact with the German National Party. At the same time, you should cooperate with us to intensify our propaganda offensive within the Reich, as well as accelerate our infiltration of the military and win over more people to stand with us..."

Schneider's eyes lit up as he listened to his plan. Originally, the idea of ​​cooperating with Germany was just empty talk he was making to fool Fraunfeld in his desperation. But after Fraunfeld thought about it, the plan suddenly became highly feasible.

Schneider didn't care whether Germany ultimately led the unification; his goal was simply to prevent Emperor Rudolf's reforms from continuing.

What's even more interesting is that the National Party's anti-Labour Party stance is a consensus among National Parties around the world.

"Your Excellency Fraunfeld, I must say your wisdom is astonishing. It is an honor for the Empire to have such a talent as you, and also an honor for the German nation. Going forward, we will fully support your party's development in the Empire."

The bourgeoisie may lack other things, but they have plenty of money, giving them a significant advantage in controlling national public opinion.

The National Party's advantage lies in the ideological sphere. In a sense, the National Party is a people's party. While cooperating with the bourgeoisie and intellectuals, it also wins over the grassroots, including workers, soldiers, farmers, and so on.

Winning over all classes means that society itself has not changed at all. The solution of the national party is also very simple and crude: sacrifice the interests of ethnic groups and countries other than its own, so that the upper class can eat meat and the lower class can also get a share of soup.

This is actually the current state of the United States in the previous life. If the German National Party had won World War II in the previous life, they would just be another version of the United States.

……

After 1931, the convergence of the two forces—the bourgeoisie and the national party—in Germany and Austria became a foregone conclusion.

At the same time, the national parties of Germany and Austria gradually merged. Although they belonged to two different countries, both the German National Party and the Austrian National Party were originally German national parties, so their merger had a natural basis.

In August, Fraunfeld and other members of the Austrian National Party personally traveled to Berlin to meet with Adolf and other senior members of the German National Party, and reached a consensus.

Berlin.

With the continued deterioration of the economy, Adolf's rise in Germany became a foregone conclusion, and he moved his office from Munich to Berlin, the political center of the empire.

After hearing the purpose of Fraunfeld's trip, Adolf greatly appreciated his idea.

"Your Excellency Fraunfeld, it is an honor for the German nation to have such a visionary as you. You will surely have a place in the future imperial government."

"The unified Germany will have an area of ​​over one million square kilometers and a population of over one hundred million. I can't even imagine how much such a vast empire will elevate our nation."

"No country in the world can compare with the unified German Empire. We have vast territory, a large and the world's best population, and the most advanced and developed industry."

"Such a country, once it emerges, will inevitably make Germany the leader of Europe and even the world."

At this moment, everyone in the room was breathing heavily. After all, for those of them who aspired to the greatness of the German nation, if the Greater German Reich were to truly be realized, they would be "etched in history".

Germany was the most powerful country in Europe, even more so than the Soviet Union. With the addition of Austria-Hungary, Europe was basically without rivals.

Fraunfeld said, "What His Excellency Adolf said is exactly what I think. For us patriots, the unification of Germany and Austria is the last chance for the German nation."

"Otherwise, if the Soviet Union, the United States and East Africa continue to develop, they will inevitably interfere in the cause of European unification, and neither Germany nor Austria-Hungary will be able to stand up to these superpowers on their own."

"Especially the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union is currently undergoing industrialization. Once this major enemy, the Soviet Union, completes its industrial transformation, the difficulty for Germany to unify the whole of Europe will greatly increase."

"Therefore, German unification must be completed before the Soviet Union's industrialization. The unification of Germany and Austria-Hungary is not as simple as one plus one equals two, but rather one plus one is greater than two. At that time, the industrialized Soviet Union would not be a match for the Greater German Empire."

"Once the Soviet problem is resolved, there will be no more obstacles for the German nation to lead Europe, and even the United States and East Africa will no longer be able to interfere in European affairs."

One thing is clear from their conversation: neither the German National Party nor the Austrian National Party considers East Africans to be "Germans," at most half-Germans.

One can imagine that if they were allowed to rule the world, "purebred" Germans would be first-class citizens, while East Africans would at best be second-class citizens, or worse, perhaps even targets of "purification."

Of course, compared to countries like East Africa and the United States, the Soviet Union was clearly the obvious enemy. Apart from the fact that the Slavs were not well-liked by them, the biggest mistake the Soviet Union made was that it was located in Europe and was relatively powerful.

The saying goes, "Two tigers cannot share one mountain," so the Soviet Union was essentially a thorn in the side of both parties, especially since it was a Labour Party state. Even if the Soviet Union had not been a Labour Party state, Adolf would not have allowed such a massive country, which could potentially threaten German hegemony, to exist right next to him.

Fraunfeld stated proactively, "Our Austrian National Party has limited strength, so in the process of the reunification of Austria, His Excellency Adolf's German National Party should naturally play a leading role."

"Especially the issue of other ethnic uprisings that may occur in other parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the future reunification of the two countries."

