Chairman-General Johann Reyher
Johann Reyher (born Johann Friedrich Hieronymus Freiherr von Reyher, May 11, 1881) is the current Chairman-General of the German Federalist Alliance and the Field Marshal of the Bundesallianzwehr. In 1894 he joined a cadet academy and, upon graduation with distinction, joined the military as an adjutant in 1898. Being a member of the military staff, he quickly rose in rank, partially thanks to his family ties (his fathers protection, however, was out of question, since general Karl von Reyher died of pneumonia in 1889). In the first days of the Second Franco-Prussian War he volunteered to the frontline and was put in command of the 3rd Jäger Battalion, 17th Infantry Regiment as Oberstleutnant. He quickly distinguished himself in the Battles of Metz and Hattigny and was promoted to the rank of Oberst (Colonel) on June 20, 1910. During the final successful Charleroi offensive (early winter 1911) he led the German infantry in the famous attack on Flerus (an account that seems to exaggerate his heroics, since Reyher had a reputation of a meticulous planner and not of a dashing leader), but was wounded by a shell fragment during the final push on the Fort XII. Death of general von Bulow, the commander of Korps.VIII, however, gave Reyher a lucky chance to exercise his organizational skill. Despite the wound, he took charge of tactical and operational command in the sector and managed to prevent the German attack from disintegration. Despite its limited operational gains, the Battle of Charleroi earned von Reyher a reputation of a war hero and a brilliant officer, something that he later seemed to be weary of in his private letters to his mother. Temporarily returning to Germany to recover from his wounds, he met the German Collectivist Revolution of 1912 in his estate during a short home visit. He was briefly imprisoned (early March-mid August) by the local provisional Communist authority as an officer and a member of nobility, but later described his imprisonment as an enforced vacation, because the militioneers that came to arrest him respected his war reputation and allowed von Reyher to stay in the family estate until full recovery under the wardens supervision. Russian invasion of 1913 changed his position completely. Hoping to capitalize on his status of a war hero and utilize his skill of a an experienced HQ officer, the provisional authorities extended him an offer to join the All-Union military forces in the moment of foreign intervention (an offer that was simultaneously made to at least two dozen high-ranking officers at the same time). Being one of the first (and most reputable) of those that agreed to collaborate, Reyher quickly took a position of an unofficial head of the Emergency Military Council of the East. Turning the makeshift command structure into an organized and well-run network of command and reversing democratization of the remnants of the German military, Reyher managed to shield Berlin by organizing defense of Frankfurt-on-Order from an overextended Russian offensive (December 1913-February 1914). He then orchestrated a brief encirclement of the entire 16th Corps of the Russian Imperial Army around Cottbus (even though full annihilation of the Russian troops was prevented by their timely breakthrough). What cemented Reyhers reputation of a rising star of the army was the Sprint to the Oder, a quickly put-together offensive that destroyed remaining Russian bridgeheads to the west from the Oder river and established a solid defensive perimeter against any further Russian aggression.
Post-war, Reyhers position was far from being secured. His glorious reputation was immediately shattered by a smear campaign run by the civil leader of the so called Brandenburg Council Republic Arthur Bauhmann. The campaign, however, put Bauhmann into the odds with a growing wing of old regime collaborators invaluable for the young German socialist state. Eventually, Bauhmann fell victim to his own cabinet games and was ostracized during the III All-Union Party Rally in 1919. In the prolonged Prussian Interim period (1919-1922), during which the territory of the modern German Federalist Alliance was neither under full control of local councils nor directly responding to Frankfurt or Munich, these were Reyher and his old Western Front acquaintance Frederick Lassow that became the leaders of the Wiedervereinigung (reconciliation, reunion) movement aiming to bring the order to Brandenburg and Saxony by allowing wide-spread cooperation and collaboration of reactionary and progressive forces for the sake of national security and reconstruction. Being a much better orator and an avid nationalist with anti-Semitic views, Lassow enjoyed temporary spike in popularity between 1921 and 1926, when his public speeches in front of paramilitary bands of patriotic youth and disillusioned veterans outlined the idea of a strong Nationalist Socialist state. Pushed to the shade of Lassows power ride, Reyher dedicated his efforts to quietly rebuilding the states bureaucracy, police, and officer corps. That groundwork came in handy when Lassow caused a scandal during the V All-Union Party Rally in 1926 by significantly diverting in his speech from the principles of mainstream socialism and even calling a full reversal of weak-willed cosmopolitanism in German politics. Having struck a backroom deal with the enraged Wolfgang Jager and a then-influential clique of Bavarian publicists and social activists, Reyher used his administrative connections to start a series of criminal cases against Lassow, followed up with a crackdown on his paramilitary groups. Lassows own bombastic personality ultimately proved to be his main weakness: sure in his popularity and loyalty of his supporters, he never bothered to hold an actual state position and was not even formally a member of the Nationalist Socialist party that he so inspired. Once Lassow was out of his way, Reyher quickly solidified his power, stopping Frankfurts and Munichs attempts to turn the Prussian political crisis into a premise for a power grab.
Late 1920s were the time final formation of what is today known as the German Federalist Alliance under Chairman-General Reyher. Once the Fortschrittistpartei was created as an ideological ally of his rule, Reyher gave away the reigns over that side of political life to more eager and younger socialist and futurist politicians, while preserving his de-facto control of the state apparatus and the military.