This POD hangs on the decision of Karl Jarres to withdraw from the 1925 Presidential Election in Germany. If he had chosen to run on, this is what I think would be the resulting timeline...
For a while, there had been murmurs that forces were hoping to bounce Paul von Hindenburg into the 1925 German presidential election. Some claimed he could win the people over more easily than any other candidate of the Right; some even claimed him as the bulwark against Bolshevism.
So when the results of the first round came through in the days after the 29th March, Hindenburg's response was much awaited. The DVP (German People's Party)'s Karl Jarres was top of the ballot with 38.8%; the SPD's Otto Braun second with 29%; Zentrum's Wilhelm Marx third with 14.5%; and the Communists' Ernst Thaelmann fourth on 7%, followed by a set of minor candidates.
Jarres was extremely pleased. He had been considering retiring in Hindenburg's favour for the second round, but with consideration, he felt in a strong position to win. He communicated this to Gustav Stresemann, his party's leader, who had never been much pleased with the idea of Hindenburg running: after all, what damage might it cause to foreign relations to have an architect of the Great War as president? Much of the DVP were of a similar view, Stresemann assured Jarres, and Jarres was and would remain the DVP's man.
It was clear that some serious horse-trading woul be going on before the next round on the 26th April. Admiral von Tirpitz's DVNP was livid that Jarres would not give way, but had little choice. Hindenburg himself, who had always been reluctant, now was refusing to even countenance a run.
Otto Braun was worried. Zentrum were refusing to countenance him as joint candidate, despite Marx's weak position. There were murmurs in the SPD that it was better to dump Braun than to risk defeat: it was the Party not the Man that mattered, they said.
And so, behind Braun's back, senior members of the Party (notably Hermann Mueller) decided to search for someone who could rally the SPD but still appeal to the centrist sensibilities of Zentrum. Someone on the Right of the party, with whom Zentrum could deal and in whose favour they might withdraw.
This man was a man who was solidly SPD, had a background in executive government, and had been on good terms with the old officer class back in the heady days of 1919.
The proposal was thus to remove Braun and to offer as a joint candidate the Minister President of Hanover, Gustav Noske.
For a while, there had been murmurs that forces were hoping to bounce Paul von Hindenburg into the 1925 German presidential election. Some claimed he could win the people over more easily than any other candidate of the Right; some even claimed him as the bulwark against Bolshevism.
So when the results of the first round came through in the days after the 29th March, Hindenburg's response was much awaited. The DVP (German People's Party)'s Karl Jarres was top of the ballot with 38.8%; the SPD's Otto Braun second with 29%; Zentrum's Wilhelm Marx third with 14.5%; and the Communists' Ernst Thaelmann fourth on 7%, followed by a set of minor candidates.
Jarres was extremely pleased. He had been considering retiring in Hindenburg's favour for the second round, but with consideration, he felt in a strong position to win. He communicated this to Gustav Stresemann, his party's leader, who had never been much pleased with the idea of Hindenburg running: after all, what damage might it cause to foreign relations to have an architect of the Great War as president? Much of the DVP were of a similar view, Stresemann assured Jarres, and Jarres was and would remain the DVP's man.
It was clear that some serious horse-trading woul be going on before the next round on the 26th April. Admiral von Tirpitz's DVNP was livid that Jarres would not give way, but had little choice. Hindenburg himself, who had always been reluctant, now was refusing to even countenance a run.
Otto Braun was worried. Zentrum were refusing to countenance him as joint candidate, despite Marx's weak position. There were murmurs in the SPD that it was better to dump Braun than to risk defeat: it was the Party not the Man that mattered, they said.
And so, behind Braun's back, senior members of the Party (notably Hermann Mueller) decided to search for someone who could rally the SPD but still appeal to the centrist sensibilities of Zentrum. Someone on the Right of the party, with whom Zentrum could deal and in whose favour they might withdraw.
This man was a man who was solidly SPD, had a background in executive government, and had been on good terms with the old officer class back in the heady days of 1919.
The proposal was thus to remove Braun and to offer as a joint candidate the Minister President of Hanover, Gustav Noske.
