The Germanic Union

The Germanic Union (GU) is a political and economic community of seventeen member states, located in Europe and Africa. It was established in 1957 by the Nuremberg Treaty, adding new areas of policy to the existing Economic Union created by Reich Chancellor Albert Speer in 1946. With almost 300 million citizens, the GU combined generates an estimated 50%-60% share of the world's nominal gross domestic product.

The GU has developed a single market through a standardised system of laws which apply in all member states, guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital. It maintains a common trade policy, agricultural and fisheries policies, and a regional development policy. All seventeen member states have adopted a common currency, the mark.

It is a federal system of government with shared power between the overarching European Parliament and the legislatures of member states. It has supranational bodies able to make decisions without the agreement of members though local issues are largely decided by the states themselves. Important institutions and bodies of the GU include the Parliament, the Council, the Court of Justice and the Central Bank. GU citizens elect the Parliament every five years.

The GU traces its origins to the Economic Union formed among eight countries in 1946. Since then the GU has grown in size through the accession of new member states and has increased its powers by the addition of new policy areas to its remit. The Treaty of Munich, signed in December 1958, further cemented the GU as an overarching government body bringing signatory nations into a single governmental entity.

Economic Union
The political climate after the end of World War II favored Western European unity under German hegemony. To Reich Chancellor Albert Speer, the originator of the Economic Union, it was a method to draw Europe together for economic recovery and to forestall any future wars upon the European continent. One of the first successful proposals for Economic Union came in 1946 with the the European Economic Community (EEC) establishing a customs union between Germany and France. With increasing German control of French business, German pressure for a complete dissolution of customs barriers became too great to ignore. It was also seen as a step towards aiding the ailing French economy which had seen major economic drops following their defeat in 1939. Cheap French labor drew German investment with customs barriers between the two nations removed allowing for an easier transfer of capital and trade across the border. The Community's founders declared it "a first step in the federation of Europe", with the hope that this would enable the rebuilding of Europe and to pursue the development of Africa. The other founding members were Italy, Burgundy, Brittany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Rumania.

European Community
In 1949 the Economic Union enlarged to include Spain, Portugal, Finland, South Africa, Ukraine, Ostland, Muscovy, and Caucuses. The latter four, seen by many as German puppets, were spun off from official German control and recognized as states of their own (though still ruled by a German citizenry who worked closely with Berlin). This allowed Germany a political majority in GU policy. With a coalition between these four states along with Brittany, Burgundy, Italy, and South Africa, Germany was able to steer all decisions made by the union. The United Kingdom would join in 1956.

The first direct, democratic elections of members to the European Parliament were held in 1951. They allowed citizens to elect 300 MEPs to the European Parliament and were the first international election in history.

The Vienna Agreement in 1955 created largely open borders without passport controls between most member states. In 1956 the GU flag began to be used and leaders signed the Single European Act. This revised the way community decision making operated to take account of its greater membership, aimed to further reduce trade barriers and introduce greater European Political Cooperation.

Germanic Union
In 1957, the Nuremberg Treaty was signed recognizing the supremacy of the European Parliament over all member states. It drew all colonies under the member nations into the Office of Regional Development, established a supranational tax to support the Union, began military integration, and established a single currency. The treaty came into force April 20, 1957.

1958 saw the ratification of the Act for the Preservation of Germanic Character. It established the conditions of citizenship in the GU. It also gave authority to the SS under the auspices of the Germanic Union to begin marking citizens as fit or unfit for life in the new Germanic Union. Those marked unfit were to be removed and segregated in camps for liquidation in order to ensure the purity of Germanic blood and the eradication of radical elements.

Nations outside the Germanic Union have pressed for accession to the GU including the Confederate States of America, the Nationalist States of America, Argentina, and Chile. Though treaties have been signed creating a quasi-union between these nations and the GU including a dismantling of trade barriers and a cohesive foreign and domestic policy, no official treaty has been signed recognizing union between them.

Member Nations

Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Portugal Finland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Rumania, Brittany, Burgundy, Ostland, Muscovy, Ukraine, Kaukusus, South Africa