Explosion heard around the world... Or Elser succeeds

November 8th, 1939, 1930h Munich Airport, Runway
Focke-Wulf FW-200 sat on the airport quietly. Inside Hans Bauer talked to his copilot. "According to the report of the ground control, this bloody fog will be lifting in 45 minutes. Night should be clear enough for take-off by 2200." "Ja, herr Standartenfuehrer." said the copilot. "I'll notify herr Weber, the head of security detail."

2000h, Buirgerbraeukeller
Christian Weber listened to the man that approached him intently. Afterwards, he approached Adolf Hitler, who was preparing to start his speech for annual Beer Hall Putch anniversary. After hearing what Weber whispered to him, Hitler replied "Ach, sehr gut. Prepare to leave this place in 2130."

2035h, Konstanz, Germany-Switzerland border crossing
Thomas Gruener Reich Customs official, accompanied by an ominous looking Gestapo man, checked papers of passengers on regular Munich-Bern train. One Johann Georg Esler fumbled around with a bunch of papers, until he finally produced his ausweiss. His nervousness caught attention of the Gestapo officer who took his passport from Thomas. Instantly he declared "Your papers are not in order! Please follow me!". Thomas stepped aside, careful not to interfere. Gestapo man roughly took Johann by the hand and guided him outside of train, where he was joined by two other officers. Thomas didn't want to know what was going to happen to the man. He heard some stories about "interogation" methods of men in gray overcoats, and didn't want to get more intimate with them.

2119h, Buirgerbraeukeller
Clock was inexorably ticking on the detonator of the bomb, set beneath the speaker stand of the Hall. Only 60 seconds were left till the mechanism activated detonation cap. On the speaker stand the Fuehrer of Nazi Germany, mighty Third Reich was concluding his speech on decadence and impending fall of Allied power, which held Germany enslaved for 20 years.

2120h At the moment when Hitler belowed "NO MORE! I will ANNIHILATE them!" and Alte Kaempfer jumped to their sits, shouting "Heil Hitler!" in extasy, loud explosion obliterated speaker stand. Roof of the hall caved in, burying everything beneath rubble of concrete, metal and wood construction and roof tiles that was almost shoulder high at shallowest point. Extasy of the second earlier was replaced by cries of pain as over 90 people laid wounded and bleeding. Almost immediately 15 members of SS Liebstandarte who were standing outside rushed in the hall. They were shocked by the sight, but, oblivious to the cries of wounded men, started digging the rubble with their bare hands, hoping against hope to save the dictator they were sworn to protect with their lives.

2145h It took almost half an hour for the first teams of Feurwehr and Ambulanz to arrive to the scene. Place was already crawling with members of half a dozen security services, although SS men were clearly in charge. Fifteen Liebstandarte officers were sitting on the sidewalk, visibly subdued, while what looked like a senior officer of the SS, wearing Algemeine SS insignia and rank of Brigadefuehrer SS sweared at them savagely.

2200h Feurwehr officers dig out first bodies buried in the general area where speaker stand used to be. They are immediately surrounded by SS men and suggested to get some rest. A minute later four SS officers were seen taking out a body of man. His grey uniform was in tatters, and what probably used to be an overcoat, was a bloody mess of textile hanging off the stretchers. They put the stretcher in the black van, waiting outside, which promptly vanished at great speed. Most of the SS officers dispersed in the surrounding streets. They started frisking every bystander and arresting anyone even slightly suspicious. As most people tried to get out of the way, and made run for their homes this resulted in hundreds arrest. 15 members of SS Liebstandarte who were in front of the Hall, were picked up in the bus and driven away. No body knew what happened to them, although some sources claimed that they were given personal weapons and left in their cells.

