Chapter 99: Preparations

In May of 1932, the German presidential election began. Just when everyone thought Akado would certainly challenge President Hindenburg, Akado held a press conference and announced that he was withdrawing from this presidential election.

Facing the reporters’ cameras, he spoke with eloquence, declaring that at this stage, President Hindenburg was the best choice for the German people. Everyone should maintain a tolerant attitude and wait for President Hindenburg to stabilize the economic situation, giving him more time to implement policies to deal with the negative effects of the economic crisis.

His speech naturally also represented the position of the Greater Germany Party. In the subsequent presidential election, the propaganda machine of the Greater Germany Party built momentum for Hindenburg everywhere. Coupled with Hindenburg’s accumulated connections and prestige, it ultimately allowed Hindenburg to win this presidential election, defeating the challenging presidential candidate Adolf Hitler with an overwhelming advantage.

Because Akado’s withdrawal had caused Hitler’s long-prepared attack to miss its mark, it exposed Hitler’s hidden strength. The Nazi Party finally caught the attention of the Greater Germany Party. Led by Fanny and others, the Greater Germany Party, which was determined to win the parliamentary election, went full throttle, preparing to compete with the Nazi Party in the upcoming July 1932 parliamentary election.

In the streets and alleys of Berlin, in order to compete for parliamentary seats, the propaganda offensive of the Greater Germany Party came in wave after wave. On the wide streets, convoys of cars were filled with SS soldiers. These soldiers gave the German salute to the crowds on both sides of the road, shouting the slogan “Long live Akado Rudolph.”

While the external preparations for this parliamentary election were being urgently arranged, the Greater Germany Party’s own internal power struggle was also underway. There was no suspense in the process of electing a new party chairman; Akado won with an absolute, overwhelming advantage. But this did not mean that other positions were not coveted.

This was also the first time since the founding of the Greater Germany Party that a major reshuffling of power had occurred, so the forces of all sides wanted to obtain greater power and benefits in this internal party election.

First was the position of Vice-Chairman of the Greater Germany Party. Several candidates competed fiercely. Krupp, by virtue of having restored his relationship with Akado and his unwavering support for Akado’s policies, won the support of the majority and continued to serve as vice-chairman. But the other vice-chairman, Stresemann, was pushed out of this position. His approval rating within the Greater Germany Party was not high, and he could only withdraw from this important competition in dismay.

There were many other popular candidates remaining: Merkel, Loic Kater, Major General von Brauchitsch who was recommended by the military, and the recently popular figure within the Greater Germany Party, the head of the I.G. Farben company, Carl Bosch.

Speaking of which, we have to re-introduce these last two “newcomers.”

Major General von Brauchitsch was a key minister in the army who had been promoted by Akado’s own hand from the rank of major. He was a representative middle figure who compromised between the new and old Reichswehr. He possessed the conservatism and sense of honor of the old Reichswehr, yet was also deeply influenced by Akado. It could be said that he was the number two representative of the Greater Germany Party within the Reichswehr.

Of course, secretly, no one knew that he actually regarded Akado as an idol and could imitate Akado’s strange expressions when handling matters and his somewhat rustic accent when speaking. Moreover, the 4th Division under his command was also the only main force of the Reichswehr that Akado had deployed on the French border.

This general’s strategic vision was very brilliant. When laying out operational plans, he was detailed and thorough, a typical Prussian-style general. What was most commendable was that he was also very well-received within the old Reichswehr group. The Minister of Defense, Groener, had always held him in high regard and had declared in public on more than one occasion that he hoped he could take over as Commander-in-Chief of the Reichswehr or inherit the position of Minister of Defense after Akado was further promoted.

And the head of the I.G. Farben company, Carl Bosch, had only recently joined the Greater Germany Party. But because he came with a considerable fortune, he received Akado’s attention as soon as he joined. Akado personally appointed Bosch as the economic advisor of the Greater Germany Party. And the legendary I.G. Farben company was actually not a single company, nor was there a chemist named Farben. The full name of this company was the “German Dye Industry Interest Group.”

Akado had been constantly searching for the domestic production of gasoline and rubber, so he had always been paying attention to this group called the I.G. Farben company. And at this very moment, the I.G. Farben company was struggling to find a way to profit from synthetic gasoline and synthetic rubber. Bosch also happened to set his sights on the emerging Greater Germany Party and the Nazi Party.

The I.G. Farben company ultimately gave up on the Nazi Party due to the intervention of its Jewish directors. So Bosch sent his own representatives to contact the Greater Germany Party. Akado personally received these two representatives. Towards the synthetic oil and synthetic rubber technology that these two representatives were vigorously promoting, Akado showed an unprecedented interest. The three of them talked for a full four hours—when the two representatives returned to Bosch’s office, their evaluation of Akado was “he also has a deep understanding and knowledge of technical issues.”

