Dietrich Josten

Dietrich Josten, also known as the First Urvater, 'was an influential politician during the era of the Veran Star Confederation and leader of the Vaterlandspartei' ''from 278 KA until the rise of his successor, Martin Hertzog, in 285 KA. He is revered in the annals of the Menschlicher Sternenstaat as being the first of the four great Urvaters, or Confederate dictators, with his own period of rule starting from 280 KA to 285 as a result of Bloody June and the Red Spring, in addition to the investments of unlimited power within the position of Kanzlerpräsident thereafter. Being a direct successor to the founder of the Menschliche Souveränität Partei (later Vaterlandspartei), Matthäus Wehner, Josten was critical in the transformation of the Confederation from a politically balkanized and economically devastated star state to that of a resurgent and politically homogeneous polity. His political finesse and charismatic skill allowed Josten to reform multiple sections of the Confederate government rapidly and to endow the knowledge of state administration and manipulation to his three most prominent successors: Martin Hertzog, Vindon Writzse, and Leonel Kästner — with the latter being the last Urvater of the Confederation and the first Sternenkaiser of the newly-declared Human Star State after the Day of the Phoenix. It has been said that, through the influences of the Josten Clique, that he effectively ruled the Confederation until his recognition of Kästner's total power with the Summary of the Stars and co-authored Stellare Diktate.

Josten was born on the capital world of Vera in 241 KA, and was raised in a lower class family during the Star Confederation's most recent period of economic growth. The rapid industrialization of far-off colonies and rise of new technologies quickly lead to Josten pursuing basic manufactory work in ground-based shipyards after graduating from the Justin Heine Urban Lycée, a government-funded public secondary school that aimed to provide for the increased factory labor demand. He worked for around eight years in the industry and became acquainted with the political precepts of human supremacism after spectating the Kizankai Contact Riots that broke out after diplomatic contact was established with the Kizankai Shimanate.

The outbreak of war between the Confederation and the Shimanate in 267 KA lead to a national draft being announced. Being 26 years old at the time, Josten was within the section of the population to first see conscription; that being physically-fit males between the ages of 16 to 40. He was summoned to service in the Confederate Heer in March after the Kizankai invaded and razed the colonial world of Schärheim, and was deployed within the 206. Panzergrenadierdivision Azurblau to various worlds within the Confederation. Josten specifically saw action on Schaarstal and Herzach for four years, earning the rank of Hauptgefreiter before spending the next three years defending Bresen from the onslaught of invading Kizankai armies.

The end of the war in 274 KA and the resultant fracture of Confederate society and government deprived Josten of the ideal dreams he held for returning back to work and entering civilian life properly. Even so, his despisal for the corruption of the Confederate military lead to his departure from the Heer and return to Vera as an unemployed veteran at the age of 33.

Josten embraced the basic idea of human supremacism after the war's end and wandered the continents of Vera after learning of the death of both of his parents to strokes. He was able to learn of a new organization known as the Drei-Sterne-Bewegung, which was a supremacist group that emphasized fraternity and "counterviolence" to the rising socialist and communist conflicts arising within the country (which would later spiral into the Red Spring). He joined the DSB and began to observe the inner workings of its political machinery in conjunction to its external interactions with other individuals and parties, analyzing the gains and losses from such.

Josten left the DSB a few months after entering due to holding a vehement disagreement with the organization's transhumanist sentiments, arguing to those who responded to his departure that the utilization of technology for bettering the human form was hypocritical to the nature of their own ideological position of the supremacy of humanity in its own current state. At this time, the Menschliche Souveränität Partei was on the rise, complementing Josten's tastes and ideological nuances. Being led by the vehement supremacist and fellow veteran, Oberst Matthäus Wehner, he joined the MSP and quickly climbed the party's administrative ladder after reflecting on the lessons he had learned from the DSB, soon settling on the position of managing a subsection of the party's communication departments as a secretary.

The degeneration of the politics and society of the Confederation as a result of the Red Spring lead to the rise of the MSP as one of the premiere political parties of the nation, and its victory in attaining various legislative seats in the Congressional Elections of 278 KA - partly thanks to Josten's efforts of interplanetary communication between MSP administrators - allowed Josten to suggest to Wehner his ability to be a part of the party leader's plans. The timing for the suggestion was perfect, as the newly christened Vaterlandspartei 's political victories allowed Wehner to run for presidential bids for the upcoming Confederate Presidential Elections of 280 KA. Wehner's sudden death from cardiac arrest allowed Josten to thrust his competency for party leadership into the fray of the party's own seemingly incoming collapse, courting Schwarzegruppe commander Hinrich Eisenstadt and notable politician Adolar Fahrenheit to his side as a means of assuring complete and transitional control unto himself for the Vaterlandspartei.

