Hitler dies after Prague and Memel, but before Poland?

deanna

Banned
What happens if Hitler dies (accident, murder, natural causes, take your pick) just after he takes control of Memel from the Lithuanians in 1939?

What will Germany and Europe... and the world... look like in 5, 10, 20 years after this?
 
Presumably the Nazis would descend into some sort of succession crisis over who gets to be the new leader, which would distract from further expansion. The opposition that was almost dead and drive into the underground would take it as a sign to renew their struggle and countries like the UK and France would hope that now war could be avoided.

If the search for a new leader in Germany takes up enough time. Russia may decide to take a chance to expand westward without a treaty with the Nazis.

If Russia invades Poland first, whoever is in charge of Germany at that point may decided to "come to Poland's aid" or simply to protect Germans in Polish territory by moving the armed forces into the country.

While the experience on the ground would not be too difference for the Poles in this timeline, the circumstance might give the worlds leaders who want to avoid another war the excuse they need not to declare war with Germany.

Pro Nazi groups around the world would see Germany fighting against the communists as a good thing and drum up support for Germany on that basis.

This may end up with a WWII fought between the western powers and the communist with Germany on the side of the allies.

Such thing like the persecution of Jews, Homosexual, Gypsies, Communists etc might easily be tolerated or seen as a not so bad thing by many allies, especially if it slightly more 'moderated' than in OTL.

Propaganda would try to cover up human rights abuses and mass murder in Germany and focus on what happens in Russia.

Things may end up going quite horrible.
 
Germany likely would have experienced serious economic problems if WW2 hadn't happened. Around '37 or so the government faced a choice between returning to foreign trade and pursuing informal economic domination of central and eastern Europe, or going all-in for rearmament and great power war. Hjalmar Schacht resigned as Economics Minister in '37 over this issue when he had basically been replaced by Goering, a Hitler sycophant with little economics background. Hitler also dismissed Schacht from the Presidency of the Reichsbank in 1939.

With Hitler gone, I'd predict massive inflation or a rise in black market activity that might be cracked down on by the Gestapo. Germany tried to avoid the demand-pull inflation that can come with massive government spending through wage and price controls, but those would only work for so long without a war economy to suppress consumer demand.

The Nazis might fall from power due to a combination of hyperinflation and a succession crisis after Hitler's death that fractures the NSDAP elite. Any militarists and non-Nazi nationalists left in positions of an influence might boot the Nazis out of power and create a military dictatorship. The closest OTL example to this is similar the Romanian establishments's attempts to co-opt the Iron Guard and use its popular support, followed by Antonescu's crackdown on them in after an attempted Guardist coup in early '41.

A less harsh authoritarian regime authoritarian government like the Sanacja government in Poland or the royal dictatorships in southeastern Europe was the common form of government at the time. It would be interesting to see Central and Eastern European politics without WW2 and communism, there could be a long period of stable authoritarianism like Franco or Salazar's governments, or a revolving door of military coups and elected leaders like in Thailand and parts of Latin America.

If Germany's really lucky, the right-wing authoritarians would fall from power and something resembling democracy could take its place. If the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Acts are repealed by whoever succeeds Hitler, there is a legal basis to return to the Weimar Constitution.
 
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