Ellis MacVey
Donor
In OTL, Adolf Hitler is remembered as a ...complicated historical figure. He isn't remembered as being wholly good or wholly bad, but instead as an extremely complicated figure embroiled in controversy during his lifetime and remembered with a sort of extremely grudging respect by almost everyone.
An Austrian/German failed artist-turned-soldier-turned-policeman-turned-conservative politician, Hitler is a pretty obscure figure outside of Germany, remembered primarily for leading Germany for most of the Great Depression and the Second Great War and, paradoxically, preserving German Democracy by undermining it.
Hitler was, above all else, an opportunist. We see this in how eagerly he formed a coalition with radical right-wing elements such as the DNVP and NSDAP in order to get elected president, how he utilized his command over the Army and ability to rule by emergency executive order to full advantage, and in how he used the war as an excuse to annex Austria and Danzig.
However, he also did legitimately try to stay somewhat faithful to the constitution, subverting the more radical elements of his coalition's attempts to pass anything too crazy or become the dominant elements in the coalition, and eventually having quite a bit of them arrested and making a coalition with the SPD instead after a belated economic recovery and several persistent rumors of a far-right coup.
However, what if he had been a fascist? A lot of his views during and shortly after the First Great war could be described as proto-fascistic, and he admits in his autobiography that during his time infiltrating the NSDAP for the German Police, he actually began to embrace their rhetoric before he eventually became dissillusioned with the movement and disavowed many of his more extreme beleifs (although he only disavowed his rather virulent anti-semitism much later in his life).
What impact would this have had on Germany? What about the rest of the world?
An Austrian/German failed artist-turned-soldier-turned-policeman-turned-conservative politician, Hitler is a pretty obscure figure outside of Germany, remembered primarily for leading Germany for most of the Great Depression and the Second Great War and, paradoxically, preserving German Democracy by undermining it.
Hitler was, above all else, an opportunist. We see this in how eagerly he formed a coalition with radical right-wing elements such as the DNVP and NSDAP in order to get elected president, how he utilized his command over the Army and ability to rule by emergency executive order to full advantage, and in how he used the war as an excuse to annex Austria and Danzig.
However, he also did legitimately try to stay somewhat faithful to the constitution, subverting the more radical elements of his coalition's attempts to pass anything too crazy or become the dominant elements in the coalition, and eventually having quite a bit of them arrested and making a coalition with the SPD instead after a belated economic recovery and several persistent rumors of a far-right coup.
However, what if he had been a fascist? A lot of his views during and shortly after the First Great war could be described as proto-fascistic, and he admits in his autobiography that during his time infiltrating the NSDAP for the German Police, he actually began to embrace their rhetoric before he eventually became dissillusioned with the movement and disavowed many of his more extreme beleifs (although he only disavowed his rather virulent anti-semitism much later in his life).
What impact would this have had on Germany? What about the rest of the world?
This is intended as a more measured take on the "what if Hitler was good" TLs/WIs he isn't really good per se, but he isn't evil either. He's more chaotic neutral and, as I said above, an opportunist.
