AHC: Germany united by... Switzerland?

Simple as. Is it at all possible that Germany could be united under Switzerland as something approaching a loose-ish Confederation or any form that you wish.
 
No.

The Swiss Confederation was little more than an alliance of functionally independent states operating with the agreement to a permanent mutual assistance treaty and unified foreign policy until Napoleon came along. It's raison d'etre was to prevent the independently minded farmers of the Alpine plateau from being forced to follow the laws and wishes of the Habsburg monarchy, any large scale expansion will cause major problems, as the reformation did OTL.

I can easily imagine a confederal Germany emerging- perhaps as one option for a reunified HRE- but it's not going to be led by Switzerland.
 
Have one or more of the Swiss Cantons maintain a monarchy or at least a system favorable to a Big Man.

Have a Hapsburg-like figure emerge in Switzerland and then marry/elect his way into the realms that the OTL Hapsburgs managed to take. Instead of the Austrian Empire being a large part of the Holy Roman Empire, we have this alternate Pseudo-Hapsburg Confederation based in Geneva that sways nationalists and obtains a Grossdeutschland unification.

Good luck in any WWI analogues.
 
The biggest problem everybody seems to ignore is that the Swiss aren't German. They stopped being German somewhere around the late middle ages. It is pretty hard to unite a country, when you feel you aren't part of it.
 
The biggest problem everybody seems to ignore is that the Swiss aren't German. They stopped being German somewhere around the late middle ages. It is pretty hard to unite a country, when you feel you aren't part of it.

Another excellent point. The only ones who considered the Swiss Germans was the Germans. Everyone else saw them as a separate entity.
 
Have one or more of the Swiss Cantons maintain a monarchy or at least a system favorable to a Big Man.

Have a Hapsburg-like figure emerge in Switzerland . . .

Would this be a bad time to point out that the Habsburgs did emerge from part of what became Switzerland? And that they were in a position to make their rise (And thus be marriage partners) through some pretty unusual circumstances?

Even if someone duplicates Rudolph's rise, I'm not sure why they'd do better - or be more Swiss - than his successors OTL.
 
Have one or more of the Swiss Cantons maintain a monarchy or at least a system favorable to a Big Man.

Have a Hapsburg-like figure emerge in Switzerland and then marry/elect his way into the realms that the OTL Hapsburgs managed to take. Instead of the Austrian Empire being a large part of the Holy Roman Empire, we have this alternate Pseudo-Hapsburg Confederation based in Geneva that sways nationalists and obtains a Grossdeutschland unification.

Good luck in any WWI analogues.

Would this be a bad time to point out that the Habsburgs did emerge from part of what became Switzerland? And that they were in a position to make their rise (And thus be marriage partners) through some pretty unusual circumstances?

Even if someone duplicates Rudolph's rise, I'm not sure why they'd do better - or be more Swiss - than his successors OTL.

Indeed they were. You also had the Kyburgs and the Zahringens in there as well.

Not to mention that the confederacy included 4 Prince-Bishoprics and a Principality among it's associate states anyway OTL.
 
Would this be a bad time to point out that the Habsburgs did emerge from part of what became Switzerland? And that they were in a position to make their rise (And thus be marriage partners) through some pretty unusual circumstances?

Even if someone duplicates Rudolph's rise, I'm not sure why they'd do better - or be more Swiss - than his successors OTL.
Orange is located in France and their royal family only decided to try being royal in the Netherlands after losing their German lands.
 
No.

The Swiss Confederation was little more than an alliance of functionally independent states operating with the agreement to a permanent mutual assistance treaty and unified foreign policy until Napoleon came along. It's raison d'etre was to prevent the independently minded farmers of the Alpine plateau from being forced to follow the laws and wishes of the Habsburg monarchy, any large scale expansion will cause major problems, as the reformation did OTL.

I can easily imagine a confederal Germany emerging- perhaps as one option for a reunified HRE- but it's not going to be led by Switzerland.

Of course, during the 14-1500s, the Swiss were quite active in northern Italy; prior to and during the French invasions, they had effective client states from time to time.

So they weren't quite as isolationist as you make them sound. "Large scale" expansion, sure, but projecting influence...
 
Of course, during the 14-1500s, the Swiss were quite active in northern Italy; prior to and during the French invasions, they had effective client states from time to time.

So they weren't quite as isolationist as you make them sound. "Large scale" expansion, sure, but projecting influence...

That pretty much ended with the reformation, which caused large enough divisions within the Confederacy that during the 30 Years War they didn't even mount a concerted effort to protect the Associate members of the Prince Bishop of Basle and Three Leagues. Beyond that they picked up a handful of associates in southern Swabia (Rottweil for example), but the only case I can think of where the Swiss actually intervened and created a client state of any great size was the brief imposition of Maximilian Sforza as duke of Milan between 1512 and 1515.

Individual Swiss mercenary groups were very active at the time, but the Confederacy tended not to act much beyond her immediate borders.
 
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