AH Challenge: West German Nightmare

How we come, with a POD after 1961 to this scene.

Bonn, 1972

Federal Chancellor Franz Josef Strauß (CSU) wasn´t really sure, if he could trusted his guest. But it was ineventibel that he informed the leader of the coalition partner about his decision.

"we can´t rely on the Americans any longer. So I have decided that we start with the production of our own nuclear weapons!"

Adolf von Thadden, Vice-chancellor, Minister for All-German Affairs and party chairman of the Nationaldemocratic Party (NPD) nodded: "At last!"
 
How we come, with a POD after 1961 to this scene.
I don't have a POD as such, but I can suggest a chain of events similar to what lead OTL Israel's decision to get a nuke (if they have them, they never officially confirmed). Judgement Day weapon, to be used as last tool to stop imminent death. So, Western Germany should have siege mentality and WG leadership have to be sure that lost war aganst Warsaw Pact means annihilation of German nation. I'd say this is pretty much impossible with post-1961 POD. However, if you start in 1945, that's quite easy to achieve. Let Red Army to behave in Germany the way German behaved themselves in occupied Soviet Union. Exterminate quarter of local population in Eastern Germany, reduce survivors to hard labour under direct Soviet command, kill majority of Eastern Prussia's German population. Basically, make Anthony Beevor's writing true. Yeah, this kind of Soviet actions could make WG Chancellor quite nervous at 1st signs of American weakness.

P.S I don't believe that it would be easy to make Red Army to behave this way (even direct encouragement of violence would only result in short-lived flash-in-the-pan campaign with OTL Red Army at your disposal), but if Hitler was as successfull at corrupting German nation IOTL, why is it impossible for Stalin to corrupt Soviet peoples in similar fashion? So, you probably need to start before 1945 to make it happen.
 
I don't have a POD as such, but I can suggest a chain of events similar to what lead OTL Israel's decision to get a nuke (if they have them, they never officially confirmed). Judgement Day weapon, to be used as last tool to stop imminent death. So, Western Germany should have siege mentality and WG leadership have to be sure that lost war aganst Warsaw Pact means annihilation of German nation. I'd say this is pretty much impossible with post-1961 POD. However, if you start in 1945, that's quite easy to achieve. Let Red Army to behave in Germany the way German behaved themselves in occupied Soviet Union. Exterminate quarter of local population in Eastern Germany, reduce survivors to hard labour under direct Soviet command, kill majority of Eastern Prussia's German population. Basically, make Anthony Beevor's writing true. Yeah, this kind of Soviet actions could make WG Chancellor quite nervous at 1st signs of American weakness.

P.S I don't believe that it would be easy to make Red Army to behave this way (even direct encouragement of violence would only result in short-lived flash-in-the-pan campaign with OTL Red Army at your disposal), but if Hitler was as successfull at corrupting German nation IOTL, why is it impossible for Stalin to corrupt Soviet peoples in similar fashion? So, you probably need to start before 1945 to make it happen.

I think its still possible with a POD in or after 1961. Franz Josef Strauß was always in favor for an nuclear armed West Germany. And concentrate not on the nukes alone. The real Nightmare is, that the neo-nazistic NPD is part of a coalition goverment
 
Basically, make Anthony Beevor's writing true.

I haven't actually read Berlin, but I found Stalingrad stupendous so I'm going to have to ask, purely out of curiosity, what your problem with the former is? I just got back from hearing the chap speak about this new Normandy book and he was just as he was, or seemed to me, in Stalingrad: impartial and completely uncompromising. I seem to remember him commenting somewhere that he "didn't consider the Germans to have been victims" of what happened, so I hardly see grounds to call him a propagandist.
 
I haven't actually read Berlin, but I found Stalingrad stupendous so I'm going to have to ask, purely out of curiosity, what your problem with the former is?
Basically taking each and every page out of Nazi "Russians are coming" propaganda and presenting it as undeniable truth in Berlin. For example, rape rampage he accuses Red Army of had to produce significant spike in the number of births in 1946 but, since none is confiremd by German statistics, Mr. Beevor tactfully avoids comparing hearsay he sprinkles left, right and center, to actual data.
 
Basically taking each and every page out of Nazi "Russians are coming" propaganda and presenting it as undeniable truth in Berlin. For example, rape rampage he accuses Red Army of had to produce significant spike in the number of births in 1946 but, since none is confiremd by German statistics, Mr. Beevor tactfully avoids comparing hearsay he sprinkles left, right and center, to actual data.

Well, I'll obviously have to read the book, but I can't think fo any motivation. He hasn't shown any evidence of being a Germanophile, never mind a Nazi apologist. What do you mean by hearsay> What are the sources relevant to that question?
 
Possible P.O.D.s:

No "Strauss affair" against Der Spiegel in 1962 (he was forced out as Defense Minister and this damaged his reputation);

NPD beomes more of a National Conservative Party instead of neo-Nazi (even today the party is not 100% neo-Nazi);

In the 1969 Bundestag election, the CDU/CSU comes out ahead of the SPD, as IOTL, and the FDP scrapes back into the Bundestag as well, while the relatively more respectable NPD gets more than 5% and ends up with seats too.

Conceivably, in order to stay in power, a CDU/CSU with Strauss as Chancellor Candidate (as he was in 1980 IOTL) could cut a deal with the NPD to form the government on a platform of no Ostpolitik (or far less than Brandt would have pushed) and a hard line against domestic dissent.
 

Neroon

Banned
The only plausible route IMO, would be for the U.S. to abandon South Korea without even a fight as well as South Vietnam later. This might convince West Germany, that when the chips are down the U.S. wont make an effort to protect them. With no chance of ever stopping the Pact armies in a conventional war, a nuclear deterrent is needed.
I'd have it done during the 1st grand coalition. Unless the Social Democrats sign on, it's no chance of happening.
 
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