Neubayern

The Kolonialgegend von Neubayern in 2303

Neubayern is the largest colonial offshoot of humanity located outside of the Core; indeed, some would define Neubayern as part of the Core simply because of its importance to Earth's colonial efforts on the French Arm. Located 18.76 light years away from Earth as measured by stutterwarp in the system formerly known as Groombridge 1618, Neubayern was founded by the Bavarians in 2169–the first human colony outside of the Core. In the 13 decades since Neubayern's foundation, it has taken on increasing importance in human affairs, as a vital first step on colonial routes leading deeper into the French Arm, and as the largest colony of united Germany–indeed, at 85 million, there are nearly as many Neubayerners as Germans on Earth. Before German reunification, Neubayern–centered upon the densely settled garden world of Nibelungen–had a fairly stable position in the interstellar community of the French Arm, but since 2293 Neubayern's fortunes have been declining in the wake of astropolitical tumult and the recent Kafer invasion. The future of Neubayern–and by extension, of all of the human colonies on the French Arm–is open in a way it never was before.

1. Overview

2. History

3. Government and Law Enforcement

1. Overview

The German colony of Neubayern, the Kolonialgegend von Neubayern (Ger: Colonial Territory of New Bavaria), includes the entire planet of Nibelungen save for non-German enclaves, as well as most of the Neubayern planetary system. Almost all of Neubayern's population of 85 million live on the garden world of Niebelungen, mainly on the eastern shore of the Ostmeer in the Neufranconia and Neuschwaben districts but including large populations in Orania (southwestern shore of the Ostmeer) and in the Grosshalbinsel (Ger: Large Peninsula) in the western habitable limb. NMeubayern's economy was initially founded upon shipbuilding and agriculture, but since Neubayern's independence the economy has diversified, taking advantage of a large domestic market, heavy foreign investment, and growing colonial trade to become one of the most diversified economies in human space outside of the Core. Since German reunification, war with France, growing competition with Earth for colonial trade, and the Kafer War have damaged the Neubayern system's economy, but nonetheless the colony remains a rich society.

The capital city, Erste Landeplatz (in Neufranconia), is the largest city in Heidelsheimat, with almost 13 million inhabitants and numerous civilian and military spaceports. Stadt am Zee (Neuschwaben)comes next with eight million, while Schönenblick (Neuschwaben), Neu Kassel (Grosshalbinsel) and Neukapstadt (Orania) follow. Nibelungen's population is mainly urban, and most immigration in the second half of the 23rd century has been directed to the planet's growing cities but large rural populations remain in the more isolated regions of Grosshalbinsel and Orania, while Grosshalbinsel is home to many of Neubayern's enclaves. This disparity between overwhelmingly urban and industrial Neufranconia and Neuschwaben, and the more balanced (and often, ethnically distinct) Grosshalbinsel and Orania, encourages many urbanites to visit the rural hinterlands. High-speed trains and airfilm routes connect the major cities of the world, but outside of the major cities in Grosshalbinsel and Orania even hydrogen road networks are relatively sparse.

Neubayern's spaceports and orbital interface facilities are maintained in exceptional condition, in part because of the heavy use made of Neubayern facilities (on-planet and in space) by local and interstellar traffic. Of the several dozen spaceports on the surface of Nibelungen, a slight majority are civilian. There are numerous orbital interface stations in orbit; traffic had fallen on many of these, but the Kafer War has sparked a massive revival.

The Deutsches Zollwesen (Neubayern) (Ger: German Customs Service) performs all off-world immigration checks at the major orbital interface stations, directing travelers to Erste Landeplatz spaceport. Neubayern has traditionally had liberal custom laws on entry, but Zollwesen agents routinely examine passengers and their property for dangerous computer and biological viruses. There is some tension with the Poles and Czechoslovaks for their station's loose entry procedures.

Nibelungen is an entire planet; as such, settlement is dispersed throughout the planet. As a tidelocked world, however, almost all settlement is concentrated on the twilight zones, which range from cold temperate to equatorial, with widely varying levels of rainfall. Tectonic stresses are common; this, and the low gravity, ensures fairly high mountains, with the highest point being the 13 250 Straussspitze (Ger: Strauss Peak) on the western shore of Westmeer, opposite the Grosshalbinsel. To a lesser degree than on Heidelsheimat (Rho Eridani), Neubayern's dense atmosphere, low gravity, and numerous mountains tends to produce high winds, particularly near the coldside.

2. History

Before the development of stutterwarp interstellar drive, the star Neubayern was known as Groombridge 1618, after its discoverer the early 19th century British astronomer Stephen Groombridge. Although relatively distant from Sol, Groombridge 1618's location within range of Bessieres made it a logical destination for exploration. In 2142, a Bavarian probe arrived in the Groombridge 1618 system, discovering the garden world of Nibelungen. Groombridge 1618's distance from Sol, and the existence of the rather more Earth-like garden world of Tirane at Alpha Centauri, discouraged plans for settlement. It is only in 2153, when the Astronomischen Reichen-Institut discovered large tantalum deposits on Wiesbaden (fourth planet out from Groombridge 1618), that the system became desirable.

The Bavarians were the first to take advantage of Groombridge 1618, renaming the star and its system Neubayern to reflect new Bavarian aspirations to establish a strong Bavarian presence on what would be known as the French Arm. The first Bavarian settlers arrived on Nibelungen in 2169–just two years after their counterparts on Tirane in Garten–following existing AR-I and Bavarian surveys. The Bavarian government was quite aware, based on Tiranean precedents, that the Melbourne Accords would allow other countries to settle this world; out of a desire to made Nibelungen purely Bavarian, the Colonial Development Ministry sought to disperse settlement, founding the colonies of Neufranconia and Neuschwaben on the Ostmeer and also settling the Grosshalbinsel on the other limb of the habitable twilight zone.

In 2175, however, the Azanians placed their own colony on Nibelungen, on the southwestern coast of the Ostmeer adjacent to the Great Desert. At that time, Azania was interested in expanding along the French Arm in concert with its ESA allies moving from the Nyotekundu outpost (founded in 2152), while many non-Bantu in South Africa (mainly Afrikaansophone Afrikaners and Coloureds, but also including Indians and Anglophone whites) were unhappy with Bantu dominance. In order to reconcile these two problems, the Azanian government decided to create the colony of Orania on the nearby ESA-dominated garden world of Nibelungen. Between 2175 and 2203, some 400 thousand Azanians immigrated to Orania, most of these being Afrikaansophones, with small Indian and Anglo-Azanian minorities.

