"Mound of spring: An early developing Israel in a late developing world TL"
- Thread starter yboxman
- Start date
Found this last night and read through it last night and this morning. Fascinating timeline.
Will TTL's Israeli war of independence lead to the creation of an uber-Israel controlling both Sinai (or at least the north) and Canaan? That seems logical and you're certainly foreshadowing a new war with that comment about Bulgaria.
Writing up a blog post about your timeline now.
Will TTL's Israeli war of independence lead to the creation of an uber-Israel controlling both Sinai (or at least the north) and Canaan? That seems logical and you're certainly foreshadowing a new war with that comment about Bulgaria.
Writing up a blog post about your timeline now.
http://accordingtoquinn.blogspot.com/2014/06/israel-founded-before-wwi.html
Guess who just made my blog?
Guess who just made my blog?
yboxman
Banned
Not the first time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nader_Shah. of course, modelling onself on such a figure will have considerable effects on the intercenine power struggle between father http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habibullah_Khan, son http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amānullāh_Khān, and brother http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasrullah_Khan_(Afghanistan), shiite Sunni relations in Afghanistan and any possible Anglo-Afghan war.
Sinai is still formally part of Egypt though the "New Society" (which is a weird mix of features from a 19th century style capitalist chartred company, OTLs socialist Histadrut and anarchist catalonian style federation of collectives) is managing it in almost all respects while paying some taxes to the Egyptian government.
In short, the situation parralels how Herzl envisioned the idealized relations between the New Society and the Ottoman empire. Since TTL aims at being a realistic analysis of the long term consequences and tensions arising from the early application of this fantasy in the real world, these relations seem unlikely to last. Diversion of the Nile, Egyptian rebellion against British rule, Anger at the domination of non-Muslims (including Egyptian Jews) of the Egyptian economy, protectionism of nascent Egyptian industry, the Suez Canal issue, anger at the rule of Jerusalem by Jews and Canaan's involvement in the Mecca war, fallout from Sunni-Shiite rivalry, etc are all going to lead to growing tensions in the 1920s and 1930s. However, while the British remain in Egypt, Canaan, and the Canal, a full fledged shooting war between the two quasi independent states will not, and cannot, develop.
OTLs war of independence was preceded by decades of cummunal warfare in which the British played arbiter and which exploded when the British left and Arab armies of independent states moved to fill in the power vaccum.
TTLs analog is very different- there are no independent Arab states outside Arabia and the conflict between Jews and Proto Palestinians is subsumed or overshadowed by the Great war and the breakup of the Ottoman empire. By the time the dust settles two thirds of the Proto Palestinians have fled the fighting or have been exchanged with ex Ottoman, Yemenite and Persian Jews. The result is that they do not endure as an international issue, though they remain a minor source of tension between Djemal's Syria and Canaan.
Since a similiar population exchange has taken place in Lebanon, Latakia and Cilicia (and much, much worse in Ionia and Vaspurkan) the whole issue will be largely forgotten, at least outside Canaan and Syria.
If a conflict develops between *Israel and it's neighbors TTL then the situation in the "first round" will be, to some extent, a mirror image of OTLs- Canaan will be an established state whereas the Arab states will be adjusting to the withdrawal of colonial rule and troops.
The exact level of independence Canaan enjoys within the British empire and it's level of association with the empire (Not Dominion. That's for "real" white people. possibly a protectorate like Oman), it's form of government, economic woes, etc, will be explored after another one or two posts dealing with the immediate ripple effect of an earlier end to the great war.
As to a second Great war... if anything it is over determined ITTL. OTL, the post war peace was based on the concept of "collective security". However inadequate, this offered the possibility of unified action against "agressors" and a forum (The League of nations) to resolve disputes.
TTL, the only gurantee of peace is the balance of power in Europe. This cannot endure because:
a. The balance is shifting faster than alliances and policies can keep up with it. Russia and Japan developing faster than anyone else, Germany faster than France and Britain. Russia in particular seems set to become a monster given how it is spared OTL's civil war and loss of territory.
b. Technology is changing warfare. Railways across Eurasia and motor transport favor Russia, while airpower, mechanized warfare, combined arms and eventually the A bomb favoring whichever "high tech" nation adopts them first (probably Germany). Either way, someone is going to think they have an edge and be tempted to exploit it before it erodes.
