FDR's original plan for Germany after World War II was for the nation to outright cease to exist, and instead be divided into a multitude of smaller states like Bavaria, Saxony, Berlin, Prussia, North Rhine-Westphalia etc., while being forbidden by the international community from ever unifying again. This set up would look similar to the Holy Roman Empire, but not quite as convoluted and messy. A good comparison is the Balkans that were former areas of Yugoslavia.
This may sound cruel, and indeed, it is pretty harsh all things considered, but it's important to remember the context: This was during World War II, when Germany had been taken over by the Nazis, and slaughtered countless millions from soldiers to civilians, promoted their own hateful ideology of National Socialism, while forcing their enemies to take part in years of horrific bloodshed to defeat them. Plus, the previous World War was also led by Germany, and while Imperial Germany isn't the same as Nazi Germany, that still did a lot to harbor resentment for the them as a nation. In short, people around the world had had enough of Germany, so the idea of dissolving the nation into a multitude of smaller, weaker states was very appealing as an idea.
In our timeline, Germany would be occupied by the three main Allies who defeated them and France (zing!), before being formed into two different nations after a long and often contentious process, into capitalist West Germany and communist East Germany. The divided nation with the divided capital Berlin was one of the major focal points of the Cold War, to the point where the tearing down of the Berlin Wall was considered the end of that era.
Beyond that, the divided Germany was held as the perfect example of the superiority of constitutional democracy: West Germany would rebuild and become a true economic powerhouse of its own and was a new start for the German people, while East Germany was a terrifying police state that embodied what many considered everything bad about communism. It was kind of like the comparison between South Korea and North Korea in more recent times.
But what if FDR's plan actually went into effect, and instead Germany as a nation was dissolved into multiple smaller, weaker states? Germany as a nation dies, and the nation many German peoples dreamed of for centuries ends in disgrace. There is no division of Germany and Berlin into two parts each, just a cessation of the unified country as the ultimate punishment by the Allies.
What happens in such a timeline?
This may sound cruel, and indeed, it is pretty harsh all things considered, but it's important to remember the context: This was during World War II, when Germany had been taken over by the Nazis, and slaughtered countless millions from soldiers to civilians, promoted their own hateful ideology of National Socialism, while forcing their enemies to take part in years of horrific bloodshed to defeat them. Plus, the previous World War was also led by Germany, and while Imperial Germany isn't the same as Nazi Germany, that still did a lot to harbor resentment for the them as a nation. In short, people around the world had had enough of Germany, so the idea of dissolving the nation into a multitude of smaller, weaker states was very appealing as an idea.
In our timeline, Germany would be occupied by the three main Allies who defeated them and France (zing!), before being formed into two different nations after a long and often contentious process, into capitalist West Germany and communist East Germany. The divided nation with the divided capital Berlin was one of the major focal points of the Cold War, to the point where the tearing down of the Berlin Wall was considered the end of that era.
Beyond that, the divided Germany was held as the perfect example of the superiority of constitutional democracy: West Germany would rebuild and become a true economic powerhouse of its own and was a new start for the German people, while East Germany was a terrifying police state that embodied what many considered everything bad about communism. It was kind of like the comparison between South Korea and North Korea in more recent times.
But what if FDR's plan actually went into effect, and instead Germany as a nation was dissolved into multiple smaller, weaker states? Germany as a nation dies, and the nation many German peoples dreamed of for centuries ends in disgrace. There is no division of Germany and Berlin into two parts each, just a cessation of the unified country as the ultimate punishment by the Allies.
What happens in such a timeline?
