Federal Union of Zwischenland
 Flag
Coat of arms
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| 'Motto: '"Inter et Super" (Latin) ("Between and Above") | |
| Anthem: Zwischen Wir Sind (English: Zwischen We Are) | |
| Capital | Kaseburg |
| Official languages | German (official 4 states; co-official 1 state) Polish (co-official 1 state) |
| Demonym(s) | Zwischen |
| Government | Federal republic with representative democracy |
| Legislature | Federal Parliament |
| Establishment | 26 December 1990 |
| Population | |
• Census | 28 (2017) |
| Currency | Zwische Mark (ZM) |
| Time zone | Central European Time (UTC+2) |
Zwischenland, formally the Federal Union of Zwischenland (German: Bundesverband Zwischenland), is a micronation that claims several areas along the German-Polish border as its territory. The country is a federal union with a representative democracy and consists of four states: Ecke, Kaseburg, Łysa Wyspa, and Werder.
History
Zwischenland was founded by Erich Schreiber I as the Zwischen Democratic Republic on 26 December 1991, the same day of the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Schreiber originally claimed he established the ZDR because he had become disillusioned following German reunification, although he did not repeat this claim in later years. The ZDR was itself dissolved on 14 February 1992 and replaced by the current Federal Union.
The country continued to prosper until Schreiber's death in 2010, aged 68. Thereafter, a power struggle between his two sons, Erich Schreiber II and Stefan Schreiber, led the deeply divided Federal Union to fracture. Following the 2010 Zwischenland coup d'état, the two-year Zwischenland Civil War broke out. The war concluded in 2012 with the Treaty of Unity.
Politics
Zwischenland is a federal, parliamentary, representative democratic republic. The political system is established by the 1992 Federal Union Constitution (German: Verfassung des Bundesverbandes).
The President (Präsident des Bundesverbandes) is the head of state and invested primarily with representative responsibilities and powers. They are elected by both chambers of the Federal Union Parliament (Parlament des Bundesverbandes) sitting as an electoral college. There is no vice-president of Zwischenland. Instead, the President of the People's Council (the lower chamber of the parliament) becomes acting president should the incumbent be incapacitated, impeached or otherwise be unable to fulfil the duties of office.
The Chancellor (Kanzler des Bundesverbandes) is the head of government exercising executive power; similar to the role of a Prime Minister in other parliamentary democracies. Federal legislative power is vested in the legislative body, the Federal Union Parliament, consisting of the Council of Peoples (Volksrat) and Council of States (Landrat). The Council of Peoples is elected through direct elections. The members of the Council of States are members of, and represent, the governments of the four federal states.
The four states of Zwischenland have state governments with considerable autonomy in their internal affairs. All the states are subordinate to Federal law and the Federal Government has exclusivity in responsibility for external affairs, defense and security policy, and national economic policy.
States
There are currently four states (Länder) of Zwischenland. The Zwischen Democratic Republic consisted of two states: Ecke and Kaseburg. Werder joined the Federal Union on 1 July 1996 followed by Łysa Wyspa on 5 February 2005.
Kaseburg is the largest state by area and population. Ecke is the smallest state by area. Werder is the smallest state by population. All the states have German as either the de facto or de jure official language, with Łysa Wyspa having German and Polish as co-official languages.