Erich Koch
Date of Birth
19th June 1896
Place of Birth
Elberfeld, German Empire
Nationality
German
Profession
Gauleiter and Oberpräsident of Eastern Prussia, Reichkomissar for the Ukraine
In-Game Ideology
National Socialism Erich Koch (born 19th June 1896) is the current Reichkomissar for the Ukraine, as well as Gauleiter and Oberpräsident of Eastern Prussia. He is the most important man in Reichkomissariat Ukraine, but probably the one that spends the least time within its borders. Koch rules Ukraine with a thorny whip, and for a while he managed just fine doing so, supposedly working towards the national-socialist ideal for this country. However, ever since the West Russian War, his methods stopped extracting adequate results. The colony stagnated, and Koch simply couldn't spare the energy to try and get it moving again.
Every reform he passes, every factory he builds, it all fails to subjugate the wild "borderland", one which still, after more than 20 years is no less riddled with rebels and their constant terrorist attacks against his authority. For him, Ukraine is no Aryan paradise, and he's starting to wonder if it ever will be. So these days Koch prefers to spend his time in East Prussia, another region he is responsible for, but one that he looks upon with pride, one that he wishes he can get reassigned to permanently someday.
His three most important deputies, Georg Leibbrandt, Otto Ohlendorf and Hans-Otto Bräutigam constantly pester him with childish ideas about how to solve the Reichkomissariat's problems, all the while eyeing the big seat hes personally grown to despise for themselves.
In-Game Description
This is what Erich Koch has been left with. This is what he deserves.
At his peak of authority, Erich Koch was a thug upon a throne, brutal even by the standards of the Third Reich. His colonial policy was an endless cycle of exploitation and repression, designed to beat the Ukrainian people into submission. Under his watch, the Hunger Plan left the native population starving in fields of amber, and his quotas reduced them to slavery. In his mind, he had forged the very picture of Lebensraum: a blood diamond in Hitler's crown.
It could not last, of course. In the wake of the West Russian War, the Reichskommissariat was left with far more problems than Koch could comprehend. Above him, an army of administrators demanded more and more, hoping to prop up the Reich's ailing economy with further blood from its breadbasket. Below him, a crowd of natives screamed, demanding freedom from the abyss he had created. For the first time, Erich Koch was faced with problems which could not be solved with whips and hammers. The Reichskommissar was finally lost.
Rather than attempting major changes, the Reichskommissar has let the colony stagnate beneath him, even as terror rises and profits slow. Deep down, Erich Koch may be aware of some solution, but the man lacks the energy to change Ukraine's fate. In the name of profit, the Reichskommissar ground his colony into sand - now, he watches it blow away.