Could Kurt von Schleicher be the German incarnation of populism?

[Gukpard]

One important thing, while fascism is populist, I'm not counting fascists as populists here for the kind of populism requested in this thread is different.

So, Kurt von Schleicher was the last German chancellor before Hitler ruined everything, and he had a plan that was the Querfront, that was a mishmash of far left and far right ideas and has been presented by some as either an German attempt at fascism or a German attempt at the "100 ideologies in one populism".

To summon it up he wanted to get as many political factions in his side and end the Weimar Republic, installing a authoritarian regime that could have been either a banana republic, a return to the German empire but with a new face or a military dictatorship with populist economics.

This made me wonder something. Assuming Von Papen is killed by a deserved car crash and Schleicher successfully consolidates power, get some parties including factions of the SPD and seize emergency powers, could he be seem as something like a German Peron, or Vargas, or Huey Long, anything like that? Or he would be seem as a fascist?

 

[TheSpectacledCloth]

It's possible, but he would have to get rid both the Nazis and the KPD, as they would be the biggest threats to his power. It'd be easy to oppress the KPD in the aftermath of the Reichstag Fire, but he would have to purge the Nazi bigwigs to truly consolidate power. Hitler, Rohm, Goering, Hess, Strasser and Goebbels to destroy the leadership and get most of the remnants into the Querfront. Those who wouldn't join this movement, like Himmler or Streicher, would not be taken seriously and could be easily be deposed of. Von Schleicher would've had to utilize the Reichswehr to crush the Nazi elites, but that honestly wouldn't have been hard to do.

Von Schleicher probably would've have been more of an Paternal Autocrat than any fascist. I can't imagine how he could've ruled Germany, but I do know that Poland would've been more hostile to his government than they initially were to the Nazis OTL, as von Schleicher's ideals would've likely resembled those of Alfred Hugenberg.

 

[Gukpard]

It's possible, but he would have to get rid both the Nazis and the KPD, as they would be the biggest threats to his power. It'd be easy to oppress the KPD in the aftermath of the Reichstag Fire, but he would have to purge the Nazi bigwigs to truly consolidate power. Hitler, Rohm, Goering, Hess, Strasser and Goebbels to destroy the leadership and get most of the remnants into the Querfront. Those who wouldn't join this movement, like Himmler or Streicher, would not be taken seriously and could be easily be deposed of. Von Schleicher would've had to utilize the Reichswehr to crush the Nazi elites, but that honestly wouldn't have been hard to do.

Von Schleicher probably would've have been more of an Paternal Autocrat than any fascist. I can't imagine how he could've ruled Germany, but I do know that Poland would've been more hostile to his government than they initially were to the Nazis OTL, as von Schleicher's ideals would've likely resembled those of Alfred Hugenberg.

Basically he would be a political absorber annexing people from all ideologies under his umbrella?

 

[TheSpectacledCloth]

Basically he would be a political absorber annexing people from all ideologies under his umbrella?

I suppose it's plausible.

 

[Strategos' Risk]

What were the different ideologies he was trying to incorporate

This almost sounds like he's trying to merge the most reactionary-friendly or at least anti-radical to the extent of working with the reactionaries aspects of the SPD, with the not plunge Germany into war aspects of the DNVP.

 

[AT0N]

Like, Schleicher is mostly prcieved as more right-wing than "populist dictator" closer to Franco than to Peron.

 

[oberdada]

Like, Schleicher is mostly prcieved as more right-wing than "populist dictator" closer to Franco than to Peron.

He would also need the extreme luck of Franco to somehow outliving all his serious contenders for power.
von Schleicher was more of a puppetmaster and only became chancellor himself, when he ran out of potential puppets

 

[JamesHunter]

He would also need the extreme luck of Franco to somehow outliving all his serious contenders for power.
von Schleicher was more of a puppetmaster and only became chancellor himself, when he ran out of potential puppets

Also Franco had the advantage that hyper conservative policies were "in* among Spain's elite and only fell from favour after a few decades of his rule. That made it fairly easy to keep support, especially as Franco was a ruthless pragmatist who changed his spots any time he needed to. Can Von Schleicher do that? Especially as his opponents have four million men under arms and while in decline (and broke) the Nazi's probably won't self destruct before the summer of 33 at the earliest.

 

[oberdada]

Also Franco had the advantage that hyper conservative policies were "in* among Spain's elite and only fell from favour after a few decades of his rule. That made it fairly easy to keep support, especially as Franco was a ruthless pragmatist who changed his spots any time he needed to. Can Von Schleicher do that? Especially as his opponents have four million men under arms and while in decline (and broke) the Nazi's probably won't self destruct before the summer of 33 at the earliest.

No.
Von Schleicher had one, maybe two, very short windows of opportunity to start some kind of self coup. Both with relatively small chances of success.

 

[JamesHunter]

No.
Von Schleicher had one, maybe two, very short windows of opportunity to start some kind of self coup. Both with relatively small chances of success.

Yeah. Absent Papen's deciding to crap all over Germany because he hates Schleicher the Nazi's probably can't take power and growing frustration with Hitler's refusal to compromise probably does led to internal problems by the summer. Which then leads to an SA uprising either Vs party or government but in all cases that just sees a reichswehr coup. There is no democratic (or even illusion of one) way forward by the time Von Schleicher comes to power and it was only a question of what type of dictatorship takes over. Doesn't matter how many parties he allies with as they're all out of the game by this point.

That said while an army coup would be the second coming of the pre-1914 regime and probably bad news for all the countries around it it's still a million times better than the Nazi's were. Also more likely to survive as while some attempts at "border adjustments" are inevitable that's more likely to be Anschluss and then a limited fight with Poland over the corridor rather than taking on all comers.

Probably followed up with a cold war with the West until a rising Soviet Union sees realpolitik invoked around 1950.

 

[Maponus]

For the hundredth time, the Querfront wasn't real. Schleicher was bluffing. What he really needed was to rule in coalition with Hitler, and he thought scaring Hitler with the idea that he might have an alternative way to form a government up his sleeve (when actually he didn't) would give him a stronger position in negotiations. Strasser didn't have any sway in the NSDAP, and the SPD would never have agreed anyway - not even "a faction" would have. It was a bluff and a pretty poor one.

 

[JamesHunter]

For the hundredth time, the Querfront wasn't real. Schleicher was bluffing. What he really needed was to rule in coalition with Hitler, and he thought scaring Hitler with the idea that he might have an alternative way to form a government up his sleeve (when actually he didn't) would give him a stronger position in negotiations. Strasser didn't have any sway in the NSDAP, and the SPD would never have agreed anyway - not even "a faction" would have. It was a bluff and a pretty poor one.

And since Hitler would never accept a government where he wasn't chancellor it could never have worked.