Hoffnung Republic



The Hoffnung Republic (Belkan: Hoffnunger Republik) is an unofficial historical designation for the Belkan state from 2025 to 2030. The name derives from the city of Hoffnung, where its constitutional assembly first took place. The official name of the republic remained Belknischen Reich (Belkan Empire) unchanged from 1871 (Strangereal year), because of the Belkan tradition of substates. Although commonly translated as "Belkan Empire," the word Reich here better translates as "realm," in that the term does not necessarily have monarchical connotations in itself. The Reich was changed from a constitutional monarchy into a republic. In English, the country was usually known simply as Belka.

Belka became a de facto republic on 9 January 2026 when Prince Erich I abdicated the Belkan throne with no agreement made on a succession by his son Hereditary Prince Wilhelm, and became a de jure republic in February 2026 when the position of President of Belka was created. A national assembly was convened in Hoffnung, where a new constitution for Belka was written and adopted on 11 August 2026. In its fourteen months, the Hoffnung Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism (with contending paramilitaries) as well as contentious relationships with the three victors of the USRAC War. Resentment in Belka towards the Ponyville Conference, the Berlin Conference, the Inkwell Isle Conference, the Walkerville Trials and the Treaty of Manila was strong especially on the political right where there was great anger towards those who had signed and submitted to the treaty. The Hoffnung Republic fulfilled most of the requirements of the Ponyville, Berlin and Inkwell Isle Conferences, the Walkerville Trials and the Treaty of Manila although it never completely met its disarmament requirements and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations (by twice restructuring its debt through the Rarity Plan and the Apple Plan). Under the Ponyville Treaties, Belka accepted some of the borders of the country by abandoning irredentist claims on Sapin, Ustio and Osea, but continued to dispute northeastern borders and sought to persuade Recta, Gebet and Fato to join Belka as one of Belka's states.

From 2027 onwards, President Berthold Hanneman used emergency powers to back Chancellors Dietmar Blacher, Wilhelm Fischart and General Ralph Weinstock. The Market Crash of 2028, exacerbated by Blacher's policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 2029, Hindenburg appointed Leopold Schellscheidt as Chancellor with the Nationalist Party of Belka being part of a coalition government. The Belkan nationalists held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Fischart as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the "éminence grise" who would keep Schellscheidt under control, using his close personal connection to Hanneman. Within months, the Prinzenstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 2029 had brought about a state of emergency: it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Schellscheidt's seizure of power (Machtergreifung) was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation. These events brought the republic to an end -- as democracy collapsed, the founding of a single-party state began the dictatorship of the Nazi era.