"Our Struggle": What If Hitler Had Been a Communist?
- Thread starter The Red
- Start date
Hoh yeah. When the SS, on the Eastern Front, convene war crimes tribunals against you, you might wanna take a few steps back and ask what you're doing wrong.
Bookmark1995
Banned
The most frustrating thing is this: most Nazi officials WEREN'T like Dirlwanger.
The scariest thing is reading accounts of how polite people like Hitler and Speer could be. Speer's story is especially chilling. I don't buy his narrative of denial or have any sympathy for him. Speer's story teaches me is that normal people can do abnormal things, and you don't need a personality disorder to do them.
I belive a CS Lewis quote comes to mind:
"The greatest evil is not done in those sordid dens of evil that Dickens loved to paint but is conceived and ordered (moved, seconded, carried, and minuted) in clear, carpeted, warmed, well-lighted offices, by quiet men with white collars and cut fingernails and smooth-shaven cheeks who do not need to raise their voices."
Oh that much is obvious, but it doesn't change the fact that they were evil shits.
Chapter CXXI
Marxist ‘theory’ does not strive to achieve objective knowledge of reality out of an independent, theoretical interest. It is driven to acquire this knowledge by the practical necessities of struggle, and can neglect it only by running the heavy risk of failing to achieve its goal, at the price of the defeat and eclipse of the proletarian movement which it represents.
~ Karl Korsch, Why I am a Marxist
Karl Liebknecht Haus, Berlin; the early hours of the following morning
The meeting hall within party headquarters had been decked out with celebratory decorations for the May Day festivities but in the small hours of the following day there was no drunken revelry, merely quiet, fraught, contemplation.
Gerda Muller waited for news to come out of St Hedwig hospital alongside the gathered party activists, functionaries, and representatives doing the same. Few had managed to gain access to the hospital although Goebbels, who had been with Hitler at the time, was apparently an exception. She recognised many of the faces amongst her, many of them comrades and friends who had worked together for years towards the same goals. She chose to stand alone all the same and most others did likewise. Those who had formed small groups to quietly confer were the objects of some suspicion but everyone was handling the events differently and they were left to themselves
She had asked Dieter to take Rosa back to their hotel whilst she waited for some news, having traded in a night of celebration with her daughter and partner for doubt and worry. That was how life went sometimes after all. The Communist Party offered greater freedom to the German worker, control over their own lives in a way that would be impossible in the existing state of capitalism but the events often left even the major players within the party helpless to the whims of history. They in this hall were an audience regarding their own fates, their vaunted self-actualisation making them little more than spectators.
The hall was full of empty coffee cups and cigarette smoke though some others had taken to the large supply of alcohol which had been set aside for the anticipated night of partying. Gerda could make out the members of the Zentrale, as anxious as anyone else. Among them there were left oppositionists, right oppositionists, former Stalinists and former Trotskyites; all had bought into Adolf Hitler Thought, willingly or otherwise. When Hitler spoke conclusively they had usually managed to keep their heads down and carry out the tasks assigned to their roles but all had histories with denunciations and factionalism.
In the Soviet Union, Stalin had dealt with this by playing all factions against each other until they were broken up and reconstituted around a party centre. This orbited around Stalin but it also seemed to be self-sustaining. Hitler however, had structured party cohesion on his own authority and charisma and they had all bought into it, including Gerda herself. They had rejected Moscow and Stalinisation but if Hitler were to die, or to be incapacitated, that would result in them landing back were they were in 1923. At each other's throats.
Preventing such an outcome would require much introspection, a dangerous indulgence when in government with no majority, a hostile opposition and untrustworthy coalition partners. Undoubtedly the SPD would currently be going through their own panic at Hitler and Zeigner’s potential deaths but their structure was much more organic. To them losing Zeigner would be like the amputation of a limb whilst the loss of Hitler would be a decapitation for the Communists. There would likely be those planning to profit from this.
