what it says on the tin- PoD as early or as late as you want.
I think such early POD would just butterfly German language. Germanic language option is much easier (Goths were not that far from Volga OTL) but for German only succesful General Ostplan could give such result.I guess something in pre christ times would be feasible.
Yeah, thats what I meant. Germanic groups settle the area, but as you said what comes out of this will hardly be German.I think such early POD would just butterfly German language. Germanic language option is much easier (Goths were not that far from Volga OTL) but for German only succesful General Ostplan could give such result.
Divert the Slavic migrations.
And yeah, Generalplan Ost. I guess we had already some threads about that plan. If I remember right, the area becomes a giant graveyard with some few Nazi outposts.
Have the German resettlement program during WW2 be very successful.
A HRE that manages to consolidate itself in the early to high middle ages would not only be able to avoid the great German catastrophes like the 30 years war (a third of the German population dead) and exert considerable cultural influence over it's neighbors, but would also allow a much more successfull Ostsiedlung, like in OTL Prussia and to some extent the Baltics.
Oh dear. The Vistula would be easy (just avert Polish reunification and let the creeping Germanization keep going). However the most likely way to do _this_ with a pre 1900 POD is for the Lithuanians to adopt German ways/language and otherwise remain at least as successful as OTLwhat it says on the tin- PoD as early or as late as you want.