Wagner’s Germany: An Axis Victory TL

CrimsonKing

RobertWagner.JPG


HEINRICH WAGNER

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"It is the combination of Aryan racial energy and American efficiency that is the foundation of our Reich. Without a proper veneration for race and blood, American efficiency will invariably degenerate into decadence and stagnation. Without the efficiency that is the Americans' one great achievement, the creativity of the Aryan will not have sufficient means to actualize itself, and will in the coming trial be found wanting."

"There is no shame in learning from one’s enemies. In any competition, one is sometimes the teacher, at other times the student. In the latter case, the lessons must be learned well, and applied."

"The defeat of Germany in the First Great War was the result of many factors. The machinations of the Jew were undoubtedly the most important, and the one without which the others would never have mattered, but they all weaken the Volk, and they must all be excised, like a tumor, or an infected limb."

"The eradication of Judeo-Bolshevism is our unwavering aim. Bolshevism is but the latest manifestation of the parasitic influence of Jewry everywhere it establishes itself, and in the New Order both as such will be erased. However, it should not be taken from this that no Jews can be made useful to our Reich. One would not refuse to live in a house, or drive a car, which had been owned by them, and neither should one refuse to make use of a Jew, when he no longer owns himself."

"It makes no difference to a workhorse what it bears, only how heavy the burden is. For Russia, the transition from Bolshevism to National Socialism will mean nothing more than a change of masters. The Russians have been slaves throughout the entirety of their existence. They were slaves to the Mongols. They were slaves to the Czars. Now they are slaves to the Jews and their lackeys. In the future they will be slaves to us."

-Robert Heinrich Wagner, Chancellor of Germany and Chairman of the National Socialist People’s Party (NSVP), as quoted in Wagner’s Table Talk​

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Index

Prologue

Part I
Night of the Hangmen
Hjalmar Schacht and the First Four-Year Plan
The Rising Storm
Turning Point

Part II
The Volkswehr: Leadership and Doctrine (Appendix)
Weapons of the Volkswehr (Section 2)
The Axis Alliance and the Nuremberg Agreement
The Molotov-Neurath Accords and the Danzig Crisis
The Cold Peace and the American Election
The Alsace Crisis and the Coming of War

Part III
Blood on the Ice (Section 2)
Plans and Preparations
The Battle of the Bulge
Cut of the Scythe
The Fate of France

Part IV
A Sleeping Giant Stirs
The Axis Alliance Grows
The Battle of the Mediterranean
Tracks in the Desert
Thrust and Riposte
Wolves and their Quarry (Appendix)
The Prince of Foxes
Through the Eyes of the World
The Pact of Blood and the Autumn War
The Rim of Fire
The Treaty of Tehran

Part V
A New Order Coalesces
Dilemma and Decision
In the Light of the Rising Sun
A Double-edged Sword (Section 2)
A Crown Jewel Fractures
When the World Held its Breath (Appendix)
The Border Battles (Section 2)

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Note: No, this is not a Weber's Germany rip-off. It will have similarities, especially in the beginning, but will go in its own direction, being far more wankish, as I mentioned earlier. An outline of the historical Wagner can be found here.

Further note: For the sake of clarity, my position with regard to this timeline is that it is plausible and reasonably realistic.
 
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CrimsonKing

Comments? Questions?


Prologue
The Rise of Hitler and NSVP​

For the victors of the First World War, the 1920s were a happy time. The British maritime empire was once again unchallenged by the Kaiser's battleships and submarines. The United States was content with its position as a secure, prosperous economic powerhouse. Visitors marveled at the wondrous new products on display in the shop windows of great cities such as New York, their expressions, as an observer noted, "resembling those of children in a toy store." But for vanquished Germany, the decade was one of hardship and humiliation. Hyperinflation set in almost immediately after the end of the war, fed by the reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles and the French occupation of the Ruhr industrial area in 1923-25. For a nation which as its future leader Heinrich Wagner said, "had come so close to final victory that it was nearly at our fingertips," such travails, combined with the loss of territory under the peace settlement, were a bitter pill.


