Chapter I: Rise of the Nazis and the Sudeten Crisis, 1933-1938.
After reading the Wikipedia article on Turtledove's alternate history series concerning WW II erupting over the Sudetenland Crisis, I decided to do my own take on how such a world might develop. This is the first installment of that TL:
In 1933, the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany as millions of voters had made them the largest party in the Reichstag. At long last President Hindenburg had been left no other choice but to appoint party leader Adolf Hitler Chancellor in January. After the Reichstag fire that was deemed an act of arson by a Dutch communist, the Reichstag Fire Decree imposed in February rescinded most civil liberties. The subsequent Enabling Act passed in March empowered Hitler to pass laws without the Reichstag’s consent. Opponents intending to vote against these laws were intimidated or outright arrested.
The basis was laid for a dictatorship as Hitler could now simply ban all other parties. The entire country was rapidly Nazified: state parliaments and the Reichsrat (federal upper house) were abolished and their powers transferred to the central government. Civil organizations all received Nazi leaders and merged with the party or were dissolved, and for the media it was much the same with Propaganda Minister Goebbels controlling newspapers, radio, cinema, theatres, music and so on. All symbols of the Weimar Republic were removed and replaced by the swastika and other Nazi symbols. Jews were fired from their jobs as teachers, professors, judges, magistrates and government officials. A deficit spending based economic policy was initiated to rapidly combat unemployment, earning public support.
Their economic policy also included rapid militarization against the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. This military build-up, the remilitarization of the Rhineland and Germany’s questionable involvement in the Spanish Civil War were not protested against by Britain and France, diplomatically or otherwise. On the contrary, nobody so much as batted an eyelid when Hitler reintroduced conscription in 1935 and announced plans to expand the Wehrmacht to 550.000 men in 36 divisions. It was much the same when he remilitarized the Rhineland against the provisions of the punitive Treaty of Versailles. The diktat that Hitler hated so much.
Hitler was encouraged by the passive attitude of Paris and London. In February 1938, Hitler emphasised to Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg the need for Germany to secure its frontiers. Schuschnigg scheduled a plebiscite regarding Austrian independence for March 13th, but Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on March 11th demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian Nazi Party or face an invasion. German troops entered Austria the next day, to be greeted with enthusiasm by the populace. Again no-one spoke out against this blatant violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Believing the British and French wouldn’t act and would try to keep the peace, Hitler felt confident enough to plan his next expansionist move targeting Czechoslovakia.
Czechoslovakia was a multi-ethnic republic – made up of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia – that had emerged from the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Over three million of its inhabitants, roughly 23% of the total population, were ethnic Germans who hadn’t been consulted on whether they wanted to be Czechoslovak citizens. Most of them lived in the Sudetenland region on the borders. Though the constitution guaranteed equal rights for all citizens and some progress was made to integrate Germans and other minorities, they continued to be underrepresented in the government and the army. The Great Depression hit the highly industrialized and export oriented Sudeten Germans hardest of all, with 60% of all unemployed in Czechoslovakia being German. The Sudeten German Party led by Konrad Henlein, an instrument of the Nazis, demanded autonomy, to which the government replied it was willing to grant more minority rights but was reluctant to grant more autonomy. In May 1938, the Sudeten German Party won 88% of all ethnic German votes.
For much of the summer Hitler was busy planning a limited war against Czechoslovakia no later than October 1st that year (he was determined to act before Czechoslovak defences were completed and before British rearmament would be complete circa 1941-’42) whilst accelerating naval expansion, hoping to have a credible deterrent against the British. Tensions were rising and a war seemed like a distinct possibility. The French were as keen as the British to avoid war and, unwilling to face the Germans alone, took their lead from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Conservative Government. Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet was told by Polish ambassador Lukasiewicz that Poland wouldn’t act if France intervened to defend Czechoslovakia and would never permit Soviet forces to pass through its territory for that purpose either. Some later Polish proposals to the contrary, i.e. offering Polish support, were not responded to by London and Paris.
The crisis escalated over the summer with the German press accusing the Czechoslovak government of atrocities against the Sudeten Germans. It got to the point that on September 12th at the Nuremberg Rally, Hitler made outrageous accusations that Czechoslovak President Beneš wanted to gradually exterminate the Germans and that he was suppressing the Slovak, Polish, Hungarian and Ukrainian minorities of his country too. In the meantime, the British had already pressured Edvard Beneš to request a mediator. This mediator was Lord Runciman, who arrived in Prague on August 3rd with instructions to convince Beneš to agree to something acceptable to the Sudeten Germans. Two weeks prior on July 20th, Bonnet had informed the Czechoslovak ambassador that France would publicly declare its support to help the negotiations, but that his country wasn’t willing to go to war over the matter. Hitler hoped the Czechoslovaks would remain adamant, giving Britain and France the rationalization to abandon them to their devices.
In the meantime developments were taking place in Moscow that would give the Sudetenland Crisis an entirely new direction. The Soviet Union’s People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov was the namesake of the 1929 Litvinov Protocol. This protocol provided for immediate implementation of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact by its signatories, thereby renouncing war as a part of national foreign policy (specifically between the Soviet Union and several neighbouring countries). Litvinov wanted peace and was the leading voice for the official Soviet policy of collective security with the Western powers against Nazi Germany. Ironically, his pursuit of peace led to war.