The colonies on Nibelungen went through different forms of development. From the start, Orania faced problems of insufficient support from its colonial nation and a poor climate, relatively hot and dry. The Bavarian colonies, on the other hand, prospered, supporting tantalum mining on Wiesbaden and exploration further down the French Arm with agricultural and heavy-industrial exports. (Even at this early stage, Grosshalbinsel was distinctly more agricultural than the other two Bavarian colonies.) Alongside the Azanian and Bavarian settlements, upwards of a dozen other countries established their own sovereign enclaves in unsettled areas of Nibelungen, including Brazil, Britain, Canton, Czechoslovakia, France, Indonesia, Iran, and Poland. Relations between the four major colonies and the different enclaves were generally friendly, as even at this early stage the Bavarian colonies dominated. At the same time, though, Bavarian immigrants never predominated in the inflow of migrants to the Bavarian colonies; Austrovenia, the Netherlands, and Saxony consistently outstripped Bavaria, while other nations sent their own smaller contingents (many indirectly, via their enclaves). All said, Nibelungen enjoyed a rapidly growing population and economy despite its distance from Earth, especially once the French Arm was opened up; as a frontier world belonging to a core ESA member-state, Nibelungen supported the Anglo-French (and Bavarian) exploration and colonization missions which began to enter deeper into the French Arm by the early 23rd century. The existence of tantalum also propelled Nibelungen's shipbuilding industry, which however tended to be dominated by the Bavarians with smaller facilities under Britain and Brazil.

In 2208, the Azanian government decided to withdraw from Orania, as the Azanian mood turned introspective, focusing on southern Africa and Azania's much more prosperous Tundukubwa colony on Tirane. Eager to complete the unification of Nibelungen under Bavarian rule, the Bavarian government offered to absorb Orania; in a referendum, the Oranians overwhelmingly supported the Bavarian offer, and merger proceeded smoothly. It is at this time that large-scale emigration began from Orania: In 2208, Orania was home to just under three million people, yet despite a very high birth rate the population only tripled (versus more rapid growth still in Nibelungen as a whole) since Oranians tended to seek their fortune in the rich industrial cities of Neufranconia and Neuschwaben. Speaking a Germanic language and often white, the Oranian emigrants assimilated readily into Nibelungen's urban population. Orania proper remained a relatively conservative enclave of Afrikaner culture and stayed separate from Azania until later in the 23rd century, when that country renewed cultural and economic ties with Orania, even deploying space-based military forces in the Neubayern system in cooperation with Bavarian (and later, German) authorities.

In 2209, the fragmented colonial governments of the Neubayern system were reorganized by the Bavarians into the Kolonialgegend von Neubayern, partly on the Garten model. Four kreis (Ger: circles) were established: Neufranconia, Neuschwaben, Grosshalbinsel, and Orania. In addition to the kreis, separate bezirkes (Ger: districts) were created, in order to govern unsettled areas like the hotside Great Desert, the deep oceans, the cold side, and Bavarian installations elsewhere in the Neubayern system. The kreis were internally self-governing, and were united in a loose federation governed by a federal parliament, the Bundestag; the bezirke, however, were governed directly by the Kolonialgegend administration, which also reserved for itself all powers of defense and foreign policy. This division of labour satisfied almost all Neubayerners; virtually the only sign of discontent with the occasional Oranian agitation in support of maintaining German-Afrikaner bilingualism in Orania.

The 2209-2282 period was a period of remarkable prosperity. Population growth, for instance, was quite high; in the 2240's, Neubayern became home to more people than Terrestrial Bavaria, and the difference continued to widen. A typically high colonial birth rate was largely responsible for this, yet continuing immigration from Earth cannot be underestimated–Bavaria, Austrovenia, and the Netherlands remained consistently important sources of immigrants, while Saxony dropped off as the Bavarian colonies of Garten and the other German states picked up. A sign of Neubayern's demographic maturity was the growing concentration of the population in cities, and the beginning of large-scale emigration to other Bavarian colonies, particularly the Deutsche Kontinent (Beta Canum) and Hochbaden. Less multiethnic than the Garten colonies, the Neubayern colonies tended to be more monolithically Teutophone, with small and readily assimilable non-Germanic immigrant minorities.

The Neubayern economy also thrived, moving towards efficient modern agriculture and rapidly growing consumer industry. Neubayern's location at the beginning of the French Arm gave it a decided advantage over Garten, and the ESA colonizing nations on Earth, in supplying budding colonial markets. Foreign trade was also important, as numerous non-interstellar nations maintained their enclaves of Nibelungen in order to have an entry into the prosperous French Arm trade; Czechoslovakia and Poland cooperated in maintaining a joint interface station and two neighbouring enclaves on Grosshalbinsel, while Canton, Indonesia, and Iran also maintained substantial presences. The exhaustion of tantalum on Wiesbaden by the middle of the 23rd century did little to harm Neubayern's growing space-based industries, which had already secured a position of dominance. Indeed, many Neubayerner industrial combines were quick to install themselves in Hochbaden from the 2230s on, in order to support distant operations.

The sole major problem faced by Neubayerners was increasing dissatisfaction with French dominance of their namesake arm of human space. In part, this was because of Franco-Bavarian colonial competition–not only did Bavaria share Beta Canum with France (and Britain), but the French preempted a Bavarian presence at Nous Voila and intruded to establish their own colony on the world of Adlerhorst. Hannoverian influence also grew in Neubayern beginning in the 2240s, as Hannover founded its Joian colony and not unnaturally used Teutophone Neubayern as a support base. The Central Asian War was a very tense period for Neubayerners, owing to highly publicized Manchurian commerce raiding. Elements of the Neubayern Korps were dispatched to fight on the Central Asian front on Earth, but Neubayerners were happy enough to fight; what they were upset with, however, was a French alliance which had placed their commerce at risk. With the rapid growth of the Deutschland Beiteilung (Ger: Germany Party), the stage was set for Neubayern's happy acceptance of German reunification.

