Deleted member 1487
http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1931042300
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3133667?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Basically by 1931 the Austrians and Germans had worked out a customs union to help boost both of their economies and facilitate what was already heavy economic integration. France historically strenuously opposed that union out of fear that it was the first step to political union like the Zollverein in the 19th century mean German unification. IOTL they even went so far as to pull their money out of Austrian banks, which collapsed the Austrian Creditanstalt, which due to it's links to the German banking system caused the German banking crisis and heavy deflation that directly led to the rise of extremism in the 1932 elections and created the conditions for Hitler's seizure of power. What if the French, after lodging protests and strenuous verbal opposition didn't take the drastic step of pulling their money out of the Austrian banking system and sat by as the customs union happened? Without the German and Austrian banking collapse would the Depression have been warded off in both countries, preventing the rise of Fascism in both and stabilizing their economies? Would the customs union have led to the violation of the ToV and led to a political union eventually? If Weimar survives are a result of this move and due to the economy avoiding nearly as much deflation as happened in 1931-32 is there still a Hoover Moratorium on German loan debt and the Lausanne Conference pausing reparations payments? Is Europe able to recover much more easily and sooner without eventually war or the risk of a German general or militarist rising to power like von Schleicher?
https://www.jstor.org/stable/3133667?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Basically by 1931 the Austrians and Germans had worked out a customs union to help boost both of their economies and facilitate what was already heavy economic integration. France historically strenuously opposed that union out of fear that it was the first step to political union like the Zollverein in the 19th century mean German unification. IOTL they even went so far as to pull their money out of Austrian banks, which collapsed the Austrian Creditanstalt, which due to it's links to the German banking system caused the German banking crisis and heavy deflation that directly led to the rise of extremism in the 1932 elections and created the conditions for Hitler's seizure of power. What if the French, after lodging protests and strenuous verbal opposition didn't take the drastic step of pulling their money out of the Austrian banking system and sat by as the customs union happened? Without the German and Austrian banking collapse would the Depression have been warded off in both countries, preventing the rise of Fascism in both and stabilizing their economies? Would the customs union have led to the violation of the ToV and led to a political union eventually? If Weimar survives are a result of this move and due to the economy avoiding nearly as much deflation as happened in 1931-32 is there still a Hoover Moratorium on German loan debt and the Lausanne Conference pausing reparations payments? Is Europe able to recover much more easily and sooner without eventually war or the risk of a German general or militarist rising to power like von Schleicher?
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