Command & Conquer: Red Alert takes place in a parallel universe. At the Trinity Site in New Mexico in 1946, Albert Einstein prepares to travel back in time. He activates his experimental time machine to find himself in Landsberg, Germany, on December 20, 1924, where he meets a young Adolf Hitler just after the latter's release from Landsberg Prison. Following a brief conversation between the two, Einstein shakes Hitler's hand, which erases him from the timeline.