There were some battles in the outer Neubayern system between French and German forces in the War of German Reunification, but nothing to compare to the First Battle of Hochbaden. The French were unwilling to attack Neubayern–the idea of supporting local pro-independence forces in Neubayern, just as on Tirane in the Garten colonies, was discussed but soon rejected as the depth of pro-German sentiment in the system became apparent–and the French enclave of Nouveau-Alsace in Neuschwaben remained neutral. After the war's end, the Kolonialgegend government reaffirmed Neubayern's voluntary affiliation with united Germany, and Neubayern entered a new phase of its history.

The past decade of German rule, however, has been more troubled than Neubayerners had expected. The system's economy, for instance, has been in a slump for most of the previous decade. Following reunification, France began shifting many of its construction orders to French yards in the Core, and generally to detach its French Arm colonies from trade with Neubayern in keeping with the new Franco-German trade wars elsewhere in human space. The loss of many of Neubayern's best foreign markets alone would have been a problem, but the subsidized entry of businesses from the northern German states into Neubayern's trade with the former Bavarian colonies added another nexus–before the Kafer invasion, the northern German states' share of trade with the ex-Bavarian French Arm colonies beyond Neubayern had surpassed that of Garten before its separation. A tentative recovery from these shocks, based on growing domestic consumption, had begun around 2300, but it was promptly arrested by the Kafer invasion of the French Arm.

The Central Asian War, and even the War of German Reunification, had acted as a stimulus to Neubayern's industrial exports. The Kafer invasion of the French Arm, however, was almost entirely destructive in effect, destroying Hochbaden (with its four million consumers and extensive Neubayern investments) entirely and devastating the Deutsche Kontinent of Beta Canum and Dunkelheim. With Neubayern's colonial trade unlikely to recover for years, the colony's only possibility for renewed growth lies in increased exports to the Core and in increased domestic consumption, but Neubayern's Core export markets are nearing saturation while consumer confidence is low. The optimism of Neubayerners is approaching the breaking point.

Neubayern has faced an entirely new set of military problems, in the meantime. In the Bavarian era, the Neubayern Raumwaffe and the Neubayern Korps were relatively weak forces; the potential presence of deep-space threats caused the Sternkriegsmarine to be concentrated at points deeper in the French Arm, while the Core was close enough for Bavarian defense planners to rely on Earthly and Tiranean reinforcements for Neubayern in wartime. Moreover, Bavaria's good relations with the other French Arm colonial powers ensured that Neubayern existed in a friendly astropolitical environment. The War of German Reunification ended this, by creating a new French enemy. The Kafer threat made the prospect of a renewed Franco-German clash distant for the time being, but Neubayern's defense planners still must engage in contingency planning against a French invasion. Since the 2301-2302 Kafer invasion of the French Arm, Neubayerners have become painfully aware of the fact that their system would have been left almost entirely exposed to a Kafer invasion if the humans had lost the Battle of Beowulf; increasingly hysterical petitions in the press and the Bundestag for German approval of vastly increased spending on system defense forces have been ignored, as Germany concentrates on expanding its deep-space forces.

Neubayern's political relationship with reunified Germany has also come under increased scrutiny. In large part, this is because of Neubayern's diminished role: In the Bavarian interstellar community, Neubayern despite its lack of formal equality with Terrestrial Bavaria was perhaps the leading power in the Bavarian French Arm, and was that community's second-largest component behind Tiranean Garten, while in the German community Neubayern finds itself taking second place behind a dominant Earth. Although Neubayern has remained self-governing, it has very little influence on the affairs of the Earth-based German government. Almost all Neubayerners would prefer that their system be fully integrated into the Second Bundesrepublik on equal terms as Terrestrial Germany, pointing to the example of France, which includes the Hexagon and French Africa on Earth along with Nouveau-Provence on Tirane as equally important components of the French interstellar community. Pro-integration activists disagree as to whether Neubayern should hope to join Germany as a single länd (thus becoming the dominant unit inside the Second Bundesrepublik) or whether each Neubayern kreis should join as a länd of its own (thus increasing Neubayern's voice at the cost of a planetary identity). So far, a German government preoccupied by the problems of German integration on Earth has not yet turned to the question of integrating Neubayern into the new federal structure. To Neubayerners, who see their system as part of the Core, this is a terrible slight.

t-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Recently, an increasing number of Neubayerners have been questioning whether or not they are Germans. Although the cultural distance between Neubayerners and (non-Bavarian) Terrestrial Germans is not nearly as large as the difference between Freihafeners and Terrestrial Germans, the fact remains that neither community has much experience living together in a common state. Disappointed by the outcome of German reunification, it is possible that independence could become an option. Die Nibelungen Organisation (DNO), the main independence organization, won only two seats out of 354 in the Bundestag and won the support of only 9% of the Neubayern electorate in the 2300 Kolonialgegend election. However, the problematic integration of Neubayern into the new Germany and the deteriorating astropolitical situation has the potential of sharply increasing pro-independence sentiment in Neubayern.

This would create a disaster. >From Germany's perspective, the 2293-2294 secessions of Garten and Heidelsheimat, while reducing Germany's general profile and overall strength, had the advantage of making the German interstellar community one focused entirely on the French Arm. The secession of the oldest and largest German colony, a necessary link to the broader French Arm and a vital source of wealth, would wreck the German colonial enterprise; despite its liberal credentials, Germany would have to resist this in order to remain an interstellar power. Neubayern, in the meantime, can never be as homogenously united for secession as the former Garten; Neubayern unlike Freihafen has a large hard core of pro-Germans, and an Adlerhorst-type civil war between separatists and Germanophiles in the event of Neubayern's secession is quite possible. This outcome, of course, would draw in other powers, for Neubayern is not only the largest and richest French Arm colony but it dominates the only corridor connecting the Core with the French Arm, and other powers could well be tempted to intervene in the situation in order to ensure continued communications. Indeed, the large number of enclaves and other non-German sovereign territories in the Neubayern system would positively guarantee foreign involvement.

Neubayern, then, in the first years of the 24th century, faces a newly unsettled present and a potentially disastrous future. Whether or not Neubayern becomes a settled and content member of the German interstellar community or faces a much more uncertain prospect depends at least as much on luck as upon good statesmanship.

