Germania Victoria - The Triumph of Ludwig Sternberg

Extracted from 1933: The World Changes
The election of Ludwig Sternberg, leader of the Große Deutsch Nationalist Partei (GDNP), as Chancellor in 1933 proved to be one of the seminal events in world history. But before we discuss those elections, we must first discuss Mr. Sternberg's own character. He was tall, blond-haired, blue-eyed. He was a great orator, intensely patriotic and nationalistic but not easily given to racial hatreds. The only thing he cared about was patriotism and willingness 'to make Germany...a greater and better country'. He liked to present himself as Germany's saviour, and indeed, many saw him as a hope against the scourge of Communism, ironic given that he would later ally himself with the Soviet Union.

He was from Prussian stock and had fought as a Colonel in the Great War - he liked to present this 'war hero' aspect as a publicity technique. Indeed, he was a master of what later people would call 'spin'. He had written a manifesto of his general aims in 1920, just a year after the Treaty of Versailles, entitled
Deutschland den Krieg - Germany's War.

He was, in general, a skilled politician.

We must also discuss the historical background. With the brief existence of the Bavarian
Räterepublik and the Nazi Munich Coup (the Nazis disintegrated into a number of warring fringe far-right factions (which were eventually banned) after their leader died in the attempted Coup), Germany was in a precarious position. Ludwig was exactly what the Germans needed, a strong leader.

The elections showed a landslide victory for Hindenburg and Sternberg, as the records of the Greater German Republic show. With Hindenburg's death in late 1933, and with no suitable replacement, Sternberg decided, somewhat unwillingly (as his diaries attest), to take the President's power into his own hands and become both ranks in one
(Präsident und Reichskanzler) of Weimar Germany. A plebiscite was held, and this was accepted by the population. Elections for the new Präsident und Reichskanzler were to be held in 1940, but owing to the state of war at that time they were not held till the war's end in 1947, during which time Sternberg was essentially a supreme dictator.

He was to lead Germany's people to grand new heights.

 
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Well, not much to comment on, yet. All we know so far is that this "Ludwig Sternberg" apparently replaced Hitler (who was killed in the attempted Munich coup), and from one off-handed comment managed to lead Germany successfully through a war that lasted from '40 (or earlier) to '47.

- Kelenas
 
One BIG Mistake: Pardon my Deutches. but anyone except Hitler using the Title of Fuhrer is techically an ASB, that was Hitler personal invention, any another strongmen will keep both separate title(Prasident und Kanzler) or creat a new unify title besides Fuhrer(i don't know german, for that i can't help you)

Anyway...
 
One BIG Mistake: Pardon my Deutches. but anyone except Hitler using the Title of Fuhrer is techically an ASB, that was Hitler personal invention, any another strongmen will keep both separate title(Prasident und Kanzler) or creat a new unify title besides Fuhrer(i don't know german, for that i can't help you)

Anyway...

Why not let Sternberg put Louis Ferdinand von Hohenzollern on the throne as a figurehead and he can be an all powerful Kanzler?
 
One BIG Mistake: Pardon my Deutches. but anyone except Hitler using the Title of Fuhrer is techically an ASB, that was Hitler personal invention, any another strongmen will keep both separate title(Prasident und Kanzler) or creat a new unify title besides Fuhrer(i don't know german, for that i can't help you)

Anyway...

I've changed it to combining the titles.
 
One BIG Mistake: Pardon my Deutches. but anyone except Hitler using the Title of Fuhrer is techically an ASB, that was Hitler personal invention, any another strongmen will keep both separate title(Prasident und Kanzler) or creat a new unify title besides Fuhrer(i don't know german, for that i can't help you)

I agree that combining the titles would be more realistic - but it's not ASB to let anyone but Hatlier have the title "Führer". Führer is a common German word still used today meaning "leader" or "guide", in fact the perfect German translation of the Italian "Duce". So it's not necessarily Hitler's "invention", nor is it that uncommon to have noone ever thinking of this as the title of an omnipotent non-monarchic state leader.
 
Combining the positions into one ~(as opposed to having one man hold both) would require a complete rewriting of the constitution - not impossible, but it would certainly be a major event

Best Regards
Grey Wolf
 

Hendryk

Banned
IMHO you're overplaying the parallels with Hitler. Also, even to my rusty German, the title of the book seems incorrect.
He had written a manifesto of his general aims in 1920, just a year after the Treaty of Versailles, entitled [/FONT][/SIZE]Deutschland den Krieg - Germany's War.

You might be safer using a figure from OTL, even a little-known one, rather than making up your main character out of whole cloth.
 

Susano

Banned
But OTL there was a Deutsche Nationalpartei, so it'd be more logical.

Nö. There was the Deutschnationale Volkspartei, but Großdeutschnational would of course simply be silly :p
/E: Okay, Wiki says there was a DNP in the Sudetenland, and one in A-H. Ah well.
 
[draft]

1934

Ludwig Sternberg was busy, very busy indeed. So, he was surprised when the manb walked in, saying that somebody wanted to see him.

'Who is it?' he asked.

'Albert Einstein.'
 
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