2205h Berlin, Prinz-Albrecht-strasse, SS HQ
"You must confirm this! Right now! I don't care if you have to run to Munich!" shouted Himmler, whose face was red with anger to the young Hauptsturmfuehrer who brought the teleprinter report. He saluted, shouted sharp "Jawohl, Herr Reichsfuehrer!" and turned on his hills and left. After the doors closed, Haydrich, sitting opposite to Himmler, with woried look on his face said "Herr Reichsfuehrer, you understand what this means?".
Equally worried Himler replied "Ja, mein Reinhard! The fat, bungling fool will have his five minutes! If only Hess was kept as a heir-apparent!! But even Fuehrer realised that Hess was looney. Anyway, we must follow publicly expressed will of the Fuehrer for now. Send your men to bring the idiot from his hunters lodge". "Jawohl, Herr Reichfuehrer! I will personally take care of that. I just wish I could get my hands on the swine who did it. He would wish that Mueller got to him first." At that moment Hauptsturmfuehrer appeared again. He ommited the usual Hitler salute, instead only rising his right hand. "Herr Reichsfuehrer! It is confirmed! Der Fuehrer ist Tot!"

2300h Zossen, OKH
Phone rang in the conference room, where Brauchistch, Halder, Jodl, Keitel, Rundstedt, von Bock and von Leeb were just going through the proposed plan to attack France by the way of Low countries. Captain Roehmer answered it. His face paled. "WAS?" he shouted as he stood up holding the receiver so tightly that his knuckles went white. Everyone in the room turned toward him. Senior officers looked at each other fear visible on every face. They knew that this war was gamble and that French army could still roll over slight opposition forces on so called "Sigfried line" could offer. Most divisions were still transiting from Poland to the west using rail and highways. They were triumphant, but tired. Losses were just replenished and new men still haven't gotten the grips and unit cohesion suffered. They all feared French offensive. The bad news that arrived, was however of different nature. Keitel was the first one to hear it. His reaction caused chill to penetrate the room as his face conveyed shock, sadness and fear at the same time. He announced quietly, unable to use his throat in full capacity "Meine herren, der Fuehrer ist Tot!" Anybody left standing after his announcement just lost control of their legs and sat down. Many faces of junior officers filled with tears, as the man they recognized a hero, and worshipped for bringing glory and might to their country was suddenly taken from them. "Halder, this changes everything," whispered Brauchistch. General-oberst Brauchistch has only weeks earlier refused to take part in conspiracy which was headed by Halder, Canaris, Witzleben, Hoepner. This exchange was not noted by anyone. Halder just nodded solemnly.

2315 Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, Bendlerblock, Berlin
A figure in the chair behind a large desk sobbed quietly in his hands, wrapped around his face. Paper on his desk that caused this was soaked in tears. "Why!" he whined. His hand reached into his drawer and appeared holding a pill between his index finger and thumb. After staring through the window on quiet Berlin night for few minutes, he carefully put it on the table and reached for a telephone reciever. "Get me Magda" he whispered. "I need my wife."

2330 Carinhall
"Herr Goering, wake up" shouted the young servant, Mathias Gnaedinger. He never dared interupt Feldmarschals sleep, but there were four men from SS in the house. He knew you don't get to say too many noes to these guys. One of them, tall, young and blonde fellow, bearing insignias of SS-Gruupenfuehrer pushed Mathias away and poured water from the glass he picked up from the nightstand directly on Goerings face. Bewildered Feldmarschall rose up to sitting position, trying to gather his bearings. He was not used to such rude awakening. As he blinked, he saw blurred figure in black uniform and
bowing toward him. Instinctively he flinched, his mind racing to recent past, sorting out events to check if something he did could bring his demise in the eyes of the Fuehrer. Nothing he could think of could be so devastating to him that Hitler would decide to rid himself of one of his most faithful lieutenants. "However, life in Third Reich was cheap. My life might be more expensive than others, but..." He never finished this line of thought.
Bowing figure whispered in his ear "Der Fuehrer ist Tot!". This caused Goerings mind to frantically activate. At that moment he recognized Himmlers' hound dog. He shuderred from the shock this announcement brought to his unprepared mind. Goering jumped out of the bed, rushed to the cabinet in the far end of the room and reached for a pill container in the drawer. He popped one of the pills in his mouth, and quickly followed it with brandy from the bottle that stood ready on the cabinet. He was not ready for this. Himmlers' pet read an official announcement from the piece of paper he retrieved from his pocket. As Goering turned around, three SS what-ever-fuehrers stood at attention and belowed "Der Fuehrer ist Tot! Heil Fuehrer!". At that moment Goering fainted.