c. internal political developments and revolutionary situations are underming several of the great powers and likely to lead to several crisis points (AH implosion, British troubles in India, Socialist revolution in Russia, Left-Right conflict in Germany and France).
d. "Never do an enemy a small injury"- Germany has gotten off relatively easy TTL. But that does not mean it is any less interested in removing limitations imposed by the treaty or changing the map of Europe in it's favor. It just means they do not need OTLs combination of Hitler's crazy luck and brinkmanship and the West's insane appeasement to pull it off.
e. The interests of the members of the WWI anti-German coalition diverge as soon as Germany is defeated and relinquishes it's colonies and fleet. Britain wants to keep the balance of power in place exactly as it is. Russia and France want to eliminate Germany as a great power. Italy and Japan have no remaining feud with Germany, want a bigger piece of the pie and have "issues" with Russia and France (Manchuria/China, Tunis, Russian clients in Balkans).
The world remains unsettled and a large number of flashpoints exist including, as you mentioned, Bulgaria and it's neighbors. Others are:
1. AH undergoing terminal implosion or seeming to do so during the 1926 or 1936 negotiations.
2. A prolonged period of warlord China with no Soviet aid to the KMT. A second Russo-Japanese war is a definate possibility, as nearly occured OTL. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet–Japanese_Border_Wars
3. Colonial insurrection against Britian in India and/or Egypt possibly accompanied by an afghan invasion and friction with Russia.
4. a second Abyssinian-Italian war. Britian may be less forgiving of Italian expansionism TTL as it sees the Franco-Russian alliance as sufficient to contain Germany.
5. Alternate Spanish, and possibly French, Civil war.
6. German rearmament in violation of the armistice.
7. Germany taking advantage of French or Russian distraction to remillitarize the Rhineland/East Prussia.
To make this a truly *Israel centered TL canaan might provide an additional flashpoint. By the mid 1930s, assuming Russo-Polish opression grows and that so do the pre war patterns of Jewish emigration (but with the U.S barring entry even earlier) persist, Canaan might reach 3 million inhabitants by 1930 which is pretty much the top carrying capacity of the area then without radical social, economic or technological change. By 1939 the population may be in the 6-8 million range. Something will have to give and there are wolves who will seek to exploit the situation.
Each crisis, like those leading up to WWI, is likely to be contained. But I think each crisis will, in turn, generate a dynamic where the losers seek to realign themselves with those powers which are prepared to commit themselves to advancing mutual interests. Hence, it is likely that powers will drift into mutually antagonistc alliance blocks. Whenever all members of one of the blocks reach a "boiling point" the next crisis triggers a war. With WWI shorter and less bloody the lessons drawn from it are more likely to be "be prepared" and less likely to be "avoid war at all cost".
A future global war is more likely to resemble WWI than WWII in that the combatants will diverge on the basis of national interest rather than ideology. No USSR means that communism and anti-communism play less of a role in the self definition of any of the states. No Wilsonian interjection in WWI means concepts of democracy and "Self determination" remain more muted. The U.S is likely to avoid WWII just as it did WWI TTL (as might Britain, at least in the initial stages)- that means that no great global organizing princpiple like the U.N, or "global aspirations for peace, prosperity and freedom" is likely to emerge from the conflict.
Without a communist state and no open split between communist revolutianoris and socialist reformers does "fascism" appear? I tend to believe that it does but more as a junior partner to clerical reactionaries, royal dictatorships and millitary juntas rather than a dominating force which subsumes the reactionaries. Think more Dolfuss, Franco, Salazar and Petain, less Hitler and Mussolini.
Given OTL, Liberal parlimantary democracy in the fringes of Europe seems likely to undergo a period of crisis at least after TTLs great depression hits. How prolonged and serious it is depends on whether it is abolished in Germany, France, or
eek both and that is what the next post will deal with.After that, the headaches of the British empire in India, Egypt, Ireland, Africa and Chaldea/South Persia and after that we (finally!) get back to Canaan and the development of it's society between 1917-1923.
Thanks! you do have a way of getting the gist of any TL into a condensed paragraph while tantalizing your readers into reading the full version.
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yboxman
Banned
post #30 Blut und Eisen
So this is sort of a trial balloon. I've read various TLs in which the Kaiserreich emerges from the war victorious or after a draw and there seems to be considerable disagreement over what exactly would happen.
