Could Mitteleuropa become a singular nation?

For those who don't know Mitteleuropa was a plan of the German Empire to establish an alliance between Germany, its puppet states, and the newly independent nations in East Europe in a situation where the Germans won WW1 (correct me if I'm wrong). In many timelines where Germany wins WW1 Mitteleuropa is depicted as an EU-like organization, or at the very least an alliance where Germany reigns supreme and dictates the other members. In OTL the possibility of the EU uniting could happen in the future so could Mitteleuropa? If so, what would such a nation be like? For this timeline the members of Mitteleuropa are:

  • Germany and its puppets: Belgium, Belarus, Crimea, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
  • Austria-Hungary and its puppets: Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and Romania
  • Ukraine
 
Okay, so I know this is an implausible scenario, I'm a bit more curious about how such a nation would come about and what it would look like.
 
A German victory that involves France falling to Communism might be a good start. There wasn't much that rulers in the early twentieth century feared more than communists. Maybe the revolution goes Napoleonic and spreads to the already unstable Spain, then from there to Italy and Greece (presume that these nations still entered WWI on the Allied side and were destabilized at the end of the war). Meanwhile the Communist revolution in Russia goes on schedule, meaning that Mitteleuropa is now surrounded by the reds. Communists in one of Austria-Hungary's slavic territories rise up as well and the fragile multiethnic empire collapses. The Germans intervene but are forced to occupy huge tracts of slavic territory and the Second Reich assumes control of AH and Ukraine's millitaries in order to modernize them. Mitteleuropa is reworked, and while it isn't exactly a single state, all members answer to Germany in foreign issues, but are relatively autonomous domestically.
 
A German victory that involves France falling to Communism might be a good start. There wasn't much that rulers in the early twentieth century feared more than communists. Maybe the revolution goes Napoleonic and spreads to the already unstable Spain, then from there to Italy and Greece (presume that these nations still entered WWI on the Allied side and were destabilized at the end of the war). Meanwhile the Communist revolution in Russia goes on schedule, meaning that Mitteleuropa is now surrounded by the reds. Communists in one of Austria-Hungary's slavic territories rise up as well and the fragile multiethnic empire collapses. The Germans intervene but are forced to occupy huge tracts of slavic territory and the Second Reich assumes control of AH and Ukraine's millitaries in order to modernize them. Mitteleuropa is reworked, and while it isn't exactly a single state, all members answer to Germany in foreign issues, but are relatively autonomous domestically.
Yeah, I thought that the Entente going communist would be a good POD, too. Perhaps WW2 is the communists (called the Comintern) fighting Mitteleuropa and the Mitteleuropans win, however are devastated similar to Europe in OTL. The Austro-Hungarian Empire has collapsed and what remains of it becomes part of Germany. By the 1950s unity in the name of peace becomes popular and Mitteleuropa unites into a single federation as a way to prevent the collapse of the economy. Mitteleuropa would probably be led by the Kaiser and would be very unstable (possibly the USSR equivalent of this world?).
 
Quiet implausible. It would be too multinational being viable nation. Probably Germany could annex Poland, Latvia and Estonia after germanisation and perhaps German language parts after collapse of AH. But hardly more. Economic and political domination over other puppets is enough.
 

Deleted member 97083

WW2 is a rematch between previously victorious Central Powers and a pseudo-Entente with France and Russia gone socialist (The UK isn't, and keeps the Empire, but allies with France and Russia out of anti-German expediency).

Since the German Empire starts with so much land in the former Russian Empire, including access to oil in Baku, they can succeed in the Imperial version of "Operation Barbarossa", but it's still a gruelling fight. A Soviet Union without access to Ukraine or Caucasian oil is less industrialized, making it weaker, but still very hard to occupy. During the war, the Mitteleuropa states are subject to military rule or German emergency powers. It's likely that a few of them face collapse, or communist rebellions, which have to be suppressed.

After the German Empire takes over the continent, continuing British blockade and the impossibility of a cross-Channel invasion, "peacekeeping actions" in Russia to suppress Yugoslav-style socialist partisans, and in a collapsing Ottoman Empire to fight Arab and Kurdish revolts, mean years of low-level war continuing with Britain and likely America. Wartime expediency, radicalization of the armed forces, lead to continuing military rule in the Mitteleuropa states. War also continues in the colonies, with the British having the upper hand there. Peace is out of reach for years.

By this point, the Mitteleuropa states are de facto part of Germany. At some point, this becomes de jure.
 
