World politics and geography Political alignment The Führer of the
Greater German Reich is the world's most powerful political leader. Besides the Reich itself, the "
Greater Germanic Empire" includes countries that are occupied (but not annexed) and others that are allied. The occupied countries have their own governments but limited sovereignty; the Nazis interfere in their internal affairs, especially in applying racial ideology. The allies, though technically independent, are subject to heavy Nazi influence; most of them represent the local varieties of racist, fascist, and radical nationalist forces.
Italy's
empire is around the
Mediterranean Sea, including the parts of Africa granted by the Reich. The Nazis compel the Italians to carry out large-scale massacres of
Arabs in their territories in the
Middle East. The nation is controlled by the
House of Savoy (headed by King Umberto) and the
Duce of the Italian Empire. While much of Africa is divided up among Germany, Italy,
Spain, and
Portugal, an "Aryan-dominated"
Union of South Africa remains as an independent ally of the German Reich. Spain is mentioned as being governed by a
caudillo, but no mention is made about the status of the
Spanish monarchy. Although it is less powerful than Germany,
Imperial Japan is a nuclear power that keeps the Reich at bay with the implicit threat of
mutually assured destruction. Moreover, Japan has its own subordinate rulers (only the Emperor of
Manchukuo is mentioned) in the
Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Despite having "an ocean of slave labor" at its disposal, Japan now concentrates upon developing high technologies. Despite the
Germano–Nipponese alliance, the Nazis consider the Japanese to be racially inferior and lacking in creativity, using propaganda pointing to a perceived decrease in Japan's technological advances as proof. Even so, Japanese tourists, students and restaurants are commonly seen within the Reich.
United States and Canada In the 1960s and the 1970s, Germany and the Axis powers defeated the
United States and
Canada in the
Third World War with the
nuclear bombs that they had developed. The key American cities of
Washington, DC and
Philadelphia were destroyed by the bombs, with their environments being rendered uninhabitable for years to come. Other cities such as
New York City,
St. Louis, and
Chicago were heavily damaged by conventional bombing raids. The US capital was moved to
Omaha, Nebraska, where a pro-Nazi puppet government was set up, and the Reich maintains Wehrmacht occupation forces in New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, and Omaha itself. Upon conquering the US, the
Einsatzkommandos and the American
white supremacists systematically kill the country's
Jewish and most of its
Black populations, with any remaining Black people being used for slave labor by the Reich. The US pays annual tribute, an important income for Germany's economy, despite US
hyperinflation and the US dollar's disappearance as a
world currency. Whenever possible, the US evades paying the tribute.
Other occupied nations Henry IX is the reigning monarch of the
United Kingdom (although his lineage is never explained), which has been annexed by the Reich. The
British Union of Fascists is the governing party, with Charlie Lynton as
Prime Minister; however, it is internally divided over the extent of the Reich's influence in its governance (reminiscent of
British euroscepticism) and the selection process for a new Führer. The
Poles,
Russians,
Ukrainians,
Estonians,
Latvians,
Lithuanians, and
Serbs are killed because they are
Untermenschen, and the
Arabs for being as "
Semitic as Jews." Moreover, the Reich, Italian Empire, Portugal, and Spain commit the genocide of the
African populations and enslave survivors. South Africa, however, still continues its
apartheid and so ironically keeps the
Black South Africans from being either killed off or used for slave labor. Any Jews found are immediately killed on sight, and while "the surviving Russians were pushed far east of the
Urals," there is much
guerrilla fighting, which requires forts to protect the German settlers. The Nazis treat the
Czechs,
Croats, and
Bulgarians relatively well, despite being Slavs: the Czechs greatly contribute to the Reich's economy, and the Croats and Bulgarians savagely persecute the Serbs by severe
racial discrimination, suppressing rebellions, and enslavement or killing of dissidents.
Iranians and
Indians are classified as "
Aryan" and so are not persecuted by the Nazis; some are even invited to study at German universities.
Technology The level of technology in the novel is much the same as in the actual 21st century. The
Wehrmacht uses jet aircraft,
panzers,
U-boats,
armoured personnel carriers,
assault rifles, and a variety of naval warships. The "Ministry of Air and Space" is mentioned as having planted a permanent outpost on the Moon and to be carrying out a human landing on
Mars, and it may be planning a crewed mission to the
Jovian moons.
Orbital weather platforms are also mentioned in the novel. Civilian technology has also advanced similarly to its military counterpart in the 21st century. Jet airliners, televisions (called televisors), computers (although the
Internet has not reached the same level as its real-life counterpart for fear of it being a "security nightmare"), modern cars, microwaves, and dishwashers are used throughout the Reich. The German population enjoys very high living standards at the expense of non-Germans throughout the Reich and occupied nations.
