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Lists of Heads of Government and Heads of State

Speaking of that, glad for all the offerings that were put forward. I think it was all rather fun. Would anyone be interested in doing another round? Possibly in its own thread and with polling about submissions?

I'd be up for another round, but I don't think there's any need for a separate thread. Maybe it should be the theme is decided by either the initial proposer, or the winner of the previous round on the understanding that they cannot enter, so that you don't have a Paul Merton on Just A Minute situation.
 
I'd be up for another round, but I don't think there's any need for a separate thread. Maybe it should be the theme is decided by either the initial proposer, or the winner of the previous round on the understanding that they cannot enter, so that you don't have a Paul Merton on Just A Minute situation.

of course i just realised we dont really have a means of choosing a winner
 
Empire [State] Business

Democratic Party presidential tickets:

1844: Martin Van Buren/John Fairfield (def. by Winfield Scott/John Tyler)
1848: in most Northern States Martin Van Buren/John Fairfield, in most Southern States, Pennsylvania James Buchanan/John A. Quitman (def. by Henry Clay/Millard Fillmore)
1852: William L. Marcy/William R. King (def. Henry Clay/Millard Fillmore)
1856: William L. Marcy/William R. King (def. John C. Frémont/Charles Sumner)
1860: Stephen A. Douglas/Herschel V. Johnson (def. by William H. Seward/Hannibal Hamlin)
1864: George B. McClellan/George H. Pendleton (def. by William H. Seward/Hannibal Hamlin)
1868: Sanford E. Church/Francis Preston Blair (def. by Ulysses S. Grant/ Reuben Fenton)
1872: endorsed Liberal Republican ticket, Horace Greeley*/Benjamin Gratz Brown (def. by Ulysses S. Grant/ Reuben Fenton)
1876: Samuel J. Tilden/Thomas A. Hendricks (def. by Roscoe Conkling/ Frederick Frelinghuysen)
1880: Henry B. Payne/William English (def. Roscoe Conkling/ Frederick Frelinghuysen)
1884: Henry B. Payne/William English (def. Chauncey Depew/John A. Logan)
1888: William English/Allen G. Thurman (def. by Chauncey Depew/William Walter Phelps)
1892: David B. Hill/Adlai E. Stevenson (def. Chauncey Depew/William Walter Phelps)
1896: David B. Hill/Adlai E. Stevenson (def. by Levi P. Morton/Garret A. Hobart*)
1900: David B. Hill/Adlai E. Stevenson (def. by Levi P. Morton/John D. Long)
1904: Alton B. Parker/Henry G. Davis (def. by John D. Long/William H. Taft)
 
German Imperial Commissioners of the League of the East Sea (1879-present)

Manfred, Count Lambsdorff (Hardliner, Courland-based) 1879-1890
"The Red Count"
Lambsdorff was a die-hard German Imperialist who believed sincerely in German supremacy and the right to control the Baltic lands. The lands of Estonia, Courland and Livonia were held firmly under Lambsdorff's fist from the time he was appointed the first Imperial Commissioner to the time when he fell severely ill and was dismissed by the Kaiser. His time in charge set the tone for the future, that of a firm German minority elite ruling over a vast and disenfranchised Baltic majority.

Ernst von Krusenstern (Hardliner, Estonia-based) 1890-1917*
"The Shadow of the Balts"
An astute man, the second son of an esteemed lineage could boast that he was out of all the Baltic German nobility, the most self-made. An industrialist, he wished to "modernise" the League so that it could more than ever deliver resources to fuel Germany's growth. He was also a moderniser in another, grimmer way as he took note of the British and Dutch innovations in Africa to implement concentration camps in the most rural parts of the Baltics for "dissidents" who refused to bow to German authority.

While all this worked wonderfully in peace time, when Germany went to war with Russia, it fell apart as Russia successfully isolated the League from Germany and provoked a Baltic rebellion that ended up overwhelming Krusenstern's defenses and hanged him.

-- vacant 1917-1919 --
"Chaos"
With Krustenstern dead and authority more or less in the hands of the "Baltic Republic", the die-hard leader ordered a purge of all Baltic Germans that ended up dividing the Republic as the far-left saw it as a way to seize power. As the months turned to years, the strength of the revolution crumbled and when the Germans finally marched back in as Russia fell apart, well...

Johann von Lieven (Reformer, Livonia-based) 1919-1930*
"A Noble Tragedy"
Even now as the East Sea League collapses finally, there are those who scream "Avenge Lieven". Johann von Lieven was a sharp departure from the firm hand championed by Lambsdorff and Krusenstern. He was a thin, awkward poet seemingly unfit for governing a League seemingly maintained by bloody force. But what he lacked in brute force, he made up in cunning and awareness. Knowing that the League was numbered unless it managed to win over the majority, he implemented reforms [bitterly opposed by the other elite but the Commissioner had absolute power] that divided Livonia and Courland to create Latvia, and granted all four provinces limited self-government. For this, he was feted in Tallinn and Riga. Perhaps the Revolution made the League more open to reforms.

Then came Black Wednesday. For years, the elite was unhappy with Lieven's liberalism, and with secret approval from the Crown Prince and unofficial Regent, they struck. The Freikorps marched through Riga where Lieven had his court, and seized him. His execution was quick and merciless, and then the Freikorps started purging any of his allies. The next two months were bloody.

Wilhelm von Gebhardt (Hardliner, Latvia-based) 1930-1941*
"A Head for a Head"
Gebhardt suspended all four devolved assemblies, declaring "the mistake is undone". Gebhardt was of the highest Baltic German nobility and supervised the events of Black Wednesday. As the masses muttered and labelled him "the Butcher of the Blackest Day", Gebhardt looked at his new realm and decided that it should return back to where it should be - namely Lebensraum.

For Gebhardt was an ally of the Nazi Party that was ascendant in the Empire and saw the East Sea as part of the future Lebensraum. Sure, Chancellor Strasser was a bit too left-wing for Gebhardt's tastes, but the Party as a whole spoke sense. And as new Germans flocked to the Baltic League, lands were seized from the masses and given to them.

All the good will Lieven built went up in fire as the people shouted at Gebhardt for taking their lands away. But as long as the Freikorps and the Militia [and the German Army was entirely willing to come over to help] were there, they posed no threat. Summary executions of the most troublesome rebels were authorised and the camps reopened, this time for a more darker purpose.

When Strasser was assassinated, Goering seized power, and within six months went to war with the Socialist Republic of Russia. This war caught Gebhardt off and he scrambled to arrange forces for the eastern front. But the Russian troops marched unceasingly and seized the Baltic lands within a year. And Gebhardt would be thrown into the same camps he threw many Balts and Jews into.

-- vacant 1941-1947 --
"Freedom and solidarity, comrade."
The Baltic Socialist Republic was restored and introduced into the growing "Global Socialist Union". Land was redistributed to the workers and soviets were set up. Meanwhile the Baltic Germans were fleeing back to Germany as the Nazis scrambled to hold power as the now-Kaiser started to assemble critics against Goering, who was seen as more unstable than Strasser. The six years under the Baltic Socialist Republic was not bad years, and even now they're lionised as "the six years of freedom".

But as the Kaiser made a devil's bargain with the French and British in 1944 to unite against the GSU, implementing the British Tosaig's "Operation Unthinkable", the Nazis were sidelined and all forces united to stop the Bolshevik menace that they decided was clearly the worst side. In the end, the Baltic lands returned once more to the Germans in the Peace of Berlin, and gained a new land, that of the once free land of Lithuania. The GSU seethed at the loss of the Balts, but looked at gains elsewhere and merely grumbled.

Claus von Quistorp (Moderate, Lithuania-based) 1947-1965
"The Architect"
A thickly-mustached man with a gruff demeanour, he was an enigma to everyone. While he was once an ally to Lieven, he renounced Lieven and everything he stood for in 1929, a year before Black Wednesday. And yet he preferred to remain politically neutral in the 1930s rather than join Gebhardt and the East Sea League into siding enthuasistically with Strasser and Goering. Indeed, he was only known to the Kaiser as a drinking buddy and not as a serious politician. But the Kaiser held a heavy distrust of any "established" Baltic German politicians who just ran the place in the ground, or in the case of Lieven went too far too fast. Quistorp to the Kaiser was "the most sensible of sensible men" and so was appointed with approval of the (freshly democratically elected) Reichstag.

Instead of cracking down harshly, or reforming too quickly, Quistorp chose to take a slow approach. It was one that would not get him the people's love, but it was also not one that would get him the elite's loathing. While the devolved assemblies were indeed restored, they now had upper chambers filled with the most powerful Baltic Germans from that region and had strong vetoes. So when democracy returned to the East Sea League, it was toothless.

As the GSU turned their eyes elsewhere, the ESL's Ministry of Immigration quietly encouraged Germans to come and settle, and the genius of it was that the Socialists seized a lot of people's lands, and so they were now in the League's hands, ready to be handed over to new settlers. Still, there were riots that had to be put down, those were unavoidable. But executions were now secret.

As the East Sea League entered the 60s, the "Alter Kommissar" chose to retire in 1965, citing old age. He ensured the League wouldn't collapse and indeed would persist, and that Baltic German control would continue. Not positively remembered, but not one of the names shouted in hate like Gebhardt or Lambsdorff.

