I don't know, German Revanchism seems pretty inevitable after Versailles was signed.
Well, certainly everybody hated Versailles, but there was a large group of people advocating a policy of reconciliation with the Anglo-French Entente allowing Germany toc over its back and settle its scores in central Europe. This may lead to an altogether unrecognisable WW2, or none at all. For a superb timeline on this premise, check out "Holding Out For a Hero" buy Faeelin.[/marketing]
Actually it's questionable if WWII would happen at all, but if it did, I'm pretty certain that Germany wouldn't be able to organize it's self properly to Blitzkrieg the nations of Europe. I imagine it would be a lot similar to WWI, maybe with the exception of Poland getting occupied by the Germans before a failed invasion of France...
*goes to write a timeline*
If the (sane) Germans can occupy Poland, they've pretty much won, since rather than forcing it into exile before waging total war against the Ententte, they can just signa harsh peace with it. Now what are Britain and France actually fighting for? This was a great many people in the Entente favoured ditching Poland. The reason we eventually stuck up from them despite their being a lot more unsavoury than CZS and Germany's grievances being more valid was that he had to stop the Nazis.
I don't really know how you can apply a "Butterfly trap", so I won't.
It's hwne we limit butterflies, such as "America is the same until 1492" (a very common one) or in this case "one less German has no effect on the course of the war and the treaty".
Basically, no Hitler, no Nazi Germany. Could a worse regime arise? Yes, although you really can't get much worse than Hitler's Germany.
You just contradicted yourself.
A bad regime WILL arise. IOTL, unlike the myth that Hitler was a dumb brute, he was actually VERY eloquent. Those that closely knew him remarked at how cultured he was. That doesn't take away from his evil, in fact, it makes his evil feel even more evil. The other myth is that he somehow "fooled" the German people. No, that is false. By and large, the average German believed much of what he said. While many Germans were nowhere near Hitler's level of evilness, they definately were inspired by him, and had no problem helping his rise to power.
So basically, an evil regime will arise, but will it be as brutal as the Nazis? Possibly, but that would be quite hard to match Hitler's actions.
SIIIIIIGH.
As an honorary member of the Germans, I think i'm untitled to blow my top at this moment in time:
VE'LL SCHOW HYU EN EEFFIL REGIME! HA!
We all know perfectly well about Hitler's dark charisma, one of the many reasons why, by an absurd series of flukes, his madmen came to power. Now, the German people (and remember that most of them would fall into the "not agains, not an active zealot" category) wanted somebody to make their nation great again and to restore their economy. To shamelessly plug Faeelin again, they might under slightly changed circumstances gotten Gustav Stresemann to do those things for them. But nobody in Germany outside the inner Nazi cabal considered exterminating the Jews and launching a war of national suicide to be electoral issues.
I suppose it's possible that, without Hitler, a Röhm-Strasser coalition of right-wing paramilitary groups could have taken over Germany. Not democratically of course, but in a bloody coup.
A Röhm regime, though, would in all likelihood be beset with corruption and incompetence. He probably would have tried to purge the military, like Stalin, and make his Brownshirts the official German army. This would probably lead Germany to a pathetic defeat against Poland or France or the Czechs or whoever they would but heads with.
No Hitler: no SA: Roehm is probably in Bolivia.
Hitler was not really that unique, there were plenty of disgruntled right-wing veterans in post-war Germany. And some of them are bound to be charismatic and crazy...
Well, we can just have some guy called Albrecht Heidler come to power an not change anything, but why would we waste a perfectly good PoD?
Victory against who? Because without Hitler, the Germans probably would have re-armed for a match against France and Britain instead of focusing on Poland. What's the situation here? If Lebensraum isn't an issue, Germany may never turn East and take on the Soviets.
No, no, no! This is precisely not the case! Even Liberals and socialists in interbellum Germany were not exactly keen on Poland. Germany had very real issues to settle with Poland such as Danzig. The whole point of pre-Hitlerian foreign policy was reconciliation west, re-assertion east. Some people act asthough failing to guarantee the Polish frontier in Locarno was a mistake or flaw: no, it was the
whole point!
Without Adolf Hitler the small Deutscher Arbeiter Partie continues to be a discussions group for bitter, right-wing war veterans. In Germany there were hundreds of these parties/clubs - but nowhere did The Leader show up to take the power (just as IOTL, but without Hitler).
Without a Hitler and his NSDAP people like Göring, Himmler, Röhm and Speer never leave their professions and become "politicians" or involved with politics. Butterfly away!
For Germany it would mean misery, revanchism, social strife, left-wing extremism, a lot of bitter veterans and millions of germans abroad - just as OTL. But without Hitler and NSDAP I predict that
a) the potential nazis would on a individual basis join/support the classical conservative/nationalist parties and with time mellow/drink themself to death/lose interest in politics
b) the parliament wouldn't be blocked with two extremist parties that both had an interest in overthrowing Weimar Germany, which would make the politicians work easier
c) The communists would still be strong and dangerous, but without a Nazi parti as "perfect opponents" less attractive and dangerous. Weimar Germany would still have Reichwehr and the freikorps (which were separate from the Nazi movement) that had crushed communistic revolts earlier and would do it again.
Weimar democracy would probably survive. No one in power had any real interest in creating a dictatorship, if only because on one was strong enough to be certain to be the winner.
Based on above a Germany without Hitler would not start WW2. Sometimes during the early 30s the Versailles treaty would be renegotiated. The german citizen as well as government would be revanchistic, but just as France and UK during OTL 30s afraid of a new, bloody war. So Germany wouldn't begin WW2.
That doesn't say that Japan, Soviet Union, Italy or someone else starts WW2 - but it would be a very different WW2.
Congratulations! We are honoured to present you with the Knight's Cross of the AH Cross with Pens and Oak Leaves as a reward for being the only one here who seems to know what he's talking about!