Society The Reich's society is culturally dominant because of its victories in the Second and the Third World Wars, and German companies and organizations dominate the economies of the allied and occupied nations.
Mercedes-Benz and
Volkswagen are thriving, and
Zeiss produces the Reich's computers and software.
Agfa-Gevaert produces television commercials that encourage Germans to migrate to the
Ostland territories, and
Lufthansa covers the air. The
British Broadcasting Corporation is mentioned throughout the novel, with the Reich's counterpart being the
Reichs-Rundfunk-Gesellschaft (RRG). A RRG newscaster, Horst Witzleben, appears several times in the novel, and his "Seven O'clock News" is highly influential. The Reich Genealogical Office has online genealogical records, which can define life and death to persons suspected of being Jewish. (In real-life, the Nazi state already used the punchcards developed by
IBM to mark out the Jews and eventually arrest them and send them to extermination camps.)
Economy The
Reichsmark is the dominant world currency and is
legal tender in the Greater German Reich, but most of the Reich's member states, territories, and allies (including the Empire of Japan, Latin America, Britain, and the United States) have national currencies. Since the Reich dictates favorable exchange rates, the Reichsmark is readily accepted (and apparently welcome) even in places in which it is not legal tender. Britain continues to use its pre-decimal
pound sterling currency, but the five-shilling Crown coin is struck in cheap aluminum, not silver, as "silver" coins were at least partly made of before World War II and briefly afterward.
Education School is the way with which the German Reich indoctrinates and controls the citizenry, starting in its youth.
Corporal punishment is practiced in schools against actions such as disrespecting a superior, not doing one's school work, and for not knowing the correct answers to teachers' questions in the classroom. The school year occupies most of the calendar year, with the only major holidays being the two-week holiday between Christmas and the
New Year, and the week-long break after
Easter. The remainder of the year is school work though one-day holidays occur infrequently. The
Hitlerjugend and
Bund Deutscher Mädel are compulsory for children in the German Reich, the Nazi gender roles having changed little. At the end of the novel, the Hitlerjugend implements changes towards preparing boys into becoming responsible, adult citizens, rather than army conscripts. The Reich education system is only for Germany; allied states and occupied territories control their own education systems. In the US, American children continue to have long
summer holidays from school, a fact that German teachers emphasize as one of the reasons for its defeat to the German Reich. German academics have key roles in the processes of racial discrimination and genocide. The German Institute for Racial Studies, part of
Friedrich Wilhelm University, is charged with defining the peoples and ethnic groups of the "Germanic Empire" that are subhuman and so are marked for genocide or slavery. At its side, as the smiling face of the Reich, is the German Institute for Foreigners (founded in 1922), charged with instructing those foreigners who fortunately were classed as "Aryans", such as
Iranians and
Indians, in the
German language and
culture. Academic life is male-dominated. Although it is possible for a woman to have an academic career, the few who do so face great difficulties and must engage in daily, petty struggles to gain privileges that are granted to men. Under Reich sexism, an assertive woman might be accused that she is "not a proper National Socialist woman," but such attitudes are regarded as old-fashioned and challenged by younger people.
Sports The Reich's sports are the sole province of the Aryans and are controlled by the German Federation of Sport, which favors German sportsmen over sportsmen from other states. It has the power to reserve the right to withdraw from competition with foreign teams and to withhold the rights of foreign teams to tour the Reich when political relations sour. An example is the boycott of Italian sports teams after a riot at a football match in
Milan between the home team's fans and the visiting
Leipzig team's fans. The deprivation of the right to tour the Reich and of having the Reich's teams visit is financially hurtful.
Germany won a recent
World Cup but now is challenged by a powerful, multi-racial
Brazil, with
Negroes and
Native Americans, among others.
Surviving Jews Although the Jews are considered to be exterminated in 2010,
anti-Semitic stereotypes remain strong in popular culture and official propaganda and are an important part of school education. The books of anti-Semitic author
Julius Streicher (
Trust No Fox in the Green Meadow,
No Jew on His Oath, and
The Poison Mushroom) are universal reading for German children. The hidden Jews feel obliged to buy them for their children since doing otherwise might arouse suspicion. Jews both are and are not of the society surrounding them. They must constantly play the role of parroting the prevailing anti-Semitic clichés. They keep as much of their Jewish identity as can be imparted in secret meetings among themselves, with purely oral lore though some written Hebrew is taught. With the exception of the
Bible, which can be kept openly, since Christianity, while not encouraged, is allowed by the Reich, they dare not possess books on Judaism though they still exist. All of the viewpoint characters were born under the Nazis, and maintaining the masquerade is second nature. The greatest danger is when a child is told of his or her true identity, usually aged ten, which is considered old enough to keep the secret. Children often are shocked, since like all other German children, they grew up exposed to constant anti-Semitism from teachers and children's books. The adults soften the shock by teaching the children to feel privileged to belong to such a secret society. It is mentioned that the hidden Jews regard it as too dangerous to gather on the Major Holidays and fasts of Judaism, such as
Passover and
Yom Kippur, and so they hold their secret gatherings on Minor Holidays such as
Purim.