Removing Zeigner would break the strongest remaining link in the alliance between the two parties whilst Hitler’s death would potentially throw the KPD into internal chaos. It was the sort of scenario Gerda could have imagined Rosa’s father welcoming but it was hard to imagine him as part of a conspiracy to actually carry out such an act. There were plenty who would want Hitler and Zeigner dead whom she didn’t bear personal grudges against.
Gerda put Ernst out of her mind and thought again of Rosa, she cursed herself for not going back to the hotel at that moment. Instead of putting her daughter’s mind at ease she was waiting for news of whether or not Hitler was alive, the party leader she was now beginning to realise may have linked the party far too close to his own fate. And, it seemed, hers by default.
The hours of no news and hushed conversations continued to drift by and Gerda felt a weariness in her eyes already stung by cigarette smoke, alongside many others she succumbed to an uneasy sleep. Unwilling to go back to the hotel but also unable to stay awake without anything going on, she removed the hammer and sickle from her lapel and tucked her jacket into a makeshift pillow, before laying her head down on one of the tables laid out for the celebrations.
Gerda was brought back to a drowsy consciousness a few hours later by the noise of tables being moved. She noticed the sun was shining outside, the powerful rays reflecting around the building indicating that it must have just recently risen. She could hear a commotion going on around her and it seemed people were now clearing a space in the centre of the hall even as others remained sleeping. There was shouting from the corridor and Gerda recognised the booming voice of Heinrich Brandler. The former general secretary brought the news he was announcing into the hall, Goebbels was back from the hospital with an ambulance in tow.
The indication that there was finally some news from the hospital finally brought Gerda to full alertness, she was not the only one. Apparently there were press beginning to swarm outside the headquarters in the expectation of news but for the moment it seemed those inside were the privileged few. The excitement and expectation distracted her from any dread as to what the news might be but it returned when Goebbels appeared, haggard and unshaven.
The party propagandist had also been standing in a smoke filled room it seemed, or perhaps he had been crying. There was something in his hands and as he crept slowly into the hall, his bad foot after his good one, it appeared to be a bloody shirt he was carrying.
Standing in the centre of the room,the gathered party faithful crowded around him, Goebbels held it aloft to show that was exactly what it was.
There were audible gasps.
A hole punctured the shirt where the blood had spread out from, clearly this had been caused by a bullet. Goebbels theatrically spun the shirt around, showing another hole at the back of the shirt. This was where the bullet seemed to have exited the torso.
“Comrades,” Goebbels announced, almost choking with fresh tears, “providence shines upon us. There is a vision for Germany and its name is Adolf Hitler!”
There were more gasps but others reacted with cries of relief. A spontaneous applause broke out whilst Goebbels continued to hold the shirt aloft, using his own sleeve to wipe away his clears.
Suddenly a silence hit the room, dumbstruck almost, as those grouped around Goebbels parted to allow Adolf Hitler through.
Hitler made a pained expression with each step, his limp new and far less natural than Goebbels’. He guarded the bandaged side of his body defensively, subconsciously shielding it with his arm from any further shots. It was a scene of hurt and indignity but Gerda recognised a resolve that she had seen in the man many times before. Instinctively she hurried to put the hammer and sickle pin back on her lapel before throwing on her jacket.
The General Secretary stopped aside Goebbels and the crowd moved back in around them.
Hitler looked around the room before beginning to speak.
“In the fifteen years for which I have belonged to this movement I often demanded of my comrades, all gathered here, an unwavering loyalty to our cause. The same which I have maintained throughout all these years of struggle. Like many workers before me I have found myself in the firing line of the agents of capital and emerged on the other side once again. My resolve has never been stronger, Comrades, and seeing you all gathered here is heartening. It is clear I am not alone in being willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for our ideals. For our, German, ideology.”
Hitler coughed wearily before going on.
“All of this is true and as such I am afraid I cannot provide the news which you all long to hear. Comrade Zeigner remains in a serious condition. He may not survive. We hope for a happy outcome but we may be looking at a future without the greatest leader Germany has ever had.”