I'll be quite upfront in admitting TTL has a bias towards reactionary regimes in Europe getting a second lease on life by employing the military (and vice verca) and/or the church and co-opting sympathetic quasi Fascist movements (rather than the other way around OTL). Part of the whole "old new land in an new-old world" theme. But I am trying to be realistic. So if the following scenario looks far fetched I'm open to retconning. Still, some factors to take into account in the following post:
1. The SPD has not yet split in 1916. So crypto revolutionaries and reformists are still sitting in the same party and are held accountable for each other's words and actions.
2. The Zentrum and the progressive liberals still supported the war in 1916 and were not yet aligned with the SPD in opposition to the government.
3. While the German military has taken more of a body blow TTL in late 1916 it has done so on the defensive and has successfully repulsed the Mega Brusilov offensive in spite of losing some ground. Nor have it's hopes been raised by crushing Russia and then dashed when the spring offensive failed in the West. No suicidal order given to the navy leading to massive mutiny.
4. OTL, Ludendorff was a broken man by November 1918. He had become Germany's effective dictator over the previous two years and had run the army to the ground by his ill planned spring offensive, fucked up the German home front by the ill planned "Hindenburg program" and backed terribly catastrophic policies (Unrestricted submarine warfare, pushing the Bolsheviks too hard at Brest Livotsk and tying up troops in the east for longer than was necessary). He became unhinged and enstranged from Hidenburg, thereby eliminating his political power base and went off on a neo pagan spin thereby eliminating himself from the political scene completely. But TTL he does not have cause to blame himself for the failure- he blames others and views himself as the most competent person to restore Germany to it's glory. Worse, so does most of the army.
5. When push came to shove, be it 1848, 1864, 1870, 1919 or 1933, German liberals, if pushed to a choice, always chose German unity and national power over universal application of their principles. Bismark understood that. So does Ludendorff.
Warsaw, September 1916
"They've stabbed you, stabbed us, in the back!", Raged Erich Ludendorff. In contrast to his flammable "subordinate" Hindenburg is the epitome of the Prussian Junket. Calm, modest in word thought and deed… and as those who know him closely must admit, prone to dozing off and mumbling incoherently in the middle of important discussions.
"A great honor Erich, a great honor…"
"Nein. It might have been a great honor two years ago. Then we could have turned the army eastwards, kept Britain out of the war and been in St.petersburg within a year. After that France would have begged us for terms. Or a year ago, after we proved how easy the Russians were to defeat given adequate resources. We could have, should have, pushed the Nish offensive to a conclusion. Instead, that fool Falkenhyven has frittered away any hope of victory. All that is left now is to make the best peace we can."
"The Kaiser must have faith in us to salvage the situation, else he would not have appointed us joint chiefs of staff. Let us have Faith in he who is most high."
"The Kaiser? Don't you understand? He did not appoint you to salvage the situation. He appointed you to take the blame for the peace which will be signed (1). He knows that you are the only general popular enough to threaten him".
"Threaten him? You are raving, Erich. And coming very close to suggesting treason."
"My dear Paul, you are too good, too noble for this fallen world. It is the nature of the pure to disregard the motivations of those who do not share their principles (2)"
"He is the Kaiser! We have sworn on oath to the Kaiser! Do you dare question it?"
"Have we sworn an oath to the office or to the man? To the office or the nation? And has the man not endangered both? Has he not made unfortunate decisions?"
Hindenburg is silent for a time. No one can doubt that Willhelm is no Bismark. When he ascended the throne France was isolated and Germany was friendly with Britain and allied with Austria, Italy, Rumania and even Russia. Today? Germany is at war with all of Europe and much of Asia and it's sole ally, for whose sake it had entered the war, is on the point of collapse and draining far more strength from the alliance than it is contributing.
He leaves those thoughts unsaid.
"It is not for us to question policy, only to carry it out."
"And if we continue blindly carrying out his policy we shall face disgrace, Germany shall be defeated in war, the socialists will take over the Reichstag, The Reichstag shall abolish the monarchy, and then private property, and the army shall be powerless to stop it"
"While you would abolish the monarchy to save it?"
"No. Merely give our ruler the chance to save it himself"
Berlin, December, 1917.
"This a putsch then?"
Kaiser Wilhelm kept a surprisingly calm voice. After all, he had always known that they all despised him. His British cousins. The Generals. Women. Court sycophants, even his own parents. And all because an accident of birth had left him a cripple. He could always see it in their eyes, even when they feigned respect.