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Hitler delivering a speech.​


Not surprisingly under the circumstances, extremist parties of both the left and right thrived. The most successful of these latter was the ultranationalist German Workers’ Party (in German, Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or DAP). An initially obscure group founded in Munich in the immediate aftermath of the war, its fortunes were radically transformed by Adolf Hitler, one of its earliest members. Hitler, an embittered WW1 veteran, and like many of his compatriots, could never stomach the idea that Germany's loss could be explained as a normal military defeat. Instead, he embraced conspiracy theories of an international Jewish-Bolshevik plot combined with treason at home. His main political attribute was his charisma and skilled oratory. According to a listener, "When he spoke, it was if a spell was being cast. His words carried one to whatever conclusion he wished, as ocean waves guide a surfer." Empowered by his success, he became the Party’s sole leader in 1921 and changed its name to National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP). Under his leadership, NSDAP grew apace, and by 1923 counted over 20,000 members on its rolls. Inspired by the example of the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini's March on Rome the year before, Hitler decided the time had come to launch his own coup against the Weimar Republic, which he saw as weak and decadent.


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NSDAP members exhorting citizens of Munich during the Beer Hall Putsch.​


One of the new members was Robert Heinrich Wagner. Born in 1895 to a family of farmers, he was like Hitler a veteran of World War One, having fought in many of its most famous battles. He met Hitler in Munich in September of 1923, and was immensely impressed by his magnetism and vision, and joined the NSDAP immediately thereafter, just in time to participate in the Beer Hall Putsch which he helped to organize. Despite his and Hitler's best efforts, it was a disaster. On the night of November 8th, the Leader attempted to launch his coup at a rally, proclaiming “Either the German revolution begins tonight or we will all be dead by dawn!” He very nearly was. His hope had been to persuade the local police and army garrisons to mutiny and join the revolution. No such thing happened. Instead, the effort collapsed in a hail of police gunfire. As the disaster unfolded, Wagner was wounded in the left shoulder. "He was walking along, attempting to maintain some sort of order among those with him, when he stopped suddenly and staggered, as if he had hit an invisible barrier," said an eyewitness.

Although badly hurt, the wound he received would prove to be a turning point in his political career. In the aftermath, as the NSDAP leadership sat in jail awaiting trial for treason, Hitler was greatly impressed by his comrade's sacrifice, nicknaming him “the loyal Heinrich” (der treue Heinrich). In the meantime, as the Munich Putsch Trial proceeded, with Hitler and several others including Wagner as defendants, Hitler and his new public relations manager Joseph Goebbels spotted an opportunity. The trial was widely publicized, and Goebbels made sure the image of "the loyal Wagner," stoically bearing his wounds and unjust imprisonment at the hands of the regime which had sold out Germany at Versailles, was widely known. As a result, he became a nationally famous figure and attracted great sympathy. In the end, Hitler was given five years in prison, of which he served only eight months. The others were either acquitted or given light sentences. Hitler used the time to write his autobiographical manifesto Der Kampf (The Struggle), which he dictated to fellow prisoners Wagner, who had largely recovered from his injury, and Emil Maurice, another loyalist. He had originally intended to name it Four and a Half Years (of Struggle) Against Lies, Stupidity and Cowardice but Wagner, in his first significant input as one of Hitler’s close confidants, suggested the much simpler title, which was accepted instead. He also acted as an editor, and the published edition reflected his views to an extent.


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The new NSVP flag designed by Hitler and Wagner, after 1935 the German national flag.​


Upon his release from prison, Hitler set about rebuilding the Party, and winning power through electoral means, rather than violence. To signify the fresh start, it was renamed at the suggestion of Wagner, who also assisted in designing a new party flag, the National Socialist People’s Party (Nationalsozialistische Volkspartei, NSVP). Wagner, as a result of his immense popularity with the public, was appointed Vice Leader. Though now a member of Hitler's inner circle, he did not agree with everything his chief did. Hitler was fond of creating overlapping lines of authority between his subordinates so as to set them against each other, thus maintaining his position as a final arbiter. This was a practice of which Wagner, who valued clear lines of authority as a result of his military experience, (he was a captain at the end of World War I) did not approve. In particular, he disliked the growing power of Heinrich Himmler, another close associate of Hitler's and the head of his bodyguard. For example, he recommended to Hitler that the SD, the NSVP's intelligence and security service, be removed from under Himmler. It made no sense, Wagner said, for the head of a bodyguard to excercize such control over what should be an independent agency in its own right. In this case, the recommendation was accepted, a decision which had significant ramifications later.