Franz von Kotzenbue (Moderate, Estonia-based) 1965-1970
"Strangled by the Rainbow"
Kotzenbue was in many ways Quistorp's protege. Pragmatic, yet firmly ready to defend Baltic German interests. But the 60s was an era of bubbling tension everywhere. And in a country of tension such as the East Sea League, that was lethal to him. When Kotzenbue appointed more Baltic Germans to the upper houses, a movement of Balts and Estonians sprung up to protest and call for appointments from the masses. Turning to his old master for advice, his old master gruffly said "They're being ungrateful, just say no". And say no Kotzenbue did. But inspired by the protests and revolutions elsewhere, the masses turned to it themselves, calling themselves the "Rainbow Men" [and Women, they took part too], and rose up in protest in all major cities.

Summoned to the Kaiser, he stammered that this was merely a temporary crisis and that business would go as usual. The Kaiser refused to accept this and dismissed Kotzenbue. By 1970, the Kaiser went from a nuanced middle-aged man to a harder, harsher man approaching his 60s. And his choice reflected that shift.

August Eichwald (Hardliner, Latvia-based) 1970-1981
"The Baltic Roundhead"
The choice of Eichwald was unusual. Normally it was from the nobility that the Commissar was selected, but the Kaiser after being told by his SPD Chancellor that the next one would have to be an "ordinary man" to get the SPD approval, chose Eichwald. A hardliner with a firm belief in Baltic German supremacy, he was nevertheless not one to praise the aristocracy. Indeed, his base of support was with the "ordinary" Baltic Germans and with the "New Baltic Germans" that moved to the East Sea League. Not the highest of nobility.

The Rainbow Men were crushed mercilessly. No quarter was to be given. But to garner support with the more ordinary Baltic Germans, he abolished the upper houses [Balts: Yay!] and replaced them with ones elected by Baltic Germans only [Balts: Boo!]. The nobility by this time were not as powerful as they once were. The Socialist invasion meant that their vast lands were now mostly state-owned.

Eichwald was also devoutly religious and a die-hard Protestant who wanted to "cleanse heresy like the Livonian Order of old". But as much of a crusader as he was, he was made aware that a considerable amount of New Baltic Germans were, well, Catholic. So he instead focused his efforts on crushing Orthodoxy and ensuring Lithuania [a historically-Orthodox area] would be Protestant. This, he kind of failed and only wasted state money on, contributing to a ticking time bomb that would strike at some point.

When the new Kaiser, a young and quiet man inclined to liberalism, came to power he immediately dismissed Eichwald.

Balthasar Braun (Reformer, Courland-based, then Vorumia-based) 1981-1997
"The Diamond Man"
Everything should have worked against Braun. A young man with bright blond hair except for a distinctive pitch-black streak, he was a self-professed socialist and radical who often railed against the Baltic German elite's control of the League, arguing for a restoration of the Baltic Socialist Republic. Many shouted at the Kaiser that this was a huge mistake and even the SPD was reluctant to vote him through. But as Braun returned to the East Sea League with a bright and disturbingly wide smile, he clearly had a plan.

Dismissing Eichwald's court, he made sure to tell the military to "dispose" of them, and they did. Braun was not, unlike expectations, naive. He knew that if he was to implement the reforms both he and the Kaiser wished, he would have to be brutal. Extremely brutal. The first thing he did was to create the province of Vorumia in the east, which would be directly under his authority. It guaranteed him security as none of the Baltic German nobility had influence in Vorumia. It was a land free of them.

The next thing Braun did was suspend the upper houses, handing over all power to the lower houses, ensuring that there was democracy in the East Sea League. Just as expected, some desperate nobility tried to off him to get a "better" Commissar. With that plot defeated, he seized the opportunity to declare that the nobility has "betrayed" the League and that their entire privileges were forfeit. Despite shock back home in Germany, leading to a Zentrum-BVP coalition taking charge, Braun knew German law very well. While the Reichstag had to vote to confirm a Commissar, it couldn't revoke one. That was the Kaiser's charge, and the Kaiser approved of his policies so far. As many of the nobility moved to Germany cursing Braun's name they seeded the Empire's downfall in the 2030s.

It was now 1988. When the Socialist Republic of Russia started to crumble, Braun was there, declaring that "the gates to freedom are open for any of the human race". The GSU was still strong elsewhere, but with Russia falling it was quite a blow, but to Braun it was a huge boon. Part of what prevented any reform was fear of Russian socialism. Now that Russia was under a new regime, it was time to move forward with reforms. In 1989, he announced that the Ministry of Immigration's "Ostsiedlung" policy was now repealed. Baltic Germans would have to go through the normal process, same as everyone else. While Chancellor Paul Kettler frostly declared that this was an exceptionally unwise decision from an unwise leader, Braun read a letter of praise from the Kaiser.

This was the zenith of Balthasar Braun. It could only go down from here.

In 1990, he finally consolidated power firmly in himself, with the legislative assemblies answerable direct to him. He could now veto anything they passed, and this caused alarmbells with the Kaiser, which led to a letter advising his dear friend to not seize the power of a dictator and instead focus on liberalising the place. Braun disregarded that letter. From 1991 forth, he styled himself first as "Präsident" and only second as "Kommissar", in the fused title of "Präsident und Kommissar". It was clear to all his ultimate plan.

The Kaiser in the opening winter days of 1992 sent a final letter of warning to Braun. Only focus on what the Kaiser charged you to do, and do not go further. Braun wrote back that the Kaiser did not understand his ultimate plan. The Kaiser was going to tell the Chancellor that he would dismiss Braun, but then he fell into a coma due to a massive heart attack. The Regent, the Kaiser's younger brother, received a letter telling him that only the Kaiser, and not the Regent, could dismiss Braun. The Regent accepted this, somewhat naively.

The writer of the letter was now free to establish his own dictatorial republic. With the bourgeois Baltic Germans so far mumbling in agreement with Braun's more liberal arguments, he had a sustainable base of them and the non-German masses despite the fact the Baltic Germans didn't like that he ended Ostsiedlung. But in 1994, he would blow it up. What everyone forgot about Braun, despite his controversies, was that he was a honest-to-God socialist who adored the Baltic Socialist Republic's land redistribution efforts. But they would receive a sharp reminding when he announced the first of the "land adjustment" policies. State-land allocated to Baltic German settlers were now to be given to the indigenous peoples. "Baltic Socialism" rung all across German newspapers as even the SPD felt forced to disapprove of it, given the big moral outrage spreading across Germany at the time.

But the legality of it meant that the one person who could end Braun's dictatorship was in a coma. Neither the Reichstag nor the Regent could. That is, of course until the Regent figured he could just easily appoint a new Commissar and the League would just accept that Braun's time was over, right?

Wilfried Parrot (Moderate, Germany-based) 1995-1999
"Shouting in the Air"
Parrot wasn't a controversial choice. But when he went to the East Sea League with his credentials, Braun sharply replied "Have you my dismissal papers?". This Parrot did not, and was forced to return to Berlin, to sit as the official Commissar while the East Sea League essentially ruled as its own independent republic under a President who held absolute power, power so absolute that even the word of the Regent meant nothing in the East Sea. The rhetoric in Berlin became increasingly hardline, as reformer thoughts became unwelcome or labelled as "Braunite", the worst sin to be labelled as. Even the SPD leaned heavily in it.

Braun knew very well that he was on borrowed time. Once the Kaiser finally perished, the young son could grant cert to his dismissal. And this is why he set up the President role and quietly funnelled all power to it. The Commissar was appointed by the Kaiser, but the President was appointed by one man, himself. So when Parrot finally returned in 1996 with the dismissal papers, Braun declared "We have no need of a Commissar, we have a President". Parrot retreated to Berlin once more and told the Regent this.

There were cries of wishing to declare war, but with Russia seeing this as an opportunity, they quickly allied with Braun against Germany. Braun also got the GSU on his side, and the Entente quietly guaranteed his independence. So Germany couldn't fight its defiant colony without starting WWIII. Braun was triumphant. And so in early 1997, he finally declared the country he wanted to restore for so long. He declared the third incarnation of the Baltic Socialist Republic, with himself in charge.

-- vacant 1997-1999--
"A revolution inevitably doomed"
This caused many in the country to recoil. Especially when Braun announced more land redistribution plans, this time targetting the middle-class. The Baltic Socialist Republic fell into infighting between those that wanted a more centrist Republic, those that stayed loyal to Braun and those that wanted a more right-wing, more pro-German one. And it was this last one that made a deal with the invading Empire. By 1999, despite condemnations from the Entente, the Baltic lands were for the third time, restored to German control.

Kurt Zöpffel (Hardliner, Lithuania-based) 1999-2015*
"The Man with the Ice Eyes"
Zöpffel was not the person even the right-wing rebels wanted. He was a produce of a bitter atmosphere in Berlin that wanted to take mindless revenge on the Baltic lands. To the SPD's credit, they at least saw Zöpffel as too much a danger and voted against him, which led to many attacks on them in newspapers. Short, boney, always in a dark suit and with thick glasses covering icy-blue eyes, he never smiled, except when he was with his daughter who was close to him.