3. Government and Law Enforcement

Despite the radical changes in its affiliation, the Kolonialgegend von Neubayern's system of government has not changed since Bavaria's inclusion in reunified Germany: Unlike other colonies more distant from the Core, Neubayern was large enough and wealthy enough to have sufficient inertia to resist the few tentative German efforts at altering Bavarian-era institutions.

Neubayern remains governed by the Grundgesetz (Basic Law) of 2214. Under the Grundgesetz, the Neubayern colony was divided into four different kreis and eight bezirk separate from any kreis. The kreis are Neufranconia, Neuschwaben, Grosshalbinsel, and Orania, that is, the four major colonies including their territorial waters (out to 100 kilometres from the coastline). The kreis are self-governing, each with their own elected kreisrat (Ger: Circle Council, plural kreisräte) and local governments which are almost entirely autonomous, controlling almost all areas of local government. The kreis do not, however, control mineral resources, and all financing comes directly form the Kolonialgegend government, which has an informal veto on kreis policies by limiting spending. Each kreis includes between eight and seventeen different bezirk, which now act mainly as local administrative bodies carrying out kreis policies. (Large cities such as Erste Landeplatz are bezirks in themselves.) As well, because of its Azanian origins Orania has retained many distinct institutions, of which the most notable is the Kongreß der Völker (Ger: Congress of Peoples). The Kongreß der Völker acts as the upper house of Orania kreis, having the power to veto a given law given if a three-quarters majority of the Kongreß's members vote against it. It is a unique institution inasmuch as its one hundred Kongreßabgeordnete (Ger: Congresspeople) are elected by ethnically defined constituencies, reflecting Azanian institutions; 69 Kongreßabgeordnete were elected by Afrikaners, 22 by Germans, 3 by Indians, 1 by Zulus, and the remainder by people not belonging to the major four ethnies. Azania also maintains a limited official presence in Orania, including a small detachment of ground forces deployed in support of the Germans, an Azanian-funded university with several campuses in rural Orania in support of bilateral ties, and a large sub-embassy in Neukapstadt.

The eight bezirkes include Ostmeer and Westmeer outside of kreis territorial waters, Große Südliche Wüste (Ger: Great Southern Desert) on the hotside, Kalteseite (Ger: Coldside) on the coldside, the Raumbezirk in Nibelungen orbit, the Militärischer Bezirk including all German and Neubayern military facilities permanently stationed in-system, the Wiesbaden Bezirk (governing Neubayern IV), and the Äußerer Neubayern Bezirk (Ger: Outer Neubayern Bezirk) controlling all other German-claimed bodies and settlements in the remainder of the Neubayern system. All bezirk but the Militärischer Bezirk and Äußerer Neubayern Bezirk have elected bezirkräte (Ger: District Council, singular bezirkrat), but they are directly responsible to the Kolonialgegend-Regierung (Ger: Colonial Territory Government) and Bundestag and are effectively bodies of the central government.

The Bundestag is the main elected parliamentary body, ultimately responsible for almost all policies and institutions under local control in the Neubayern system. Following the 2300 census, the Bundestag now has 352 standing members. Like independent Freihafen and Terrestrial Germany, the Bundestag has a personalised proportional system. Neubayern's Bundestag (and kreisräte) have long had a party system, but since German reunification their membership has been in flux. There are seven major parties, listed below.

The Neubayern Block (Ger: Neubayern Bloc) won 23% of the popular vote and 134 Bundestag seats in the 2300 elections, and forms the core of the current coalition government under its long-time leader and Premierminister (Ger: Prime Minister) Ludwig Berenson. The Block is an ideologically centrist coalition committed to maximizing Neubayern's economic growth and maintaining cordial relations with the rest of the German interstellar community. It is generally seen as the party of government, and has in fact dominated twelve of the past fifteen coalition governments.

The Deutsches Sozial-Demokratisches Beteiligtes (Neubayern) (Ger: German Social Democratic Party (Neubayern)) is a mainly urban political party which won 16% of the popular vote and 108 seats in 2300. The DSDB(N) represents the acceptable face of "responsible" left-wing political activism in Neubayern, and has supported the Block for most of the past half-century. Led by André Naucler, the Social Democrats echo the Block on the DSDB(N) favours a consensus-driven model of economic growth and political change, and opposes the Socialist Party's perceived radicalism.

The Deutschland Beteiligtes (Neubayern) (Ger: Germany Party (Neubayern)) won 14% of the popular vote and 52 seats in 2300. Founded in the 2280s in keeping with the rapid rise of pro-German sentiment in Neubayern, the DB(N) at its peak in the 2292 election had the support of 30% of the electorate and won almost 150 seats, but once German reunification was achieved and the Neubayern economy began to suffer it lost support. It is generally seen by the Neubayern electorate as a single-issue party. Lately, the party has been shaken by in-fighting, as its leadership fights among itself on narrow ideological lines; it has no clear policy on Neubayern's integration into the German interstellar community and on the Neubayern economy.

The Sozialistische Partei von Neubayern (Ger: Socialist Party of Neubayern) won 11% of the popular vote and 31 seats in 2300. The SPN traces its history back to the first years of settlement, when some of the early German colonists opposed the over-hasty creation of an Earth-dominated industrial sector and the widespread introduction of Earth organisms into the Nibelungen biosphere. Since then, it has consistently advocated a transition to an ecologically friendly, politically self-governing, and economically worker-run Neubayern society, harkening back to Rosa Luxemburg and other 20th century German socialists. The SPN is somewhat isolated from the remainder of the mainstream, though it is potentially friendly towards the DNO; it represents a strong socialist subculture concentrated in the working-class districts of the major cities of Neufranconia and Neuschwaben.

The Demokratische Partei (Ger: Free Democratic Party) won 11% of the vote and 14 seats in 2300. It ranks alongside the DB(N) as a pro-German political party, and is economically and socially conservative, favouring Neubayern's complete integration into Germany. Recently, DP leader Sophie Gehring has provoked a controversy by arguing that Earth and Nibelungen should be considered the two homeworlds of the German nation, sharing responsibilities and benefits accordingly.