These were lean times for the NSVP. The end of inflation and the return of some measure of prosperity in the later part of the decade took the allure off of extremist parties. In the 1928 elections, the NSVP won a miniscule 2.6% of the vote. Everything changed, however, with the stock market crash in October 1929, inaugurating the Great Depression. As unemployment soared, so too did the electoral fortunes of the National Socialists and Communists. Over the next three years, through a combination of skillful campaigning and intimidation, the NSVP increased its share of the vote to a plurality of 33% in the elections of November 1932. Following the subsequent inability of competing parties to form a united opposition, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Hitler Chancellor of Germany on January 30th, 1933.

Although no one new it, Adolf Hitler’s luck was about to run out.
 
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shiftygiant

shiftygiant

Gone Fishin'
So the point of this is to make a TL that makes Zweites Buch look as plausible in comparison? You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din.
 

DocBrown

In German, "The Struggle" would be "Das Kampf", not "Der Kampf". Maybe instead call it "Die Deutsche Kampf", or "The German Struggle"
 

Look More Closely Later

Hmm

CrimsonKing said:
Any thoughts?
Click to expand...
Make friends with France, and get them to come along with you on your crusade. Leave the UK as a (vaguely pacifist) neutral prepared to sell you stuff, whilst it tries to put its own increasingly fractious house/empire (well bits of it are fractious, anyway) in order.
Oh, and don't let Ribbentrop anywhere near a diplomatic posting to the UK... :p
 
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CrimsonKing

Thanks for all the feedback!

Kurt_Steiner said:
Flanders, Verdun, the Somme, Champagne... nah... the most important battle for Wagner is still to begin...:D
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And, hopefully for you readers, the most interesting...

shiftygiant said:
So the point of this is to make a TL that makes Zweites Buch look as plausible in comparison? You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din.
Click to expand...

That is the goal, yes.

kclcmdr said:
Let's see how Herr Wagner does a better job and judiciously maximize all the resources of Europe (Mineral, Food, Factories & All People) under his leadership against the hordes of the East...
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The judicious maximization of resources will be a key component of this TL.

DocBrown said:
In German, "The Struggle" would be "Das Kampf", not "Der Kampf".
Click to expand...

Good catch, I'll edit accordingly.

Maybe instead call it "Die Deutsche Kampf", or "The German Struggle"
Click to expand...

This has already been done in Weber's Germany, although IIRC it was called "Der Deutsche Kampf" rather than "Die."

Tom Colton said:
640px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00344A%2C_M%C3%BCnchen%2C_nach_Hitler-Ludendorff_Prozess.jpg


One photo. Three Führers.

I eagerly await Frick's Germany in the near future. :D
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shiftygiant said:
*furiously types out the introduction for Frick's Germany: The Authoritative Attorney*
Click to expand...

I know you both think this is a joke, but a person could get ideas...

Lost Freeway said:
Hey, go easy on him. At least there hasn't been any mention of Germany's magical coal yet.:p
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Oh, just wait.

Red_Galiray said:
Subbed. I like this and would like to see how it turns out. Good luck!
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Donald Reaver said:
Good luck with this, you have stated so no one should be surprised it is a hyper-wank of Germany post WW 1. Should be interesting.
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galveston bay said:
I look forward to it with great interest
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Not Henry G. said:
Aw yeah, a Nazi wank. Subscribed
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Thanks! I hope the TL will be able to meet your expectations.

Look More Closely Later said:
Make friends with France, and get them to come along with you on your crusade. Leave the UK as a (vaguely pacifist) neutral prepared to sell you stuff, whilst it tries to put its own increasingly fractious house/empire (well bits of it are fractious, anyway) in order.
Oh, and don't let Ribbentrop anywhere near a diplomatic posting to the UK... :p
Click to expand...

Interesting ideas. Some of this will happen, in a way.

Enigmajones said:
Good to see another NSVP.
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There was a real NSVP? I didn't know that.
 

Look More Closely Later

Yes, well...

CrimsonKing said:
...Interesting ideas. Some of this will happen, in a way...
Click to expand...
There seem to be so many 'Axis win by improbable super-weapons/super-tactics and/or by opposition beating themselves senseless with bottles of vodka' threads, and so few 'Axis win by acute diplomacy threads'.
At the moment 'diplomacy wins' seem less implausible to me than the other ones. Communism/Bolshevism (and its agents) was a legitimate worry for several governments and peoples in Western Europe...
 
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