With Braun hanged on live television and everyone who supported his Socialist Republic purged brutally, Zöpffel turned his attention to the reforms that Braun implemented. The devolved assemblies was suspended for good and everyone who sat in them locked away. However, Braun had allies outside the East Sea League, powerful ones. And as the Entente and Russia announced an embargo on the East Sea League, Zöpffel knew Germany was not enough support, so he quietly funded the fascist coup in Scandinavia with resources, ensuring that the once democratic Kingdom of Scandinavia became the National Republic, a brutal land of Nordic fascism that wouldn't collapse until the 2030s. But of course, this knowledge quietly spread elsewhere and the East Sea League was expelled from the UN, .

This Zöpffel did not mind. The East Sea League would stand on its own. His main concern was keeping order in an unruly land full of tension. And barbarians, said his mind. That too. One of his first priorities would be restoring Ostsiedlung. And reversing the "nonsensical" land adjustment policy Braun implemented. The first was easy. The second... let just say that people were reluctant to let go of their lands. And that it had to be done with force. Too much force.

As riotings and police attacks intensified in Riga and Tallinn, Zöpffel was summoned back to Berlin for a talking down by the Regent and told to "do what is necessary". When he arrived back to Kaunas, he found that rioters killed his daughter. The following months would see the old camps reopened, plenty of people disappeared mysteriously. The condemnations came, but by this time his regime was immune as Germany strengthened its commitment.

By 2007, the East Sea League was more than ever an insular regime based around Baltic German ethnic nationalism and an authoritarianism never before seen. The land would burn. Blood spilt on streets as the Freikorps essentially cleansed entire neighbourhoods and many cities saw ethnic Balts, Estonians and Voro flee for the rural countryside. Those cities would be the bastion of the Baltic Germans until the 2030s. The savagery got so much that the Reichstag voted to symbolically censure Zöpffel and condemn his regime. The Kaiser refused to dismiss him. Yet more seeding for the fall of the Empire in the 2030s as even social-democrats became distrustful of the monarchy that was eager to defend barbarity in Europe.

As the 2010s passed, Zöpffel's regime became more and more entrenched, and he mentored several hardline politicians that would come after him, and when his death came in 2015, they presented their names to the Kaiser.

-- vacant 2015-2017 --
"Limbo"
None of them got the approval of the Reichstag. The SPD, in a coalition with the DFP, USPD and AdÖ, refused point blank to vote for a hardliner. Zöpffel was too much, and they wanted a moderate. The Kaiser called an election in 2016, sure that the people would punish the left for this. The coalition won a bigger majority. Still intransigent, the Kaiser made a public declaration that if the Reichstag would not vote for the Commissioner, that he would abdicate the throne as the Reichstag has clearly decided that Germany was a Republic. In the end, despite breaking everything in German politics, the Kaiser got what he wanted as DFP and AdÖ politicians broke to vote through a new hardliner, blowing up the coalition and ensuring a new Zentrum government [with NLP, DBD and AdÖ] would take charge.

Emil Anderson (Hardliner, Estonia-based) 2017*
"Surprisingly Brief"
After all that bitterness, the resulting Commissar proved too brief. The Baltic Liberation Army, a growing liberation force building itself in the countryside, used those two years without a Commissar to plot his assassination. With Anderson entering Tallinn, a car laden with explosives went straight at his car and destroyed a lot of the surroundings, while ending the brief commissioner.

-- vacant 2017 --
With the DBD and AdÖ freshly in coalition with Zentrum and NLP, the ecologist parties ended up walking out of government over of all things, nuclear power, forcing an election. The Kaiser couldn't appoint a Commissioner, so when the Reichstag finally reconvened, he gave them his final choice - no more Commissioners. Instead, it was to be a hereditary vassal state of Germany, with his sister at the helm as the first "Archduchess of the Eastern Sea". And this, he gave the Reichstag no say, as it was entirely in the Kaiser's power to do.

Well, the USPD [the quasi-legal successor of the banned KPD] decided enough was enough and successfully poisoned the Kaiser. Everything went to hell after that as shouting led to more shouting and accusations flew. It's a miracle it didn't result in civil war.

Meanwhile, the would-be Archduchess decided to travel to her would-be realm...

Cecile I, Archduchess of the Eastern Sea (Hardliner, Courland-based) 2017-2025*
"God save us from the Archduchess!"
Cecile ran a tight ship. Basing her power off a controversial decision by the Kaiser that nobody knew for sure went through, she successfully gathered the Baltic German loyalty behind her. All through her reign, the East Sea League [aka the Archduchy of the Eastern Sea] was in a bloody war with the Baltic Liberation Army. Sweden-in-Finland sent troops experienced at holding down an uppity majority which included cutting-edge technology such as surveillance and attack drones. Authoritarianism was renewing itself. As 2019 dawned, Cecile finally got full confirmation of Germany's approval of her status, although it went with being the official Commissioner due to a frosty compromise between the Reichstag and new Kaiser that also saw the banning of the USPD.

In 2024, the Baltic Liberation Army facing major losses, went underground and the place was once more, tragically again, under the firm control of a German-led autocracy. Cecile, tyrant of the Baltics, died in a car crash in 2025.

Wilhelm I, Archduke of the Eastern Sea (Moderate, Courland-based) 2025-present?
"Betwixt Heaven and Hell"
Unlike his mother, Prince Wilhelm was a softer soul although one hardened by the brutal war. Confirmed as Commissioner easily by the Reichstag, having already inherited the Archduchy of the Eastern Sea, Wilhelm was the first Archduke to be crowned in the Baltics.

Known as someone who overthought things and didn't have the confidence to actually do much decisions, this reluctance is what made many Baltic people, embittered by the past, see him as not a reformer but a weak-willed autocrat that could be overthrown. But his mother's crushing the Baltic Liberation Army meant that for many years the resistance to Wilhelm was weak. But it was growing. Meanwhile in Germany, things were spinning out of control, something that would prove lethal to the Empire and the Eastern Sea.

The SPD together with the DFP and BDB was in charge during a shaky economic "prosperity" that would prove ephemeral and finally burst in the winter of 2028, leading to riots and the rise of the NFP, the spiritual successor to the Nazis. With the next government after the 2029 election being a Zentrum-DNVP coalition, while "Arbeiterkandidaten" won several seats that were once KPD/USPD, it was clear that German politics were on an one-way road to hell, again. And that caused its puppet regime to shake.

The Baltic economy did not get off the recession lightly, and indeed suffered. Even though the drones intimidated many, the protests persisted until Wilhelm finally gave in and restored the democratic assemblies. They all returned firmly nationalist majorities that demanded more power be given to the regions. And this a weak-willed Wilhelm did. For a while, it looked like his weakness would enable reform, but then after a phone call from an adamant Kaiser, he quietly abolished the assemblies once more in 2033.

This created outrage and even more protests, which led Wilhelm to order the Freikorps to crush the protests, but he once more set up the assemblies in 2036. This time, they all declared that Wilhelm must go. Now, as spineless as he was, he was in no mood to surrender his mother's inheritance. So he dismissed the assemblies again and ordered purges of the growing loud Baltic academia.

As the situation worsened in late 2037, German politics finally broke down. The APD [Workers' Party, the latest successor of the KPD] and the NFP surged to first and second respectively even though a shaky coalition of the others could prevent either from seizing power. This could have been possible, if it wasn't for the radicalisation of the AdÖ and their infamous "Bonn Declaration" that the world needed to be seized by greens by force if necessary if it wished to live. In 2038, the "Soldiers of Earth" rose up, and one by one, the growing paramilitary forces of the APD, NFP and others rose up, sinking Germany into a bloody civil war.

And the Baltic people were not ignorant of this as they quickly rose up and through 2038 the Baltic Liberation Army slowly stirred and organised people together. Wilhelm looked out from his castle window and saw masses marching through Libau. Panicking, he ordered an escape through a secret underground route. Nobody knows where he ended up or if he's dead or not. All they know is that he's missing. And that with the Kaiser rather... preoccupied with a German civil war, no commissioner is coming.

Perhaps, perhaps, in this year of blood and tears, the Baltic people can finally find liberation.
 
Leaders of the Justice Party
1975-1976: Wallace Lawler
1976-1979: Cyril Smith
1979-1980: Desmond Donnelly

In 1974, a spate of IRA bombings raised the issue of the reintroduction of capital punishment, with a vote being held on the subject in December. The Noes won the day, and most MPs voted along party lines - apart from six Labour and three Liberal MPs. These members found themselves increasingly on the fringes of their parties, and met privately to discuss strategies for the reintroduction of hanging. Over the next few months, discussions ranged into a variety of areas and they decided to form a new centrist party to break the mould of British politics - largely at the instigation of Cyril Smith, who believed that the Liberals were very much a busted flush even before the Norman Scott affair came out in mid-'75.

