When Hitler inevitably gets Tyrol back from Italy, he could always build his version of the Berghof in the Lizumer Reckner, so as to stake his personal claim on this territory that has been restored to Austria.
en.wikipedia.org
Allternatively, there are all kinds of mountain ranges in the Central Eastern Alps.
en.wikipedia.org
Seyess Inquart was only Foreign Minister for three days between 30th April - 2nd May 1945. I think Tanner wants to make Seyess Inquart his equivalent of Ribbentrop.
The question of South Tyrol has been problematic in my planning. I was originally going to go with a ÖSNVP-backed resistance proving such a pain that Mussolini and Hitler agree to a plebiscite and South Tyrol elects to return to Austria. This bloodless political and territorial victory is early on in Hitler’s rule as Führer and helps legitimize him to the conservative/fascist but non-ÖSNVP crowd.
However, after asking an AH member here whose opinion I value, he pointed out that there was no way Mussolini would simply give up a territorial concession Italy gained in WW1, a war in which they critiqued their lack of land gained at the cost paid.
We went back and forth about it, but he convinced me it simply wasn’t something that would be in Italy’s best interests.
Now I’ve stated before that Austria and Italy will have a contentious relationship until their relations warm and eventually become the Axis Powers in the mid-1930s. A compromise I’ve been trying to work on is that Italy will give South Tyrol semi-autonomy due to Austrian resistance/and that Hitler’s Austria will not only turn a blind eye but outright encourage and support Italian territorial expansion in the Balkans and in Africa. Mussolini keeps South Tyrol, officially, but it’s people are exempt from taxation (or 80% goes to Austria, 20% goes to Italy) and conscription which goes to the Austrian State instead.
or
How about that this Agreement leads to the official Axis Powers being declared, a host of trade and economic treaties, as well as coordination between the two’s military forces, alongside Hitler’s recognition of Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia, and essentially a blind eye/encouragements to Italian ambitions in Africa and Balkans (with Austria claiming portions of northern Yugoslavia, aka Slovenia, while Italy claims southern Yugoslavia with a puppet Bosnia and Croatia in between, with Serbia being a Occupied Zone, aka a General-Government equivalent).
What do y’all think? Should South Tyrol:
A) remain a part of Italy, no strings attached
B) remain a part of Italy, but its citizens are conscripted into the Austrian Volkswehr and for all intents and purposes is an Austrian province in all but name
C) is annexed by Austria in some sort of deal with Italy and is fully integrated into the Austrian State
If any of you have suggestions or feedback on the South Tyrol question I would greatly appreciate it. It’s been a thorn in my planning for quite a while now.
Also South Tyrol as whole was around ~660,000-670,000. That is a significant amount that Austria can conscript, tax and put to work. It would be a major boon to Hitler’s Austria, especially that manpower. So a way that Austria gets South Tyrol without going ASB is welcome. I’m willing to bend historical accuracy, but don’t want to outright break it ( at least not often).
Guido Schmidt. Would be a nice Foreign Minister.
It looks like Schmidt might be Foreign Minister here for the Austrian State. Good choice. He was actually a placeholder way early in my planning.
I think outside of Paraguay and Bolivia, who were already fascist in early to mid 1930s, Brazil and Chile might be the only two South American nations that can go fascist, but only in 1938 with their attempted coups.
Hmm. Paraguay and Bolivia, perhaps a successful Nepalti Bonifaz presidency, or even Colonel Luis Alba remaining as president with the support of the Radical Liberals and the National Compact. Though admittedly the only reason I even know those names is because of
Axis of the Andes: WW2 in South America, an Alternate History by D.G. Valdron. It is a very descriptive book over a WW2 in South America, though it won’t suit everyone’s tastes.
It kinda did IOTL, it just couldnt keep it up
If you can get
this guy to stay in power with some relative popularity it might work
I like that. What if Uriburo survived another year or two to stabilize his regime, and when he dies Justo takes over a much more stable country and can rule for longer.
South East Asia had a lot of Communists at that time. Soviets can Help Ho, Malaysian Communists and Indonesian Communists.
Soviet foreign policy will be quite aggressive. More so than OTL. This causes a lot of anti-Communist actions from both democracies, conservative governments and even fascists.
I see two big problems here, one is that Austria can in no way afford a long war, at least in the beginning, and must, like Germany OTL, show quick successes, otherwise they will be overwhelmed by the enemy's material superiority.
