Martin Winter

Martin Winter Führer und Reichskanzler des Altisches Reich
Official portrait, 1933
Führer of the Altish Reich
In office 17 April 1928 – Present
Deputy	Peter Pappenheim
Preceded by	Ruppert Graff (1924 - 1928)
Chancellor of the Altish Reich
In office 10 August 1926 – Present
Preceded by	Erich Hättener
Führer of the Valkist Party
In office 12 January 1922 – Present
Preceded by	Wilhelm Kohl (Party Chairman)
Personal details
Born	Martin Joseph Neumann-Winter 11 April 1891 Wesselheim, Esseter, Altenland
Citizenship	Altish
Political party	Valkistiche Volkspartei
Parents	Paul Winter (d. 6 May 1906) (father) Helena Neumann (d. 16 March 1915) (mother)
Military service
Allegiance	Altish Empire
Branch/service	Imperial Altish Army
Years of service	1912 - 1920
Rank	Unteroffizier
Unit	11th Esseter Shock Regiment
Battles/wars	TBD.
Awards	Iron Cross First Class Iron Cross Second Class Velvet Charge

Martin Winter, born Martin Joseph Neumann-Winter, is an Altish politician serving as dictator of Altenland. A veteran of the Great War, Winter rose to power as the leader of the Valkist Party, becoming Chancellor in 1926 and taking the title of Führer und Reichskanzler in 1928. As Führer, Martin Winter has overseen the transformation of the nascent Altish Republic, formed from the ashes of the Altish Empire, into an authoritarian valkist state.

Winter was born in Wesselheim, in the Altish state of Esseter, and was raised in the nearby village of Hamstedt. He was decorated during his service in the Altish Army in the Great War, serving for the duration of the conflict. In early 1920, he joined with like-minded veterans in an early Vorhut organization in Münzen, and participated in the violent suppression of communist revolutionary movements in the state of Lauenmark during this time, and became an influential figure among the Altish reactionary right in that part of the country. In September of 1920, the Münzen Putsch was carried out by Vorhut members and ended in failure. Although Winter did not participate in the putsch and had attempted to discourage his comrades from seeing it through, he was convicted on charges of conspiracy and treason and sentenced to two years in prison, though only served fourteen months. While in prison, he dictated the first volume of his autobiography and political manifesto titled Eine Neue Ordnung ("A New Order"). After his release, Winter worked to reform the various Vorhut movements in southern Altenland - now outlawed - into a proper political party, which would eventually develop into the Valkistiche Volkspartei, or VV. He gained popular support by attacking the post-Great War order and promoting pan-Altishism, Valkism, and rabid anti-socialism and anti-communism with charasmatic oratory and propaganda.

By 1926, the Valkist Party had formed a coalition with other right-wing political organizations known as the Reichsbund, and achieved a major victory in the 1926 Altish federal elections. With his coalition, Winter was able to leverage President Ruppert Graff to appoint him as chancellor on 10 August. Shortly thereafter, the discovery of the Hochstadt Plot was used as justification to pass the Sicheres Altenland Decree in February 1927 and then the Neureich Act in March 1928, which began the process of transforming the Altish Republic into Valkist Altenland, a one-party dictatorship based on the authoritarian and autocratic ideology of Valkism. Upon Graff's mysterious death in April of 1928, Winter succeeded him, becoming simultaneously head of state and government, and the powers of these two offices were later merged to make Winter Führer und Reichskanzler of Altenland.

Winter seeks to establish a New Order to counter what he sees as the injustice of the post-Great War international order and establish a model Valkist state. Since coming to power, Winter has overseen rapid economic recovery, the abrogation of restrictions imposed on Altenland after the Great War as seen by ambitious military rearmament and military restructuring, and the controversial annexation of Reynland- the prize of the Great War that slipped through the fingers of the infant Altish Republic during the December Revolution.

Ancestry

See also: Winter Family

Winter's father, Paul Winter (1856-1906) was born into an aristocratic family in Esseter, then a constituent state of the Altish Empire. His father (Winter's grandfather), Adolf Winter, served in the Esseter Army during the War of Altish Unification alongside armies from the Kingdom of Almeria, serving as an officer and gaining notoriety in the July 1838 Battle of Aachen Forest. With the formation of the Altish Empire in 1840, Adolf Winter secured the position of his family among the Altish aristocracy and would become among the most influential in Esseter. Paul Winter was born on 19 October 1856 and was the seventh of nine living children in the Winter family. At the behest of his father, Paul enlisted in the Imperial Altish Army and served during the Küstern War of 1875-76, during which he suffered a lower-leg amputation on his right side and was permanently disabled, utilizing a wooden prosthetic for the remainder of his life and suffering from a debilitating alcohol addiction.

Paul Winter married Karolina Freudenberg in 1881 and the couple had three children together, although the second child - Stephen - died in his infancy. Karolina divorced Paul in 1889, citing his alcoholism. Paul met Helena Neumann, a servant girl at his family estate, in early 1890 and expressed his desire to marry her to his father, who refused to allow it due to Helena not being of noble blood. Paul chose to marry her anyway in August 1890, leading to him being denounced by his aging father and excluded from his will, and thus removing him from the Altish aristocracy altogether.

Quotes

• "The Altish people cannot know prosperity if we retire ourselves to the position of the supplicant. To be defeated is a tragedy, but to embrace the identity of the defeated and to allow the enemy to enforce their will through generations tows the line of cultural suicide which will inevitably lead to the destruction of our people and our way of life."- Winter in Eine Neue Ordnung.