Some of the pro-capital punishment Labour MPs remained with their party out of tribal loyalty, but the Justice Party nevertheless launched itself with a fanfare, counting among their number Smith, Wallace Lawler, Albert Roberts and Peter Doig from the Lib-Lab parties, and the mercurial figure of Desmond Donnelly from the Conservatives. Donnelly had previously been a member of the Common Wealth, Northern Ireland Labour, British Labour, and Democratic parties, so this was just another notch on his bedpost, as it were. The group decided on the Justice name partly because of their focus on the hanging issue, and partly because their other major policy was a Land Value Tax as promoted by, for instance, the Danish Justice Party. Other policies included the banning of fluoridation, the return of national service, the curtailment of the welfare state, the banning of abortion after 12 weeks and the introduction of voluntary repatriation for immigrants.

In short, it was a typical centrist party.

The Justice Party was an instant hit with the electorate, polling at 18% in one early poll, but once the novelty of a new national party wore off, things suffered a bit of a downturn. Such a small number of MPs could barely organise the panoply of branches cropping up everywhere, with the result that many of the new members were not only rank amateurs in terms of electioneering but also, often, dangerously off-message. It remains a subject of scholarly debate as to whether the JP was subject to entryism from the National Front or whether it merely attracted a large amount of defectors therefrom. The parliamentary party was little better, especially after John Stonehouse's application was accepted: Stonehouse had been outed as a Czech spy, fallen into financial disrepute, and faked his own death by this point.

It is sometimes alleged that the Stonehouse drama killed the JP's first leader, Birmingham MP Wallace Lawler - however, he had in fact been ill for a while, and this had hampered the early growth of the party. Lawler was a strong community politician with a lot of heterodox and (needless to say) illiberal views, and was seen as being the right man for the job of setting up the party infrastructure in the early running, although it is widely accepted that he only became Leader because the more characterful Cyril Smith was frightened of the press scrutiny which would come with being leader of a party that was decidedly less of a media darling than the Liberal Party.

Smith, however, stepped into the breach after Lawler's death. There was no real alternative. He was a talented self-promoter and another dedicated local MP, essentially functioning as the entirety of Politics in Rochdale. As Leader, he was in his element in the context of a Labour minority government, the Lib-Lab Pact having lost its majority with the formation of the Justice Party. Smith ably negotiated welfare cuts, a tough line against unions taking industrial action, and - most importantly - a referendum on capital punishment to be held at the same time as the next general election. Donnelly and the ex-NF cohort were disappointed at his reluctance to crack down on immigration, but were otherwise broadly satisfied with Smith's browbeating of Labour over these difficult years. On the other hand, some historians now blame the Justice Party's inflammatory position towards the unions as a contributory factor in the Winter of Discontent.

As the Parliament drew to a close, it became quite clear that the Justice Party was in rough waters: the change in Leader, the mercenary tactics with regard to the unpopular Government, and recurring scandals about Party members (brought up weekly by a hostile media) combined to make for despondency and factional unrest. Nobody is sure who it was who leaked allegations of Smith's abuse of children to the press in early 1979, but it spread like wildfire and solidified the public mood of mistrust. Smith's understandable absence from Parliament for the vote of no confidence that evening guaranteed that Callaghan would be vanquished by a single vote. He resigned as leader (and from the Party) shortly afterwards, lost his seat at the election, and was jailed in 1980.

Desmond Donnelly stepped up to the crease as Leader during the combined election and referendum campaign - the third Justice Party Leader in four years. As could be expected, the electorate cared neither for him, nor for his scandal-ridden party, and did not return a single JP Member of Parliament. Donnelly was the only one even to save his deposit. To add insult to injury, the capital punishment referendum was so bound up with the public's feelings on the Justice Party and the Callaghan ministry that it was defeated by 52% to 48%, despite most polls before and since indicating the opposite result. The best that could be said about the 1979 general election was that the Justice Party at least beat the National Front into a cocked hat.

The Party soldiered on for a few more months, amid mounting debt, but came to a crashing halt when a despondent Desmond Donnelly took an overdose of barbiturates on the first night of the Party Conference in 1980. The delegates voted to wind it up the following day, in the absence of any credibility, popularity or even a potential Leader who anyone had heard of.
 
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Leaders of the Justice Party
1975-1976: Wallace Lawler
1975-1979: Cyril Smith
1979-1980: Desmond Donnelly

In 1974, a spate of IRA bombings raised the issue of the reintroduction of capital punishment, with a vote being held on the subject in December. The Noes won the day, and most MPs voted along party lines - apart from six Labour and three Liberal MPs. These members found themselves increasingly on the fringes of their parties, and met privately to discuss strategies for the reintroduction of hanging. Over the next few months, discussions ranged into a variety of areas and they decided to form a new centrist party to break the mould of British politics - largely at the instigation of Cyril Smith, who believed that the Liberals were very much a busted flush even before the Norman Scott affair came out in mid-'75.

Some of the pro-capital punishment Labour MPs remained with their party out of tribal loyalty, but the Justice Party nevertheless launched itself with a fanfare, counting among their number Smith, Wallace Lawler, Albert Roberts and Peter Doig from the Lib-Lab parties, and the mercurial figure of Desmond Donnelly from the Conservatives. Donnelly had previously been a member of the Common Wealth, Northern Ireland Labour, British Labour, and Democratic parties, so this was just another notch on his bedpost, as it were. The group decided on the Justice name partly because of their focus on the hanging issue, and partly because their other major policy was a Land Value Tax as promoted by, for instance, the Danish Justice Party. Other policies included the banning of fluoridation, the return of national service, the curtailment of the welfare state, the banning of abortion after 12 weeks and the introduction of voluntary repatriation for immigrants.

In short, it was a typical centrist party.

The Justice Party was an instant hit with the electorate, polling at 18% in one early poll, but once the novelty of a new national party wore off, things suffered a bit of a downturn. Such a small number of MPs could barely organise the panoply of branches cropping up everywhere, with the result that many of the new members were not only rank amateurs in terms of electioneering but also, often, dangerously off-message. It remains a subject of scholarly debate as to whether the JP was subject to entryism from the National Front or whether it merely attracted a large amount of defectors therefrom. The parliamentary party was little better, especially after John Stonehouse's application was accepted: Stonehouse had been outed as a Czech spy, fallen into financial disrepute, and faked his own death by this point.

It is sometimes alleged that the Stonehouse drama killed the JP's first leader, Birmingham MP Wallace Lawler - however, he had in fact been ill for a while, and this had hampered the early growth of the party. Lawler was a strong community politician with a lot of heterodox and (needless to say) illiberal views, and was seen as being the right man for the job of setting up the party infrastructure in the early running, although it is widely accepted that he only became Leader because the more characterful Cyril Smith was frightened of the press scrutiny which would come with being leader of a party that was decidedly less of a media darling than the Liberal Party.

Smith, however, stepped into the breach after Lawler's death. There was no real alternative. He was a talented self-promoter and another dedicated local MP, essentially functioning as the entirety of Politics in Rochdale. As Leader, he was in his element in the context of a Labour minority government, the Lib-Lab Pact having lost its majority with the formation of the Justice Party. Smith ably negotiated welfare cuts, a tough line against unions taking industrial action, and - most importantly - a referendum on capital punishment to be held at the same time as the next general election. Donnelly and the ex-NF cohort were disappointed at his reluctance to crack down on immigration, but were otherwise broadly satisfied with Smith's browbeating of Labour over these difficult years. On the other hand, some historians now blame the Justice Party's inflammatory position towards the unions as a contributory factor in the Winter of Discontent.

As the Parliament drew to a close, it became quite clear that the Justice Party was in rough waters: the change in Leader, the mercenary tactics with regard to the unpopular Government, and recurring scandals about Party members (brought up weekly by a hostile media) combined to make for despondency and factional unrest. Nobody is sure who it was who leaked allegations of Smith's abuse of children to the press in early 1979, but it spread like wildfire and solidified the public mood of mistrust. Smith's understandable absence from Parliament for the vote of no confidence that evening guaranteed that Callaghan would be vanquished by a single vote. He resigned as leader (and from the Party) shortly afterwards, lost his seat at the election, and was jailed in 1980.

Desmond Donnelly stepped up to the crease as Leader during the combined election and referendum campaign - the third Justice Party Leader in four years. As could be expected, the electorate cared neither for him, nor for his scandal-ridden party, and did not return a single JP Member of Parliament. Donnelly was the only one even to save his deposit. To add insult to injury, the capital punishment referendum was so bound up with the public's feelings on the Justice Party and the Callaghan ministry that it was defeated by 52% to 48%, despite most polls before and since indicating the opposite result. The best that could be said about the 1979 general election was that the Justice Party at least beat the National Front into a cocked hat.

The Party soldiered on for a few more months, amid mounting debt, but came to a crashing halt when a despondent Desmond Donnelly took an overdose of barbiturates on the first night of the Party Conference in 1980. The delegates voted to wind it up the following day, in the absence of any credibility, popularity or even a potential Leader who anyone had heard of.

Good work.

Nice to see you create such phreshness.Thank you.
 
German Imperial Commissioners of the League of the East Sea (1879-present)

Manfred, Count Lambsdorff (Hardliner, Courland-based) 1879-1890
"The Red Count"
Lambsdorff was a die-hard German Imperialist who believed sincerely in German supremacy and the right to control the Baltic lands. The lands of Estonia, Courland and Livonia were held firmly under Lambsdorff's fist from the time he was appointed the first Imperial Commissioner to the time when he fell severely ill and was dismissed by the Kaiser. His time in charge set the tone for the future, that of a firm German minority elite ruling over a vast and disenfranchised Baltic majority.