The Sudeten War
Chapter I: Rise of the Nazis and the Sudeten Crisis, 1933-1938.
Chapter I: Rise of the Nazis and the Sudeten Crisis, 1933-1938.
In 1933, the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany as millions of voters had made them the largest party in the Reichstag. At long last President Hindenburg had been left no other choice but to appoint party leader Adolf Hitler Chancellor in January. After the Reichstag fire that was deemed an act of arson by a Dutch communist, the Reichstag Fire Decree imposed in February rescinded most civil liberties. The subsequent Enabling Act passed in March empowered Hitler to pass laws without the Reichstag’s consent. Opponents intending to vote against these laws were intimidated or outright arrested.
The basis was laid for a dictatorship as Hitler could now simply ban all other parties. The entire country was rapidly Nazified: state parliaments and the Reichsrat (federal upper house) were abolished and their powers transferred to the central government. Civil organizations all received Nazi leaders and merged with the party or were dissolved, and for the media it was much the same with Propaganda Minister Goebbels controlling newspapers, radio, cinema, theatres, music and so on. All symbols of the Weimar Republic were removed and replaced by the swastika and other Nazi symbols. Jews were fired from their jobs as teachers, professors, judges, magistrates and government officials. A deficit spending based economic policy was initiated to rapidly combat unemployment, earning public support.
Their economic policy also included rapid militarization against the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. This military build-up, the remilitarization of the Rhineland and Germany’s questionable involvement in the Spanish Civil War were not protested against by Britain and France, diplomatically or otherwise. On the contrary, nobody so much as batted an eyelid when Hitler reintroduced conscription in 1935 and announced plans to expand the Wehrmacht to 550.000 men in 36 divisions. It was much the same when he remilitarized the Rhineland against the provisions of the punitive Treaty of Versailles. The diktat that Hitler hated so much.
Hitler was encouraged by the passive attitude of Paris and London. In February 1938, Hitler emphasised to Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg the need for Germany to secure its frontiers. Schuschnigg scheduled a plebiscite regarding Austrian independence for March 13th, but Hitler sent an ultimatum to Schuschnigg on March 11th demanding that he hand over all power to the Austrian Nazi Party or face an invasion. German troops entered Austria the next day, to be greeted with enthusiasm by the populace. Again no-one spoke out against this blatant violation of the Treaty of Versailles. Believing the British and French wouldn’t act and would try to keep the peace, Hitler felt confident enough to plan his next expansionist move targeting Czechoslovakia.
Czechoslovakia was a multi-ethnic republic – made up of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Carpathian Ruthenia – that had emerged from the decaying Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918. Over three million of its inhabitants, roughly 23% of the total population, were ethnic Germans who hadn’t been consulted on whether they wanted to be Czechoslovak citizens. Most of them lived in the Sudetenland region on the borders. Though the constitution guaranteed equal rights for all citizens and some progress was made to integrate Germans and other minorities, they continued to be underrepresented in the government and the army. The Great Depression hit the highly industrialized and export oriented Sudeten Germans hardest of all, with 60% of all unemployed in Czechoslovakia being German. The Sudeten German Party led by Konrad Henlein, an instrument of the Nazis, demanded autonomy, to which the government replied it was willing to grant more minority rights but was reluctant to grant more autonomy. In May 1938, the Sudeten German Party won 88% of all ethnic German votes.
For much of the summer Hitler was busy planning a limited war against Czechoslovakia no later than October 1st that year (he was determined to act before Czechoslovak defences were completed and before British rearmament would be complete circa 1941-’42) whilst accelerating naval expansion, hoping to have a credible deterrent against the British. Tensions were rising and a war seemed like a distinct possibility. The French were as keen as the British to avoid war and, unwilling to face the Germans alone, took their lead from British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s Conservative Government. Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Georges Bonnet was told by Polish ambassador Lukasiewicz that Poland wouldn’t act if France intervened to defend Czechoslovakia and would never permit Soviet forces to pass through its territory for that purpose either. Some later Polish proposals to the contrary, i.e. offering Polish support, were not responded to by London and Paris.
The crisis escalated over the summer with the German press accusing the Czechoslovak government of atrocities against the Sudeten Germans. It got to the point that on September 12th at the Nuremberg Rally, Hitler made outrageous accusations that Czechoslovak President Beneš wanted to gradually exterminate the Germans and that he was suppressing the Slovak, Polish, Hungarian and Ukrainian minorities of his country too. In the meantime, the British had already pressured Edvard Beneš to request a mediator. This mediator was Lord Runciman, who arrived in Prague on August 3rd with instructions to convince Beneš to agree to something acceptable to the Sudeten Germans. Two weeks prior on July 20th, Bonnet had informed the Czechoslovak ambassador that France would publicly declare its support to help the negotiations, but that his country wasn’t willing to go to war over the matter. Hitler hoped the Czechoslovaks would remain adamant, giving Britain and France the rationalization to abandon them to their devices.
In the meantime developments were taking place in Moscow that would give the Sudetenland Crisis an entirely new direction. The Soviet Union’s People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Maxim Litvinov was the namesake of the 1929 Litvinov Protocol. This protocol provided for immediate implementation of the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact by its signatories, thereby renouncing war as a part of national foreign policy (specifically between the Soviet Union and several neighbouring countries). Litvinov wanted peace and was the leading voice for the official Soviet policy of collective security with the Western powers against Nazi Germany. Ironically, his pursuit of peace led to war.