The Orania Beteiligtes (Ger: Orania Party) won 6% of the vote and 3 seats in 2300. Despite efforts to organize among Oranian emigrants, the OB is basically a regional party limited to the kreis of Orania, forming at the federal level a vocal pressure group in defense of Oranian interests at the federal level (particularly the preservation of Afrikaans/German bilingualism in Orania and continued transport and farming subsidies). The OP is relatively much stronger in Orania kreis, regularly forming either the party of government or the core of the opposition.

Die Nibelungen Organisation (Ger: Nibelungen Organization, commonly known by the German initials DNO) received 9% of the vote but only 2 seats in the 2300 federal elections. Inspired by the example of Freihafen, the DNO calls for Neubayern's immediate secession from the German interstellar community, preferably in alliance with other German French Arm colonies. So far, it has failed to achieve any broad success, but growing discontent with Neubayern's past decade of integration into the German interstellar community have caused a recent spike in pro-DNO and pro-independence sentiment.

The remaining eight seats are held by independents; the other 11 registered political parties in Neubayern have failed to cross the 5% threshold of support required for a political party to field candidates.

Neubayern's legal system is based on Roman law (the Code napoléon) as it has developed in Bavaria specifically and Germany generally in the past four centuries. Small recent divergences aside, it is practically identical to that of Germany, Freihafen, and other Bavarian colonies. The system of law enforcement has not changed radically since reunification, as the locally-recruited Kreispolizei (Ger: Circle Police) remain responsible for regular law enforcement in each kreis. The Kolonialpolizei (Ger: Colonial Police), often recruited from Earth, are most visible in the bezirkes; the visible role played by offworld-recruited Kolonialpolizei in galvanizing secessionist sentiment in the current Freihafen has resulted in the Kolonialgegend-Regierung opting to make the Kolonialpolizei as invisible as possible.

The criminal justice system of Neubayern is much more similar to the generally liberal and rehabilitation-oriented systems of the Core than the more conservative and punishment-oriented systems of the Frontier. Rehabilitation is preferred for almost all non-violent criminals save the most frequent repeaters. Violent criminals, in contrast, can count on much longer and less rehabilitation-oriented sentences given by unforgiving courts. The Neubayern court system is organized on the same pattern as the government generally, with bezirk-level courts responsible either to kreis-level courts (when the bezirk is including inside a kreis) or to the Höchstes Gericht von Neubayern (Ger: Supreme Court of Neubayern). All decisions can be appealed to Germany.

4. Military Presence

Until the 2290s, Neubayern had a surprisingly small military force for a colony of its size and importance. On Nibelungen's surface, the Neubayern Korps–a militarily self-sufficient unit including a single armoured division equipped with converted LkPz-VIII's (Nibelungen Luftkissenpanzergrenadier Division 'Neubayern' ), a small special duties unit (Nibelungen Jäger Brigade zvB), a light role division (23 Nibelungen Jäger Division) and a pair of reserve Jäger divisions (25 and 26 Nibelungen Jäger Divisions)–defended the planet, supplemented by a small aerospace force. No units of the Sternkriegsmarine were stationed in the Neubayern system, apart from three wings of six Wespe fighters and a squadron of SDBs; these, and space-based defenses on stations in Nibelungen orbit would suffice to defend the planet from a light naval attack. Bavarian defense planners had judged late in the 22nd century that Neubayern did not need substantial defensive forces of its own–the French Arm included nothing but Bavarian allies, any INAP or other attack upon Neubayern would have to overcome Bavarian and allied forces in the Core, and besides a large colonial military would draw valuable local resources away from economic growth. Besides, Neubayerners were an unmilitary people–the few Neubayern units sent to Earth in the Central Asian War performed below par, partly because of the much higher gravity of the human homeworld (almost two-thirds greater than Nibelungen’s level).

The War of German Reunification radically altered the astropolitical landscape of Neubayern, by making the France that had provided Neubayern with a useful security umbrella for more than a century Neubayern's enemy. French disinterest in attacking Nibelungen, for fear of accumulating heavy casualties and a negative reaction on Earth, was the only thing that spared the system from anything more than the clashes occurring on the system's periphery. Almost immediately after the war ended, Neubayerners petitioned the German government to sharply increase funding, to make the Neubayern Korps an army corps in fact as well as in name and to create a full Raumwaffe on the Garten model. However, German spending priorities differed, it being judged more cost-effective to modernize German military forces on Earth and in the French Arm beyond Neubayern; existing Neubayern system military forces were judged adequate to defend the system against a light attack, and a more serious attack could be handled by forces shuttled in from either the Core or the deeper French Arm.

In the aftermath of the devastatingly successful Kafer invasion of the French Arm, the immense Battle of Beowulf, and the penetration of a half-dozen Kafer fighters into the inner Neubayern system after Beowulf (four being destroyed by Wespe fighters, the others by Nibelungen-orbit planetary defenses), there has been near-hysterical pressure on the part of all Bundestag political parties and the Neubayern system media in general demanding that Germany immediately allocate funds to allow Neubayerners to be properly defended. Initial Terran German reluctance to allocate more funding to a system which, after all, had escaped invasion has been swiftly followed by a growing awareness of the unanimity and force of the Neubayerners' demands. Prime Minister Berenson has publically suggested that if Terran Germany does not want to allocate funds to Neubayern for the expansion of the system military, it should allow Neubayern to raise its own military forces using its own money.

5. Foreign Relations

Like all other German colonies, Neubayern's foreign relations are under the direct control of Germany. Unlike other German colonies, though, Neubayern is close enough to the Core (indeed, arguably qualifies as a member of the Core) for the German government on Earth to exercise effective control over Neubayern, eliminating the possibility of intercolonial ties such as exist further out in the French Arm. The Grundegetz specifically makes foreign policy an affair of the national government (first Bavarian, now German).

The Kolonialgegend-Regierung has limited autonomy, however, in dealing with the numerous enclaves in the Neubayern system. Generally speaking, the Neubayern government follows the lead of the German government: relations with the French of Nouveau-Alsace are frosty but polite; relations with the Czechoslovaks and Poles are friendly and hopeful; relations with the Iranians of Mouru are warm; and so on. The Neubayern government takes particular care to try to maximize trade. Neubayern's traditional export markets on Earth, in Germany and central Europe, are nearing saturation; if Neubayern could develop new trading partners, in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, it conceivably could be brought out of its slump.