Ernst von Krusenstern (Hardliner, Estonia-based) 1890-1917*
"The Shadow of the Balts"
An astute man, the second son of an esteemed lineage could boast that he was out of all the Baltic German nobility, the most self-made. An industrialist, he wished to "modernise" the League so that it could more than ever deliver resources to fuel Germany's growth. He was also a moderniser in another, grimmer way as he took note of the British and Dutch innovations in Africa to implement concentration camps in the most rural parts of the Baltics for "dissidents" who refused to bow to German authority.

While all this worked wonderfully in peace time, when Germany went to war with Russia, it fell apart as Russia successfully isolated the League from Germany and provoked a Baltic rebellion that ended up overwhelming Krusenstern's defenses and hanged him.

-- vacant 1917-1919 --
"Chaos"
With Krustenstern dead and authority more or less in the hands of the "Baltic Republic", the die-hard leader ordered a purge of all Baltic Germans that ended up dividing the Republic as the far-left saw it as a way to seize power. As the months turned to years, the strength of the revolution crumbled and when the Germans finally marched back in as Russia fell apart, well...

Johann von Lieven (Reformer, Livonia-based) 1919-1930*
"A Noble Tragedy"
Even now as the East Sea League collapses finally, there are those who scream "Avenge Lieven". Johann von Lieven was a sharp departure from the firm hand championed by Lambsdorff and Krusenstern. He was a thin, awkward poet seemingly unfit for governing a League seemingly maintained by bloody force. But what he lacked in brute force, he made up in cunning and awareness. Knowing that the League was numbered unless it managed to win over the majority, he implemented reforms [bitterly opposed by the other elite but the Commissioner had absolute power] that divided Livonia and Courland to create Latvia, and granted all four provinces limited self-government. For this, he was feted in Tallinn and Riga. Perhaps the Revolution made the League more open to reforms.

Then came Black Wednesday. For years, the elite was unhappy with Lieven's liberalism, and with secret approval from the Crown Prince and unofficial Regent, they struck. The Freikorps marched through Riga where Lieven had his court, and seized him. His execution was quick and merciless, and then the Freikorps started purging any of his allies. The next two months were bloody.

Wilhelm von Gebhardt (Hardliner, Latvia-based) 1930-1941*
"A Head for a Head"
Gebhardt suspended all four devolved assemblies, declaring "the mistake is undone". Gebhardt was of the highest Baltic German nobility and supervised the events of Black Wednesday. As the masses muttered and labelled him "the Butcher of the Blackest Day", Gebhardt looked at his new realm and decided that it should return back to where it should be - namely Lebensraum.

For Gebhardt was an ally of the Nazi Party that was ascendant in the Empire and saw the East Sea as part of the future Lebensraum. Sure, Chancellor Strasser was a bit too left-wing for Gebhardt's tastes, but the Party as a whole spoke sense. And as new Germans flocked to the Baltic League, lands were seized from the masses and given to them.

All the good will Lieven built went up in fire as the people shouted at Gebhardt for taking their lands away. But as long as the Freikorps and the Militia [and the German Army was entirely willing to come over to help] were there, they posed no threat. Summary executions of the most troublesome rebels were authorised and the camps reopened, this time for a more darker purpose.

When Strasser was assassinated, Goering seized power, and within six months went to war with the Socialist Republic of Russia. This war caught Gebhardt off and he scrambled to arrange forces for the eastern front. But the Russian troops marched unceasingly and seized the Baltic lands within a year. And Gebhardt would be thrown into the same camps he threw many Balts and Jews into.

-- vacant 1941-1947 --
"Freedom and solidarity, comrade."
The Baltic Socialist Republic was restored and introduced into the growing "Global Socialist Union". Land was redistributed to the workers and soviets were set up. Meanwhile the Baltic Germans were fleeing back to Germany as the Nazis scrambled to hold power as the now-Kaiser started to assemble critics against Goering, who was seen as more unstable than Strasser. The six years under the Baltic Socialist Republic was not bad years, and even now they're lionised as "the six years of freedom".

But as the Kaiser made a devil's bargain with the French and British in 1944 to unite against the GSU, implementing the British Tosaig's "Operation Unthinkable", the Nazis were sidelined and all forces united to stop the Bolshevik menace that they decided was clearly the worst side. In the end, the Baltic lands returned once more to the Germans in the Peace of Berlin, and gained a new land, that of the once free land of Lithuania. The GSU seethed at the loss of the Balts, but looked at gains elsewhere and merely grumbled.

Claus von Quistorp (Moderate, Lithuania-based) 1947-1965
"The Architect"
A thickly-mustached man with a gruff demeanour, he was an enigma to everyone. While he was once an ally to Lieven, he renounced Lieven and everything he stood for in 1929, a year before Black Wednesday. And yet he preferred to remain politically neutral in the 1930s rather than join Gebhardt and the East Sea League into siding enthuasistically with Strasser and Goering. Indeed, he was only known to the Kaiser as a drinking buddy and not as a serious politician. But the Kaiser held a heavy distrust of any "established" Baltic German politicians who just ran the place in the ground, or in the case of Lieven went too far too fast. Quistorp to the Kaiser was "the most sensible of sensible men" and so was appointed with approval of the (freshly democratically elected) Reichstag.

Instead of cracking down harshly, or reforming too quickly, Quistorp chose to take a slow approach. It was one that would not get him the people's love, but it was also not one that would get him the elite's loathing. While the devolved assemblies were indeed restored, they now had upper chambers filled with the most powerful Baltic Germans from that region and had strong vetoes. So when democracy returned to the East Sea League, it was toothless.

As the GSU turned their eyes elsewhere, the ESL's Ministry of Immigration quietly encouraged Germans to come and settle, and the genius of it was that the Socialists seized a lot of people's lands, and so they were now in the League's hands, ready to be handed over to new settlers. Still, there were riots that had to be put down, those were unavoidable. But executions were now secret.

As the East Sea League entered the 60s, the "Alter Kommissar" chose to retire in 1965, citing old age. He ensured the League wouldn't collapse and indeed would persist, and that Baltic German control would continue. Not positively remembered, but not one of the names shouted in hate like Gebhardt or Lambsdorff.

Franz von Kotzenbue (Moderate, Estonia-based) 1965-1970
"Strangled by the Rainbow"
Kotzenbue was in many ways Quistorp's protege. Pragmatic, yet firmly ready to defend Baltic German interests. But the 60s was an era of bubbling tension everywhere. And in a country of tension such as the East Sea League, that was lethal to him. When Kotzenbue appointed more Baltic Germans to the upper houses, a movement of Balts and Estonians sprung up to protest and call for appointments from the masses. Turning to his old master for advice, his old master gruffly said "They're being ungrateful, just say no". And say no Kotzenbue did. But inspired by the protests and revolutions elsewhere, the masses turned to it themselves, calling themselves the "Rainbow Men" [and Women, they took part too], and rose up in protest in all major cities.

Summoned to the Kaiser, he stammered that this was merely a temporary crisis and that business would go as usual. The Kaiser refused to accept this and dismissed Kotzenbue. By 1970, the Kaiser went from a nuanced middle-aged man to a harder, harsher man approaching his 60s. And his choice reflected that shift.

August Eichwald (Hardliner, Latvia-based) 1970-1981
"The Baltic Roundhead"
The choice of Eichwald was unusual. Normally it was from the nobility that the Commissar was selected, but the Kaiser after being told by his SPD Chancellor that the next one would have to be an "ordinary man" to get the SPD approval, chose Eichwald. A hardliner with a firm belief in Baltic German supremacy, he was nevertheless not one to praise the aristocracy. Indeed, his base of support was with the "ordinary" Baltic Germans and with the "New Baltic Germans" that moved to the East Sea League. Not the highest of nobility.

The Rainbow Men were crushed mercilessly. No quarter was to be given. But to garner support with the more ordinary Baltic Germans, he abolished the upper houses [Balts: Yay!] and replaced them with ones elected by Baltic Germans only [Balts: Boo!]. The nobility by this time were not as powerful as they once were. The Socialist invasion meant that their vast lands were now mostly state-owned.

Eichwald was also devoutly religious and a die-hard Protestant who wanted to "cleanse heresy like the Livonian Order of old". But as much of a crusader as he was, he was made aware that a considerable amount of New Baltic Germans were, well, Catholic. So he instead focused his efforts on crushing Orthodoxy and ensuring Lithuania [a historically-Orthodox area] would be Protestant. This, he kind of failed and only wasted state money on, contributing to a ticking time bomb that would strike at some point.

When the new Kaiser, a young and quiet man inclined to liberalism, came to power he immediately dismissed Eichwald.

Balthasar Braun (Reformer, Courland-based, then Vorumia-based) 1981-1997
"The Diamond Man"
Everything should have worked against Braun. A young man with bright blond hair except for a distinctive pitch-black streak, he was a self-professed socialist and radical who often railed against the Baltic German elite's control of the League, arguing for a restoration of the Baltic Socialist Republic. Many shouted at the Kaiser that this was a huge mistake and even the SPD was reluctant to vote him through. But as Braun returned to the East Sea League with a bright and disturbingly wide smile, he clearly had a plan.