One can take the high road or the low road, the path through peace, prosperity and integration, or the path of war, necessity and oppression, but I am pessimistic on the low road. The USSR attempted to force its subjects into a collective that failed once the secret police no longer had the mantel of the Party, beside why simply reinvent another bleak fate for Germany and her neighbors? So I choose optimism.

Here I assume the Germans do not fall into revolution and more or less it is the German Reich at center, Kaiser and Reichstag, an industrial nation with minorities, capitalism and a wary military. The suggestion that a USSR be born I think is very helpful as would a revolutionary France. I would also pre-suppose that the British were not belligerents in this alt-Great War and the USA played a tangential role but perhaps more so in mediating an armistice. The British and Americans would soon trade aplenty with our Middle Europe and likely see it as a bulwark against the anarchy at least looming if not sweeping Europe. Here I would think the likes of Hindenburg did not usurp all authority as a dictator and the usual civilian institutions moderated things enough to not fully alienate the conquered peoples to the East. Yes, I think they are conquered and regard themselves only uncertainly "liberated", this should lead to a few decades of unrest as those people's nationalism waxes under German influence. I do not underestimate the strong nationalism, the independent cultures and disparate languages, these all proud peoples who had distinct identities, but I would not use that to quash all hope they could not integrate. The USA is a diverse nation, Europe now more so, both have achieved and continue to work at integration while acknowledging the uniqueness of their peoples. Here you have perhaps 100 years of quiet and no truly vicious Second World War founded in hatred, bigotry and extermination to drive deep scars into the fabric of Europe, the wounds of the Great War were bad enough, those worse, but I would say a long chilly stand-off would let the wounds heal fastest. The Cold War pushed the French and Germans together with the Belgians, Italians and Dutch, we have the EU to demonstrate how economic cooperation could pave the path to greater political integration.

My bias is that the USSR will be dangerous and destabilizing but not a true threat, it will stalk and pounce on weakness yet be wary of a Germany accessing as much people and resources as it. Add to that a more robust British Empire and free wheeling America spanning the globe too, the USSR even with a Red France or more would be caught in a Mexican standoff facing two less than friendly old Empires and an American business giant asserting itself as arrogantly as ever. We might get an Imperial Japan or resurgent China to further muddy the waters, a Fascist bloc or other alignments that keep this world dangerously balanced.

I would argue that Germany builds a Customs Union and hammers out a mutual defense alliance, something that blends the EEC and Warsaw Pact, a bit heavier hands akin to how the Soviets bullied Eastern Europe, but without such ideology to keep it so the Germans likely ease up to give enough independence that few of these states feel compelled to join the "enemy." I would suppose that the various distrust and chauvinisms between the Eastern peoples keep them aligned to Germany as the mistrust each other one on one. But give that a generation or so, recall German will be a prevalent lingua Franca on the continent, everyone will have increasingly interconnected trade with the German juggernaut, and their militaries will increasingly cooperate. That might give us enough bridges to begin the dismantling of immigration boundaries, push for a unified currency (the Goldmark is likely already de facto), and coordination of various standards, measures and such to facilitate commerce. Again we have 100 years from 1917 to 2017 to see these nations coalesce. Is it a United States of Europe? I think that might take more time but it may well be better integrated than the EU seems to be, it may be closer to that next step, without more war, more privation and the foundation of mutual cooperation spanning yet another generation or more things could be looking very much like what the OP seeks. I do not think it is too utopian, the challenges are deep and dangerous, but I can see the right alignments to give it a strong "plausible."
 
I'd argue its not likely; the primary reason being that I can't imagine any political group who's interest it'd be in. They already have a customs union, probably a united de facto currency, a mutual defense pact, ect. (basically, all the underlying beneficial foundations of a united state)... all of which are lead primarily by Germany. The German political leadership are getting just about the best possible deal they can, since they can structure the alliance to their own benefit without the pesky minorities getting representation in the Reichstag and not only pulling internal German resources to their poorer regions, but increasing the number of constituencies they'd have to keep happy in order to maintain internal power... and if you have a prostrate Russia-France there isen't any risk of them defecting because they have nowhere else to go. Indeed, I'd argue the best bet for a united Mittleuropa is not one in which WW II happens, but in which there is an extended "Cold War" with Germany's rivals trying to nibble away at the edge of her sphere. In that case, Germany might decide more tightly integrating the outer regions into Germany proper was nessicery for the security and continued economic unity of the bloc.
 
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