AHC: West Germany retains many cultural and industrial programs from Nazi Germany

[baltur2]

How would it be possible to have post-WW2 West Germany remain like this, and how plausible are these points?

-The name of the country remains "Deutsches Reich" (German Empire). The currency also remains the Reichsmark, although the Swastika goes, replaced by the generic German Eagle

-The country retains a space program to some degree

-Vegetarianism, teetotalism, and traditional German culture continues to be promoted

-The Lebensborn program remains, but in a more moderate way: It is simply a program to keep German birthrate high, with generous monetary aids to families, and some cultural propaganda against being Single, so the country would need less Gastarbeiter

-The program to promote a love of nature, scenic Autobahns, and the mystique and spirit of German forests continues

-Next to Christianity, the country continues to promote and educate about Occultism and Paganism, Wewelsburg castle becomes some kind of Pagan Temple. Norse mythology continues to be promoted

 

[Thomas Jefferson]

Pretty difficult. For obvious reasons, the occupying Allied powers wanted to scrub all traces of Nazism from German society. You might have a bit more luck with the Lebensborn program due to the Cold War, but a space program is going to be impossible because the other countries in Europe would be horrified at the prospect of Germany getting the bomb.

 

[Philip]

The name of the country remains "Deutsches Reich" (German Empire).

Nope. it won't after the second war. Keep in mind that West Germany didn't come into existence until 4 after the war. Even then that was controversial.

The currency also remains the Reichsmark

It hung around to '48 or so. I guess it could remain.

although the Swastika goes, replaced by the generic German Eagle

No problem here.

The country retains a space program to some degree

Absolutely not. A space program means a ballistic missile program. There is no way the allies accept this.

Vegetarianism, teetotalism, and traditional German culture continues to be

Sure, why not.

The Lebensborn program remains, but in a more moderate way: It is simply a program to keep German birthrate high, with generous monetary aids to families, and some cultural propaganda against being Single, so the country would need less Gastarbeiter

As long as it doesn't run into Aryanism.

The program to promote a love of nature, scenic Autobahns, and the mystique and spirit of German forests continues

Why not?

Next to Christianity, the country continues to promote and educate about Occultism and Paganism, Wewelsburg castle becomes some kind of Pagan Temple. Norse mythology continues to be promoted

Doubtful. The Nazi use of paganism is to tightly bound to Aryanism.

 

[David T]

Nope. It wasn't allowed to keep the name after the first war, it won't after the second.

No, the country continued to be known as Deutsches Reich under the Weimar Republic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Reich (The only difference was that in English-language documents the word Reich was left untranslated, whereas it had formerly been translated as "Empire.")

But it couldn't be after 1945 for two reasons: First the Nazi use of "Third Reich" had tainted the word "Reich" and second, the west German Republic created in 1949 did not include all of Germany and its Basic Law was expressly declared to be provisional, until German reunification could be achieved.

(BTW, though not for the specific examples given, "West Germany retains many cultural and industrial programs from Nazi Germany" is in some respects a DBWI:
"Yet, there is a difference between what one might call ‘Nazi law’ and ‘Nazi-era law’, so there were a few pieces of legislation from the Nazi period that were considered sufficiently uncontroversial and free of the ideological taint of Nazism to be left on the statute books – for example, the Credit Law of 1934 and the Energy Law of 1935. Though subject to later revisions, amendments and modernisations, both are still in force today. So, though we are rightly accustomed to regarding the postwar re-emergence of the German Federal Republic as a political new beginning, the legal situation is rather more complex. As a result some aspects of the current German legal code date back to the Nazi period and even beyond." https://www.historyextra.com/period...ny-laws-made-by-the-nazi-regime-still-in-use/)