Adolf said confidently, "There is no need to worry about that. Once I become the Prime Minister of the Empire, I will actively promote the merger of the two countries. At that time, even if there are opponents, they will not be able to stand against the Empire's army."

"Of course, this is the worst-case scenario. For the other peoples of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, we can give them a chance to join the Aryan family."

Although Adolf was quite extreme on racial issues, it did not mean that he was inflexible. What he wanted was a complete Austro-Hungarian Empire, not just Austria.

In particular, Bohemia's industry and Hungary's agriculture were important regions for enhancing the future national power of Greater Germany. Therefore, Adolf was willing to give them the option of assimilation into the German nation.

Seeing that the Austrian National Party was so perceptive, Adolf reciprocated by saying, "When the empire is unified, the German National Party and the Austrian National Party will merge, and our parties can then be collectively called the German National Party."

"And His Excellency Fraunfeld and others will also enter the highest decision-making level of the Greater German Reich government to continue to contribute to the German nation."

"However, the news of our two parties merging must be kept secret until then to prevent those with ulterior motives from getting involved."

Those present basically understood Adolf's words: to sneak into the village and wait until everything settled down before revealing that the two parties were actually one family.

Fraunfeld agreed, saying, "This is why we came to Germany secretly. If we only wanted Austria, we could have carried out our activities openly. But if we wanted the whole Austro-Hungarian Empire, we had to be careful, leave no room for criticism, and not even attract the attention of other powers."

If the relationship between the German National Party and the Austrian National Party had been revealed before the two countries were to merge, other regions and ethnic groups in the Austro-Hungarian Empire might have taken the lead in opposing the merger.

This also demonstrates Adolf's cunning. In fact, Germany under his leadership frequently used this tactic, namely "sneak attack," in wars such as the wars against Poland, France, and finally the Soviet Union, all by catching the enemy off guard.

Major events like the unification of Germany and Austria-Hungary required careful planning to prevent any opposition from taking the opportunity to resist.

Once the German army entered the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was too late for anyone else to stop them, because the German population accounted for nearly 70% of the unified German Empire. Under such circumstances, it was simply impossible for other ethnic groups to turn the tide.

The Austrian Empire had the same idea: if it could unify Germany, the national problem would be solved. However, it was completely outmaneuvered by Prussia.

Now, the situation has completely reversed, with Germany now wanting to unify Austria-Hungary, and Austria-Hungary's national strength making it virtually impossible to prevent this from happening. Of course, all of this is predicated on Adolf gaining complete control of Germany.

Adolf said, "Now, the Austrian National Party should also take action. After all, it is not good for your influence in the Austro-Hungarian Empire to be limited to Austria."

"There are also many Germans in Hungary, Bohemia, and other regions, and they should be a key target for you to win them over."

"They are a vital force for maintaining the stability of our future empire."

Even outside Austria, there are a considerable number of Germans, such as in the Sudetenland region of Bohemia, which is just a typical German settlement area.

In places like Hungary, there were also scattered German settlements and communities. After all, the Austro-Hungarian government couldn't have done nothing for decades; they were actively promoting the movement of their own populations in an attempt to alleviate the outbreak of ethnic issues.

This resulted in a population and ethnic distribution where each group was intertwined with the others. Of course, this measure by the Austro-Hungarian government did not go smoothly, as the opposition was too strong.

In this respect, East Africa has done the best. Not to mention ethnic groups, there are no special ethnic communities in East Africa. Even the issue of marriage was something that the East African government had to intervene in back then.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, however, was unable to do so due to the entanglement of various political forces. Of course, if the German population had reached 40%, the situation might have been different.

In the early Austro-Hungarian Empire, the German and Hungarian populations together comprised more than 40%, which enabled the two countries to jointly rule the empire.

Therefore, as long as the majority of the ethnic groups were large enough, and with the corresponding policies, the ethnic problems of the Austro-Hungarian Empire could be easily solved.

As for the crucial issue of insufficient majority ethnicity, the unification of Germany and Austria was actually the most effective and quickest solution.

Adolf said, "Gentlemen, this is a meeting that will determine the future of the German nation. I hope that you will not reveal a single word to the outside world before we succeed. When we succeed, we will be the greatest heroes in the history of the German nation."

……

The conspiracy between the two parties was something that even the German government, let alone Rudolf, could not have imagined that Adolf and his associates, who had not yet come to power, would be so audacious.

As for Rudolf, his focus was never on the National Party, because at the moment, the Labour Party was the biggest threat, followed by balancing the national issues at home, and also solving the empire's economic crisis. He simply couldn't afford to pay attention to a "small" party that only operated in Austria.

Since 1931, Rudolf had spent most of his time suppressing Labour Party uprisings across the country. Even Vienna saw three major rebellions that threatened the regime, not to mention other regions. The numerous uprisings, large and small, had already consumed most of his energy.

Especially in Bohemia, the most industrialized region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, various conflicts occur almost daily, with Czech nationalists taking advantage of the chaos.

The only special place in the empire was Hungary. After all, Hungary had already undergone a redistribution due to the war, and coupled with its lack of industry, it was relatively peaceful.

(End of this chapter)