I disagree. It was when Hitler annexed rump Czechia. At that point it was proven he was completely unreliable and you can not trust any diplomatic agreement made with him.31 August 1939
Halifax cabled Ambassador Nevile Henderson in Berlin and told him to deliver an ultimatum to Ribbentrop at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 3. Ribbentrop scornfully let it be known that he would not be “available” but that Henderson could deliver his message to the departmental interpreter, Paul Schmidt. As it happened, Schmidt overslept that morning, arrived by taxi to see Henderson already climbing the steps of the Foreign Ministry, and slipped in a side door just in time to receive him at 9. Henderson stood and read aloud his message, declaring that unless Britain were assured of an end to the Polish invasion within two hours, “a state of war will exist between the two countries.”
Schmidt dutifully took the British ultimatum to Hitler’s Chancellery, where he found the Fuhrer at his desk and the “unavailable” Ribbentrop standing at a nearby window. Schmidt translated the ultimatum aloud. “When I finished, there was complete silence,” he recalled. “Hitler sat immobile, gazing before him.
After an interval which seemed an age, he turned to Ribbentrop, who had remained standing by the window. 'What now?' asked Hitler with a savage look, as though implying that his Foreign Minister had misled him about England's probable reaction. Ribbentrop answered quietly: 'I assume that the French will hand in a similar ultimatum within the hour.'
As my duty was now performed, I withdrew. To those in the anteroom pressing round me I said: 'The English have just handed us an ultimatum. In two hours a state of war will exist between England and Germany.' In the anteroom, too, this news was followed by complete silence.
Goering turned to me and said: 'If we lose this war, then God have mercy on us!' Goebbels stood in a corner, downcast and self-absorbed. Everywhere in the room I saw looks of grave concern, even amongst the lesser Party people."
For Britain, Free France and the USA, anytime before January 14 1943, that's when the Casablanca Conference started, which officially locked in the Western Allies' policy of not accepting any separate peaces nor any conditional surrenders. Though, fun fact, the Soviet Union did not attend the Conference, so they were technically exempt from this rule, though I doubt Stalin would accept any conditional surrenders from the Nazis, if he valued his own position as leader of the Soviet Union.
For Britain, Free France and the USA, anytime before January 14 1943, that's when the Casablanca Conference started, which officially locked in the Western Allies' policy of not accepting any separate peaces nor any conditional surrenders.
But Stalin may well have accepted conditional surrender from a non Nazi German government. The terms would undoubtedly be punitive for Germany and therefore very unlikely to be accepted by such German government.
The Casablanca conference merely made unconditional surrender de-jure policy. In terms of de-facto policy, it had already been that way for quite awhile.
They would've had to be. If Stalin accepted anything less, there would've been a power play against him in the Soviet government. At the Tehran Conference, he threatened to make peace with Hitler if there was no second front against the Nazis, but given what I just said, that was most likely a empty threat.
For Britain and Free France, maybe, but I think the Nazis could've gotten a separate peace from the USA. Though, it would've been better had Hitler used common sense in December 1941.
Although even peace with Britain would not necessarily mean an end to hostility from Britain.
The problem is that Hitler could absolutely not be relied upon in the diplomatic arena. The man never saw a treaty he didn't break. Any "peace" with Hitler is just a fancy way of saying "We will be at war in a few years, just not now".
I can see a universe where the Germans just take the territories full of ethnic germans and go home, with reppercusions being limited to big grudges and maybe a few local european wars, but not under Hitler.
You have to get Russia out of the war
Have Germany capture the BEF followed by a better Barbarossa to make peace with Russia then it done... Western Allies will not pay the millions dead from UK and USA (if they even in it at that point)
The major problem with trying to talk about this stuff is the number of delusional clueless types on the internet who just talk out of their ass.
In 1939, the British cabinet knew three things.
The bomber would always get through.
Gas would be used in the next war.
And Hitler needed to be stopped.
Thing one and thing to means, if they went to war, hundreds of thousands to millions of civilian deaths to gas - and the British cabinet of 1939 had been through the last war, had seen gas and knew what it meant.
Thus evacuation, mass issue of gas masks to civilians and so on.
And they declared war on Hitler anyway, over Danzig.
Anyone willing to do that isn't worried by the mere loss of some of the British Army in France.
But we still get delusional clueless types on the internet who vomit forth crap about the British surrendering.
I never said they would surrender.
I just don't believe they would be willing to send millions to their death to retake France and occupy Germany.
One thing everyone seems to be missing, the OP said Germany, not necessarily the Nazis.