Tuesday, March 23, 2021

Britannia of Code Geass is the only Fictional Evil Empire truly based on the Nazis

The Galactic Empire of Star Wars may cosmetically look more like the Nazis with their 1940s style formal Military uniforms and completely ahistorical use of the term "Stormtrooper".  But they like most other alleged "Space Nazis" have no elements of actual Nazi ideology. The Cardasians of Star Trek are a good fantastical Analogue for proper Fascism, but that's actually a different ideology.  

Britannia of Code Geass cosmetically looks more like it's based on the 18th-19 Century British Empire.  But it's Social Darwinism and Biological Racism make it the only SciFi Evil Empire I really see as at all resembling Nazi Germany.  The original concept behind the Pure Bloods (before Jeremiah's motivations got retconned) could even be compared to the SS.  The Honorary Britannian status is clearly modeled after the Honorary Aryan status.

It's Socio-Economic system looks like a continuation of Feudalism with Capitalist elements, which at face value doesn't seem to contradict it being based on the British Empire.  But unlike Brittan of the last 400 years there is not a trace of Democracy or Constitutionalism, no Parliament or Prime Minister.  And unlike any real period of the British Monarchy's history there is no attempt to adhere to any strict form of Primogeniture, which child of the Emperor will succeed to the Throne seems to be based on Meritocracy.

[Update: I've been reminded on Twitter that Schneizel holds the title of Prime Minister.  But he seems to have that position because he was appointed it, there is no evidence of a Parliament.  Being that and also a top General does make his position similar to Goring in Nazi Germany who was Prime Minister of Prussia.  But also no real world British Prime Minister has ever been a member of the Royal Family.]

The relationship between the Nazis and the old German Nobility was complicated.  The majority of Nobles never liked the Nazis, and the Nazis very specifically didn't like the ones they blamed for losing WWI particularly the deposed Kaiser Wilhelm II.  Their anti-clericalism tended to make them unpopular with the Catholic Nobles of southern regions like Bavaria and Austria.  And their relationship with the Prussian Junkers (who largely supported the DNVP and dominated the Wehrmacht) was shaky.

Still some Nobles did join the Party, one of the first of them was Karl von Eberstein who was Important to the SS which one could argue Himmler envisioned as becoming a new Nobility.  A number of the Nobles to join were from the families I like to call the Lutheran Aristocracy, descendants of the founders of the Schmalkaldic League.  Many Princes of Hesse, Charles Edward of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Georg of Saxe-Meiningen (probably also his brother Bernhard), Georg Morits of Saxe-Altenburg and his father.  Ernest Augustus Duke of Brunswick never joined the party but was a key ally.  Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands relationship with the Nazis has long been a subject of controversy, less disputed is his cousin Princess Marie Adelheid of Lippe.

And while Hitler was opposed to ever putting the former Kaiser back on his Throne. there are reports that at one point he'd arranged for Prince Alexander Ferdinand a grandson of the Kaiser (his father was the 4th Son and only one to join the NSDAP) to be his successor.  So I do think it's plausible that the Third Reich may have become a Social Darwinist form of Neo-Feudalism if it had survived.  They were after all obsessed with romanticizing Germany's past including the Teutonic Knights and the Holy Roman Empire.

Meanwhile within Britain both Fascism and Nazism were more Feudalistically inclined then in Germany or Italy, even Mosley supported the Monarchy, but his more Aristocratic Father In-Law was more Nazi inclined. The Nordic League and the Right Club were lead by Nazi sympathizers in the Aristocracy like The 5th Duke of Wellington, The 2nd Duke of Westminster and Lord Lymingtonn.

The Nazis complicated relationship to Christianity is also interesting to compare here.  Christianity does seem to be nominally still the religion of the Holy Britannian Empire, but The Emperor also publicly denounces The Ten Commandments with basically the same Slave Morality reasoning as a certain German Philosopher.

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