Germany
Germany is a nation at the center of Europe. The country was formed in the late 19th century through the unification of the various German states, most of which had formerly been part of the Holy Roman Empire.
History[edit | edit source]
Roman Empire[edit | edit source]
The Hidden Ones, in particular the Liberalis Circulum, were known to operate within the Roman provinces of Germania Inferior and Superior, which saw frequent clashes between the Romans and Germanic tribes like the Alemanni. In 259 CE, the Alemanni general and Hidden One Accipiter found a Piece of Eden, the Ankh, during his travels in Germania, and subsequently entrusted it to his cousin Aquilus when he led his forces to invade Gaul.[1]
By the 5th century, the Hidden Ones had established a headquarters in the city of Cologne which, following the death of Emperor Honorius in 423 CE, served as a rendezvous point for the Hidden Ones from other provinces, including Gaul and Britannia, who evacuated their bureaus and came to join forces with the Brotherhood's local chapter.[2][3]
Middle Ages[edit | edit source]
In 1348, the Black Death reached the town of Essen and wiped out half of its population. Soon after, a group called the Brothers of the Cross arrived, promising protection from the plague. The Assassin Lukas Zurburg discovered that they were a Templar organization and suspected they were looking for the Ankh, which was rumored to be located in Central Europe. In 1350, both the Brothers of the Cross and Lukas mysteriously disappeared.[4]
Renaissance[edit | edit source]
During the Renaissance, Italian Assassin apprentices were regularly sent to Germany by their Mentor, Ezio Auditore, to complete various assignments. In Cologne, they persuaded the scholar Conradus Celtis, who had uncovered the Assassins' history through his research, not to publish his studies in order to preserve the Brotherhood's secrecy.[5][6]
The Assassins also learned that Elector Friedrich der Weise planned to open a university in Wittenberg that would promote religious reform and question the practices of the House of Borgia. The Borgia intended to bribe Friedrich to prevent this, but a group of Assassins posing as bandits intercepted the money carriage, stole the bribe, and anonymously donated it to the university.[7][8]
Age of Enlightenment[edit | edit source]
In 1747, the British Templars Haytham Kenway and Reginald Birch traveled to southwest Germany in search of Jack Digweed, the Kenway family's old valet who was believed to be behind the attack on the Kenway Mansion twelve years prior. The Templar and British Army general Edward Braddock, who was stationed in the nearby Dutch Republic, sent two mercenaries from his regiment to find and silence Digweed before Haytham could interrogate him, in order to conceal Braddock and Birch's involvement in the attack.[9]
After questioning a shopkeeper who had been threatened by the mercenaries into keeping quiet, Haytham and Birch found Digweed's cabin in the Black Forest, where the latter was being tortured by one of the mercenaries. As the man fled, Haytham chased and mortally wounded him while Birch finished off the dying Digweed. Haytham then decided to pursue the second mercenary, whom he had seen ride off earlier, into the Dutch Republic.[9]
In 1748, Birch arranged for the German art historian and Templar Johann Joachim Winckelmann to be appointed the secretary of Count Heinrich von Bünau's extensive library. While Winckelmann's official task was to assist Bünau in writing a book on the Holy Roman Empire, he secretly searched the volumes for information on Isu sites for Birch.[10]
Age of Imperialisim[edit | edit source]
During their traveling days, the Aurora Equestrian Troupe performed in the German cities of Berlin and Frankfurt.[11][12]
In the late 19th century, the unification of Germany took place through a series of military conflicts instigated by the King of Prussia, Wilhelm I, at the advice of his foreign minister, Otto von Bismarck, and other advisors. The Templars supported von Bismarck's plans to unify the various German states and provoke the Second French Empire into war, believing it would allow them to spread their influence.[13]
In 1870, thanks to von Bismarck and the Templars' scheming, France declared war on Prussia,[14] a conflict it would ultimately lose by January 1871. The Second French Empire was consequently dissolved and forced to cede some of its territories to the newly-formed German Empire.[15]
World Wars[edit | edit source]
From 1914 to 1918, Germany found itself involved in World War I. One German general, the Templar Erich Albert, was the target of an unnamed British Assassin during the Christmas truce of 1914.[16] In 1916, an individual known as the "Master Spy" organized a spy ring in London on behalf of the German Empire,[17] though he and most of his followers were eventually eliminated by the Assassin Lydia Frye.[18]
In 1933, Adolf Hitler, the leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, was under the influence of the Templars and obtained an Apple of Eden from the Templar industrialist Henry Ford, allowing him to seize more power in Germany and eventually start World War II.[19] Alongside fellow Templar puppets Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin, Hitler brought on the turmoil and fear necessary for Abstergo Industries to push forward its industrial development and take control of the working population through capitalism.[20]
