Apart from the nazis and the communists, there was a third group wanting to create a totalitarian state in Germany, the army. From the 1920s on, basing themselves on fascist italy and on the soviet union, some figures on the reichswehr, especially Werner Von Blomberg developed such a idea, and to quote from wikipedia
"In 1928, Blomberg visited the Soviet Union, where he was much impressed by the high status of the Red Army, and left as a convinced believer in the value of totalitarian dictatorship as the prerequisite for military power.
This was part of a broader shift on the part of the German military to the idea of a totalitarian Wehrstaat (Defence State) which, starting in the mid-1920s, had become popular with officers. The German historian Eberhard Kolb wrote that: "...from the mid-1920s onwards the Army leaders had developed and propagated new social conceptions of a militarist kind, tending towards a fusion of the military and civilian sectors and ultimately a totalitarian military state (Wehrstaat)"
and
"Blomberg's visit to the Soviet Union in 1928 had the effect of confirming his views about totalitarian powers being the greatest military powers. Blomberg believed the next world war, like the previous one, would become a total war, requiring the full mobilisation of German society and economy by the state, and that a totalitarian state would be most apt for effectively preparing society militarily and economically for war in peacetime. "
So, different from the nazis that supported a economic oligarchy controlled indirectly by the NSDAP, the Reichswehr wanted to control the whole economy on totalitarian levels and convert everything to war setting, even more than hitler did. Let's say that Hitler refuses to purge the SA for some reason, and so the wehrmacht removes him and then removes Hindenburg and creates a totalitarian dictatorship based on the Wehrstaat concept. How poorly germany goes? Does the economy implode before the war start?
"In 1928, Blomberg visited the Soviet Union, where he was much impressed by the high status of the Red Army, and left as a convinced believer in the value of totalitarian dictatorship as the prerequisite for military power.
This was part of a broader shift on the part of the German military to the idea of a totalitarian Wehrstaat (Defence State) which, starting in the mid-1920s, had become popular with officers. The German historian Eberhard Kolb wrote that: "...from the mid-1920s onwards the Army leaders had developed and propagated new social conceptions of a militarist kind, tending towards a fusion of the military and civilian sectors and ultimately a totalitarian military state (Wehrstaat)"
and
"Blomberg's visit to the Soviet Union in 1928 had the effect of confirming his views about totalitarian powers being the greatest military powers. Blomberg believed the next world war, like the previous one, would become a total war, requiring the full mobilisation of German society and economy by the state, and that a totalitarian state would be most apt for effectively preparing society militarily and economically for war in peacetime. "
So, different from the nazis that supported a economic oligarchy controlled indirectly by the NSDAP, the Reichswehr wanted to control the whole economy on totalitarian levels and convert everything to war setting, even more than hitler did. Let's say that Hitler refuses to purge the SA for some reason, and so the wehrmacht removes him and then removes Hindenburg and creates a totalitarian dictatorship based on the Wehrstaat concept. How poorly germany goes? Does the economy implode before the war start?
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