It's weird to think that all of Central Europe was one country for almost a century, united into a single 'Germany' that appeared to be a permanent geopolitical institution by the 1940s. It was then smashed into a dozen pieces by the Allies who wanted to ensure that such a state could never threaten the balance of power again. I recently had a tour of the former Germany (or at least the bits that aren't Red Army mandates) and found that while places like the Hanseatic Federation, and to a lesser extent Bavaria, have pretty much forgiven and forgotten this partition, places like North Germany and the Rhineland that got an especially harsh deal remain hotbeds of pan-Nationalist sentiment. I even heard there are talks of a unified 'West German' customs union...
It got me wondering, what if this whole process of the dissolution of Germany had never taken place? How could that have happened? What would Europe look like if the country was whole, or even just split into two pieces?
 
A more reasonable check on Soviet influence. If the western partitions would have stayed together they could have been a reasonable check on soviet influence. Without that the pro-soviet backed Rhine Coup wouldn't have been nearly as accepted in the region. Nor would the de-nazificaiton have been so spastic that let the Nazis in all but name take over in Baden-Wurttemburg through democratic election. I also bet the ethnic cleansing of Germans in what is now Poland and Czechoslovakia would have been prevented due to the presence that actually cared what happened to the Germans
 
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