The Gang of Four is a reformist group within the Dissident faction of the National Socialist German Workers' Party seeking to bring democracy back to Germany for the first time since the Weimar era in order to solve the various political, economic, and cultural problems within the country in the aftermath of World War II. As its name suggests, the Gang of Four consists of four men in the NSDAP; Kurt Georg Kiesinger, Helmut Schmidt, Ludwig Erhard, and Henning von Tresckow. The group is heavily associated with Reich Minister of Armaments and War Production Albert Speer, and serve as his most significant advisors.
If Speer wins the German Civil War and becomes the new Führer, the Gang of Four will push for reforms, such as economic liberalisation, re-patriation of slaves, pursuing détente in the Cold War, and re-organising the armed forces. Eventually, the Gang comes into conflict with Speer himself who wants to preserve the status quo against their wishes.
In the democratic path, the Gang of Four successfully assumes control of Germany after the Oil Crisis and Slave Revolt, and reduces Speer into their personal puppet. Thus, they ensure that National Socialism will die out, with Schmidt or Kiesinger becoming the new leader of the country.
In the Fascist path, Speer is able to preserve his influence over Germany and permanently weakens the Gang of Four. While preserving many of the reforms carried out under the Gang, he resists their attempts at democratisation.
In Theodor Oberländer’s Idiosyncratic Nazism Path, the Gang of Four will die and Speer will be puppeted, with Oberländer becoming de facto Ruler of Germany, empowering his Allies like Paul Wegener and Hermann Josef Abs of IG Farben in the government, rolling back many of the Gang’s reforms.
Trivia[]
- The Gang of Four are inspired and named after a hardliner Maoist faction of the same name in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Jiang Qing which tried to stop the reforms of Deng Xiaoping only to lose out in the larger struggle and be charged for treason. Conversely, the TNO Gang of Four is very much reformist and seek to end Nazism in Germany after three and a half decades.
- Except for von Tresckow, every member of the Gang of Four served as Chancellors of West Germany and were wavering if not skeptical members of the Nazi Party in real life. Von Tresckow was a leading participant in the 20th July Plot, a 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler.