Hitler serves on the Russian Front WW1

Commissar

Banned
Same ideal as the other thread just a different place.

Hitler finds himself up against Russians and fighting alongside Poles, Austrians, Hungarians, and Ukrainians.

Hitler distinguishes himself and rises to Feldwebel and earns his Iron Cross First Class.

Will Hitler learn to treat Russia with respect or will this just confirm his views of them?
 
Hitler finds himself up against Russians and fighting alongside Poles, Austrians, Hungarians, and Ukrainians.

My knowledge of WWI is pretty shallow but would he really be fighting alongside so many nationalities, last time I checked even in the KuK it was ethnic-based units?
 

Deleted member 1487

Yes, he could. Perhaps in the Süd Armee, which was an amalgamation of German and Austro-Hungarian units. The Austrians had a bad policy of intermingling various nationalities in units and having them led by Austrians officers. There are stories (not sure if apocryphal) that some units had 16 different languages that prevented communication except in the only common language...English. This is going to be hard to get Hitler to serve near the Austrians because he was in the Bavarian army. They only served on the Western Front, so he would need to move to somewhere else than Munich before the war. The only problem with that is he is Austrian and probably only felt comfortable in a place where people sounded like him.

Assuming the stars align and he does find himself in a similar situation to the OP, he is likely to have his opinion of Austria-Hungary reinforced. He hated the empire and skipped the country to avoid the draft. The shoddy performance of the Austrian army on the Eastern Front only would confirm his opinion of his former home. Although, he might find that the Russians are not nearly as degenerate as he thought the Slavs were. Of course, who know? The German impression of the Eastern peoples was shaped by their experience in WW1 and seeing the abject poverty and filth that the people lived in (caused by the Russian policy of scorched earth, not their pre-war conditions), they viewed the East as the Americans viewed the West during Manifest Destiny: a place to conquer and civilize with their superior Kultur of work.

So I don't think Hitler's perception of the world would change much, but he very well could gain respect for the Russian's fighting abilities. I don't know how that would translate to his conducting the war in the East for WW2, so I'll leave that open to speculation.
 

J.D.Ward

Donor
There are stories (not sure if apocryphal) that some units had 16 different languages that prevented communication except in the only common language...English.

I assume that you mean German, not English.

"What POD has the WWI Austrian Army using English as the language of command?" might produce an interesting (although probably ASB) timeline, but is not relevant to the question here.
 

Deleted member 1487

I assume that you mean German, not English.

"What POD has the WWI Austrian Army using English as the language of command?" might produce an interesting (although probably ASB) timeline, but is not relevant to the question here.


No, I meant English. That was an extreme example of the mix up in communications that the Austrian structure of command created.
 
He's probably less likely to be gassed here, that could change his views on things. If you want to be a huge stickler it also means that he probably isn't going to be asked to look in on the nazis, and that changes everything, but could make for a dull thread.
 

wormyguy

Banned
Any pre-1919 POD means that Hitler likely never meets up with the members of a tiny little eccentric socialist party called the DAP.
 
I was reading an article published by the US Staff college which covered the way that the German army was capable of changing the defensive/offensive doctrines during the first world war in a way that the Western allies were not. In one of the notes at the end of the paper, the author states the following:

'A question for further study is how much a certain soldier in a Bavarian unit at the Somme, Adolf Hitler, was influenced by the "hold to the last man" defense orders of 1916, and whether Hitler ever realized that the defenses of 1917 were more flexible.'

With this in mind, you might say that the infamous 'To the last man and bullet orders' might not be issued in WWII. I think that his pre-occupation with Eastern Europe might well be even greater that in OTL as that was where he served in this TL.
 
I was reading an article published by the US Staff college which covered the way that the German army was capable of changing the defensive/offensive doctrines during the first world war in a way that the Western allies were not. In one of the notes at the end of the paper, the author states the following:

'A question for further study is how much a certain soldier in a Bavarian unit at the Somme, Adolf Hitler, was influenced by the "hold to the last man" defense orders of 1916, and whether Hitler ever realized that the defenses of 1917 were more flexible.'

With this in mind, you might say that the infamous 'To the last man and bullet orders' might not be issued in WWII. I think that his pre-occupation with Eastern Europe might well be even greater that in OTL as that was where he served in this TL.

Having not experienced the "hold to the last man" and basically continuous advance from 1915-1917 me may well feel (should he assume a position in TTL as he did in OTL) that the army should always just be advancing in the east - which could end up having a similar effect as inflexible defence (basically "no retreat" instead of "hold to the last man").
 
This is going to be hard to get Hitler to serve near the Austrians because he was in the Bavarian army. They only served on the Western Front, so he would need to move to somewhere else than Munich before the war. The only problem with that is he is Austrian and probably only felt comfortable in a place where people sounded like him.

Well, it could have happened...suppose that in January 1914, he was tipped off somehow that the Bavarian authorities were about to arrest him and turn him back over to the Austrians for conscription. He might flee Munich into another German state whose troops served in the East.
 
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