A year ago i made a thread about how to abort the Nazi takover after Hitler is appointed chancellor, and as the discussion went on a point that most people agreed was that he needed to be killed before the Reichstag fire. Let's say that this happens, he becomes the chancellor but a conspiracy by the opposition manages to poison Hitler and as time passed the Nazis lose their appeal and are removed from the government. How Hitler would be remembered in this scenario?
Had Hitler been killed in '33, how would be his legacy?
Guy who was chancellor for a few months and got offed by his opponents. Ideologically, remembered as an abscure footnote, sort of a less prominent version of Huey Long.
Would he be remembered as a aborted evil? Due the recordings of his inflammatory speeches? Maybe just like a German Mussolini?
If the Nazis keep themselves in power after that, they'd lionise him. Even if the Nazi regime fails, he'd be remembered positively in comparison to later Nazi leaders. If the Nazis start and lose a war, there'd possibly be a number of historians who'd think that Hitler's continued leadership would've helped avoid the war.
I'm pretty sure a German Chancellor would've been better known than just a state governor.
I think a lot of how he was remembered would depend on what government ultimately succeeded him. Reds? Alternate right-wing ultra-nationalists? A restored monarchy? A Weimar Republic that manages to survive? He'd be remembered differently in each scenario.
Not that much has happened until then, heck even if he was taken out in 1938 after Austrian Anschluss he would still be reguarded as a good Chancellor I would assume, to few horrors committed until then and his true face (for all that hadn't read his book by then) only came out of hiding once the war truely started, so ...
SsgtC
Banned
No, I seriously doubt that. Without the Nazis actually carrying out their insane plans, most people would have just assumed "that nobody was actually that crazy and that Hitler was just playing it up for the crowds and that he didn't actually mean a lot of what he said."
He would become a fascist version of Che Guevara or Lenin, remembered through rose tinted glasses as a great revolutionary who would've made Germany great "if only they had lived longer".
Rebellious students who wanted to feel radical and declare their opposition to the system (whatever sclerotic junta or von Papen-esque authoritarian takes hitler's place) might have swastika armbands and hitler t shirts instead of joining the red army faction or going through a communist phase in college.
If Nazi rule only lasted a few months, the swastika wouldn't be tainted by association to nazism and it would become a symbol of New Age spirituality instead of the peace sign. The more loony pagan spirituality and metaphysics of people like Julius Evola and Heinrich Himmler would've bled into or strongly influenced hippies in the '60s and '70s.
Rebellious students who wanted to feel radical and declare their opposition to the system (whatever sclerotic junta or von Papen-esque authoritarian takes hitler's place) might have swastika armbands and hitler t shirts instead of joining the red army faction or going through a communist phase in college.
If Nazi rule only lasted a few months, the swastika wouldn't be tainted by association to nazism and it would become a symbol of New Age spirituality instead of the peace sign. The more loony pagan spirituality and metaphysics of people like Julius Evola and Heinrich Himmler would've bled into or strongly influenced hippies in the '60s and '70s.
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The same way we remember Strasser or Röhm, if there's still a European war and it goes pretty much the same. There were plenty of paramilitary leaders ready to take the throne.
meh,he would have been chanchellor for a few months at the very best,even shorter than some other weimar chanchellors who are themselves utterly obscure figures. it very much wasn't a post that immortalized its owners by itself.
There are still more far people in Germany than Louisiana. A few Weimar chancellors are still remembered IOTL and Hitler would likely stand out as the furthest to the right of them all (unless, again, the Nazi regime continues after him) which would help him stand out in history books.
SsgtC
Banned
Not really. You're conflating OTL Hitler with ATL Hitler who got himself killed before he could do a damn thing. I doubt many would remember him at all.
People still remember Von Papen, Marx and Stresserman. Hitler would still be somewhat notable, if only as the first Austrian (I think) to hold the office.
SsgtC
Banned
That's not really notable though. That's Friday night trivia at the bar. And thinking about it, that's probably exactly how he'll be remembered. The answer to a trivia question
History Learner
Banned
Most likely in the aftermath Hindenburg calls out the Reichswehr to put down the SA as he threatened to do later on, meaning you'd probably get a traditional Rightist regime in Germany in the aftermath. That will certainly affect how Hitler is viewed.
If the Nazis get in power one way or another regardless, he'd be the German Corneliu Codreanu. Founder and charismatic leader of the country's extreme far-right movement who ended up killed before he could get into power and would thus be martyrized by his followers, to inspire similar far-right movements for decades after his demise.
If the Nazis don't get into power, he's a footnote outside of Germany and a Huey Long type figure in German history. A peculiar politician in a period of great instability who abused this instability and carried a radical program with him - his fate had he not been assassinated would be an interesting scenario for many.
If the Nazis don't get into power, he's a footnote outside of Germany and a Huey Long type figure in German history. A peculiar politician in a period of great instability who abused this instability and carried a radical program with him - his fate had he not been assassinated would be an interesting scenario for many.
This could mean civil war, though. Reichswehr is not the Wehrmacht in terms of strength and SA was considered unlikely to take their disarming lying down. And then there's a ton of wildcards - Reichsbanner, Rotfrontkämpferbund, Stahlhelm...
longsword14
Banned
Won't be much of a civil war. The Reichswehr did not have heavy armaments like other nations, but it was a real army, and if PvH gives them the greenlight...
An annoying little shit who was shoved into the Chancellor spot presumably to get rid of him, kind of like what they did to TR only that didn’t work either. Depending on his cause of death, he may be remembered as a colossal moron as well, like of like WH Harrison forgetting the coat and getting pneumonia.