Ferdinand Koenig

Ferdinand Koenig

Fictional Character
Southern Victory _{POD: September 10, 1862}
Appearance(s):	Blood and Iron through In at the Death
Type of Appearance:	Direct
Nationality:	Confederate States
Date of Birth:	Late 19th century
Date of Death:	1945
Cause of Death:	Execution by hanging
Occupation:	Lawyer (self-styled), politician
Political Party:	Freedom Party
Political Office(s):	Attorney General of the CSA

Ferdinand Koenig (d. 1945) was Jake Featherston's second in command of the Freedom Party. As Attorney General of the Confederate States between 1934-1944, Koenig built up and headed a fearsome secret police apparatus designed to oversee the wholesale mass murder of blacks and brutal suppression of whites who opposed Freedom Party rule.

Koenig was one of the first members of the Freedom Party, which was organized by Anthony Dresser after the C.S. lost the Great War. Koenig eventually attained the office of party secretary. However, Koenig and other key Party members soon turned their loyalty to Jake Featherston, another early member who demonstrated great charisma and aptitude for making speeches against the United States, the Confederacy's black population, and the Whig Party, which had ruled the Confederacy since after the War of Secession. When Featherston sought to remake the Freedom Party in his own image, Koenig backed Featherston's power play against Dresser by voting Dresser out of the party.

Featherston's appeal grew in the CSA during the years of hyperinflation caused by the harsh reparations imposed by the victorious USA. Featherston repaid Koenig's loyalty by including him as Vice President on the Freedom Party ticket in the 1921 election. The ticket came in second, behind Whig candidate Wade Hampton V but ahead of Radical Liberal Ainsworth Layne. The Freedom Party had displaced the Radical Liberals as the Whigs' main opposition after just a few years.

Ironically, Hampton was subsequently assassinated by Freedom Party member Grady Calkins. A second Featherston/Koenig ticket in 1927 was also defeated. The U.S. had ended the reparations it had imposed after the Great War, the CSA had managed to control its hyperinflation and create some prosperity, and the population still blamed the Freedom Party for Hampton's assassination. Koenig remained loyal to Featherston and the Freedom Party through this time.

However, with the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing global economic depression, the Confederate public was ready to listen to Featherston and the Freedom Party again. In 1933, Featherston chose to run with Willy Knight, a would-be rival, as his vice-presidential nominee. Koenig originally reacted with extreme anger, uttering foul threats and threatening to physically assault Featherston with his fists. However, Featherston explained to Koenig that the Vice President had no real power of his own. Instead, Featherston wanted Koenig as the Confederate Attorney General, a position of real administrative power and importance, where Koenig could play a key role in carrying out Featherston's schemes for the suppression of political opponents, the persecution of the Confederate black population, and the covert remilitarization of the country. The fact that Koenig was not an attorney was irrelevant. Featherston and Knight won the election, and Koenig became AG.

In this position, Koenig became the de facto second-in-command of the Freedom Party and the Confederate States, while Knight was increasingly marginalized. Under Koenig's direction, the Confederate States Justice Department Freedomized the CSA, which included abolishing the Supreme Court. He also gradually, but continuously, implemented Featherston's plan for the extermination of the black race in North America, first establishing concentration camps, and then filling the camps with a constant stream of black prisoners. When Jefferson Pinkard, the commandant of Camp Dependable, objected to the overflow, Koenig euphemistically ordered Pinkard to handle the excess camp population by mass-murder.

After the Confederate States amended the Constitution to allow Featherston to run again, Willy Knight tried and failed to murder Featherston in December 1938. Upon Knight's apprehension, Koenig personally ordered the former VP imprisoned at Camp Dependable. He subsequently ordered Knight's death, which was carried out by Pinkard.

Koenig supported Featherston's foreign policy efforts to force a new war with the United States. Even as the initial success of Operation Blackbeard gave way to the failure of the Battle of Pittsburgh, Koenig remained completely loyal to Featherston. Before the Freedom Party attained power, Koenig had been physically strong and fit, reminding those who met him of a boxer. However, over the course of a decade of office-bound work, spending all day supervising the murder machine he headed and having little time for exercise, Koenig was so overweight that he wheezed whenever he had to walk any distance.

After the fall of Richmond, Koenig fled with a group of senior Freedom Party officials (including Featherston, General Clarence Potter, and Willard, then chief of the Confederate States General Staff) by airplane, which crashed in Georgia. Though he survived the crash, Jake Featherston was killed by black guerrilla Cassius. Along with the other members of Featherston's entourage, Koenig was quickly captured by Cassius and a truckload of US troops, and eventually put on trial for crimes against humanity. In the winter of 1945, along with Saul Goldman and Jefferson Pinkard, Koenig was executed by hanging by the United States government for his part in engineering the Population Reduction.

Political offices (Southern Victory)
Preceded by Unknown, last known is Thomas Watts	Attorney General of the Confederate States 1934-1944	Succeeded by Office abolished
Party political offices (Southern Victory)
Preceded by New party	Freedom Party candidate for Vice President 1921, 1927 (both lost)	Succeeded by Willy Knight

Ferdinand Koenig

See Also[]