Robert Harris: Fatherland (1993)

The year 2014 is of course the remembrance year of countless real events in connection with the beginning of the really dark Europe: World War I (100 years) and World War II (75 years). But I will not remind anybody of real events, but of the contra-factual idea that the British author Robert Harris brought to live in his 1993 novel Fatherland. The action takes place in a very different Berlin 1964, so 50 years before our actual reality. Example of a news bit cited in one of the introductory sections of the novel:

Herbert von Karajan to conduct a special performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony – the European anthem – at the Royal Albert Hall in London on the Führer’s birthday.

It is a European dystopia that is unfolded bit by bit while a German police officer of the criminal police investigates in a series of murders that are connected to highest circles in the German Reich which has more or less won World War II in Europe: The European Community is in existence, consisting of twelve European nations under the domination of Germany. Albert Speer’s Berlin has been built, including a European Parliament on one of the gigantic axis. The flag with the swastika in front of this Parliament is twice as big as the one of the rest of the sattelite states.
It is pretty clear that Harris just did not like the idea of European integration very much when he wrote this detective story with a political message. Even if one likes European integration, the story still leaves an impression. I kept thinking in the process of reading that the author and the cover editor of some editions took it a little to far with the integration bashing. But I have to admit that it is quite fun for those who are vulnerable to the question: »What if...«

I got the message... | en.wikipedia.org

I will not be a spoiler, if you are one of those people intrigued by contra-factual history, you should read for yourself. But I will be a typical historian: Some of the facts and details that Robert Harris brought together some 20 years ago (he is using original documents and historical persons partly) seem to be researched rather quickly and without much accuracy.
In a time when the European integration utopia style is still oftentimes believed to be irreversible, it might be a good idea to look in this very British dark Europe to be reminded that everything human might turn out a whole lot different than the original idea.