Dismissing Eichwald's court, he made sure to tell the military to "dispose" of them, and they did. Braun was not, unlike expectations, naive. He knew that if he was to implement the reforms both he and the Kaiser wished, he would have to be brutal. Extremely brutal. The first thing he did was to create the province of Vorumia in the east, which would be directly under his authority. It guaranteed him security as none of the Baltic German nobility had influence in Vorumia. It was a land free of them.

The next thing Braun did was suspend the upper houses, handing over all power to the lower houses, ensuring that there was democracy in the East Sea League. Just as expected, some desperate nobility tried to off him to get a "better" Commissar. With that plot defeated, he seized the opportunity to declare that the nobility has "betrayed" the League and that their entire privileges were forfeit. Despite shock back home in Germany, leading to a Zentrum-BVP coalition taking charge, Braun knew German law very well. While the Reichstag had to vote to confirm a Commissar, it couldn't revoke one. That was the Kaiser's charge, and the Kaiser approved of his policies so far. As many of the nobility moved to Germany cursing Braun's name they seeded the Empire's downfall in the 2030s.

It was now 1988. When the Socialist Republic of Russia started to crumble, Braun was there, declaring that "the gates to freedom are open for any of the human race". The GSU was still strong elsewhere, but with Russia falling it was quite a blow, but to Braun it was a huge boon. Part of what prevented any reform was fear of Russian socialism. Now that Russia was under a new regime, it was time to move forward with reforms. In 1989, he announced that the Ministry of Immigration's "Ostsiedlung" policy was now repealed. Baltic Germans would have to go through the normal process, same as everyone else. While Chancellor Paul Kettler frostly declared that this was an exceptionally unwise decision from an unwise leader, Braun read a letter of praise from the Kaiser.

This was the zenith of Balthasar Braun. It could only go down from here.

In 1990, he finally consolidated power firmly in himself, with the legislative assemblies answerable direct to him. He could now veto anything they passed, and this caused alarmbells with the Kaiser, which led to a letter advising his dear friend to not seize the power of a dictator and instead focus on liberalising the place. Braun disregarded that letter. From 1991 forth, he styled himself first as "Präsident" and only second as "Kommissar", in the fused title of "Präsident und Kommissar". It was clear to all his ultimate plan.

The Kaiser in the opening winter days of 1992 sent a final letter of warning to Braun. Only focus on what the Kaiser charged you to do, and do not go further. Braun wrote back that the Kaiser did not understand his ultimate plan. The Kaiser was going to tell the Chancellor that he would dismiss Braun, but then he fell into a coma due to a massive heart attack. The Regent, the Kaiser's younger brother, received a letter telling him that only the Kaiser, and not the Regent, could dismiss Braun. The Regent accepted this, somewhat naively.

The writer of the letter was now free to establish his own dictatorial republic. With the bourgeois Baltic Germans so far mumbling in agreement with Braun's more liberal arguments, he had a sustainable base of them and the non-German masses despite the fact the Baltic Germans didn't like that he ended Ostsiedlung. But in 1994, he would blow it up. What everyone forgot about Braun, despite his controversies, was that he was a honest-to-God socialist who adored the Baltic Socialist Republic's land redistribution efforts. But they would receive a sharp reminding when he announced the first of the "land adjustment" policies. State-land allocated to Baltic German settlers were now to be given to the indigenous peoples. "Baltic Socialism" rung all across German newspapers as even the SPD felt forced to disapprove of it, given the big moral outrage spreading across Germany at the time.

But the legality of it meant that the one person who could end Braun's dictatorship was in a coma. Neither the Reichstag nor the Regent could. That is, of course until the Regent figured he could just easily appoint a new Commissar and the League would just accept that Braun's time was over, right?

Wilfried Parrot (Moderate, Germany-based) 1995-1999
"Shouting in the Air"
Parrot wasn't a controversial choice. But when he went to the East Sea League with his credentials, Braun sharply replied "Have you my dismissal papers?". This Parrot did not, and was forced to return to Berlin, to sit as the official Commissar while the East Sea League essentially ruled as its own independent republic under a President who held absolute power, power so absolute that even the word of the Regent meant nothing in the East Sea. The rhetoric in Berlin became increasingly hardline, as reformer thoughts became unwelcome or labelled as "Braunite", the worst sin to be labelled as. Even the SPD leaned heavily in it.

Braun knew very well that he was on borrowed time. Once the Kaiser finally perished, the young son could grant cert to his dismissal. And this is why he set up the President role and quietly funnelled all power to it. The Commissar was appointed by the Kaiser, but the President was appointed by one man, himself. So when Parrot finally returned in 1996 with the dismissal papers, Braun declared "We have no need of a Commissar, we have a President". Parrot retreated to Berlin once more and told the Regent this.

There were cries of wishing to declare war, but with Russia seeing this as an opportunity, they quickly allied with Braun against Germany. Braun also got the GSU on his side, and the Entente quietly guaranteed his independence. So Germany couldn't fight its defiant colony without starting WWIII. Braun was triumphant. And so in early 1997, he finally declared the country he wanted to restore for so long. He declared the third incarnation of the Baltic Socialist Republic, with himself in charge.

-- vacant 1997-1999--
"A revolution inevitably doomed"
This caused many in the country to recoil. Especially when Braun announced more land redistribution plans, this time targetting the middle-class. The Baltic Socialist Republic fell into infighting between those that wanted a more centrist Republic, those that stayed loyal to Braun and those that wanted a more right-wing, more pro-German one. And it was this last one that made a deal with the invading Empire. By 1999, despite condemnations from the Entente, the Baltic lands were for the third time, restored to German control.

Kurt Zöpffel (Hardliner, Lithuania-based) 1999-2015*
"The Man with the Ice Eyes"
Zöpffel was not the person even the right-wing rebels wanted. He was a produce of a bitter atmosphere in Berlin that wanted to take mindless revenge on the Baltic lands. To the SPD's credit, they at least saw Zöpffel as too much a danger and voted against him, which led to many attacks on them in newspapers. Short, boney, always in a dark suit and with thick glasses covering icy-blue eyes, he never smiled, except when he was with his daughter who was close to him.

With Braun hanged on live television and everyone who supported his Socialist Republic purged brutally, Zöpffel turned his attention to the reforms that Braun implemented. The devolved assemblies was suspended for good and everyone who sat in them locked away. However, Braun had allies outside the East Sea League, powerful ones. And as the Entente and Russia announced an embargo on the East Sea League, Zöpffel knew Germany was not enough support, so he quietly funded the fascist coup in Scandinavia with resources, ensuring that the once democratic Kingdom of Scandinavia became the National Republic, a brutal land of Nordic fascism that wouldn't collapse until the 2030s. But of course, this knowledge quietly spread elsewhere and the East Sea League was expelled from the UN, .

This Zöpffel did not mind. The East Sea League would stand on its own. His main concern was keeping order in an unruly land full of tension. And barbarians, said his mind. That too. One of his first priorities would be restoring Ostsiedlung. And reversing the "nonsensical" land adjustment policy Braun implemented. The first was easy. The second... let just say that people were reluctant to let go of their lands. And that it had to be done with force. Too much force.

As riotings and police attacks intensified in Riga and Tallinn, Zöpffel was summoned back to Berlin for a talking down by the Regent and told to "do what is necessary". When he arrived back to Kaunas, he found that rioters killed his daughter. The following months would see the old camps reopened, plenty of people disappeared mysteriously. The condemnations came, but by this time his regime was immune as Germany strengthened its commitment.

By 2007, the East Sea League was more than ever an insular regime based around Baltic German ethnic nationalism and an authoritarianism never before seen. The land would burn. Blood spilt on streets as the Freikorps essentially cleansed entire neighbourhoods and many cities saw ethnic Balts, Estonians and Voro flee for the rural countryside. Those cities would be the bastion of the Baltic Germans until the 2030s. The savagery got so much that the Reichstag voted to symbolically censure Zöpffel and condemn his regime. The Kaiser refused to dismiss him. Yet more seeding for the fall of the Empire in the 2030s as even social-democrats became distrustful of the monarchy that was eager to defend barbarity in Europe.

As the 2010s passed, Zöpffel's regime became more and more entrenched, and he mentored several hardline politicians that would come after him, and when his death came in 2015, they presented their names to the Kaiser.

-- vacant 2015-2017 --
"Limbo"
None of them got the approval of the Reichstag. The SPD, in a coalition with the DFP, USPD and AdÖ, refused point blank to vote for a hardliner. Zöpffel was too much, and they wanted a moderate. The Kaiser called an election in 2016, sure that the people would punish the left for this. The coalition won a bigger majority. Still intransigent, the Kaiser made a public declaration that if the Reichstag would not vote for the Commissioner, that he would abdicate the throne as the Reichstag has clearly decided that Germany was a Republic. In the end, despite breaking everything in German politics, the Kaiser got what he wanted as DFP and AdÖ politicians broke to vote through a new hardliner, blowing up the coalition and ensuring a new Zentrum government [with NLP, DBD and AdÖ] would take charge.

