How could we end up with a TL where Germany still unifies (like IOTL or differently), but then is forced to cooperate and be allied with France in a World War (obviously not the same one that happened in our timeline, but a massive, industrialized conflict of similar scale)? Neither of them can be a puppet government. Is it even possible?
 
It's easy, German unifies without Franco-Prussian war, the relation become tense and they are wary of each other, but Germany tries to get colonies same for France, an incident happened between France and Great Birtain, and Germany support France.
 
Germany not taking Alsace and Lorraine in 1871, and following Bismarck gut, should be a necessary start. French revanchism will still exist, but would be much more managable, in my opinion.

Then, you could increase colonial tensions between France and Great-Britain with a Fachoda*10 and similarly increase German antipathy towards Britain, for example using the Boer war. If France and Germany at this point of the late XIXth century both consider Great-Britain to be their greatest threat, which she is not in reality, but it could be felt that way, then you might get a France/German anti-UK alliance.
This would be a diplomatic disaster for the UK, which would require Great-Britain to get to terms with Russia in the Great Game much earlier than IOTL. Then, if both Russia and Great-Britain apply sufficient pressure, they could coerce/bribe the Ottomans to join their side in a potential alternate-World War.

This leaves Austria, likely still allied to Germany in this scenario, but could be convinced to remain neutral when Austria considers she'll have to fight on two fronts (Russia and the Ottomans). But with full German support (not occupied with the war against France), they might as well decide to fight it anyway.
And Italy is either neutral as in OTL, or joins France and Germany/Austria outright. No way they would join against both of them and also fight a 2 front war.

So we have a scenario GB/Russia/Ottomans vs France/Germany/Austria. The GB alliance is going to get crushed on the continent, Germany defeated Russia on her own OTL, with French support, they cannot lose this. And Austria+France should be a match against the Ottomans. The question is on the colonies. The BEF can probably be deployed anywhere, but French colonial troops are not to be under-estimated, even without the support of the mainland.

Basically, this world war is almost a Napoleonic rerun, when the French-German alliance dominates on the continent, and GB rules the seas and snatch colonies left and right, trying to provoke economic collapse. It's not sure it will work this time.
 
You could probably invert the issue by, rather than having a war draw them together by necessity, make a war a necessity of them having drawn closer politically. The obvious reason for that would be a successful communist revolution in both leading to Britain fearing a united red Europe (as per its historic foreign policy), and intervening militarily.
 
Napoleon Bonaparte dies in 1811 and the invasion of Russia never occurs. Or Napoleon agrees to the Frankfurt proposals in 1813.

Over time the First French Empire evolves into more of a representative, actually constitutional (rather than nominally constitutional) state, just as liberalism itself evolves.

In 1848, the liberal revolutionaries in Germany side with the Confederation of the Rhine, and the "gutter crown" is still refused; but having a massive army at their side they are able to establish a pro-French German Empire.
 
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