AHC Superpower Germany (no Nazis, no Kaiserreich)

With a post-1900 POD, how might we make Germany a superpower? No Second or Third Reichs need apply.
 

Deleted member 1487

With a post-1900 POD, how might we make Germany a superpower? No Second or Third Reichs need apply.

Pre-1900 POD required. Once the 2nd Reich is defeated or thrust out of power Germany will be too weak for anything like this. Weimar is not the answer to your query.
I would argue that Germany is too small in all senses to be able to achieve superpower status, but would be a top tier great power in a multi-polar world without WW1. Economically it will be a top 3 world power by 2012 without any major European or World wars in the 20th century. Still, so long as the monarchy sticks around it will still be considered the Second Reich...unless you want to redefine the meaning of the term if the German Empire reforms the Kingdom alliance structure and becomes a federal republic with a constitutional monarchy. Its a semantics game at that point and Germany wouldn't be a superpower as we define the term today, but it would be a great power and there may not be any superpowers at all as we understand them.
 
With a post-1900 POD, how might we make Germany a superpower? No Second or Third Reichs need apply.

"need apply" I understand as: You can do a Nazi or Kaiserreich-wank, but you do not have to. But yes, it is misinterpretable.

For a post-1900 POD, either a Kaiserreich wank (no WWI) or a commiewank.
 
-Wilhelm II dies in 1900-1901, Crown Prince William takes over as Wilhelm III

-German policies favor less militaristic expansionism in favor of more commercial methods. Also colonial policies are made very light-handed with large autonomy granted to the colonies

-Austria-Hungary collapses into civil war in the early 1920s with Austria (modern Austria + South Tyrol + modern Czech Republic + Gallicia) voting to become part of the German Empire. Hungary, Greater Serbia, and Slovenia-Croatia see heavy German influence in economy and education.

-Wilhelm III's family marries into Luxembourg which results in its joining Germany, albeit as not the most patriotic of provinces, and results in the last western expansion of Germany

-Russian Empire collapses into civil war in the 1930s as monarchists battle socialists, monarchists win only by brute force but Finland, Poland, and the Ukraine are liberated as the price of aid from Germany. Ukraine is actually a neutral country, the former two quickly become German allies.

-France, Germany, and Italy sign a treaty permitting reduction in border tariffs and creating a European Coal Commission as an economic counterbalance to the massive UK economy in 1950. UK responds by bringing the United States into the Commonwealth's economic system without joining the Commonwealth itself

-Wilhelm III dies in 1954 and is succeeded by Emperor Louis I, whose wife Juliana is queen of the Netherlands. Though the union scares many who feel it will bring the two nations together, this is specifically forbidden by the pre-marital contract, with the first son taking over Germany and the first daughter or next son taking over the Netherlands.

-German assistance to China allows its unification to occur albeit later than OTL and industrialization to proceed rapidly, eventually eclipsing Japan as the primary native power in Asia

-Decolonization only mildly affects German interests as two of her colonies, Tanzania and Kamerun, remaining part of the country. Namibia leaves of her own accord in a peaceful way while Togo is racked with internacine warfare almost from her independence day

-With the start of the Space Race in the late 1970s, Germany gains international prestige by becoming the first nation to land on the moon in 1989.

-By 2000 Germany dominates continental Europe politically and German is one of the five most widely-spoken trade languages along with one of the three most spoken scientific languages. Her (OTL late 1970s/early 1980s) technology is cutting edge around the world, for while the United States and China maybe the factories of the world it is Germany, and to a lesser extent the UK or Japan, that serves as its laboratories.
 
-Wilhelm II dies in 1900-1901, Crown Prince William takes over as Wilhelm III

-German policies favor less militaristic expansionism in favor of more commercial methods. Also colonial policies are made very light-handed with large autonomy granted to the colonies

Fairly plausible, but with a Prussian-unified/dominated Germany, it's always going to be pretty militaristic.

-Austria-Hungary collapses into civil war in the early 1920s with Austria (modern Austria + South Tyrol + modern Czech Republic + Gallicia) voting to become part of the German Empire. Hungary, Greater Serbia, and Slovenia-Croatia see heavy German influence in economy and education.

I would think that the Germans would have to choose Slovenia-Croatia or Hungary. Since Croatia was part of the Kingdom of Hungary legally, the Hungarians will inevitably have irredentist claims on Croatia. I assume Slovakia is part of Hungary. What would be the status of Transylvania?

-Wilhelm III's family marries into Luxembourg which results in its joining Germany, albeit as not the most patriotic of provinces, and results in the last western expansion of Germany

I don't have any problem with this, but dunno if they'd actually annex Luxembourg.

-Russian Empire collapses into civil war in the 1930s as monarchists battle socialists, monarchists win only by brute force but Finland, Poland, and the Ukraine are liberated as the price of aid from Germany. Ukraine is actually a neutral country, the former two quickly become German allies.

I'm pretty sure Ukraine would be the main focus of German investment etc, and Sevastopol would probably be a naval base for the Germans. And I'm not 100% sure they'd support an independent Poland, with the nationalistic issues the Germans had in Posen, Danzig etc.

