Bruning's German Monarchy 1932

trajen777

Banned
What happens if Bruning attempt to Stop Hitler in 1932 works ?

Brüning agonized over how to stem the growing Nazi tide, especially since Hindenburg could not be expected to survive another full term as president should he choose to run again. If Hindenburg were to die in office, Hitler would be a strong favorite to succeed him.

In his posthumously published memoirs Brüning claims,that he hit upon a last-ditch solution to prevent Hitler from taking power—restoring the Hohenzollern monarchy. He planned to persuade the Reichstag to cancel the 1932 presidential election and extend Hindenburg's term. He would have then had parliament proclaim a monarchy, with Hindenburg as regent. Upon Hindenburg's death, one of Crown Prince William's sons would have been invited to assume the throne. The restored monarchy would have been a British-style constitutional monarchy in which real power would have rested with the legislature. He managed to garner support from all of the major parties except the Nationalists, Communists and Nazis, making it very likely that the plan would get the two-thirds majority required for passage. The plan foundered, however, when Hindenburg, an old-line monarchist, refused to support restoration of the monarchy unless Emperor William II was called back from exile in the Netherlands. When Brüning tried to impress upon him that neither the Social Democrats nor the international community would accept any return of the deposed emperor, Hindenburg threw him out of his office.[4]
 
Was Wilhelm II ever approached informally about the idea to gauge what sort of reaction he might have to it? Assuming that Bruning was able to pull it off I'd half expect the Nazis to try launching a coup since they would see it as their final chance at untrammelled power slipping away, provided that the army stayed loyal to the government they probably wouldn't be a major threat.

One interesting knock-on might be Austria, would a Hohenzollern regaining the Imperial German throne possibly ease the way for a Habsburg restoration as well? There are also the various German Kings as well.
 
This would have worked. The military was not loyal to Wiemar, it was loyal to the Hohenzollerns, simple as that. A good question is how would the continuing democratic government save Germany's economy?
 

trajen777

Banned
Some interesting things about the Crown Price Wilhelm


SO in 1932 Hindenburg DID NOT WANT TO RUN AGAIN and only did so to try and stop Hitler. Hindenburg was a Monarchist but wanted the old king back -- lets Say Wilhelm agreed to let the crown Prince take over == So in 1932 the election is not held but Hindenburg term is extended. The crown prince is made Kaiser - like GB King -- and the Nazi movement is crushed by the Army


Wilhelm joined the Stahlhelm which merged in 1931 into the Harzburg Front, a right-wing organisation of those opposed to the democratic republic.[6]:13
The former Crown Prince was reportedly interested in the idea of running for Reichspräsident as the right-wing candidate against Paul von Hindenburg in 1932, until his father forbade him from acting on the idea. After his plans to become president had been blocked by his father,



Quote at the beginning of WW1

In October 1914 Wilhelm gave his first interview to a foreign correspondent and the first statement to the press made by a German noble since the outbreak of war.[4][5] He said this in English:
"Undoubtedly this is the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times.
It is a war not wanted by Germany, I can assure you, but it was forced on us, and the fact that we were so effectually prepared to defend ourselves is now being used as an argument to convince the world that we desired conflict."
— Crown Prince Wilhelm, Wiegand[4][5]

In addition on his being the new King :
 
CP Wilhelm was an intellectual light-weight prone to vehemently agree with whoever spoke to him last. During WWI, he is almost continually waffling between Alldeutsch annexation demands and a claims-free "peace now" position.

Wilhelm II.s position was "a Hohenzollern president has to swear an oath on the Weimar constitution. If you swear and keep that oath, you have deserteed your dynasty and I will disinherit and disavow you. If you swear and break that oath (by becoming monarch), you are perjuring scum and I will disinherit and disavow you.

AFAIK, CP Wilhelm beforehand saw no problem with doing all what was necessary to become president and then ignoring the inconvenient oath.

So I would suspect that he would serve as a figure-head (and Skirt-chaser Supreme) of a parliamentary monarchy only as long as it takes for an enterprising general to suggest a coup, taking power away from the Reichstag and giving it to a camarilla of "loyal" officers.

Still better than Hitler and the Nazi regime, of course, but hardly a positive thing.
 

trajen777

Banned
Agreed -- finished the book Verdun and they actually spoke highly of his role in the battle -- although the German army was very dominated by the general staff officers involved.

So a positive spin could be :
1. 1931 - Hindenburg agrees to have the CP as the new Monarch - formed like GB but slightly more powerful
2. 1932 vote put to Reichstag which agrees to const monarchy. Wilhelm 3 crowned as Kaiser. Hindenburg's pres extended by 2 years.
3. Bruning as chancellor, the Reichstag, and General staff breaks up the SA and outlaws it. Their support had dropped significantly with the conservative Monarchy restored.
4. Germany economy is slowly restructured by work projects and army rebuilding (not at the pace or Hitler)
5. GB is supportive of Germany (like real world)
6. Austria absorbed - polish corridor - and Sudetenland all become part of greater Germany -- with this Germany could go either to the economic powerhouse of today (think Euro zone) or war.
7. I think without Hitler the possibility of WW2 is reduced by 90 % -- however a war in the east with GB - Germany - Japan could be a possibility or a different cold war
 

NoMommsen

Donor
Dear trajen777,
I think you got some things a bit mixed up and not clearly remembered from Brünings memoirs. To restore monarchy wasn't just a "last-ditch" solution, he was a monarchist by heart. Something he admitted several times in his memoirs. But in early 20ies he somehow "arranged" himself with the circumstances of a parliamentary constitution.

His tries to extend Hindenburg's term as Reichspresident wasn't really part of his thoughts to get monarchy back. It was - for him - an absolut necessity to move on his overall path of politics. He had no backing at all but the good-will of Hindenburg to sign the emergency decrees he put in front of him wtih wich he wanted to keep the german economy at a state of emergency to get rid of the reparations (these fruits were harvested by von Papen later, who managed to get the worst outcome of the Lausanne conference).

And couriosly he used the civil war like conditions of street fights between the nazi's and the red's to get from the USA and GB the go for what the Reichswehr were alraedy planning at :
Restructuring the Reichwehr away from the 12-years compulsory time of duty and complement it with a kind of "militia" or a german version of the "national guard" (that were the words between him and the other statesmen just prior to his dismisseal in Geneva talks preparing the Lausanne conference).

Later - to please Hindenburg - he developed his "way to monarchy" :
after the "sucsess" of his reparation politics he wanted the install some changes to the procedures of the Reichstag, then seduce it to suspend it itself - something like the "Ermächtigungsgesetz" Hitler later used - and after that restoring kind of a bit more powerfull, constitutional monarchy.
And yes, he had some quabbles with Hindenburg about who to place on the throne, but he hoped, that this problem might be dealed with with "natural" developments - age and senility of Hindenburg.

Hindenburg throw him out of office mostly cause Brüning didn't wanted to throw more money away in alimenting Hindenburg East Prussian Junkers friends for nothing anymore.

However, it's an interesting ... tempting thing to think about what if ...
what if Brüning had been able to keep on going in 1932....
 
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