6. Economy

As measured by levels of economic diversification, per capita and total output, and technological sophistication, the economy of Neubayern is much closer to that of a prosperous Core economy than anything else in the frontier. While not as large as–for instance–independent Freihafen, if Neubayern was an independent state it would rank among the largest economies of Earth. Indeed, it compares well with Britain, Germany, or New Canberra in the Core.

Since 2169, Neubayern with its garden planet Nibelungen were cultivated by Bavaria as a base for further exploration and colonization on the frontier and as a valuable prize in itself. Together with its allies (particularly non-starfaring allies like Austrovenia and Czechoslovakia), Bavaria made substantial investments in Neubayern, developing Nibelungen's potential agricultural resources and creating shipyards near Wiesbaden in order to exploit that planet's substantial tantalum (and other mineral) resources. As the Neubayern system's population grew and colonization in the French Arm expanded beyond Beowulf, the focus of growth changed as Bavaria, France, Azania, and non-starfaring central European states began to invest in Neubayern's consumer goods industries, for domestic consumption as well as for export to points elsewhere in the French Arm. This rapid industrialization reversed the trend towards agricultural production; although Neubayern is agriculturally self-sufficient, its agricultural exports have diminished greatly from their early 23rd century heyday, as manufactures have taken on increasing importance. More recently, service industries have predominated in recent economic growth, catering to an increasingly affluent urban population.

Neubayern's economy saw high growth until the 2280s, when war scares related to the Central Asian War and the growing self-sufficiency of the older Bavarian colonies reduced the colony's export markets. The system's economy only entered recession after the War of German Reunification, when Franco-German trade wars deprived Neubayern of many of its former export markets in the French interstellar community, and the northern German states began competing against Neubayern (with German government subsidies) in the German colonial market. The Neubayern economy was just beginning to recover when the Kafers invaded the French Arm, destroying or merely devastating all of Neubayern's French Arm markets.

The future of Neubayern's economy remains uncertain. Much depends on the speed of reconstruction in the French Arm–conceivably, Neubayern industrial firms could profit hugely off of this–and on the solution to Neubayern's growing problems inside the German interstellar community. The past decade's trade crises and the colony's growing domestic market have, however, encouraged a shift in attention from export markets to domestic consumption, much like that which occurred in 20th century West Germany's last quarter-century of existence; over the past decade living standards have improved visibly as the Kolonialgegend-Regierung has made massive investments into public infrastructure (transport and communications, for instance) and private citizens have gone into their savings and taken on new levels of consumer debt to increase their consumption of consumer goods. A recent slump in consumer demand associated with the Kafer War and the general astropolitical instability of the French Arm, however, has brought this period to an end. There is a serious possibility that Neubayern could slip into a very difficult recession if things do not improve quickly.

7. Demographics

The 2300 Neubayern system census–coordinated with the governments of the various non-German enclaves in the Neubayern system–revealed that in all, 85.0 million people lived in Neubayern, including 2.3 million people living in various enclaves on Nibelungen and outposts elsewhere.

Of the 82.8 million people living within the territory of the Kolonialgegend von Neubayern, almost 85% identified themselves as ethnically "German." This population grouping, however, is quite diverse, including the descendants of not only Bavarians but Austrovenians (both Austrians and Slovenes), Dutch (Teutophones and Netherlandophones), Saxons, and an increasingly large number of Hannoverians. The Neubayern German population also includes a large number of assimilated non-Germans–the descendants of Oranian emigrants in Neufranconia and Neuschwaben make up the largest of these communities, but other smaller populations include groups of British, French, Cantonese, Indonesia, Czechoslovak, and Polish descent.

Physical Adaptations

Although Nibelungen is a garden world, it differs in many crucial ways from Earth. The planet's gravity is low at 0.629 standard gees, and contributes both to a relatively thin atmosphere with a low concentration of O2 and to relatively high levels of radiation from Nibelungen's active sun. (Indeed, Neubayern is classified as a marginally active flare star, one of the only K-class stars known to flare.)

The relatively non-Earthlike environment of Nibelungen has made itself visible in the colonists, who have partly adapted to their environment. Natives of Nibelungen, for instance, tend to have large barrel-shaped chests, the better to absorb oxygen, while the low gravity tends to encourage great height–the average Nibelungener tends to be nearly two metres in height. Unfortunately, the largely northern European-derived Nibelungen population tends to be just as vulnerable to Neubayern's occasional bursts of ultraviolet radiation as their relatives on Earth; skin cancer rates tend to be high, and Neubayern oncologists are among the best in human space.

When Neubayerners leave their homeworld, they find themselves to be physically weak and less capable of exertion compared to those other humans who were raised on worlds with substantially higher gravity. This has implications in a variety of fields, ranging from the poor performances of Neubayerner units in Central Asia in the 2280s to relatively minimal adaptations for microgravity in Nibelungen-orbit facilities.

Another 11% of the Kolonialgegend's population identified themselves as "Azanians" or (more commonly) "Oranians." Several hundred thousand Indo-Azanians and Zulus aside, the 9.35 million Azanians are almost entirely speakers of Afrikaans. The old divisions on Earth between white Afrikaners and non-white Coloureds have largely disappeared, and Oranian Afrikaners are now a happily multiracial population. Only two-thirds of Neubayern's Azanians continue to live in Orania kreis, where they form almost 70% of the kreis‘ population; most of the remainder have emigrated to the prosperous cities of Neufranconia and Neuschwaben, joining generations of other emigrants. Oranians are not politically separatist, for instance tending to be almost universally bilingual in Afrikaans and Germans; they are hostile to perceived attempts by the Kolonialgegend-Regierung to intrude upon Orania kreis' traditional institutions and the Afrikaans language, but they have generally found the Kolonialgegend-Regierung and the general Neubayern population to be sympathetic to their concerns. Oranians suffer from relatively lower levels of education and health, particularly but not exclusively in their homeland; these disparities have regularly been a subject for concern among Oranians and Neubayerners generally. Oranians tend to be visibly more religious than the average Neubayerner, regularly attending church at one of their characteristically numerous Calvinist sects; this religiosity, and the rural nature of Orania kreis, has made Oranians objects of mostly good-natured fun. Oranian resentment at their colony's abandonment by Azania has largely faded, and Oranian relations with their parent nation have grown sharply.