Subsequently, the Greater Germany Party came forward and directly signed a production contract with the I.G. Farben company, ordering 100,000 tons of synthetic rubber at a high price. When he received the contract, Bosch said, “This person is more intelligent than I thought!” And so, this leader of the chemical enterprise joined the Greater Germany Party without hesitation.

The final election results forced the Greater Germany Party to undergo a not-so-small reorganization: Akado appointed von Brauchitsch and Krupp as the vice-chairmen of the Greater Germany Party. Clearly, this appointment of vice-chairmen was a necessary measure taken to balance the relationship between the military and political factions within the party.

Akado appointed Bosch as the party’s Minister of Finance, which could be said to be a show of immense trust in the newly joined Bosch. This position was only below the vice-chairman Krupp, who was in charge of economy and politics, and was a position with considerable real power.

In addition, he appointed Merkel as the party’s Minister of Foreign Relations, appointed Fanny as the party’s Minister of Propaganda, and continued to appoint Loic Kater as the party’s Minister of Personnel. These were all appointments that everyone had long anticipated. Merkel had worked tirelessly for the Greater Germany Party and deserved a position; Fanny had displayed extraordinary ability in the propaganda department, stealing the show from her boss, and it was also widely known that she had an ambiguous relationship with Akado, so her ousting of Matthof this time was “in line with popular expectations”; Loic Kater’s position was very important, and he did a good job, so of course he would be retained.

The subsequent appointments were a bit baffling: Matthof was transferred to serve as the head of the SS Police Department, splitting off a portion of the power of the SS emperor, Reinhard Heydrich; a new department called the Supervisory Department was established to supervise various issues within the party, and Jellinek Cassia was appointed as its head. This appointment had a bit of a meaning of strengthening internal management, which couldn’t help but make people connect these two orders and speculate whether Heydrich had fallen out of favor with Akado.

And in this new distribution of power, the pitiful Stresemann only received the sinecure of Minister of Logistics.

Having stabilized the party, Akado then began to lead the war chariot of the Greater Germany Party to prepare for the parliamentary election with all its might.

“According to our analysis, the votes Hitler received in the presidential election were higher than we expected. This shows that the Nazi Party has recently received the support of some factions,” Fanny said, looking at the data with a frown as she reported to Akado. “We don’t know which factions’ support they have received, so the risk in the parliamentary election is even greater.”

“We have confirmed a terrible fact through our internal statistics. If you, Mr. Chairman, had participated in the presidential election, then your votes would have been very close to Hindenburg’s and Hitler’s. It would have been impossible to determine who would win,” Loic Kater also said with great worry after reading the data in his hand. “But it’s not all bad news. We have received the support of the chemical enterprises, and our support rate within the Reichswehr is also steadily increasing.”

“We should have no problem winning the parliamentary election now. The problem is, counting the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party, I’m afraid we won’t get a majority of the seats in the parliament. Some of our planned initiatives will not be able to pass,” Fanny said, closing the file in her hand and staring at Akado with bewitching eyes. “Once the election result forms such a situation, it will be equivalent to us having lost.”

Akado waved his hand. “Don’t worry about that! What we need to do now is not to worry about what happens after the election, but to go all out to win the parliamentary election. Mobilize all the power within the party! Mobilize every member of the masses that can be mobilized! I want to win every vote we can possibly get in this election!”

“Yes, Chairman!” Fanny stood up, walked past Akado, leaving behind a trail of fragrance. Completely ignoring Anna who was standing behind Akado, she said, “Come find me after you’re done with your business! I’ll be waiting for you in the headquarters canteen for a coffee together.”

“Order a bottle of Coca-Cola for me!” Anna said, cutting in before Akado could speak. “Thank you.”

Akado was already used to these two girls competing for his affection. He smiled at Loic Kater beside him, slightly easing the awkward atmosphere, and then spoke, “How is the investigation on that matter coming along?”

“It’s almost done. There are a few young nobles, with the faint shadow of the royal family behind them, but no high-ranking cadres from our side were involved,” Loic Kater said solemnly after some thought.

“Keep these few people. When the time is right, I will personally deal with their problem,” Akado ordered with a frown. “You need to keep a close eye on things recently. I hope my Greater Germany Party is a monolithic block! Understood?”

“Understood!” Loic Kater stood up, came to attention, and gave a German salute. “Long live Akado Rudolph.”

Akado also stood up, sighed, and then said to Anna helplessly, “Let’s go, Anna! Everyone, let’s go to the canteen together! So you all won’t throw a fit again. Right! Loic Kater! You come too! We can talk about the election work on the way.”