Deleted member 1487
Here is the scenario:
Romania doesn't enter WW1, Falkenhayn doesn't lose his job and limps on at OHL until the Russian Revolution, so gets credit for that and this rehabilitates his image with the public, keeping Hindenburg and Ludendorff out of OHL.
As a result there is no resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, so the US doesn't enter the war and Entente loans run out when they run out of collateral in 1917. Congress doesn't authorize unsecured loans just as per OTL prior to the OTL DoW change of policy. The Entente starts to fall apart and decides to start to negotiate after the Russian Revolution in February and the failed French offensive in April.
Falkenhayn, being very interested in peace, pushes to accept the following peace:
Germany gets Luxembourg and some border modifications in the West, including Briey-Longwy. Belgium is nominally independent, but gives up Belgian Luxembourg. Germany owes no reparations. Germany loses its colonies, but receives some monetary compensation for their loss. In the East Germany gets to have what it occupies, including Lithuania, Poland, Courland, and Estland, which it sets up as puppet states (Congress Poland does not lose territory to Germany and is set up as a Kingdom under a Habsburg). A-H gets to control the core of Serbia, which is set up as a puppet state under the Obrenovics. The border with Italy goes back to the pre-war one. Bulgaria is enhanced by gains from Serbia. The Ottomans get their pre-war borders restored.
The war is over by July 1917.
Despite its losses, Germany is clearly the 'victor' in terms of its relative strength and gains compared to its enemies, though there are complaints from the far right about Falkenhayn getting a sour deal. A-H is badly weakened and unstable, with violence breaking out by 1918 in Hungary and Bohemia, which is suppressed with the pre-war political structure locked in under Kaiser Karl. The Young Turks are badly weakened politically by the damage done to the Empire, with nothing positive to show for their efforts.
Among the Allies the Italians have massive social unrest due to the major cost of the war without any gain. Britain is somewhat stable, as they gain some German colonies and defended Belgian neutrality, but haven't reduced the German navy and are in major debt from the war. France is a basket case due to the territorial losses (colonial gains are not a consolation) and human losses, not to mention huge debt. Germany is still a major threat to them and the leftist movements are very much in conflict with the right, who blames the 'traitorous left' for the unfavorable peace. Political violence is picking up in the wake of the war, as the economy is badly hurt by the destruction to the major industrial areas Germany captured during the war and the loss of some of the border iron mines Germany annexed. Even the nationalization of pre-war German owned mines in France doesn't help the national mood. Russia is locking in the Revolution under the provisional government and is struggling with the post-Czar political structure, especially as the nation has been upended in so many ways by the war. The Bolsheviks don't rise to prominence, so its still a Menshevik country.
This brings us to Germany; what is its culture going to look like here with having avoided the H-L dictatorship, having 'won' the war, but not in a clear way, being majorly in debt (mostly to itself), having the far right blame Falkenhayn (who once again becomes war minister) and the Kaiser/Bethmann-Holweg for the 'raw deal' that saw Germany not hold all its war gains at the peace and lose its colonies, plus have its only major ally A-H in the process of falling apart. The Ottomans are dropping out as an ally to try and hold the badly damaged country together, and Bulgaria isn't a necessarily reliable ally.
Politically the left has become militant during the war, while the 'moderates' under the Kaiser are both strengthened and weakened by the victory and rising extremism in the political scene due to the peace. The far right is rising in numbers in 1917, including in the aftermath of the war, as guys like Ludendorff are trying to gin up the nationalism of the middle class, which has taken an economic hit due to inflation during the war. Unemployment is rising once the war contracts end and taxes are kept up to pay for the war. International trade picks back up with the US, but other trade with its traditional partners (Russia being a major source of raw materials and purchaser of goods) is still badly disrupted, as a result of lingering hostilities from the war, lack of demand thanks to the Entente nations having industrialized more during the war, and political disruptions caused by the war/aftermath of the war. The US has also picked up some of Germany's pre-war trade with Latin America too.
So in the post war world Germany is dealing with occupations in the East (not nearly as bad as Brest-Litovsk and therefore manageable), political extremism, inflation (not anywhere near as bad as OTL), unemployment/lack of trade, debt, higher taxes, a huge population deficit (IIRC well over 1 million men dead by mid-1917), massive numbers of disabled veterans, major social upheaval from the war (women's empowerment, traditional social structures breaking down, economic woes), instability in Europe, and the effect of major demobilization on the economy and population. Generations of men have been brutalized in the trenches and even with the ego boost of 'winning', they are going to have major social trauma, especially as the political parties get their claws into them and spin their narratives about what the war meant.
How does German culture develop in this situation?
