AHC: Nazi Germany decides not to invade Poland.

What if Nazi Germany decided against invading Poland, not wanting to risk starting a war?

What would it take to have Nazi Germany decide that it wasn't worth a major war.
 

Geon

Donor
Assuming the same Germany as in OTL at this point in time? There was no way at this point Germany would back away from invading Poland. Hitler needed the invasion for a number of reasons.

  • He needed to fulfill his promise of Lebensraum to the German people.
  • He needed to show the German armed forces were a major power to be dealt with once again.
  • Also Hitler needed the armed forces to be bloodied for his ultimate goal-the invasions to the West and East.
Bottom line at this point Nazi Germany needed this invasion
 
Assuming the same Germany as in OTL at this point in time? There was no way at this point Germany would back away from invading Poland. Hitler needed the invasion for a number of reasons.

  • He needed to fulfill his promise of Lebensraum to the German people.
  • He needed to show the German armed forces were a major power to be dealt with once again.
  • Also Hitler needed the armed forces to be bloodied for his ultimate goal-the invasions to the West and East.
Bottom line at this point Nazi Germany needed this invasion

And the biggest one - by not invading and plundering Poland - the overheated German pre-war economy would quickly implode, leading to a complete collapse of the Nazi Regime.
 

Geon

Donor
And the biggest one - by not invading and plundering Poland - the overheated German pre-war economy would quickly implode, leading to a complete collapse of the Nazi Regime.

That's one I forgot. Hitler needed the resources of Poland to keep his war machine going.

The Corporal could always decide to declare war on France in ‘39 over some tiff.

Hitler and his generals needed a small war first before they went after the UK and France and especially before they went after the Russians. They needed to get their army some combat experience and learn if all of the tactics and strategy developed for mobile warfare actually worked in a combat situation. Hitler had hoped for a small manageable war in Czechoslovakia during the Sudetenland Crisis in order to get his army much needed experience.

And there was another problem-Russia. Assuming Germany backs down on Poland then there is no need for a Ribbentrop/Molotov pact. In which case it is likely the Russians invade Poland. The choice was invade Poland now or have Russia at Germany's doorstep later.
 
That's one I forgot. Hitler needed the resources of Poland to keep his war machine going.



Hitler and his generals needed a small war first before they went after the UK and France and especially before they went after the Russians. They needed to get their army some combat experience and learn if all of the tactics and strategy developed for mobile warfare actually worked in a combat situation. Hitler had hoped for a small manageable war in Czechoslovakia during the Sudetenland Crisis in order to get his army much needed experience.

And there was another problem-Russia. Assuming Germany backs down on Poland then there is no need for a Ribbentrop/Molotov pact. In which case it is likely the Russians invade Poland. The choice was invaded Poland now or have Russia at Germany's doorstep later.
what if Germany invades the Soviets in order to defend Poland at the time (I dont know if he can get help from anticomintern pack members) after the war diminish pushes Poland east into the former polish Lithuanian commonwealth lands and south so it has sea access on the black sea at least Belarus and western Ukraine and as compensation for the taritorial changes that see Germany get the Congress of Poland and the Baltic states (I assume the Soviets already ate them at some point) so we see a smaller lebensraum (babies first lebensraum) and this polish state act as a buffer against the Soviets and use Poland (western) Ukrainian aria to acquire food from.
 

Geon

Donor
Germany was in no condition to go up against the Soviet Army at this point. They needed those two extra years to build up their forces and prepare for such a struggle. To be clear the Soviet Army was in worse shape too then what it would be in '41. But Hitler wanted to avoid any combat with the Soviets until he felt he was ready.
 
what if Germany invades the Soviets in order to defend Poland at the time (I dont know if he can get help from anticomintern pack members) after the war diminish pushes Poland east into the former polish Lithuanian commonwealth lands and south so it has sea access on the black sea at least Belarus and western Ukraine and as compensation for the taritorial changes that see Germany get the Congress of Poland and the Baltic states (I assume the Soviets already ate them at some point) so we see a smaller lebensraum (babies first lebensraum) and this polish state act as a buffer against the Soviets and use Poland (western) Ukrainian aria to acquire food from.

Stalin would not threaten Poland in such a POD, plus it will take time which the German economy does not have.
 
Germany was in no condition to go up against the Soviet Army at this point. They needed those two extra years to build up their forces and prepare for such a struggle. To be clear the Soviet Army was in worse shape too then what it would be in '41. But Hitler wanted to avoid any combat with the Soviets until he felt he was ready.
If this is around when they were doing the officer purges it might go rather well...who am I kidding the Soviets probably never invade without a world war and they are not ambitious enough to start one (damn Stalin's paranoia).
 
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