Hitler led Nazi Germany throughout the war as Führer, but eventually began pursuing his own goals which went against those of the Templars. As a result, the Templars formed an uneasy truce with the American colonel and Assassin extremist Boris Pash to stop Hitler and end the war.[21] During this time, Hitler gave his Apple to the Templar and Obergruppenführer Gero Kramer to use in various experiments.[22]
After kidnapping the inventor Nikola Tesla, Kramer forced him to construct Die Glocke at the Vemork hydroelectric power plant in Norway. Allegedly a time-travelling device powered by the Apple, Kramer intended to use Die Glocke to find more Pieces of Eden for the Templars. To keep Die Glocke's development secret, he became the overseer of the Uranprojekt, the Nazis' operation to create nuclear weapons, and used its funding to finance his own clandestine experiments.[22]
In 1940, Boris Pash and fellow Assassin Julia Dusk recruited Eddie Gorm to serve as their spy among the Nazis. Two years later, during a party at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Anthropology, Human Heredity, and Eugenics in Berlin, Gorm met Kramer at the latter's request, after Eddie's superior Otto Hammerstein had spoken highly of him to the Obergruppenführer. Kramer, already aware of Gorm's identity and mission, pretended to believe in his apparent commitment to the Nazi cause and assigned him to protect the Uranprojekt's lead scientist, Werner Heisenberg.[22]
Eventually, Gorm broke his cover when he took Heisenberg hostage and interrogated him, learning about Kramer's true plans with Die Glocke and the project's location in Vemork. As German soldiers, including Hammerstein, attacked Gorm, he killed his former superior and escaped with the help of Julia Dusk. The latter was shot in the process, so Eddie carried her to the streets of Berlin, where they were picked up by Pash and Robert Burton. After losing their pursuers, the group took refuge in the abandoned El Dorado bar, where Burton treated Julia while Pash informed Gorm of the Assassins' existence and recruited him into the Brotherhood to stop Kramer.[22]
In 1944, the Gestapo arrested several members of the Edelweiss Pirates, including Barthel Schink and Miriam Kurtz, in Cologne. While Kurtz was interrogated about her knowledge of an "artifact" stolen by the Pirates, the others were sentenced to death. Kurtz refused to tell the Nazis anything and was tasked by Schink to recover the artifact, which had been hidden in one of the Cologne Cathedral's spires, and deliver it to the Assassins in Paris.[23]
On 30 April 1945, as Germany's defeat became inevitable, Hitler executed his body double inside the Führerbunker and planned to meet a Templar contact at an undisclosed location to deliver his Piece of Eden. However, the Assassins learned of his intentions and killed Hitler as soon as he left the bunker.[24]
Modern times[edit | edit source]
In May 2014, the Master Templar Juhani Otso Berg traveled to Essen in search of the Ankh. After failing to find any trace of the artifact, Berg concluded that the Ankh was likely a hoax created by the Assassins to waste Abstergo Industries' time and resources. Nevertheless, he instructed his subordinate Violet da Costa to keep an eye out for possible leads related to the Piece of Eden.[25]
By the early 21st century, Abstergo had established an office in Berlin. In March 2017, the Assassins Arend Schut-Cunningham and Galina Voronina traveled to the office to confront their mole, Heinrich Hart, about his erroneous intel of an abandoned Phoenix Project laboratory in Hong Kong, where the Assassins had been ambushed by an unknown faction. Hart pleaded good faith and denied any knowledge of the ambush, eventually being let go.[26]
Following the Assassins' departure, Hart was attacked by Berg in his Black Cross attire, who had eavesdropped on the conversation. After being defeated, Hart cryptically revealed his true allegiance to Juno and detonated a Skunkworks "endgame" grenade in an attempt to kill both himself and Berg. The Black Cross survived by jumping into a river,[26] but the explosion claimed the lives of 170 people.[27]
Behind the scenes[edit | edit source]
In the 2015 video game Assassin's Creed: Syndicate, the memory "The Berlin Specimen" has the protagonists Jacob and Evie Frye refer to the German Dr. Schwartz' home country as Germany. This is technically anachronistic because the game is set in 1868 whereas the unification of Germany did not occur until 1871, but the term "Germany" was used for this area long before 1871. [citation needed]
Appearances[edit | edit source]
- Assassin's Creed II (first mentioned)
- Assassin's Creed: Project Legacy (first appearance)
- Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Revelations – Discover Your Legacy
- Assassin's Creed: Forsaken
- Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Rogue (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Syndicate (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Conspiracies
- Assassin's Creed: Uprising
- Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Magus Conspiracy
- Assassin's Creed: The Engine of History – The Resurrection Plot (mentioned only)
- Assassin's Creed: Nexus VR (mentioned in Database entry only)
References[edit | edit source]
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