It is Hidenburg that answers. "Never, Sire. We merely respectfully suggest that the burden of your duties have grown too heavy for any one man and that you permit your son to assume the helm of state. Your sacrifice may very well mean better terms from the Entente and may be all that stands between Germany and a socialist republic"
"With you as chancellor, of course. And if I refuse to abdicate?".
Ludendorff shrugs. "Then you leave us no choice but to resign… all of us."
The isolated Kaiser looks at the grim faces of Groener , von Seeckt and his other generals and the realization of how badly he has mismanaged his inheritance hits him.
"And where do you intend to exile me? St Helena is rather far, after all. Perhaps you plan to ask the British to place me under guard in Heligoland?"
The General feet shuffling of the gives him some small comfort. If he can only shame them sufficiently then perhaps…
Ludendorff slays his hopes. "A prolonged hunting vacation in Konigsberg, perhaps followed by a leisurely cruise in the Baltic once peace is fully achieved may be a good idea. Just long enough for the public to clearly disassociate you from the crown prince. We will, of course ensure that funds and an honor guard be made available to serve your every need. We would not wish you, after all to come to harm"
Hindenburg and Groener wince. This is far more brutal than they had agreed upon. But it seems to do the trick.
"I will sign."
Berlin, Janurary 1st, 1917.
Snow is falling on the streets of Berlin as Christmas carols fill the night air. Friedrich Ebert knows that for the woman besides him the hyms celebrating the birth of the prince of peace mean little or nothing but shrugs off the sense of alieness of which he is vaguely ashamed. Many of most useful and passionate leaders of his party are Hebrews, after all, even if they have abandoned their ancient religion in favor of the dialectic. So, of course, have many Christian socialists… and yet, somehow, a gulf remains.
Which is, of course, one reason it is he who assumed the leadership of the party while the woman before him is the co-leader of the radical wing of the party, many of whom share her heritage. No respectable political group, which is what he aspires the SPD to become, could have a Jew, let alone a Jewess, as its leader, no matter how talented. Is it any wonder that those with political skills and ambitions have gravitated towards the radicals (3)?
Rosa Luxemburg arches her eyebrows upwards as they stand beneath the street lamp, fully lit now that the blockade and rationing are ended. "Herr Ebert. Had you wished to seduce me, surely you could have found someplace warmer?"
Ebert reddens and sputters as he realizes a mistletoe is affixed to the lamp. He refuses to let her put him off balance however. "I am sure you are being watched and I would not wish to be arrested in your company if we had gone somewhere… more comfortable. Do you undertand how close you and Karl came to being arrested last May (4)?"
"And if we had been? I almost wish we hadn't permitted you to convince us to cancel the preparations for the strike. The war was lost by then. We could only have saved lives."
"Or encouraged the Entente to continue the war to Germany's destruction! Not to mention splitting the party and tainting it as a traitorous organization in the eyes of the public! Now the war is over, the regime is discredited and we must turn ourselves to capitalizing on the situation"
"Yes. The war is over. The war which has devastated Europe, slain Millions, and blackened the name of Germany. The war for which you, Herr Ebert, voted war credits. The regime is discredited? We knew they were warmongers! It is we whom you have discredited! Was it worth it? even had Germany won It would have been too high a cost. But we didn't win, did we? We were defeated, no matter how much Hindenburg proclaims our returning troops "undefeated and unbowed.""
Ebert turns his face aside and allows his grief to rise to the surface. " Heinrich Is dead. Killed during the fall of Sarajevo (5). I… I just received word."
Rosa gasps, her hand moving automatically for his arm. "I'm sorry. I truly am. But you understand, don't you? You understand that it is not the Slavic Untermenshen, not perfidious Albion, and certainly not some conspiracy of Jewish plutocrats and sellswords who are responsible for you ragony. Our leaders did this. They jumped over the brink of war, and dragged us all down with them."
Ebert sighs. "However you may lambast me in party meetings you surely know that I never put any credence in the Pan-German rants. I know the faults of my country, her moods, her hysterics, even her thirst for blood and hatred. But it is among our people that we live. Had the party not supported the war it would have been forever tarred with the brush of treason and lack of patriotism. Do you have any doubt that Bismark's anti-socialist legistlation would have been renewed?"