Two million residents of the Kolonialgegend were born on Tirane; however, barely more than one million identified themselves as either "Gartener" or "Freihafener." Before secession, many Garteners had begun to emigrate to Bavaria's second-oldest colony, following the expansion of Gartener exports to the French Arm; Freihafen's independence abruptly severed this connection, forcing Neubayern's Tiranean-born residents to try to assimilate as best as they could. Many Tiranean-born Neubayerners have found this task difficult, particularly if they are of non-German descent; the specter of Adlerhorst lingers. Officially, Neubayern does not discriminate against its Tiranean-born citizens, but in practice fears that these people are Trojan horses for colonial independence movements have limited their upward mobility in the Kolonialgegend-Regierung and in the system's military and government.

The remaining one million residents of the Kolonialgegend von Neubayern are recent immigrants from a wide variety of countries. Most major countries in the Core are represented; people from various western and central Europe form the single largest share, but there are more than a hundred thousand Cantonese, Indonesians, and Indochinese living in the Kolonialgegend. Almost all of these immigrants live in urban areas, mainly in Neufranconia and Neuschwaben.

The Enclaves

When Bavaria began its settlement of the Neubayern system, it knew quite well that by itself it could not afford to settle colonies on two widely-separated worlds. The colonization of Neubayern would be particularly difficult, located as it was two star systems away from Sol. Bavaria naturally enough enlisted the support of many of its non-starfaring neighbours, giving countries like Austrovenia, the Netherlands, and Saxony immigration quotas in exchange for extensive financial contributions. Some countries, however, demanded the right to establish minor colonies on Nibelungen's surface in exchange for supporting the Bavarian colonial enterprise in Neubayern. After some hesitation, Bavaria assented.

In 2303, there are now 26 different enclaves on the surface of Nibelungen, with a combined population of 2.3 million people. The enclaves vary widely in size–Iran's Mouru enclave is home to a quarter-million people and France's Nouveau-Alsace has 200 thousand more, while Czechoslovakia's [New Moravia] and Poland's Nowy Szczecin have a hundred thousand each. Most of the enclaves are concentrated in the sparsely settled Grosshalbinsel kreis adjacent to the Westmeer.

By and large, the Kolonialgegend-Regierung and the German colonial population welcomes the enclaves. They have proven in the past to be valuable corridors for immigration and trade to Neubayern, and their existence provides the German colonial population with valuable legal loopholes and a change to enjoy new cultural experiences without boarding a starship. During the War of German Reunification, however, the difficult relations with France were reflected in Neubayern by Nouveau-Alsace's growing isolation from the wider colony; although Nouveau-Alsace's demilitarization prevented a German invasion, the post-war deterioration in Franco-German relations has hit the enclave's economy hard.

After more than a century of breakneck population growth, Neubayern's population growth has recently declined owing to the colony's growing urbanization and industrialization and its mature economy. The general fertility rate is only 2.7 children born per woman (though an average of 4.1 children per woman for self-identified Azanians or Oranians), while immigration is at an all-time low owing to the colony's depressed economy. Long-term population projections suggest that Neubayern's population will surpass Terrestrial Germany's in 2315, but that there is also a significant risk that the population might eventually stagnate.

Before the Kafer War, many Neubayerners had emigrated from their home system to the newer Bavarian colonies on the frontier. In all, more than four million people born on Neubayern lived elsewhere in the French Arm (along with a half-million in Terrestrial Bavaria), with the largest concentrations on the French Arm living in Adlerhorst’s Neumark, Beta Canum’s Deutsche Kontinent, and Hochbaden. More than one million of these people died as a result of the Kafer Invasion, with 400 thousand Neubayerners perishing in the genocide at Hochbaden alone.

Neubayern is by and large a secular society, with exceptions like the Oranians and certain Dutch Calvinist communities. Religion remains, however, a major marker of identity. In the 2300 census, 45% of the Neubayern system's residents identified themselves as Roman Catholic, while another 39% identified themselves as Protestant (mainly Lutheran or Calvinist. Of the remaining 13.6 million, most identified themselves as non-religious or atheist, while the remainder included practitioners of Buddhism, Islam, Anglican Protestantism, and Judaism. Surprisingly, more than a quarter-million practitioners of the Ramtha Cult live in Neubayern, mainly Tiranean-born Neubayerners and their families. (Ramtha Cult theology holds that the existence of a garden world in the Neubayern system is another manifestation of the lost inhabitants of Limbes, pointing to the Earth/Tiranean-compatible biology of Nibelungen and the large tantalum deposits left in the Neubayern system for early human starfarers as proof.)

Neubayern is a well-educated society. Roughly half of schoolchildren in Neubayern attend secular public schools; most of the remaining half live in organized community school systems financed by community taxes, whether religious (the Roman Catholic and Lutheran systems are particularly prominent), ethnolinguistic (Oranians living outside their ethnic homeland), or cultural (children of the socialist-leaning Neufranconia and Neuschwaben urban working classes). Orania kreis is unique in operating two public school systems, one for Afrikaansophone children and one for Teutophone children. There are more than a hundred universities and technical colleges of varying quality in Neubayern.

8. Regions and Cities

Neufranconia, located on the northeastern shore of the Ostmeer and extending west from the Kalteseite to Ostmeer territorial waters and south from Nibelungen's north pole to the equator, is the political, economic, and demographic core of Neubayern. Neufranconia enjoys a full range of climates, but most of Neufranconia's 38 million people live in the northern temperate zone; the city and planetary capital of Erste Landeplatz alone is home to 13 million people. Most of Nibelungen's heavy industry and almost half of its spaceports (civilian and military) are located in this region. A half-dozen enclaves with a total population of 600 thousand people are concentrated here, including the populous French enclave of Nouveau-Alsace.

Neuschwaben is located on the southeastern shore of the Ostmeer, again extending west from the Kalteseite to Ostmeer territorial waters and north from Nibelungen's south pole to the equator. Neuschwaben's climate is somewhat dryer than Neufranconia's, but 31 million people nonetheless live in this kreis, including eight million in the capital Stadt am Zee and five million in Schönenblick. Neuschwaben's economy specializes in light industry, including consumer goods; as a consequence, it has suffered heavily from the recent recession.