On the other hand, no matter how you look at it, Germany is still much more powerful than Austria, even after Versailles, so I think it is very daring from Austria's point of view to support separatists in this country, especially when Germany is the much more internally consolidated nation compared to Austria, because OTL was Austria's problem that apart from the dual monarchy and as the heartland of the empire, there was no real national identity and German Austria even tried to become part of Germany.
Especially since Germany as a large neutral neighbour is more valuable than anything Bavaria can offer Austria, since Bavaria was still very poor at that time.
And Austria would do well to take steps to prevent a multi-front war, as this was one of the reasons for its defeat in the Great War.
You are absolutely correct. Austria needs short victorious wars. And will get one in the late 1930s to iron out any equipment/doctrinal issues and to test their new way of war: Stoßanstürmen (Shocking Attack) and one of their key features of it: Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog/Mist).
As for the national identity, here due to the National Liberal Front coming to power as the junior member of a coalition government this is already starting to show a burgeoning nation identity. The NLF is staunchly pro-Austria. I’ll make that more obvious in the book version.
The Austrians will despise a multi-front war, and will take steps to avoid it though as the war progresses it’ll become harder and harder. And when Austria takes over land, typically they will install puppets rather than annex and constantly deal with partisans. For example 4-5 nations that join the Axis join
after WW2 starts, most of them are created as puppet/client buffer states. They will still have partisan problems, but unlike the Nazis who went in and conquered everything and put it under military rule, the Austrians here give a lot to their “allies” as Hitler here isn’t focused on lebensraum like OTL Hitler, instead he wants a Sozinat Eastern and Southern Europe dominated by Austria/Italy with the Fatherland receiving the best economic and trade deals. Essentially he wants Austria at the top of a military-economic alliance, rather than sole ruler of Europe. Even Hitler here has to be somewhat realistic with what his nation can do.
I will say that Austria will expand territorially, much of it done pre-war. The French will be the one green lighting a lot of this (aka elbowing the British and Americans to accept this, much of it hesitantly, all to hurt a resurgent Imperial Germany. Germany and Austria’s relationship will be… complicated. Won’t go further into that due to spoilers.
Would there be some kind of Austrian special forces in this alternate war as something like the German Fallschirmjäger?
I would think so. I haven’t sat down and done much there, but the Sturmwache will be a smaller and much better trained Waffen-SS analogue. And when I mean small, maybe a division or two. Not the huge monstrosity the SS became.
Erzherzog-Johann-Aussichtswarte
view from here
View attachment 698400
View attachment 698402
Named for Archduke John, Fieldmarshal during the Napoleonic Wars, and tried to unify Austria and Germany during the revolutions of 1848 when he acted as Imperial Regent for the short lived German Empire of 1848-1849
That’s pretty. And the one
@Nathan Bernacki mentioned as well are good locations. I’ll have to think about these two.
Thanks for the feedback I guess it would make more sense if I said some thing like this:Maybe after Hilter comes back from Japan he is inspired by the people he meets in Japan and Benito Mussolini's March on Rome with his Blackshirts to inspire Hilter to do March on Vienna or Something like a Linz or Vienna Putsch with Hilter's wolfs and or does he join the Fatherland Front then break away from group alternate Austrian civil war in the same year(1934) and if the German civil war is earlier in this timeline then lots of Germans could escape to Austria and because the civil war in Austria is less brutal and shorter the new citizens in Austria would be fine and this would bring more wealth and better scientists to Austria and I think you should watch Mrmochalover play the dreams of austria mod to get some more ideas in the story but watch when he goes Monarchist because when he goes Fascist he join pact of Rome with Hungary and some others and get Switzerland to submit to Austria then annexs then later and gain Slovenia and Bohemia or the Czech Republic then Invades Germany whilst when we goes Monarchist he just gains the old lands of the empire and I have an idea for propaganda of the allies is maybe Austria invades liechtenstein then the allies uses the war as propaganda against to make fun of Austria.
There will not be a March on Vienna. Dollfuss will have a role to play though. Won’t diverge due to spoilers.
First allow me to say I’m an Argentinian who despises the trope of timelines casually saying “Argentina made stupid mistakes and lost half its territory“ without developing the situation or just to mention South America. I’m not a patriot or a nationalist or anything close (in fact I consider modern Argentina quite a shithole), but it gets annoying.