Romania doesn't enter WW1, Falkenhayn doesn't lose his job and limps on at OHL until the Russian Revolution, so gets credit for that and this rehabilitates his image with the public, keeping Hindenburg and Ludendorff out of OHL.
As a result there is no resumption of unrestricted submarine warfare, so the US doesn't enter the war and Entente loans run out when they run out of collateral in 1917. Congress doesn't authorize unsecured loans just as per OTL prior to the OTL DoW change of policy. The Entente starts to fall apart and decides to start to negotiate after the Russian Revolution in February and the failed French offensive in April.
Falkenhayn, being very interested in peace, pushes to accept the following peace:
Germany gets Luxembourg and some border modifications in the West, including Briey-Longwy. Belgium is nominally independent, but gives up Belgian Luxembourg. Germany owes no reparations. Germany loses its colonies, but receives some monetary compensation for their loss. In the East Germany gets to have what it occupies, including Lithuania, Poland, Courland, and Estland, which it sets up as puppet states (Congress Poland does not lose territory to Germany and is set up as a Kingdom under a Habsburg). A-H gets to control the core of Serbia, which is set up as a puppet state under the Obrenovics. The border with Italy goes back to the pre-war one. Bulgaria is enhanced by gains from Serbia. The Ottomans get their pre-war borders restored.
The war is over by July 1917.
Despite its losses, Germany is clearly the 'victor' in terms of its relative strength and gains compared to its enemies, though there are complaints from the far right about Falkenhayn getting a sour deal. A-H is badly weakened and unstable, with violence breaking out by 1918 in Hungary and Bohemia, which is suppressed with the pre-war political structure locked in under Kaiser Karl. The Young Turks are badly weakened politically by the damage done to the Empire, with nothing positive to show for their efforts.
Among the Allies the Italians have massive social unrest due to the major cost of the war without any gain. Britain is somewhat stable, as they gain some German colonies and defended Belgian neutrality, but haven't reduced the German navy and are in major debt from the war. France is a basket case due to the territorial losses (colonial gains are not a consolation) and human losses, not to mention huge debt. Germany is still a major threat to them and the leftist movements are very much in conflict with the right, who blames the 'traitorous left' for the unfavorable peace. Political violence is picking up in the wake of the war, as the economy is badly hurt by the destruction to the major industrial areas Germany captured during the war and the loss of some of the border iron mines Germany annexed. Even the nationalization of pre-war German owned mines in France doesn't help the national mood. Russia is locking in the Revolution under the provisional government and is struggling with the post-Czar political structure, especially as the nation has been upended in so many ways by the war. The Bolsheviks don't rise to prominence, so its still a Menshevik country.
This brings us to Germany; what is its culture going to look like here with having avoided the H-L dictatorship, having 'won' the war, but not in a clear way, being majorly in debt (mostly to itself), having the far right blame Falkenhayn (who once again becomes war minister) and the Kaiser/Bethmann-Holweg for the 'raw deal' that saw Germany not hold all its war gains at the peace and lose its colonies, plus have its only major ally A-H in the process of falling apart. The Ottomans are dropping out as an ally to try and hold the badly damaged country together, and Bulgaria isn't a necessarily reliable ally.
Politically the left has become militant during the war, while the 'moderates' under the Kaiser are both strengthened and weakened by the victory and rising extremism in the political scene due to the peace. The far right is rising in numbers in 1917, including in the aftermath of the war, as guys like Ludendorff are trying to gin up the nationalism of the middle class, which has taken an economic hit due to inflation during the war. Unemployment is rising once the war contracts end and taxes are kept up to pay for the war. International trade picks back up with the US, but other trade with its traditional partners (Russia being a major source of raw materials and purchaser of goods) is still badly disrupted, as a result of lingering hostilities from the war, lack of demand thanks to the Entente nations having industrialized more during the war, and political disruptions caused by the war/aftermath of the war. The US has also picked up some of Germany's pre-war trade with Latin America too.
So in the post war world Germany is dealing with occupations in the East (not nearly as bad as Brest-Litovsk and therefore manageable), political extremism, inflation (not anywhere near as bad as OTL), unemployment/lack of trade, debt, higher taxes, a huge population deficit (IIRC well over 1 million men dead by mid-1917), massive numbers of disabled veterans, major social upheaval from the war (women's empowerment, traditional social structures breaking down, economic woes), instability in Europe, and the effect of major demobilization on the economy and population. Generations of men have been brutalized in the trenches and even with the ego boost of 'winning', they are going to have major social trauma, especially as the political parties get their claws into them and spin their narratives about what the war meant.
How does German culture develop in this situation?