Emil Anderson (Hardliner, Estonia-based) 2017*
"Surprisingly Brief"
After all that bitterness, the resulting Commissar proved too brief. The Baltic Liberation Army, a growing liberation force building itself in the countryside, used those two years without a Commissar to plot his assassination. With Anderson entering Tallinn, a car laden with explosives went straight at his car and destroyed a lot of the surroundings, while ending the brief commissioner.

-- vacant 2017 --
With the DBD and AdÖ freshly in coalition with Zentrum and NLP, the ecologist parties ended up walking out of government over of all things, nuclear power, forcing an election. The Kaiser couldn't appoint a Commissioner, so when the Reichstag finally reconvened, he gave them his final choice - no more Commissioners. Instead, it was to be a hereditary vassal state of Germany, with his sister at the helm as the first "Archduchess of the Eastern Sea". And this, he gave the Reichstag no say, as it was entirely in the Kaiser's power to do.

Well, the USPD [the quasi-legal successor of the banned KPD] decided enough was enough and successfully poisoned the Kaiser. Everything went to hell after that as shouting led to more shouting and accusations flew. It's a miracle it didn't result in civil war.

Meanwhile, the would-be Archduchess decided to travel to her would-be realm...

Cecile I, Archduchess of the Eastern Sea (Hardliner, Courland-based) 2017-2025*
"God save us from the Archduchess!"
Cecile ran a tight ship. Basing her power off a controversial decision by the Kaiser that nobody knew for sure went through, she successfully gathered the Baltic German loyalty behind her. All through her reign, the East Sea League [aka the Archduchy of the Eastern Sea] was in a bloody war with the Baltic Liberation Army. Sweden-in-Finland sent troops experienced at holding down an uppity majority which included cutting-edge technology such as surveillance and attack drones. Authoritarianism was renewing itself. As 2019 dawned, Cecile finally got full confirmation of Germany's approval of her status, although it went with being the official Commissioner due to a frosty compromise between the Reichstag and new Kaiser that also saw the banning of the USPD.

In 2024, the Baltic Liberation Army facing major losses, went underground and the place was once more, tragically again, under the firm control of a German-led autocracy. Cecile, tyrant of the Baltics, died in a car crash in 2025.

Wilhelm I, Archduke of the Eastern Sea (Moderate, Courland-based) 2025-present?
"Betwixt Heaven and Hell"
Unlike his mother, Prince Wilhelm was a softer soul although one hardened by the brutal war. Confirmed as Commissioner easily by the Reichstag, having already inherited the Archduchy of the Eastern Sea, Wilhelm was the first Archduke to be crowned in the Baltics.

Known as someone who overthought things and didn't have the confidence to actually do much decisions, this reluctance is what made many Baltic people, embittered by the past, see him as not a reformer but a weak-willed autocrat that could be overthrown. But his mother's crushing the Baltic Liberation Army meant that for many years the resistance to Wilhelm was weak. But it was growing. Meanwhile in Germany, things were spinning out of control, something that would prove lethal to the Empire and the Eastern Sea.

The SPD together with the DFP and BDB was in charge during a shaky economic "prosperity" that would prove ephemeral and finally burst in the winter of 2028, leading to riots and the rise of the NFP, the spiritual successor to the Nazis. With the next government after the 2029 election being a Zentrum-DNVP coalition, while "Arbeiterkandidaten" won several seats that were once KPD/USPD, it was clear that German politics were on an one-way road to hell, again. And that caused its puppet regime to shake.

The Baltic economy did not get off the recession lightly, and indeed suffered. Even though the drones intimidated many, the protests persisted until Wilhelm finally gave in and restored the democratic assemblies. They all returned firmly nationalist majorities that demanded more power be given to the regions. And this a weak-willed Wilhelm did. For a while, it looked like his weakness would enable reform, but then after a phone call from an adamant Kaiser, he quietly abolished the assemblies once more in 2033.

This created outrage and even more protests, which led Wilhelm to order the Freikorps to crush the protests, but he once more set up the assemblies in 2036. This time, they all declared that Wilhelm must go. Now, as spineless as he was, he was in no mood to surrender his mother's inheritance. So he dismissed the assemblies again and ordered purges of the growing loud Baltic academia.

As the situation worsened in late 2037, German politics finally broke down. The APD [Workers' Party, the latest successor of the KPD] and the NFP surged to first and second respectively even though a shaky coalition of the others could prevent either from seizing power. This could have been possible, if it wasn't for the radicalisation of the AdÖ and their infamous "Bonn Declaration" that the world needed to be seized by greens by force if necessary if it wished to live. In 2038, the "Soldiers of Earth" rose up, and one by one, the growing paramilitary forces of the APD, NFP and others rose up, sinking Germany into a bloody civil war.

And the Baltic people were not ignorant of this as they quickly rose up and through 2038 the Baltic Liberation Army slowly stirred and organised people together. Wilhelm looked out from his castle window and saw masses marching through Libau. Panicking, he ordered an escape through a secret underground route. Nobody knows where he ended up or if he's dead or not. All they know is that he's missing. And that with the Kaiser rather... preoccupied with a German civil war, no commissioner is coming.

Perhaps, perhaps, in this year of blood and tears, the Baltic people can finally find liberation.

This is really fantastic Tibby, the way the story zooms in and out on the Baltic and the wider world is especially well done.
 
gimmick for the gimmick gods

Hail to the King / Hail, Columbia

1789-1797: John Jay (nonpartisan)
1797-1801: Samuel Johnson (Presidentialist)
1801-1805: George Clinton (“Clintonian”)
1805-1809: Alexander Hamilton (“Hamiltonian”)
1809-1817: DeWitt Clinton (“Clintonian”, later “Gothamite”)
1817-1825: Willie Blount (Gothic)
1825-1825: Daniel D. Tompkins (Gothic) ‡
1825-1829: François Blanchet (Gothic)
1829-1833: John Randolph of Roanoke (Southern Gothic) ‡
1833-1837: Charles King (Gothic)
1837-1845: Peter D. Vroom (Gothic)
1845-1849: John Slidell (Southern Gothic)
1849-1850: Stephen W. Kearny (Gothic) ‡
1850-1853: James Alexander Hamilton (Gothic)
1853-1857: Henry C. Murphy (Gothic)
1857-1861: John Slidell (Southern Gothic)*
1861-1869: Charles Wilkes (Military Junto, later “Tridentine”)
1869-1877: Hamilton Fish (“Universal” Gothic)
1877-1885: Philip Kearny (Tridentine)
1885-1893: Alfred Thayer Mahan (Tridentine)
1893-1901: Joseph McKenna (Universalist)
1901-1902: Theodore Roosevelt (Tridentine)
1902-1905: William Claiborne Owens (Tridentine)
1905-1913: Seth Low (Universalist) ‡
1913-1917: William Dudley Foulke (Universalist)
1917-1921: Charles Evans Hughes (Universalist)
1921-1925: Nicholas Murray Butler (Tridentine)
1925-1933: Bainbridge Colby (Universalist)
1933-1936: Franklin D. Roosevelt (Universalist)
1936-1941: James R. Garfield (Universalist)
1941-1943: William Langer (Tridentine – martial law)*
1943-1949: Dwight D. Eisenhower (martial law - nonpartisan)*
1949-1957: Thomas E. Dewey (nonpartisan)[1]
1957-1965: William O. Douglas (Legalist)
1965-1969: Jacob Javits (Legalist)
1969-1977: Claiborne Pell (Legalist)
1977-1981: Mike Gravel (“Young” Legalist)
1981-1981: Alexander Haig (martial law)*
1981-1985: Mike Gravel (“Young” Legalist)
1985-1989: Shirley Chisholm (Legalist)
1989-1993: Jeane Kirkpatrick (Neutralist)
1993-1993: Pat Buchanan (Neutralist martial law)*
1993-2001: J. Ruth Bader (Legalist)
2001-2005: Judd Gregg (“Right” Legalist)
2005-2010: Jim McGreevey (“Right” Legalist)*
2010-2013: Barack Obama ("Right” Legalist)
2013-2021: Matt Gonzalez (“Left” Legalist)*
2021-: Eric Garcetti + Beto O'Rourke + Bill de Blasio (Triumvirs of the New Republic)

[1] People laughed amusingly at the newspapers saying "Dewey defeats Eisenhower" mainly under the assumption that it was a clerical error and Dewey was about to get shot.
 
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Designated Survivor: You Don't Need A Weatherman

1969-1973: Nelson Rockefeller (Democratic)
1968 (with George W. Romney) def. Hubert Humphrey (Democratic), George Wallace (American Independent)
1973-1976: Scoop Jackson (Democratic)
1972 (with John McKeithen) def. Nelson Rockefeller (Republican), George Wallace (American Independent)
1976-0000: Sterling R. Cockrill (Independent)
1976 (with Walter Washington) def. George Wallace (All-American), Tom Hayden (Democratic), Nelson Rockefeller (Republican)

This is based on a conversation @moth and I had on twitter, basically my attempt to do Designated Survivor in the 70s with a somewhat 2010s!America political feel.

