Germany Without Hitler: Red Germany

Almost none. OTL, the KPD never came close to winning a plurality in any Weimar election; the SPD was always far larger. This was true even in the depths of the Depression.

Now, subtract Hitler, and that breaks up the NSDAP. There will still be fascism in Germany - possibly a fascist party led by Röhm. It won't be as successful as the NSDAP, and that may result in some radicals joining or staying with the Communists instead. (The NSDAP and especially the SA attracted many of the same people as the KPD - disaffected youth looking for dramatic change.) That might put the KPD up a notch, to parity with the SPD, but still far from gaining power.

It's an odd fact, but the terrible economic conditions of the Great Depression did very little to advance Communist political fortunes. The CPUSA remained negligible; Britain voted for the Conservatives; Germany and Italy were fascist; Japan was ultra-militarist. The Communists were junior partners in the French and Spanish popular fronts.
 

Anchises

Banned
What are the odds of Germany going Communist in the 1930s without Hitler?

With Hitler: 0,5%
Without him: 0,5%

Best case scenario for the KPD is continued existence as a moderately successful clientele party, worst case is Nazi Germany treatment of the KPD. And even if the Reichswehr+DNVP takeover, the treatment of Communists won't be much better than what Hitler did.
 
It's an odd fact, but the terrible economic conditions of the Great Depression did very little to advance Communist political fortunes. The CPUSA remained negligible; Britain voted for the Conservatives; Germany and Italy were fascist; Japan was ultra-militarist. The Communists were junior partners in the French and Spanish popular fronts.

I'd like to add that had more to do with fears of Russo-Soviet domination rather than communism
 
The German people hated Communism. They saw what it almost did to Germany just after World War I and they saw what it was doing to the Soviet Union just two countries over. No Germans in their right mind, not on a large scale anyway, would ever vote for the Communist Party.

My guess is that Germany would continue to move along as a moderately stable, but somewhat chaotic, democracy, subordinate to the larger powers of Europe like Britain and France.
 
By the 1930s it's too late for a Communist government to take power in Germany through either democratic or revolutionary means regardless of who's in power. The 1919 revolutions are the latest I can see a successful Communist uprising, maybe if the Spartacus League's uprising either succeeded or Luxemburg managed to make it to Bavaria after it went south as opposed to being assassinated and helped the communists there take and hold power. Any other scenario either sees the Communists play second fiddle to the SPD or to get crushed by the German Army. You want a Communist Germany, you save the Spartacus League and you prevent the Bavarian Communists from splitting into two camps, any other scenario after the failed revolution of 1919 leads to more of the same.
 
I think that while there could be a Communist Germany (and considering the GDR there was) it would have to occur following WW1, not during the 1930's.
 
As others have pointed out, 1918/19 is a much better moment.
The reddest Germany could get in the 1930s without Hitler would be with really good charisma and a lot of luck somewhere between 20 and 25 % for the KPD and yet the same for the SPD, if austerity politicians like Brüning and others like him are seen as utterly economically discredited, and news about FDR's New Deal in the US begin to spread, so possibly rather later in the 1930s. But the problem is Moscow's doctrine telling them to stay away from coalitions with social democrats. The Komintern only adopted the Popular Front strategy after they saw what happened in Nazi Germany. Without Nazi takeover, communists may not even join coalitions in France or Spain, either. If Moscow orders to stay away, but an independent-minded German KPD leader enters a coalition with the SPD anyway, then a split is likely, which would cost them their (likely feeble) majority again.
So, long story short: probably no chance of communists in power in Germany if your PoD is "No Hitler".
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
Donor
For Germany to become Communist you need the post WW1 revolutions to succeed. By the 30s the Social Democrats are the stronger left wing movement.
 
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