-France, Germany, and Italy sign a treaty permitting reduction in border tariffs and creating a European Coal Commission as an economic counterbalance to the massive UK economy in 1950. UK responds by bringing the United States into the Commonwealth's economic system without joining the Commonwealth itself

Why would the USA want to join that system? And there'd be massive repercussions on the Dominions, most of them negative for the Dominions, and for the UK itself.

-Wilhelm III dies in 1954 and is succeeded by Emperor Louis I, whose wife Juliana is queen of the Netherlands. Though the union scares many who feel it will bring the two nations together, this is specifically forbidden by the pre-marital contract, with the first son taking over Germany and the first daughter or next son taking over the Netherlands.

-German assistance to China allows its unification to occur albeit later than OTL and industrialization to proceed rapidly, eventually eclipsing Japan as the primary native power in Asia

Plausible, but I don't think the Russians, or even the British would be happy about this.

-Decolonization only mildly affects German interests as two of her colonies, Tanzania and Kamerun, remaining part of the country. Namibia leaves of her own accord in a peaceful way while Togo is racked with internacine warfare almost from her independence day

Being the most sparsely populated, I think Namibia is the most likely to stay, with Tanzania being the most likely to gain independence...

-With the start of the Space Race in the late 1970s, Germany gains international prestige by becoming the first nation to land on the moon in 1989.

At least this has been put back a bit, but without the Third Reich, rocketry technology is going to be very far behind.

-By 2000 Germany dominates continental Europe politically and German is one of the five most widely-spoken trade languages along with one of the three most spoken scientific languages. Her (OTL late 1970s/early 1980s) technology is cutting edge around the world, for while the United States and China maybe the factories of the world it is Germany, and to a lesser extent the UK or Japan, that serves as its laboratories.

filler filler
 
I figure Transylvania will likely end up as part of Hungary, and Croatia might be legally a part of Hungary but Slovenia and Croatia will likely be a seperate entity, Slovenia might not think they can survive alone so I figure they are in combination.

Poland in this scenario a small, independent puppet state largely centered around Warsaw that makes the international community happy but is in truth little more than an autonomous German province.

USA wanted to have the same trade access to the UK market system as the other Dominion areas did for a long time, I think it was a key concession Churchill ended up making to Roosevelt as part of Lend-Lease during WWII

Germany would want to keep her model colony and might use Namibia as a source of prison space, especially in the deep desert. Tanzania might be majority German by the era of decolonization if the right incentives are in place, especially if it has representation in the Reichstag.


No WWI or WWII = 15-25 years less technological development, but I figure that the retention of so much European talent might accelerate that a little bit. In this TL we in 2012 are about 1990-5 level of technology, so the Internet is just starting to come about with cell phones and CDs novel developments. There are a few areas where the world is more advanced or equal to ours though. Nuclear power is more prevalent as the people here have not had significant nuclear disasters to deal with. There is significantly more colonization of space, with a few Mars bases and several Lunar colonies along with lots of space stations. Most major corporations have some sort of space facility if only for R&D. Materials sciences are more advanced, though telecommunications are about to embark on a revolution. Chemistry is more advanced as is metallurgy, both about 2000-2005 level. With more Europeans surviving, Africa is also more heavily colonized, with Uganda, Rhodesia, and Tanzania having European majorities and much larger minorities elsewhere.
 
Without the 2nd Reich I doubt it can be done. I think WW1 could have easily seen a unification and expansion of Germany into the smallest/weakest of the superpowers.
 
Germany would want to keep her model colony and might use Namibia as a source of prison space, especially in the deep desert. Tanzania might be majority German by the era of decolonization if the right incentives are in place, especially if it has representation in the Reichstag.

OTL Tanzania had some 10 million inhabitants by 1960. Good luck getting 10 million Germans to move to the Malaria and sleeping sickness latitudes of Africa.

Bruce
 
-Austria-Hungary collapses into civil war in the early 1920s with Austria (modern Austria + South Tyrol + modern Czech Republic + Gallicia) voting to become part of the German Empire.

Czechs and Poles voting to become part of Germany?
 

Rex Mundi

Banned
"need apply" I understand as: You can do a Nazi or Kaiserreich-wank, but you do not have to. But yes, it is misinterpretable.

For a post-1900 POD, either a Kaiserreich wank (no WWI) or a commiewank.

That is not what this means. I believe, and the OP can correct me if I'm wrong, that the "need not apply" is a reference to older signs, which would say things like "Negroes and Irish need not apply" (implicitly, because their applications would not be accepted).
 
With a 1900 PoD the Kaiserreich (2nd Reich) was the standard form of German government and had been for 30+ years. Does a liberalisation of German constitutional arragements, reducing the personal power of the Kaiser in Government, count as not being the OTL Kaiserreich?
 
Poland will not get a vote per say, her lands within Germany would be quiet and poles in the Austrian portion of the A-H leftovers would not be enough to override the vote. Cezchs will move for independence but would be surrounded on 3-3.5 sides by Germany, not sure how that would work out but probably not well for anyone.
 
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