There are some little PODs going on behind the scenes such as the SDS never breaking apart and the Weather Underground never forms, instead SDS evolves into a sort of DSA analogue, similarly Huey Newton never goes to prison so Eldridge Cleaver can't take control of the Black Panthers and lead them to ruin, the Panthers never quite go down the Black Liberation Army path and instead become our Black Lives Matter analogue. George Wallace never has his born-again moment, as he's never injured in an assassination attempt and while he rows back on segregation in the later 70s its only so he can take aim at other ethnic minorities and domestic leftists, and the AIP evolves into a much wider right-wing populist All-American movement, which is the MAGA analogue.

Sterling J. Cockrill is my version of Tom Kirkman, I thought he made sense as a Scoop HUD type, and I thought it also made sense that he might initially get on with Nelson Rockefeller until he tries to take back the White House.
 
List of Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom
1945-1949: Hugh Dalton (Labour)
1949-1950: Sir Stafford Cripps (Labour)
1950-1957: Harold Macmillan (Conservative)
1957-1961: Selwyn Lloyd (Conservative)
1961-1965: Peter Thorneycroft (Conservative)
1965-1967: Harold Wilson (Labour)
1967-1972: Christopher Soames (Conservative)
1972: Julian Amery (Conservative)
1972-1974: Michael Stewart (Labour)
1974-1977: Anthony Crosland (Labour)
1977-1981: Robert Carr (Conservative)
1981-1986: Geoffrey Rippon (Conservative)
1986-1995: Geoffrey Howe (Conservative)
1995-1996: Norman Fowler (Conservative)
1996-2001: Gordon Brown (Labour)
2001-2008: Iain Duncan Smith (Conservative)
2008-2016: Boris Johnson (Conservative)
2016-2018: Liz Truss (Conservative)
2018-: Vince Cable (Labour)

There is a gimmick.
 
A list based on the AH short story Southern Strategy, by Michael Flynn (no, not that one). An underrated piece, crammed with historical ironies and in-jokes, and one which I'd encourage anyone with ten spare minutes to read.

Presidents of the United States of America

1913 - 1919: Woodrow Wilson (Democratic)
1912 (with Thomas Marshall) def. Theodore Roosevelt (Progressive), William Taft (Republican), Eugene Debs (Socialist)
1916 (with Thomas Marshall) def. Charles Hughes (Republican), Allan Benson (Socialist)


1919 - 1921: Thomas Marshall (Democratic)

1921 - 1929: William McAdoo (Democratic)
1920 (with Samuel Ralston) def. Warren Harding (Republican), Eugene Debs (Socialist)
1924 (with Franklin Roosevelt) def. Robert La Follette (Republican), Norman Thomas (Socialist)


1929 - 1930: Franklin Roosevelt (Democratic)
1928 (with Joseph Robinson) def. Calvin Coolidge (Republican)
1930 Resigned due to health issues


1930 - 1933: Joseph Robinson (Democratic)

1933 - 1941: Herbert Hoover (Republican)
1932 (with Charles Curtis) def. Joseph Robinson (Democratic), Norman Thomas (Socialist)
1936 (with W. Franklin Knox) def. Huey Long (Democratic), Robert "Young Bob" La Follette, Jr. (Progressive/Farmer-Labor joint ticket)


1941 - 1944: W. Franklin Knox (Republican) †
1940 (with Wendell Willkie) def. Richard Russell, Jr. (Democratic)

1944: Wendell Willkie (Republican)

1944 - 1945: Henry Stimson (Republican)

1945 - 1949: Alben Barkley (Democratic)
1944 (with Scott Lucas) def. Arthur Vandenberg (Republican)

1949 - 1953: Harold Stassen (Republican)
1948 (with Rexford Tugwell) def. Alben Barkley (Democratic)

1953 - 1957: Hugo Black (Democratic)
1952 (with James Curley) def. Harold Stassen (Republican), Vito Marcantonio (Progressive)

1957 - 0000: Earl Warren (Republican)
1956 (with Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr.) def. Harry Truman (Democratic)
 
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Nothing in particular - really just a variation on The Curse of Maggie. By 'work it out' I meant just work out e.g. why Geoffrey Robinson became Labour leader and then left abruptly.

Undone by the Czech allegations?
 
Undone by the Czech allegations?
Indeed. It was that and the idea I like in AH of 'an echo of OTL happens but it's not quite there, it's seen through blurry spectacles' - old leftie Labour MP unexpectedly becomes leader following party's defeat - similar to Meadow and Roem's use of Michael Fabricant as Mayor of London in President Ashdown.
 
CaliforNoir

1935-1936: Upton Sinclair (Democratic)
1934 (with Sheridan Downey) def. Frank Merriam (Republican)
1936-1939: Sheridan Downey (Democratic)
1939-1947: Howard F. Ahmanson Sr. (Republican)
1938 (with Walter Scott Fitzgerald) def. Sheridan Downey (Democratic), Harry Bridges (End Poverty In California)
1942 (with Walter Scott Fitzgerald) def. John F. Dockweiler (Democratic), Harry Bridges (Pacific Labor)

1947-1951: Howard E. Dorsey (Democratic)
1946 (with James Roosevelt) def. Walter Scott Fitzgerald (Republican), Harry Bridges (Pacific Labor), Robert Walker Kenny (Independent)

This is more supposed to capturing a feeling than being particularly realistic.

The idea is that Sinclair wins, but is assassinated in 1936, and his successor Downey has a rather accelerated version of his shift to the right IOTL. Harry Bridges avoid some of the stumbling blocks of OTL and runs as an EPIC candidate in 1938, ultimately going on to lead an antagonistic definitely not Communist party.

Downey loses due to the splitterism, and Howard F. Ahmanson, his political interests given a shot in the arm by the election of a horrible socialist in 1934 and the insidious growth of the ILWU across California, stands and wins. The EPIC institutions established by Sinclair are subverted by the likes of Ahmanson who made his fortune selling fire insurance to houses under threat of foreclosure, and while Pacific Labor marches from strength to strength, the Democrats struggle to make an impression.

The Democrats finally get back over the line in 1946, but California replaces naked graft with a reformist xenophobe - some wind is taken out of the sails of the Republicans by centrist candidate Kenny's tilt at the highest office in the state.

and a very quick presidents list

1933-1937: Al Smith (Democratic)
1932 (with Bill Murray) def. Herbert Hoover (Republican)
1937-1945: Douglass Buck (Republican)
1936 (with Frank Knox) def. Al Smith (Democratic), Huey Long (Union)
1940 (with Frank Knox) def. Wendell Willkie [replacing Huey Long] (Democratic), numerous 'Continuity Long' regional tickets

1945-1949: Harry F. Byrd (Democratic)
1944 (with Joseph C. O'Mahoney) def. Douglas MacArthur (Republican), Francis Townsend (Independent)

My idea is Smith's selection, and the fact he was established in the 'Progressive' tradition means that the third party Progressive candidate doesn't get very far in the 1934 California governor's race, allowing Sinclair to win. The Kingfish does his Classic Plan, only to go and get assassinated on the campaign trail in 1940. While Willkie tries to imitate Long's populist campaign, its just not the same coming from an obviously wealthy businessman, and lots of splitters do regional tickets that get enough votes to get the Republicans over the line again.

WW2 goes a bit worse, with a more isolationist US, but they do eventually get involved - over the North Sea again. But the war is still dragging in 1944, and while the GOP's reputation is poor after eight years in government, MacArthur is believed to have the star power to take them over the line. However, Francis Townsend's seizure of Long's coalition, and his presence in the North and West causes enough problems that combined with th GOP's travails, allows the Democrats to take back the White House.
 
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List of British Prime Ministers
1935-1937: Stanley Baldwin (National: Conservative, Liberal National, National Labour)
1935 election: Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), Clement Attlee (Labour), John Simon (Liberal National), Herbert Samuel (Liberal), Ramsay MacDonald (National Labour), James Maxton (Independent Labour Party), Harry Pollitt (Communist)
1937-1939: Neville Chamberlain (National: Conservative, Liberal National, National Labour)
1939-1940: Neville Chamberlain (War: Conservative, Liberal National, National Labour)
1940-1941: Sir Winston Churchill (War: Conservative, Labour, Liberal National, Liberal, National Labour)
1941-1943: Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford (Peace: British People's, Independent Labour Party, Common Wealth)

1943-1947: Hastings Russell, 12th Duke of Bedford (Peace: British People's, Independent Labour Party, Common Wealth)
1943 election: 97% Peace List, 3% Blank
1947-1951: Denis Kendall (Peace: British People's, Independent Labour Party, Common Wealth)
1948 election: 95% Peace List, 4% Independents, 1% Blank
1951-1952: William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield (Peace: British People's, Independent Labour Party, Common Wealth)
1952-1954: Sir Winston Churchill (Victory: National, Labour, Communist, Liberal)
1953 election: Sir Winston Churchill (National), H. C. Evatt (Labour), Harry Pollitt (Communist), Don Bennett (Liberal)
1954-1955: Sir Winston Churchill (National)
1955-1963: Malcolm MacDonald (National)
1958 election: Malcolm MacDonald (National), Harold Soref (Social Movement), H. C. Evatt (Popular Front)
 
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