alternatehistory.com

First of all, hi everybody, I'm new. Please be gentle...

This is half a proposed timeline, and half a question for those who might have more detailed knowledge of Franco-British political and strategic policy in the Interwar years (usually when it comes to History, I'm used to being the smartest kid in the room. Not so much, here :D)

Supposing a Third German Reich that had more in common with Mussolini's Italy, in terms of being a more moderate form of dictatorship, and one without OTL's implicit savagery and racism, how far would it have been possible for a more temperate German leader to take German expansion? I have in mind a timeline where a German political leader and war hero (basically a younger, more radical version of Von Hindenburg) comes to power in 1932 as Reichspräsident, and continues along a somewhat natural progression of what Von Hindenburg had been doing (a President's Cabinet, a weak and suborned Reichstag). Could such a person, if he was careful, expand Germany's territroy successfully, even perhaps fight a war with Poland, WITHOUT the French and the British getting involved?

My main thinking in this possible timeline is that a more temperate leader might have been able to convince the British and French that, yes, Germany had some territorial expansions in mind, but that the Reich didn't want another war, and was trying to position itself to be strong enough to be the bulwark against Soviet Communism, etc. I have in mind a scenario where this Third Reich ends up in control of all of OTL Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Kaliningrad and Memel, and positions itself in an alliance with France and Britain as a check against any Soviet expansionism.

My question is...is this a possibility? If the ruler of the Third Reich was not some crazy Austrian who had started a Beer Hall Putsch and wrote a book detailing how he wanted to conquer almost all of Europe, would the British and the French have acquiesced to Germany restoring, even enhancing, it's place of power in pre-1914 Europe, if it meant an alliance of a pragmatic, sober leader against the Soviets?

Thanks in advance for any comments, suggestions, or flung monkey feces :D
Top