0200 Downing street 10, London
Chambarlain woke to the sound of door to his bedroom opening. His personal secretary Lord Dunglass was at the door, with police officer from PMs personal security detail at his side. Alecs face conveyed utter confusion and without any preliminaries he said "Adolf Hitler is dead!". This woke Prime minister instantly. "Summon me Leslie, Halifax and..." he started thinking aloud. After a moment of consideration "Actually, summon entire War
Cabinet for immediate session. Also, confirm this news however you can. Tell Macmillan to sketch announcement for BBC. It must confirm our position on the war, no matter what!". As Alec left, Neville thought for himself "God, I hope French are not this foolish!"

0200 Paris, Elysee Palace
Daladier looked on the piece of paper in his hand with disbelief. "He is dead." he thought "So this is why they called me from my house in the middle of the night. What happens now?". Daladier pressed a button, and his aide d'affairs appeared. "Summon meeting of the cabinet as soon as they can come. Call Maurice and tell him to be here in half an hour."

0200 Moscow, Kremlin
Stalin, Molotov, Beria, Zhdanov and Voroshilov sat at the desk. Cups of hot tea were in front of them, and air was full of scent of Stalins favorite Georgian tobbaco. "I can't believe that Hitler would allow something like this to happen to him." Stalin said, waving his head. Beria just smiled and remarked "I guess that he wasn't as beloved a Fuehrer as we thought he was." "Comrade Vycheslav, who do you think is going to succeed him?". "I am better able to answer this." said Beria "Comrade Chairman, according to my sources, Goering is slated as heir apparent, by the will of Hitler." "Thank you, Comrade Beria" said Stalin. "Comrade Vyacheslav, is our agreement with fascists in danger? Could Goering revert Hitlers policies and attack us?"

"Comrade Chairman, Goering is reputed to have expressed doubts on war against Soviet Union privately! If he manages to consolidate his power, I believe we can even find common interest with Germany and continue our cooperation!"

"Comrade Chairman," interjected Voroshilov "We could rely that Goering has distaste of ground war as an airforce pilot. He will try to avoid getting into large scale conflict on the ground as much as he can, I believe. Pilots of our VVS shy away from "ground pounding" and despise any combat on the ground." "Thank you, Comrade Klimenti" said Stalin "We will now inspect the figures of realization of the third Five Year plan."

To be continued
 
Last edited:
Hi,

please change "Der Führer ist Todt" to "Der Führer ist tot"...
in the moment you claim that Minister Todt is the Führer...
i think this isn´t your intenion, right?;)
 
Informationfan has it wrong; todt (dead) is correct. That Dr. Todt has that name is mere coincidence. The head of the Sicherheitsdeinst is Heydrich, not Haydrich. And 'bloody' is not proper German slang; 'verdamte' (damned) or the equivalent would be better.

Goering was wounded in the leg during the Beer Hall Putsch (1923); he became addicted to morphine as a result of having it administered in the hospital afterward. For the rest of his life he fought that addiction, sometimes winning, sometimes losing.

Having him faint is dubious; although the news would be a shock he would handle it well. AFAIK he was never prone to fainting, which would be a definite disqualifier for a fighter pilot!

He would be a memorable Fuhrer; intelligent, politically astute, flamboyant, affable, charming; a complete contrast to the quiet, reserved, self-effacing Hitler.
 
Sorry, but no. It's "tot" (with a simple "t" at the end).

And subsrcibed. Nice timeline...
 
Interesting!

Beck had already been forced out by this time, though, so him being at an OKW meeting at Zossen is impossible.
 

abc123

Banned
He would be a memorable Fuhrer; intelligent, politically astute, flamboyant, affable, charming; a complete contrast to the quiet, reserved, self-effacing Hitler.

