Gesellschaft

Gesellschaft (pronounced “geh-zell-shoft”<ref>Worm Audiobook pronounciation guide (confirmed by Wildbow)</ref>) was a European nationalistic neo-Nazi organization.<ref name="I18">Interlude 18 - Crusader</ref><ref name="I21">Gesellschaft, a nationalistic organization half a planet away from the Elite, was moving large funds in anticipation of a small war. Money was being laundered through cover operations and businesses, almost impossible to track, unless one was able to take in the bigger picture, to see the intent, the beginnings and endings of it. They were investing in transportation, and their fundings seemed to decline at the same time some notable arms dealers in Southern Europe found themselves richer by an equal amount. The Number Man flicked his way past a series of windows detailing the transaction amounts. Arms dealers who specialized in nuclear materials. This was pointing towards terrorism, and not on a small scale. Troubling, but the system would address them. The major hero group in Germany, the Meisters, would attend to the problem. It didn’t warrant an expenditure of Cauldron’s full resources, not when things were already on shaky ground.

Still, it wouldn’t do to have a disaster at this crucial juncture. The Protectorate was required for just a little longer. If they were going to make it through this, there couldn’t be any substantial distractions.

Gesellschaft hadn’t elected to seek out the Number Man and make use of his services, as so many supervillains around the world did. He had no compunctions, as a consequence, about interfering with them. He tapped into a series of bank accounts he hadn’t touched in some time, then scheduled a large number of transfers to the personal Gesellschaft accounts. Ten or twenty thousand Euros at a time.

Where funds weren’t likely to be held for moderation, he scheduled more transfers and disputed the charges. The transfer amounts were large enough to raise flags, to draw attention to the accounts in question. The banks were on the lookout for suspicious activity, and a total of five hundred thousand Euros appearing in six checking accounts with typical balances of under a thousand Euros would be suspicious enough to merit a serious look.

That was only to slow them down. They would want to investigate, to be careful and find out where the money came from. Later, if the situation was resolved and they somehow managed to hold on to the money, they would want to know where the money disappeared to, as he reclaimed it with a severe interest rate. They would suspect interference, would wonder if this outside agent had connected their civilian identities to their personas within Gesellschaft.

Which he had.

The transfers took him less than thirty seconds to arrange, and it would occupy them for one or two days.

Freezing the larger business accounts would take only a little more time. One or two minutes. The meetings with the arms dealers had fit a vague schedule. The arms dealers always took a different route, but they traveled enough that they needed to buy gas at one point on the way. There was always a large transfer of funds.

He laid a trap, calculated to start falling into place when the gas was bought in the time window. The main accounts that the Gesellschaft used to manage their funds would be frozen by the time the meeting was underway. They’d likely find themselves at the meeting, the product delivered, but with no funds to pay for it. - Excerpt from Interlude 21 (Donation Bonus 1)</ref>

Goals

Purity speculated that they would sabotage Golem's efforts against the Slaughterhouse Nine "if it meant killing a thousand Americans".<ref name="I18">Interlude 18 - Crusader</ref>

They would not give assistance without strings attached. They created parahumans for use as weapons, and then interfered in their lives to ensure that they would be "best positioned for the cause". Crusader speculated that Night and Fog had been positioned as members of the Pure both to help ensure their success as a neo-Nazi group, and as potential countermeasures should they become a threat.<ref name="I18">Interlude 18 - Crusader</ref>

Gesellschaft were theorized to view the Pure as a "foothold in America", although Purity objected to this characterization of them - their reputation and success gave Gesellschaft an opportunity to claim their cause was being furthered in the West, even if their goals were only broadly aligned.<ref name="I18">Interlude 18 - Crusader</ref>

Abilities

Gesellschaft supposedly had the ability to cause trigger events in a safe, controlled environment.

Their money was laundered through cover operations and businesses, almost impossible to track without parahuman abilities. They purchased nuclear materials from "notable arms dealers in Southern Europe", for use in large-scale terrorism; but the Number Man predicted that the Meisters would deal with them.<ref name="I21">Interlude 21 - Number Man</ref>

Relationships With Other Parahumans

Night and Fog were both "created" by Gesellschaft. They were receiving orders while members of the Empire Eighty-Eight, although these orders stopped when the team fragmented.<ref name="I18">Interlude 18 - Crusader</ref>

Kaiser worked with Gesellschaft. Krieg was associated with them, and could potentially call in favours.<ref name="I18">Interlude 18 - Crusader</ref>

They did not make use of the Number Man's services, and he interfered on Cauldron's behalf to prevent them from causing major disasters.<ref name="I21">Interlude 21 - Number Man</ref>

References