Luxembourg stiffens "If it had we would have risen from the ashes with our principles unblemished and as a viable alternative to the capitalist-feudal regime. But we can still do a Tikkun. Now is the time to overthrow the monarchy, now is the time to take power!"
Ebert shakes his head firmly. "As your comrades attempted to do in Russia after the war with Japan? How well did they fare? "
"This is not Russia. There are no Cossacks here, no Feudal levies and savage tribesmen from the casaucas to be used by a blood thirsty monarch to shoot down his people. This is Germanyand the soldiers, if not the officers, are with the people!"
Ebert is silent for a time, and as the streetlamp glitters a shadow passes over his face.
"What is it? What are you not telling me?"
"I've heard rumors... and my sons have written to me from their units. There have been soldiers pulled out of their regular postings. Invariably they are the better troops, those more experienced, more disciplined, more deadly, and more eager for blood. The rumors are that they will be formed into special units which will emulate and improve on Brusilov's Huttier tactics"
"So?"
"It it is also another type of soldier which is being pulled out. The type which has strong political ideas. Followers of the Thule society, the anti-Semitic league and the other rif-raf on the far right. The name floating around for them is "Strom troopers". There, I fear, are your cossacks"
Rosa grimaces. "I don’t doubt that Ludendorff and military funding are also behind the formation of the Vaterland Front and the German Worker's party. There, I suppose are our Black Hundreds. They are trying to confound the workers, split their vote and blind them to their class interests by raising the flames of anti-Semitism. But this is not Russia (5). If the party newspaper exposes the connection then the DNVP will also be tainted by association and the workers will understand their true interests"
"Exactly- which is why we need to concentrate our efforts on electoral reform, ensuring that a new election is held as soon as possible, and only then seeking to limit the authority of the Kaiser. "
"You would be satisfied with a constitutionalist monarchy? Not even a bourgeois republic?! Is this what generations have struggled towards?
Berlin, February, 1917.
"They will never agree to this!"
Ludendorff Sighs. "No, of course they won't. But that's not the point."
Hindenburg blinks. "Then what is the point? Why propose a change to the electoral law that you know the Reichstag will reject?"
"To force the Socialist's hand. So far they have refrained from showing their true colors, they even voted for war credits! But some among them are impatient. If we give them a target, something which they cannot endure, they will strike, either with terror or with sabotage. And if the target they strike at is one that is dear to the hearts of many ordinary Germans, and in particular to those who have shed their life's blood in the war… well, then we have them where we want them."
Hindenburg shakes his head "it isn't just the socialists! What about the centrum and the progressives?"
Ludendorff gives a death head grin. "That is the beauty of it. How can the liberals reject the application of the timocratic principle to Germany when it is the liberal party in Britain which has been the first to embrace it? As for the Centrum, have no concern. Their time will also come".
"I still don't see why we should be the ones to suggest a change. What's wrong with keeping things just as they are?"
"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. If they do not they will foist a republic on us"
The Lights that failed, Zara Steiner 1998.
"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time". So said Sir Edward gray as the summer of 1914 gave way to autumn, as the tread of armies thundered across Europe.
In the Christmas of 1917 many hoped he would be proved wrong. That after two years and four months of bloodshed Europe would return to normality and that the march of progress and liberalism would continue apace.
There was reason for this hope. Prior to the great war, education, life expectancy, and prosperity were steadily rising all over Europe with a concurrently greater degree of informed opinion and participation by the masses in public affairs. Universal manhood suffurage, while still largely confined to France and Switzerland, was gradually being seen as an achievable target in most of Europe West of the Vistula. Even Russia had been forced to put on a show of parlimantary participation. In Germany, parties commited to democracy were gaining by leaps and bounds in every election, in spite of the German version of rotten buroughs. Those relics of the ancient regime, as well as the abortion of the Prussian three class electoral system seemed well on their way to the dustbin of history.
It seemed, for a time, that the Great war would hasten the process. Instead, they lead to a head on confortation between the more radical socialist revolutionaries and a still functioning military organism. By so doing, the great war gave the reaction a sufficient jolt to adapt and channel societal changes according to it's own perceived interest. Worse, the centralization of economic life and communication by the war, and the technological progress which preceded it, gave governments an unprecedented capability and experience in shaping society.
Britain escaped the darkening political horizaon of continental Europe. Yet we must not forget that It is Britian which introduced the idea by which the conservative forces in Germany were able to stifle the possibility of reform. The timocratic principle might be harmless in Britian, where rising living standards have made 90% of it's men, and 75% of it's women eligible for the vote while timocracy provided a means for upward mobilization for the working classes.
