Franz Josef Strauss would be a candidate for a German “Thatcher”. He lost as candidate for the conservatives in the general elections in 1980 against the ruling centre-left coalition of social-democrats and free-democrats. Strauss was considered as too extreme back then by the majority (even by many conservatives).
However, there is still a simple POD: A week before the elections, a bomb exploded on the Oktoberfest in Munich. About 13 people were killed, and several hundred injured. The attack was at first blamed on leftist terrorists like the RAF. Since Strauss was also a strong supporter of 'law and order', he was gaining ground in the opinion polls very fast.
But after a few days it turned out that the assassin was a right-wing extremist - the idea to bomb Strauss into office was actually floating around in neo-nazi circles back then.
Now the POD: Obviously the bomb exploded during assemblage, it was intended to go off much later in the evening. In that case, the death toll would have been in the hundreds, and the assassin wouldn't have been identified (he was killed during the explosion in OTL).
The result: Absolute majority for the conservatives in 1980, Thatcherite (?) economical reforms in Germany during the early 80s. However, Strauss also was as nationalist as possible for a mainstream politican at that time.
What would be the effects of a (relatively) revanchist Germany on the developements in Eastern Europe in the late ‘80s (In OTL, Strauss dies in 1988)?
It would be interesting to know what the German members think.