Affects of a Socialist Germany after WWI?

Like the title says, how would the world scene go if Germany became Commies instead of Nazis?

Would they still go to war with the USSR, or will they focus on France and England?

Was WWII inevitable?
 
A Red Revolution in the immediate post-war years is pretty much the Entente Powers worst nightmare, and you'd most likely see an attempted intervention combined with massive strikes and protests against it (The authorities in France and England were very much terrified of the idea of Revolution, and 1919 was the height of anarchist violence in the U.S.)

Beyond that, "Socialism in One Country" is dead in the water and the internationalists would probably secure complete power in the U.S.S.R. You'd probably see even more attempted actions by leftists throughout the world as the sense of "Global Revolution is Now!" would be even stronger. Poland as an independent power is dead in the water, probably recreated as a Communist republic subservient to whoever reached Warsaw first, and shrunk to sane ethnic borders either way.

Besides that, depends on what faction seizes power in Germany, and how their relations with the Soviets develop.
 
Zimmerwald1915's Wir Sind Spartakus TL deals with a successful German revolution. Assuming something like that (the November Revolution or its like succeeds in the immediate postwar period), you'll definitely see Germany get harsher treatment by the Entente, though I'm inclined to think that an actual invasion is off the table due to internal political concerns.

Long term, Germany and Russia are going to be the best of friends, regardless of their minor political squabbles. The Comintern is going to be more varied and open, rather than "do what we say," since from the beginning there have been two paths to socialism established (one from the KPD and one from the RSDLP(b)). With the foreign political changes, you might see a leader other than Stalin come to power (Ivan Nikitich Smirnov gets floated a lot for "Trotskyist who isn't Trotsky").

Both countries would probably be more aggressive than they historically were. Zimmerwald's TL has the Hungarian Soviet Republic survive and Slovakia fall under its influence, and another TL involving a different Soviet leadership has Soviet intervention in Bulgaria occur (I don't recall which TL, exactly). Eastern Europe is very vulnerable under these conditions, and its very likely that a good chunk of it will go red.

I don't think you'll see a WW2-alike, though. Socialism is not really an imperialist ideology by nature. Assuming that things go something like OTL with respect to the markets - namely, the Great Depression and the exclusion from the international markets that allowed the Soviets to survive it easily - I think you'll see powerful, emergent Germany and Soviet Union in the 30s, while the Western powers collapse in on themselves. This will probably lead to some successful communist parties elsewhere in Europe.

Long term, the question becomes adaption, growth, and how the socialist countries handle decolonization and the rest. I definitely think the socialist bloc will be a hell of a lot more powerful than OTL, since neither the USSR nor Germany are going to deal with the disastrous consequences of WW2.
 
As an aside, the Red Scare in the U.S. is going to be mixed in the anti-German hysteria of WW1 for some most likely rather ugly results.

And yeah, the new governments in Eastern Europe have as long as the civil wars last to present an acceptably socialist government or be "liberated". In the case of Poland this would means giving up all the non-Polish territory they ended up with.
 
I can definitely see a reaction in all Weston Countries as a result of this, though I agree that noone is politically capable of doing anything about the goings on in Germany.

Could this lead to someone like A Mitchel Palmer in the US, or maybe Henry Page Croft in the UK, gaining power?
 
As others have said, Poland would most likely be carved up into a small, central territory, excluding all of the non-polish territory it had gained post-great war. Most likely it would be a soviet puppet state, used as a springboard for soviet red army intervention in Germany.

Hungary could reasonably survive and also hold onto much if not all of Slovakia, but only if the Soviet Red Army got to them in time, attacking through Romania.

With a massive contingent of Red Army support in Germany, the counterrevolutionary forces would be crushed after a brutal civil war.

I envision fascism on the rise in both France and Britain, with their respective democratic governments falling to fascist forces, led by the French Popular party and Oswald Moseley respectively.

Now, concerning Italy, the death of Benito Mussolini could be entirely possible. Offing him would ensure the success of the Communist forces there.

With a red Hungary, Poland, Italy, and Germany, there isn't much hope for democratic countries anywhere in Europe. You either have right-wing governments, or extreme left or extreme right dictatorships.

As for the rest of the world...due to geographical differences ans political differences I don't think the much yearned for world revolution would necessarily happen. But the red scare would no doubt be more fierce.
 
i was thinking of a more democratic socialist that in the 30s begins to evolve into a dictatorship.

If you go along these lines, then you won't have a WW2 as we know it. It is probable, that this Germany would see the Soviets as their ally in Europe (as actually the Weimar Republic did for some time and also Hitler from 1939-41).

First of all, think of different alignment in the Spanish Civil War. No German support for Franco, that is for sure. This might even prevent the attempt to take over itself, as Franco had to rely heavily on German transports to get his troops from Spanish-Marocco to the mainland.

Then, before you think of war against major powers, this alternate Germany would first have to deal with the matters rather swiftly "solved" by Hitler in 1938.

Austria would still be propped up by Mussolini. So if Germany tries anything there, they might expect Italian intervention, at least as long as Austria would be conservative-authoritarian as in OTL. If butterflies, German influence or further developments make Austria turn left, Anschluss might again occur. But we might also see an isolated German-Italian-war over Austria. I do not see any foreign intervention in this event, though.

The CSR was from 1935 onwards allied with the Soviet Union. If this occurs OTL would be up for discussion. However, it is possible that a negotiated solution might occur there, federalizing the CSR (turning it into a proper Eastern Switzerland) but not breaking it up.

A socialist Germany, just like the Weimar Republic, would probably concentrate on Poland. Alignment with Moscow can only help there. Without occupying Prague beforehands, maybe even without a Sudeten-Crisis, France and England might hesitate with a DOW when Stalin and Germany partition Poland. This would most probably be different from OTL's 4th partition as this would encompass shrinking Poland to a core which is without the shadow of a doubt Polish and installs a socialist government there. Germany might not even reclaim all of its pre-1914 territory.

After all, probably no WW2 unless a string of crises similar to the Spanish Civil War prop the Capitalist and Socialist nations against each other. Apart from that: German Leftists have their place in the sun, having satisfied most nationalist demands (apart from the fringe-illusions) and can concentrate on interior policies. Stalin feels safe with Poland turned into a buffer, Germany as an ally and a proof that France and England have lost the vigour to act if not extremely provoked. Mussolini will have his hands full with internal trouble after his adventures in Spain and Austria failed - and who knows what butterflies are around in Abbessinya. France and England, well they can live with that situation and the US are isolationist resp. having more of an eye on Asia.
 
BTW, I understand PoeFacedKilla here as envisionaging a more ambitious and more leftist SPD (more like the USPD, perhaps) holding to power in Germany. Perhaps they decide to fight the rise of Nazism in the early 30s, manage to ally with the KPD, prevail and turn more leftist-authoritarian in order to keep the lid on things....and find out how convenient it is.
Perhaps we have the SPD fully supporting the revolution in 1919 and turn Germany on its own branch of leftist regime.

That has a lot of internal butterflies, of course, but the question was about the international situation.
 
Long term, the question becomes adaption, growth, and how the socialist countries handle decolonization and the rest. I definitely think the socialist bloc will be a hell of a lot more powerful than OTL, since neither the USSR nor Germany are going to deal with the disastrous consequences of WW2.
Not to forget is the effects it will have on science in Germany. The Nazis' education policies were disastruous, and the end of WWII pretty much ended Germany as the world center of science*. In this scenario this stagnation will never occur, and the cooperation with a likely more open Soviet Union would be pretty interesting.

*Germany still does invaluable contribution today, of course, but it isn't the one of the foremost anymore.
 
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