So, Argentina had by that time some military coups which were generally right wing, but they generally only lasted a few years before reverting to democracy. IMO, if you can get one of those to stay in power, you may have a country with quite the right wing tendencies and sympathetic to fascism in Europe, but not with the degree of extremism we saw there. The conditions are not so extreme, and Argentina was still in decently good shape by then.
I won’t say anything about the rest of the countries cause honestly I dont Know enough of their situation in this period.
Also do you plan for Germany to join Austria here? Or will they go a different path from fascism?
I didn’t say Argentina made stupid mistakes or lost half its territory. If I offended you, that was not my intention. I was merely trying to find a way to “spice up” South America during WW2 and provide a reason why American foreign policy was more focused there than say Eastern/Southern Europe. Argentina won’t be as economically ravaged as late 1920s/early 1930s Germany and Austria were.
So far Bolivia and Paraguay are going fascist, potentially Chile and Ecuador. Argentina may very well go fascist, but it may or may not involve itself, same with Ecuador. As I said, I wasn’t trying to offend as, to be honest, I didn’t even know there was a cliche about Argentina “losing half its territory” etc.
Germany and Austria, as I mentioned earlier, will have a
complicated relationship.
Seyss-Inquart is fine. He wanted to become foreign minister in OTL (and while he was real enthusiastic about the Anschluss, he was apparently unhappy about how Austria first just become a province and then was split up into various Reichsgaue that weren't even called Austria. Apparently he'd naively expected a special status).
Some other Austrians who could play a role in Hitler's regime in one way or another:
- Otto Wächter. Austrian Nazi Party lawyer, was involved in the failed SS coup in 1934 that led to Dolfuss' murder. Member of Seyss-Inquart's government, then governor of Cracow and later Galicia in the General Government, where he was responsible for atrocities against the Jews (among other things, he established the Cracow ghetto and oversaw the implementation of the 'Final Solution' in Galicia).
- Alois Brunner. Actually from Hungary, but German. Involved in the Austrian Legion and Eichmann's chief henchman. Commandant of Drancy during the war. Known for his brutality and being a complete scumbag. Not a high-level guy, but I figure he'd find work in the Staatsschutz. Along with Franz Stangl, commandant of Sobibor and later Treblinka.
- Hans Fischböck. Member of Seyss' cabinet as economics and finance minister. Followed his old boss to the Netherlands, where he took charge of exploiting the new Nazi fief's economy, expropriating Jewish property and sending forced labourers to Germany. Seems ideal for having the same portfolio under Hitler.
- Odilo Globocnik. Yes, I know, Harris uses him in Fatherland, but there are good reasons for that. He had a leading role in organising the Aktion Reinhardt death camps and the murder of about one and a half million Jews. Plus he played an important role in Himmler's plans for 'colonising' the east.
- Alois Hudal. Austrian bishop who praised Hitler and helped establish ratlines. Maybe an ally for Hitler in the Catholic church.
Since this Hitler sees Austria as the better Germany and doesn't want it to be subsumed into the German Reich, I could see some people who in OTL involved with Dolfuss' Fatherland Front and his Ständestaat regime throw in their lot with him.
Guess he thought Austria would have been a fellow Nazi country rather than annexed into one. I might go with Guido Schmidt for Foreign Minister. What do you think? Could Seyss-Inquart here be perhaps the President of the National Council? (I’m going to have Hitler or a predecessor unite the National Council and Federal Council into the more simplified National Assembly). And Seyss-Inquart could be Minister of the Interior and President of the National Assembly or some such.
Thanks for those other suggestions! Those’ll be a huge help, especially Fischböck and Hudal. Never heard of them. I already have a Vice Chancellor in mind (not going to use the Deputy Führer/Deputy to the Führer title).
As a heads up to everyone I am behind on my writing (big surprise) as I have been playing a LOT of Battlefields 2042 (mainly the Portal Battlefield 1942) and the Halo Infinite Multiplayer. That’s literally all I’ve done this Thanksgiving Break. Zero writing and spent all day doing work to catch up from
not doing work all well. I’m hoping to get it out sometime by next weekend. Having to condense a lot of filler and rearrange some scenes.
It’ll be Hitler, Fyodor, Olbrecht and Kuhr. May or may not add another. Depends what happens.