Other minorities German industry uses
Slavic,
Black, and
Arab slave laborers for "dirty" or dangerous work. In one passage, an industrial accident in the
Ruhr is reported on television as having caused the deaths of "Twelve Aryans and an unknown number of Untermenschen."
Homosexuals are actively persecuted. Unlike Jews,
Gypsies, and other "inferior races," which are thought to have been wiped out" homosexuals continue to arise and are hunted by the security police unless they have political connections to protect them.
Locales Berlin Much of the story occurs in
Berlin. The Reich capital is replete with the monumental architecture of
Albert Speer. An important example is the
Great Hall, which can house more than 100,000 people and held the funeral of deceased Führer Kurt Haldweim. With a dome 200 m high and 250 m wide, it is crowned with a massive, gilded German eagle holding a
swastika. Nearby is the Führer's Palace, the Führer's official residence, which is guarded by soldiers from the
Infantry Regiment Großdeutschland, which is barracked near the Palace. Aside from security, it is a ceremonial, dress corps armed with (antique)
Gewehr 98 rifles and an arsenal that includes assault rifles and tanks. Next is the
Adolf-Hitler-Platz, a grand public square for rallies and such. The Soldier's Hall commemorates the German Reich's military might by exhibiting the radioactive remains of the
Liberty Bell (displayed behind lead glass),
gliders that were used to
invade Britain, the first
Panzer IV to enter the
Kremlin, and the
railroad carriage in which Imperial Germany
surrendered to the Allies in 1918, at
Compiègne, France, and in which France
surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940. The
Arch of Triumph is 170 m wide and 1700 m deep although it is modelled on the smaller
Arc de Triomphe in Paris; much of the Berlin district's automobile traffic transits through it. Because the city is populous, public transport (
rapid transit trains,
U-Bahn, and commuter railroads) is well developed; one rail station is the "South Station," near government offices. Speer's plans cause the anchoring of the south end of the main boulevard with the most monumental structures. Captured enemy weapons and battle wreckage (a British fighter plane, a Soviet tank, a US submarine
conning tower) are displayed outside the station. Berlin also has the headquarters to the key government ministries: Air and Space,
Justice,
Interior,
Transport, Food,
Economics,
Colonial, the
Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, and the
Führer's Office. The
Kurfürstendamm is a commercial district that glitters with
neon signs and reflected sun light, but the citizens of Berlin use the street's full name in their daily lives, instead of the abbreviated slang of the native. Berlin is culturally vibrant by offering residents and visitors a wildly successful musical on Churchill and Stalin (reminiscent of
The Producers) and cosmopolitan cuisines, but under the
Reinheitsgebot, the nation's medieval beer-purity law bans the importation of Japanese beer. American
fast food is a rarity because of the American economic collapse after it was defeated in World War III, despite the existence of eateries such as
The Greasy Spoon. Culturally, the toy store Ulbright offers pretty "Vicki" dolls and the "Landser Sepp" action figures (a boy's doll) to the Reich's children. Vicki dolls are made in the US with slave labour and come in different varieties, but all dolls look perfectly Aryan and so abide to Reich policy.
London Parts of the story also take place in
London, the capital of Britain. In the novel, the British people are impoverished because of the German occupation.
William Shakespeare and his works are more widely known and published in Germany than in his homeland, partly because of Britain's economic collapse. During the war, much of London was destroyed by aerial bombing and fierce urban fighting during the last-ditch resistance by
Churchill and his supporters. Key British buildings, including the
Parliament building,
Big Ben and
St Paul's Cathedral, have been completely destroyed, with photographs and paintings being their only remaining legacy. Some areas of the city have been in ruins for over 70 years because of both the harsh reparations imposed on the British by the Germans and the partisan uprisings that were completely crushed only by the mid-1970s. German city planners often visit Britain to see how it deals with building from the clean slate that they can never have. The Crown is a hotel that serves as the meeting place of the
British Union of Fascists; as its name implies, it is dominated by an enormous crown. The BUF's members have a reputation of being violent thugs, and a fight involving its members takes place outside and within the hotel. A second hotel, the Silver Eagle, hosts the Medieval English Association conference and bears a glass and steel eagle on its top. Both hotels are modern, glass-fronted structures. ==Literary criticism and significance==