In the spirit of balancing out my recent big Germany map, I made this. Note that this is not supposed to be realistic in any way, although if you have suggestions for change in population density or where the "high agricultural output areas" would be im open to hearing them.
Lore:
They shall have their autarky.
– Joseph Stalin, 1946
Following the unconditional surrender of Germany in May 1945, the victorious powers divided the country into four occupation zones. As relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union deteriorated, however, Germany soon became one of the first major fronts of the Cold War. Unlike the Western occupation zones, where rebuilding and democratic reforms became the priority, the Soviet Occupation Zone followed a radically different path. Russian authorities adopted what became known as the Sokolovsky Doctrine, based on the belief that German society had been permanently tainted by Prussian militarism and Nazism. According to this view, Germany could never again become a military threat only if it no longer possessed the industry needed to support one. Afterall, without factories, there could be no weapons.
In early 1947, the three Western occupation zones united to form the Federal Republic of Germany. Around the same time, the Soviet Zone was reorganized into the German Agrarian Republic (GAR). The country was cynically divided into 7 administrative "Sectors", each with one “center-townishp” acting as communication centers between each other and the capital. From 1947 onwards, factories, railways, power plants, chemical works, and machine shops across the country were systematically taken apart. Thousands of kilometers of railway track, along with locomotives, industrial equipment, and electrical infrastructure, were removed and transported to the Soviet Union as war reparations. At the same time, East Germany's cities were declared symbols of "bourgeois industrial fascism”. Everyone living outside their historic city centers was forced to leave. Families were typically given just 48 hours to pack their belongings before being forced into the countryside under military supervision, with many dying from starvation or exhaustion. The central government organized this „new rural population” into thousands of “Agrarian Communes”, in practice acting as simple villages. Apart from requiring each commune to deliver around 15-20% of its harvest to what’s left of cities, the state generally left them alone, so long as they met these quotas and caused no political trouble. At the same time, the republic officially embraced “total autarky”, although limited trade with the Soviet Union and some countries in the Eastern Bloc persisted.
As a result of this policy, hospitals, reliable electricity, heating systems, plumbing, and transportation networks disappeared by the mid-1950s. People who had no experience with farming relied on local peasants to learn from. Synthetic fertilizers, tractors, trucks, and all kinds of coal or oil based engines were banned, forcing people to rely on horses, wooden plows, and manual labor to cultivate the land. This transition, from one of Europe's most industrialized countries into an almost entirely agricultural society, was disastrous. From 1947, GAR experienced a demographic collapse unlike anything seen in modern history, with the population more than halved by 1957.
The only place spared from this cruel policy was Sector 0 - Berlin. Surrounded by a heavily guarded Berlin Wall, it became the administrative heart of the republic and home to the ruling Socialist Unity Council. While the countryside was devoid of electricity, modern communications, and mechanized transport, Berlin was allowed to remain somewhat industrialized. While still heavily supervised by Moscow, it was the GAR's only center with proper electricity and heavy industry, producing tools and other equipment for the rest of the country that couldn’t be produced locally. All other, far smaller cities were limited to oil lamps and light industry like textile production, printing, or food processing using simple steam engines.
By the mid-1960s, the turmoil caused by the forced relocations had largely settled. The country's borders were sealed and surrounded by wide exclusion zones cleared of all civilian settlements, making escape extremely difficult. Inside the GAR, a new rural society had emerged. Most Germans now lived as simple farmers, with little access to modern technology and few opportunities to leave. State propaganda celebrated this way of life through what officials called "Socialist Pastoralism", while posters, newspapers, and schoolbooks portrayed smiling farmers in traditional clothing harvesting crops, raising livestock, and living in harmony with nature.
As the 1980s approached, the German Agrarian Republic had become one of the world's most unusual states: a country that was forced to abandon industrial society and give way to an almost medieval style of life.