DBWI: Instead of Austria, it's the Germany who gets punished at Versailles

I mean, this is quite far-fetched, because nobody of sane mind would be so foolish to not see the Austrian guilt and instead focus on Germany. But what if the Germans got to carry the main burden of Versailles? How would the German economy fare under imposed sanctions? Would the Weimar republic stay in power, or would revanchism take root like it did in OTL Austria?
And what would hapen to Hungaru? Would they retain Transylvania like in OTL, or would the Hungarians get cut down to size?
 
Well Germany still got punished, with a boatload of reparations, the dissolution of the KM and the independence of Prussia, it is simply that it didn't cease to exist like the Austro-Hungarian Empire and got a somewhat added bonus in being allowed to unite with what remained of Austria (after the Italians took Tyrol, Istria, Slovenia, the Hungarians snatched the Burgenland etc). If it got punished like the Austrians I expect you see something compared to the German Confederation revived, with dozens of tiny statelets bound into a loose supranational organisation swayed by foreign interests. Austria is most likely allowed to survive as a member of the confederation, but certainly is severed from its empire - that was arguably a given even before 1914. Hungary being allowed to stay as big as it was was a fluke of the negotiations owing to a personal spat between the Russian and British delegates, leading to Britain demanding a strong Hungary to be retained as a counterweight to Russian influence. It would probably be divvied up along the lines of what had been previously decided: Transylvania goes to Romania except for a few areas of Hungarian majority linked to the mainland by a narrow corridor of territory.
 
Well we might not have had the “Austrian noir” film genre. OTL, the artists involved drew heavily from the experience of being a “fallen nation”.
 
Better remember why Germany got so much leniency...by the end of 1917 they had seen the writing in the wall but were strong enough to make the entente pay dearly for absolute victory so they decided to throw at the wolf all their allies and get the best deal possible out of this mess.

Not that things, in hindsight, had not been favorable to them, sure they had lost their colonial empire and A-L (plus some territory gifted to the Polish); not considering the reparation and the navy limit...but on the other side, Austria greatly compensate the lost part and Hungary and Poland are much more precious as puppet state than all their colonies.

To get Germany on her knees you must bring the americans in the war as by 1917 the entente was on the last financial leg...but it's difficult Wilson get reelected on a 'no war' premise and i doubt that Germany will want to try her luck too much, even if the CP defeat at Caporetto had almost restarted the USW
 
Well Germany still got punished, with a boatload of reparations, the dissolution of the KM and the independence of Prussia,
Ah yes, the Republic of Prussia. honestly i'm surprised it even lasted into 27 before that reunification referendum. Course it was prussia's idea and germany had to increase it's reparations, so it makes sense to have taken so long, but still, who thought that would last?
 
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