Now the head of the Vaterlandspartei, Josten lead the party through the rapid collapse of the Confederation as Bloody June of 280 occurred in conjunction with the atrocities of the Black Pentecost. Josten's adamant Catholicism and stances against both left-wing and right-wing politics lead the Vaterlandspartei to a miscellany of conflicts and skirmishes with innumerable political factions. He organized the March on Kirchhausen that urged the incumbent President Gerwald Seidenstücker to move the Nationaler Kongress to declare premature presidential elections; however, Seidenstücker's attempted assassination and injuries allowed the Confederate military to exercise further control of the government and nullified the Nationaler Kongress 's rushed premature election declarations. This was, in essence, the beginning of the 280 Confederate Coup d'Etat that saw the vestiges of the Confederate government split between military and congressional lines.

Josten, angered by the military's sudden intervention, ordered Eisenstadt to begin assaulting the Oberste Festung within a reactionary-right wing alliance that was formed with the conservative politician known as Isaak Sackler. However, even with attaining victory in the assault through mutinous military factions lead by Hauptmann Achim Berkel, Josten conspired to attain more power through forcing Seidenstücker to cede the emergency powers of government unto the reactionary leader before declaring his own self unfit. Vice President Marwin Schutte, hearing of this plan, ordered for the leadership of the Vaterlandspartei to be arrested on the highest charges of treason against the state due to conspiratorial action; in response, Josten ordered the Congressional Palace to be razed and for Schutte to be assassinated by a hit squad.

The death of Schutte and the collapse of congress itself showed Josten and his followers that he was one of, if not the only, figures of sanity left. Upon the burning stones of the Bamberger Pavilion, Josten addressed the masses in the famous Mein Herz ist Wahr speech that a new age of the Confederation, and Humanity as a whole, was to begin from the blood spilled in June.

The remnants of the Nationaler Kongress were ordered to convene soon after the speech concluded. The Vaterlandspartei-controlled legislature quickly went through the motions to not only declare Josten Kanzlerpräsident, but to vest unto him a series of emergency powers that could ensure an immediate wave of stability to the country. Party members began to call him the Allfather, or Urvater, of the nation as a result of attaining such autocratic control.

Work in progress.

Early life
Work in progress.

Military service
Work in progress.

Post-war life
Work in progress.

Entry into politics
Work in progress.

Rise to power
Work in progress.

Rule as the Urvater
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Formation of the Josten Clique
Work in progress.

Later life and death
Work in progress.

Leadership style and Jostenism
Work in progress.

Family
Work in progress.

Religion
At the time of his birth, Josten's parents were vehement adherents to Veran Catholicism, with his mother and father having officially been baptized into the religion shortly after Josten being born. Prior to this, both of his parents were practically atheists, as religion at that time was diminishing in its spread with the rise of progressive and secular social movements.

Josten retained the Christian religiosity of his family as he grew up, often finding himself at odds with youth of different faiths (or lack thereof); this would have a profound effect on his politics and outlook on life. He did find some favorable traits with other religions such as Islam, but did not ever consider religious conversions to such. Being religiously orthodox, Josten found intense distaste with the irreligious and "socially reprobate" such as sexual minorities from a young age, and would only bolster in belief with the spread of sexual liberation and secularism throughout the Confederation both prior to, during, and after the First Human-Kizankai War.

When he assumed the role of the first Urvater of the Veran Star Confederation, one of Josten's first executed plans was to strengthen the power of the Veran Catholic Church and to idealize the Veran Catholic faith as the state religion. Beyond his own personal opinions on Catholicism, he also saw the Church as an important political tool that helped to counteract the undermining influence of other secular organizations (particularly progressive movements).

Work in progress.

Legacy
Dietrich Josten's legacy stands in the history and collective consciousness of the Menschlicher Sternenstaat as being one of the most influentially invocative and powerful of all time, only being rivaled by Kästner's legacy as the last Urvater and the first Sternenkaiser, or Wulf Hämmerli and his victory in the Civil War of the State. The cult of personality that Josten cultivated over his period of rule allowed his political positions to proliferate and dominate the last years of the Confederation and the beginning years of the Sternenstaat. Many Staatskanzlers and even some Sternenkaisers have attempted to reflect his policies and personality in rule, and as such, has integralized him as being one of the "Fathers of the Nation", specifically being referred to as the Grandfather of Empires.

Work in progress.