DPRK and GDR switch styles of governing

First of all, I set up my account 2 weeks ago but I feel I'm still new to this website. I have been fascinated with Alternate History since the day I fist step on this website. But enough formal introductions and let's get this started. I have to say even though both North Korea and East Germany follow the exact Soviet style government, they are so different to one another. North Korea even to this day, acts like an absolute monarch rather than a usual Marxist-Leninist communist found in communist countries during the Cold War. Erich Honecker rules the country really well for a Soviet satellite sate. IMHO I bet if East Germany still existed, it would have became like the Czech Republic but with a better economy. North Korea on the other hand, is gonna crumble in the next 5 to 10 years in my opinion. I had no hope for Kim Jong-Un's leadership after he shot Jang-Song Taek. Why would he shoot not only his uncle but the very person that made North Korea's still kicking even after the hard times the country faced. So for this AHC, I want you to switch the governing style's of Both The DPRK and GDR.
ex. Make North Korea sort-of like a "first world" communist country. GDR, A bat-shit insane "1984" like government that we see in North Korea IOTL.

Really, No takers at all!

I imagine the Soviets (and thus the Americans as well), would have very little tolerance for the now DPRK-esque East Germany.

Even through technically, the real insanity of the DPRK that we asscociate with them now hasn't really started, the modern "Juche" state didn't really come about until Kim Jong Il.

Kim Il Sung was also happy to exploit the Sino-Soviet split to maximize his political independence, contributing to the Juche ideology. There is no way the USSR will allow East Germany to show such independence, and there's no rival communist power to aid the GDR. Stalin feared even a socialist and united Germany was a threat to the Motherland.

Eternal Cynic: What about closer relations in East Germany with the unaligned Communists...say Yugoslavia or Albania? No, they wouldnt'go to China, but I imagine if the DDR really wanted, they could exploit issues between Belgrade and Tirana with Moscow in a similar manner yet at a smaller scale.

Geredis said:

Eternal Cynic: What about closer relations in East Germany with the unaligned Communists...say Yugoslavia or Albania? No, they wouldnt'go to China, but I imagine if the DDR really wanted, they could exploit issues between Belgrade and Tirana with Moscow in a similar manner yet at a smaller scale.

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Or Moscow just simply rolls tanks into East Germany, disposes the new DPRK-esque government and calls it a job well done?

You could have a much worse 80s in East Germany, leading to more radical Communists taking power. When protestors start rising in 1989, the DDR reacted far more violently, crushing the protestors and essentially seal the country off. The fall of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact is narrowly postponed which simply reinforces the paranoia and isolation of the DDR. (You could have a successful revolution or coup dispose of the Kims in North Korea and a more pragmatic socialist regime takes power which eventually reunites the Koreas). As of 2014, East Germany is still ruled by the powerful Communist elites, but it is basically an extremely paranoid military dictatorships with a hereditary clique and its own warped ideology which justified the oppressive state, and is attempting to acquire nuclear weapons to the horror of all Europe. Basically relies on Russia for many basic supplies. Korea on the other hand is one of the biggest capitalist economies in East Asia, and stands up on its own feet against both China and Japan.

The problem is, with 300,000 of the Soviet Union's most elite troops in East Germany, what will prevent the Soviets from "providing fraternal assistance"?

EternalCynic said:

The problem is, with 300,000 of the Soviet Union's most elite troops in East Germany, what will prevent the Soviets from "providing fraternal assistance"?

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Nothing exactly. The GDR was dead from the moment the Soviet Union choosed not to do a Prague anymore. Without the Big Brother the GDR cant exist on its own. This is what makes it different from North Korea.

Mumby said:

You could have a much worse 80s in East Germany, leading to more radical Communists taking power. When protestors start rising in 1989, the DDR reacted far more violently, crushing the protestors and essentially seal the country off. The fall of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact is narrowly postponed which simply reinforces the paranoia and isolation of the DDR. (You could have a successful revolution or coup dispose of the Kims in North Korea and a more pragmatic socialist regime takes power which eventually reunites the Koreas). As of 2014, East Germany is still ruled by the powerful Communist elites, but it is basically an extremely paranoid military dictatorships with a hereditary clique and its own warped ideology which justified the oppressive state, and is attempting to acquire nuclear weapons to the horror of all Europe. Basically relies on Russia for many basic supplies. Korea on the other hand is one of the biggest capitalist economies in East Asia, and stands up on its own feet against both China and Japan.

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One thing, North Korea is able to go back backs to China which still supports it which enables it to stay today as it does. Would East Germany be able to do the same though if all around it nations are joining the likes of the EU and NATO? Or would the changes in East Germany lead to bigger butterflies?

kwonphilip said:

One thing, North Korea is able to go back backs to China which still supports it which enables it to stay today as it does. Would East Germany be able to do the same though if all around it nations are joining the likes of the EU and NATO? Or would the changes in East Germany lead to bigger butterflies?

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I don't think East Germany staying around in a North Korea-esque state would have such big butterflies. If anything, it'd just make all of Europe even more eager to join NATO/EU/CIS, because they'd be like "holy shit totalitarian germany" -- Or it'd just lead to a short little German civil war with the USSR and USA fighting together against the crazy NVA.

MrHaakwood said:

Nothing exactly. The GDR was dead from the moment the Soviet Union choosed not to do a Prague anymore. Without the Big Brother the GDR cant exist on its own. This is what makes it different from North Korea.

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Agreed. It wasn't the "Nationale Volks Armee" which kept the regime in power it was the Soviet Army.
Now theoretically it would seem possible with an early enough PoD for the GDR gouvernement to grow it's own brainwashed Army and security forces. However - and that's a big hower - much more than anything NATO could to it would be the USSR itself that would never let the GDR get any delusions of grandeur before 1989.
Emotionally and politically it would be like the PRC propping up a DRPKesque regime in a Divided Japan rather than North Korea.

Walter Ulbricht

How about a POD in which the Soviet Union extended its Stalinist form of government under Lavrentiy Beria that would support a realistic DPRK-esque form of East Germany. I believe that Walter Ulbricht would lead this form of Stalinistic style of government. If you read how he ruled the former GDR, he added some stalinist economic styles during the beginning stages of GDR. Maybe if he could also model his leadership that of Stalin, the GDR ITTL would become a mixture of Nazi Germany and Stalinist Russia all together.