Suppose that in 1918, Adolf Hitler had been killed by shrapnel in WWI. Without Hitler as their leader, would the Nazis have come to power in Germany? How much of their success was driven by Hitler's force of personality? Would the Weimar Republic still have fallen? With Hitler dead, but with the Nazis still active in post-war Germany, would WWII and the Holocaust have happened but under a different leader?
Hitler Dies in WWI - Effects on Weimar Germany and WWII?
- Thread starter Amadeus
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It could have been very different. There were parts of East German communism, like the Anti-Zionist Bridge which was both anti-semitic and genocidal. Lets say, the communists take over in Germany with a charismatic figure from the bridge faction and the bridge allies with Stalin. Stalin and Germany act together to conquer Europe. Instead of concentration camps, there are large scale pogroms, forced labor, and mass executions of undesirables. The soviet union is much bigger and more advanced after the conquest of Europe. It also faces east threatening the Empire of Japan which formed a truce with the United States after the fall of France. There was no Pearl Harbor and China and large parts of Asia have been conquered by the Empire of Japan. World War II did not happen in the same way. The United Kingdom stands alone. alone.
Germany could have been Red if the Weimar republic fell apart. Communism and nazism fought each other for control. Communism was a major party in the Weimar Republic.
Germany could have been Red if the Weimar republic fell apart. Communism and nazism fought each other for control. Communism was a major party in the Weimar Republic.
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I'm not sure that Hitler's death would mean that Germany goes communist. There was a widespread fear of communism in Germany and I could see a different right-wing figure becoming Chancellor instead.
Hitler's death in World War I would essentially butterfly the NSDAP's rise to power. Another figure would simply not have had the oratorical talent or the ability to attract the organizers necessary to build a formidable apparatus for the party, and - very importantly - might not have had the ability to present himself to German "traditional" right-wing circles as the only figure with the popular support needed to bridge the power vacuum in the Weimar Republic and restore Germany for what it once was; and that's not even mentioning whether a similar figure would have been able to subsequently destroy the power of the traditional Right and consolidate complete power over Germany.
The likely alternative to Hitler is a military dictatorship - one similar to the wartime one, and led by traditional right-wing figures. This was the path the WR was going in with or without Hitler; the state was far from a liberal democracy (I mean, Hitler's "trial" after attempting to overthrow the government in 1923 tells quite a bit about the Weimar Republic's political system). I am doubtful whether someone else would have pursued German expansionism over Europe so aggressively, though I think it is more than likely that this new state would focus quite a bit on recovering German territory in Poland and perhaps annexing Austria. A Holocaust is less likely without the Nazis' racial theories, but the traditional Right of Germany had a far from positive view of Jews (see, for instance, the 1916 census designed to blame Jews for being "disloyal.")
The likely alternative to Hitler is a military dictatorship - one similar to the wartime one, and led by traditional right-wing figures. This was the path the WR was going in with or without Hitler; the state was far from a liberal democracy (I mean, Hitler's "trial" after attempting to overthrow the government in 1923 tells quite a bit about the Weimar Republic's political system). I am doubtful whether someone else would have pursued German expansionism over Europe so aggressively, though I think it is more than likely that this new state would focus quite a bit on recovering German territory in Poland and perhaps annexing Austria. A Holocaust is less likely without the Nazis' racial theories, but the traditional Right of Germany had a far from positive view of Jews (see, for instance, the 1916 census designed to blame Jews for being "disloyal.")
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Maybe by 1937/38 you would see a right-wing military dictatorship that eventually goes to war over Poland, but is less interested in attacking the Soviet Union.
I am not sure it would happen as early as this; IIRC quite a few German military officers were uneasy about the prospect of going to war in 1939 while Germany had only recently begun rearmament and doubted their chances in such a war.
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Even ignoring the fact that it is very unlikely for the Weimar Republic to fall to the KPD or any similar communist revolutionary party at this point, I don't really see the connection with anti-semitism that you're trying to draw? I understand the Doctor's Plot and Stalin's antisemitism + paranoia towards Jews in the Soviet apparatus towards the end of his life, relating to the indecisive Soviet position towards Israel and Zionism, but as far as I understand it, the Anti-Zionist Bridge was a position of the SED in the 1960s towards the Israeli-Arab conflicts and the Israel-Palestine issue. I don't really understand what you mean by 'the Bridge faction' in the KPD of Weimar, before the state of Israel was a concrete reality. And how does it follow that the KPD becomes the vehicle for anti-semitism (a staple of the German right by this point, with exceptions naturally) and the Soviets veer towards mass pogroms throughout Europe? It kinda just feels like a 'Red Hitler' shoehorn for the sake of it.
The most likely scenarios in this instance are that Weimar limps on, or some sort of paternalistic autocratic regime arises in Germany (perhaps a sort of Querfront like the one Kurt von Schleicher proposed to govern)
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The butterflies flapping from Hitler's death make it so that Gustav Stresemann doesn't get his stroke and survives to lead the Weimar Republic into (relative) prosperity and beyond.
Aka, this TL (https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-for-a-hero-gustav-stresemann-survives.89874/)
Aka, this TL (https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...-for-a-hero-gustav-stresemann-survives.89874/)
Several feasible outcomes noted above and no doubt many others could be mentioned.
I don't think we can state with any confidence what "would have happened" or even what is the most likely outcome. But all are interesting PODs to develop a TL for a very different world by 1950.
How about a right-wing Germany post Great Depression allied with the Britidh Empire against the Communist menace to which France and Italy have succumbed? Or against an aggressive (rather than isolationist) US?
I don't think we can state with any confidence what "would have happened" or even what is the most likely outcome. But all are interesting PODs to develop a TL for a very different world by 1950.
How about a right-wing Germany post Great Depression allied with the Britidh Empire against the Communist menace to which France and Italy have succumbed? Or against an aggressive (rather than isolationist) US?