I'm not even sure that he would remain Fuhrer.
After all, Fuhrer was sui generis title for Hitler alone, I don't think that Goring would dare to continue as Fuhrer.
IMO he would take the title of Reichprasident and name someone else as Reichkanzler.
;)
 
I'm not even sure that he would remain Fuhrer.
After all, Fuhrer was sui generis title for Hitler alone, I don't think that Goring would dare to continue as Fuhrer.
IMO he would take the title of Reichprasident and name someone else as Reichkanzler.
;)

The office of Reichsprasident was deliberately left vacant after Hindenburg's death; the Weimar constitution required the Reichsprasident to obey the Constitution, which would have been inconvenient for the Nazis, but the Reichskanzler was only required to obey the Reichsprasident. So, no Reichsprasident, no one to gainsay the Reichskanzler, who then has carte blanche once he gains control of the Reichstag.

So Goering would become Reichskanzler, because that's where the real power is. Whether he calls himself Fuhrer or not is really immaterial, but he probably would, given his massive ego.

BTW, Google Translate accepts either 'tot' or 'todt' as correct, but 'tot' is modern usage and not correct for the German of seventy years ago. Also, Goering is Reichsmarschal, a rank created especially for him, not Feldmarschal.
 
Last edited:
Interesting!

Beck had already been forced out by this time, though, so him being at an OKW meeting at Zossen is impossible.

Sorry, it was intended to be Bock, commander of Army group C, of course. It was supposed to be the meeting of senior field commanders and OKH staff. Thanks for pointing it out. I am preparing next chapter. Looking forward for comments. Thanks too all. Anyway i am not that familiar with german to make it lively enough, but i will try.

Greetings to all.
 
Informationfan has it wrong; todt (dead) is correct. That Dr. Todt has that name is mere coincidence. The head of the Sicherheitsdeinst is Heydrich, not Haydrich. And 'bloody' is not proper German slang; 'verdamte' (damned) or the equivalent would be better.

Goering was wounded in the leg during the Beer Hall Putsch (1923); he became addicted to morphine as a result of having it administered in the hospital afterward. For the rest of his life he fought that addiction, sometimes winning, sometimes losing.

Having him faint is dubious; although the news would be a shock he would handle it well. AFAIK he was never prone to fainting, which would be a definite disqualifier for a fighter pilot!

He would be a memorable Fuhrer; intelligent, politically astute, flamboyant, affable, charming; a complete contrast to the quiet, reserved, self-effacing Hitler.


The idea that you beat a native language-person with no-knowledge is funny...
it is tot... simply... read a book about german language, come back and appologize:D

i do not answer your hymn about Goehring... that is just to, well... :eek:

The chance you learn something is given- now
Todt has nothing to do with Tod or tot...
you can someone kill... "jemanden totmachen"
you are Mr.Death (Sie sind Herr Tod)
death from above (Tod vom Himmel)
to kill (töten)

hope you could learn something...
 
Sorry, it was intended to be Bock, commander of Army group C, of course. It was supposed to be the meeting of senior field commanders and OKH staff. Thanks for pointing it out. I am preparing next chapter. Looking forward for comments. Thanks too all. Anyway i am not that familiar with german to make it lively enough, but i will try.

Greetings to all.

Actually Bock is commander of Heeresgruppe B; his fellow commanders are von Rundstedt (Heeresgruppe A) and von Leeb (Heeresgruppe C), and should also be present at the meeting if you want all the senior commanders there.
 

abc123

Banned
The office of Reichsprasident was deliberately left vacant after Hindenburg's death; the Weimar constitution required the Reichsprasident to obey the Constitution, which would have been inconvenient for the Nazis, but the Reichskanzler was only required to obey the Reichsprasident. So, no Reichsprasident, no one to gainsay the Reichskanzler, who then has carte blanche once he gains control of the Reichstag.

So Goering would become Reichskanzler, because that's where the real power is. Whether he calls himself Fuhrer or not is really immaterial, but he probably would, given his massive ego.

And why then Hitler named Donitz as Reichsprasident and Goebbels as Chancellor?
Why not name Donitz as Fuhrer?

It was widely held opinion at the time that Fuhrer is sui generis title for Hitler only, and that his heirs will not be Fuhrers...
 
And why then Hitler named Donitz as Reichsprasident and Goebbels as Chancellor?
Why not name Donitz as Fuhrer?

It was widely held opinion at the time that Fuhrer is sui generis title for Hitler only, and that his heirs will not be Fuhrers...


correct... Hitler is the "Führer", the others are "Reichskanzler/Reichspräsident"...
 
Top