There was disquiet at the news of the President’s condition but Hitler’s own weariness seemed to shift into a far more recognisable expression. One of contempt.
“I have no doubt that the attempt on our lives was intended to be the death of us both. That the temporary shock to the workers movement from such an act would be taken advantage of to return you all to the chains which the German worker cast off four years ago. But they have failed. Comrade Zeigner may have been incapacitated but I, Comrades, am very much alive. Their conspiracy will now be rooted out and crushed. Our enemies are little worms, I have seen them up close before but never had the opportunity to stamp on them. That is different now.
For the duration of President Zeigner’s disability, under Article 51 of the republican constitution, I am assuming the powers of the Presidency. This is a statement I will be making to the Reichstag this afternoon before addressing the German people in the evening. I will pledge to safeguard the revolution using all the means at my disposal, to cleanse Germany of the reactionary FILTH-”
Hitler seemed to go weak from the sudden exertion, wobbling in the middle of the room. Goebbels rushed to prevent him from falling but Hitler recomposed himself before his lieutenant could unconsciously drape the bloodied shirt around its owner.
“These responsibilities fall to myself Comrades but I can only go forward with the support of you gathered here. This is what I need to do and this is what you need to do. We have the state for a moment but we need state power. This power will not be handed to us, even though it is owed to us and to the class we represent. We shall have to take it and so we must embark upon taking it together, in the knowledge of our history and of our duty.”
There was little hope in these words but there was that same resolve, borne of venom.
“When the music stops, we shall be the only ones remaining on stage.”
“Yes!” Shouted someone from the crowd, apparently with their spirits renewed. There was an infectiousness to the confidence and cheers rang out. The hollering continued with Hitler proceeding to move back out of the hall to face the waiting press outside. Many followed with their belief reignited, as did Gerda.
State power. That half-truth with which they had all embarked into government with the popular front, now at the cusp of being fully realised. She walked with the crowd into the morning sunshine amidst a hail of questions for their leader.
The blissful scene made Gerda’s heart rise, with thoughts of her hands placed around a neck.
---
The print is In Memorium Karl Liebknecht by Käthe Kollwitz
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Does this make Hitler a gifted actor, the shooting authentic, or this politically convenient tragedy even more complicated? In any case, the long-suffering Weimar Republic lurches toward its grave.
In all seriousness, it would be an understatement to say this doesn't bode well. The 'Volksfuehrer' seems to have emerged around the same time as in our timeline, and in similar circumstances. Yet another similarity between this Hitler and OTL's.
Gerda in particular seems to have a bone to pick - I wonder, just who exactly could it possibly be with? Surely not any members of the SPD, the Communists' ever-so-loyal coalition partners?
Bookmark1995
Banned
Hitler: the man with the most plot armor of any human being in history, besides Simo Hayha.
It did get some things right, for example Bane really did raise the red flag over the Reichstag.
In terms of the former he really did get shot, Goebbels' penchant for the dramatic aside. As to the latter two I'll you decide.
I was going for a metaphor on how these events have left the KPD with a stranglehold over capital when the day before it seemed the might return to being at each other's throats. However if you wanted to anthropomorphise said metaphor there would be worse options than a certain SPD deputy.
The based CIS warned them this was going to happen.
There is a major difference in that he lost a shirt rather than a pair of trousers.
It's a credit to the Red Army that they defeated both, albeit not simultaneously.
Nice catch, thanks!
The time has come to radicalise the revolution but there are a few surprises still to come.
Pah, The CIS is a complete example of the Intergalactic Financiers conspiracy and is proof that Revolutionaries must puge all Counter revolutionary Elements in German Society!
Edit: and while were on the topic of Star Wars, It would be interesting to see what the "Empire" (well it wouldnt be called the Empire I suppose) coded to Communism instead of Facism would look like.
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"All species have a right to self-determination. Therefore, we should confine them to ~home sectors~. Obviously."