Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich (born 1904) is a German Schutzstaffel official currently serving as Deputy Reichsführer-SS. A close ally of Heinrich Himmler, he is considered by many to be the most dangerous man in Germany.
Background
Early life & rise to power (1904-1939)
Heydrich was born in 1904 and joined his first paramilitary group in 1919 at age 15. He joined the navy and advanced to the rank of Sub-Lieutenant before being discharged in 1931. Heydrich joined the SS in 1933 and quickly advanced through the ranks. Heydrich soon rose through the ranks and was eventually became one of Himmler's most trusted lieutenants. Heydrich, in his position as head of the SD, hunted down and neutralized opponents to the Nazi regime through arrests, deportations, and murders.
World War II (1939-1945)
Heydrich was appointed head of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia during World War II and was responsible for the destruction of Czech culture. He narrowly avoided assassination by Czech resistance fighters in 1942 and reacted with a massive purge, with mass executions and arrests across the whole territory.
Post-war era (1945-present)
Following the war, Heydrich left Bohemia and moved on to rise even higher in the SS, being second only to Himmler himself. When the economy collapsed, Heydrich blamed it on the decadence of the German people.
Conspiracies abound that he is nothing but a puppet of Himmler and only works to further his sinister, yet unknown goals. He is considered to be a possible successor to Hitler as leader, though he has little support outside of the SS and Burgundy. While most other candidates agree on little, they agree that if Heydrich becomes leader, there will be no end to the suffering.
Involvement
Like with Albert Speer, Hermann Göring, and Martin Bormann, Heydrich can be named by Hitler as his successor, largely on account of how brutal he is. Unlike the other three contenders, who are legitimately followed by each of their respective factions (the reformists, the military hardliners, and the conservatives respectively), Heydrich's support from the SS largely comes from fear of Heinrich Himmler - should Himmler decide Heydrich was of no use to him, no one in the SS would object to killing him. Prior to the civil war, if named Hitler's successor, his focuses will largely involve powering the SS, cracking down on resistance and supporting Burgundy by reestablishing relationships with the country (this is reflected with the reaction to Burgundy testing an atomic bomb - while most other countries and the other three successors will express worry, asking if Burgundy has finally done it, he will proclaim "Wunderbar!"). Additionally, his decisions when looking for opportunities for influence will largely involve crackdowns and diverting supplies and money to the SS. This is largely considered the worst possible choice by outsider nations, as the closing tag on the event announcing Heydrich as Hitler's successor will read "My God."
Of the four factions, Heydrich is easily the most unlikely to win - not only does he start with the smallest amount of territory of the four contenders, but if he starts doing too well, the remaining contenders will form an anti-Heydrich alliance until either he is defeated or wins the civil war (although this will only happen if at least two other contenders are still around; should one opt to instead outlast two of the other three contenders and successfully do so, they can sweep up the remaining faction); additionally, after eliminating the three contenders, Hans Speidel will declare war on him and Heydrich must conquer Germania (if the player does not switch to Speidel). As such, it is almost impossible for an AI Heydrich to win, unless the player uses the debug command to force a victory. During the war, the player can choose between three mutually exclusive focus tree paths for Heydrich to pursue, which will determine what kind of army he uses during the civil war, as well as have consequences elsewhere. Additionally, choosing Heydrich's path will result in several other conflicts having their outcomes guaranteed, as Heydrich's post-GCW focus trees revolve around certain victors.
Heydrich's Germany is more meant for the player to experience than the AI to choose (while it is possible for the AI to name Heydrich Hitler's successor, it's almost impossible for Heydrich to win), due to its nature involving Burgundy, both during and after the German Civil War, and a Heydrich victory is considered by the devs to be one of the worst paths for Germany (tied with a Göring victory) - although if Heydrich succeeds in his post-civil war struggles, it is only considered bad for Germany regionally; should he fail, and the world will suffer the consequences.
Heydrich's Germany is vastly different from the one Speer, Bormann or Göring will have to deal with. Indeed, rather than continuing Himmler's plans as one might expect (and was the case prior to the release of the "Cutting Room Floor" patch), after receiving the plans, Heydrich will reveal himself to be horrified of Himmler's designs, throwing up. In the following days, he opts to reveal Himmler's plans to Philipp Bouhler, believing that the latter's love of books would mean that he would not seek the destruction of the Earth even if it meant that the Reich would last for 1000 years. He is proven correct with this suspicion, as Bouhler is similarly horrified, and with Bouhler's help, he begins to recruit others in secret, while attempting to keep an illusion of loyalty up.
However, this illusion is eventually broken, and due to his existing unpopularity, as well as the loyalty of certain SS figures to Himmler, he finds Germany embroiled in yet another civil war, breaking up into various warlord states (ironically, not that dissimilar to the state Russia is in at the start of the game due to the collapse of the Soviet Union, due to Germany defeating them). Heydrich will have to either diplomatically deal with the various warlords that break out, or outright conquer them, due in part to some of them having nuclear weapons that could land in Himmler's hands. After securing the nukes, he will be able to declare war on Burgundy, or have the option of waiting three more months.
If Heydrich defeats Himmler, he will confront Himmler, eventually executing Himmler himself. Afterwards, he will realize that, on top of his ideology being a lie due to the fact that those he saw as subhuman proved to be honorable allies, his dedication to Nazism led him to be away from his family, possibly resulting in the death of his son Klaus, as well as his son and two daughters not wanting anything to do with him. He will eventually commit suicide, resulting in Germany breaking out into yet another civil war between Speidel (or Reinhard Gehlen if Speidel isn't rescued) and Herbert Otto Gille - unlike the first one, the player will be forced into observation mode, not allowed to play as either side, and Germany will collapse into a state of anarchy, killing the nation off.
Trivia
- Originally, the developers planned to have it so that, if the player chose the 1972 start date, Hitler would canonically have named Heydrich his successor, but the civil war will canonically have been won by Bormann. This was scrapped after the developers opted to scrap the canon for the 1972 start date outright.
- Unlike the other three possible successors, choosing Heydrich as Hitler's successor will actually impact another civil war, as his post-civil war focus tree is written with Michał Vituška winning the civil war for Ostland in mind (and as such, Vituška will receive a massive power boost). For comparison's sake, despite Andreas Meyer-Landrut winning the war for Ostland being written with a Speer-led Germany in mind, he will not receive a similar power boost if Speer is chosen.
- Despite Hitler's death making headlines, should the AI have Hitler choose Heydrich as his successor and somehow manage to win (or should the player use console commands to force a Heydrich victory), no news event informing the player of Heydrich's death will pop up after he defeats Burgundy, despite it arguably having an even bigger impact on Germany than Hitler's death.
- According to the ex-leader of the mod, Heydrich's old focus tree had focuses for kidnapping children to train them into super soldiers named the "Spartanisch Program".