Orania, located on the southwestern shore of the Ostmeer adjacent to the Große Südliche Wüste, is the former Azanian colony. The coast has a dry Mediterranean climate similar to that of Azania's Cape Province and Tunisia in North Africa, becoming cooler towards the south and much dryer towards the west. Nine million people live in Orania, including just under seven million Oranian Afrikaners; Teutophone immigrants from elsewhere in Nibelungen form the second largest minority, and are slightly more numerous than Oranian Afrikaners in the capital city of Neukapstadt (three million people). Substantially agriculture, outside of Neukaptstadt and the other major cities Orania is quite rustic, with a sparse and rustic population. There is a very visible Azanian presence in Orania, including substantial foreign investment and occasionally joint military maneuvers.

Grosshalbinsel, located on the western limb of Nibelungen, is a large fertile peninsula that nonetheless is underpopulated, with only nine million inhabitants, equally divided between inhabitants of cities and inhabitants of rural areas. The capital city of Neu Kassel, home to 1.5 million people, is famed for its Neobaroque architecture and is a popular tourist destination; other major economic activities include light industry and agriculture. Almost 1.4 million people live in various enclaves in Grosshalbinsel, including the Czechoslovak, Polish, and Ukrainian. A region that often feels neglected by the Neubayern system government, the DNO is particularly strong here.

The Große Südliche Wüste, the Kalteseite, and the Äußerer Neubayern Bezirk are effective wastelands, with a population between them of less than fifty thousand people.

The Raumbezirk is an ill-defined area including all of Nibelungen orbital space to synchronous orbit. More than 600 thousand people live here, many in the vast complex of orbital shipyards, research stations, and interface stations which served as a model for lost Hochbaden. One quarter of the Raumbezirk's population is native to the Raumbezirk; the remaining population comes from Nibelungen, from Earth, and other, more exotic points.

The Wiesbaden Bezirk has been likened to the Canadian territory of Yukon after that area's early 20th century gold rush, for once the tantalum was exhausted there was little reason for people to stay on it. Brazil, Britain, Canton, and Indonesia continue to maintain small mining outposts on Wiesbaden, and the Kolonialgegend-Regierung maintains a network of research and exploration stations on the small world's surface.

9. Personalities

Ludwig Berenson

Born in 2238 in Erste Landeplatz to a third-generation Neubayerner family, a prominent clan of industrialists of Saxon origin, Berenson shocked his family by joining the Neubayern Block as a young man. Using his natural skill as a politician, he quickly rose through the ranks of Neubayern's largest political party and became Premierminister in 2288, keeping this position to this day. A father of three and a liberal Lutheran Protestant, Berenson has an innate ability to appeal to the masses of Neubayern.

Berenson is politically pro-German by temperament, despite the economic problems which have plagued Neubayern since German reunification. However, his faith was shaken by Germany's complete collapse in the French Arm, particularly by the easy destruction of Hochbaden and its four millions. His sister Hanna died there, with her husband and two of her children; she had been stationed there by Berenson GmbH as system vice-president. Berenson is painfully aware that if humans had lost the Battle of Beowulf, the rest of his family might also have quickly perished. This experience has ensured that he will do whatever it takes to ensure that Neubayern has enough military forces to defend itself against attack; if need be, he is quite willing to copy the "Dunkelheim tactic."

Marcus ten Boon

A native of Orania, ten Boon was born in Neukapstadt to Oranian Afrikaner parents in 2263. In the 2290s, he enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom as he emerged from the nightclubs of Erste Landeplatz with his music, a distinctive blend of 1960s folk rock with contemporary electronic and Oranian Afrikaner folk music. ten Boon is a major star in Neubayern, and only the Kafer invasion kept him from embarking on a tour in the Core. ten Boon completed his latest album Der Rote Himmel (Ger: The Red Sky) in 2302. This album's release has been delayed, ostensibly because of his need to embark on a tour of the Core, but actually because the album's lyrics are quite critical of Germany and in fact can be read as supporting Neubayern independence. "Unsere eigene Welt" (Ger: Our Own World) has lyrics which criticize "negligent foreigners" who rule over a land not their own which they in fact hate, and the need for its natives to be culturally authentic. ten Boon wants to release the album immediately and let whatever happens happen; his record company wants to get an idea of political trends first.

Kapitan Johann Christineck

Born in Garten's city of Neumarkt in 2258, at an early age Christineck enlisted in the Sternkriegsmarine. By 2294, he had become captain of the Hamburg-class cruiser Lübeck, and during the Third Battle of Alpha Centauri was in command of the Gallia contingent of the German forces entering the Alpha Centauri system. Much to his surprise, he was met in Gallia by a comrade in the Freihafen Raumwaffe who demanded that his ship turn back; not wanting to start a war, he turned back. It was politically impossible for the peeved German military to expel Christineck from its ranks given the public position that the combat was an accident, so he was simply exiled to Neubayern to command that system's sparse space forces.

Christineck is a profoundly unhappy man. Quite apart from his permanently blocked career, Christineck feels like an exile from his native homeland, never having returned to Tirane since the Third Battle of Alpha Centauri, yet his loyalty to Germany (and the Neubayern background of his wife and two children) keeps him from renouncing his allegiances. Christineck strongly opposes the DNO, but he also recognizes that in order for Neubayern to be secure it must arm itself heavily.

Henryk Karalucius

A Pole of Lithuanian background, Karalucius is the head of Zapamoga's Neubayern office, in Erste Landeplatz. Before the Kafer invasion, Karalucius' job was limited to the resettlement of small numbers of refugees from Earth in the Neubayern system. The invasion sent a huge wave of refugees passed down the French Arm towards the Core, and several tens of thousands of refugees, many of them French, now live in squalid camps on the outskirts of Neufranconia's major cities; he and his staff of 16 are forced to try to coordinate aid as best they can.

Karalucius is normally an easy-going man, but lately he has been feeling overwhelmed and despairing by the suffering of the French Arm refugees. The Nouveau-Alsace enclave’s government has been trying to help as best it can with French citizens, but its resources have been limited by its decade-long economic decline. He is trying to appeal to Neubayern’s public for support, but he has failed to receive any public acknowledgement.