In Germany, however, Industrial and urban workers were deliberately excluded from the military prior to the great war. Even during the great war many had been granted deferments as their work had been viewed as essential for the war effort. Furthermore, the cap placed on future German military spending by the peace of London meant that conscription in the future would be even more selective or even abolished altogether, especially given the expanding German population.
Therefore, the Hindenburg programme of abolishing electoral districts altogether and replacing them with "regimental districts" was met with outraged opposition by the SPD, even as it split some of it's potential allies in the centrum and progressive liberal parties.
Nontheless, the program lacked sufficient support to be passed in the Reichstag, leading to an impasse as the government refused to authorize new elections until it's programme was passed and the Reichstag preventing almost any new government iniated legistlation from being passed. In the meantime, army funds were covertly diverted to support the growth of a "patriotic alternative" to social democracy while "politically reliable" soldiers were concentrated and retrained in storm trooper units specialized in urban crowd suppression (6). The Vaterland Front, though initially small, was far better funded than the social democrats and would come to contest many of the Social democrat strogholds
Ultimately, Ebert was overruled by the radicals in his party and a general strike was called to support demands for unconditional universal manhood suffarage, release of all political prisoners, and placing the chancellery, ministers and the army under control of the Reichstag.
This strike may well have led to the fall of the Ludendorff regime as Kaiser Wilhelm III, much like his father, did not wish to open his reign with a bloody campaign against his subjects. "But it would be terrible if I had to stain the first years of my reign with the blood of my subjects. Everyone who means well by me will do his outmost to avert such a catastrophe. I intend to be le roi des gueux! (the King of the Mob!) My subjects shall know that their King is concerned for their welfare."
However, before negotiations could commence a new development ensued. Russia, though a titular victor in the great war was facing many of the same problems as Germany was. Unlike Germny, with it's tradition of parlimantary legistlation and compromise, however imperfect, the Russian monarchy was a true autocracy and it's disenfranchised subjects far more susceptible to revolutionary movements. By June 1917 the Russian troubles were in full swing with many of the Northern Industrial cities dominated by "Worker and soldiers Soviets" and with the countryside aflame as army backed landlords fought demobilized peasant soldiers intent on redistruting the great estates amongst themselves.
The more radical elements of the SPD sought to emulate these revolutionaries and neither Ebert nor Rosa Luxembourg were able to entirely prevent them from engaging in "direct action" against government figures and buildings.
Of greater significance, however, were developments in Poland. When Germany had withdrawn it's forces from Congress Poland Nicholas II vowed to rule Poland "in personal union" and to "respect it's ancient traditions". However insincere he may have been, Nicholas III(7), faced with insurgency in Russia and central Asia, decided to honor that pledge and permitted Roman Dmwoski's forces to assume responsibility for expeling Josef Pilsudki's socialists from Poland and administering the grand duchy. Unlike northern Russia, Pilsudki's bloody defeat was followed by more or less genuine national reconciliation and consolidation as Poles of either ideological spectrum viewed self rule as more important than ideology (8).
Unfortunately, the consolidation of the Grand duchy of Poland concurrently with the paralysis of the German Reich led the Poles of Posen and upper Silesia, bolstered by demobilized soldiers and guns smuggled across the border, to act….
(1) Which is what Ludendorff did OTL by insisting on the SPD civilian government being made to sign the armistice. Human nature is to ascribe to others your own motivations, base or otherwise. Not that Ludendorff is necessarily wrong in this case.
(2) And vice verca.
(3) Fun fact- number of Jews in the Bolshevik party in 1917? 350 out of 25,000. 1.3%. Which is about a third of their proportion in the population of the Russian empire even if one includes politically inactive Central Asian Turks. But if you look at the number of those in leadership positions…
(4) OTL both were arrested after an attempt in June to organize a strike. TTL, the earlier "Mega Brusilov" offensive, the generally stronger Position of Russia and the Eastern orientation of combat leads more in the SPD to oppose a strike which would aid "Tsarist AUtocracy". By the time the radicals muster sufficient numbers to organize a credibal strike the war is over.
(5) OTL, he died in Macedonia in Feburary. But the fighting on the Serbian front is far heavier and involves more German troops TTL.
(6) Well ,no. Of course "it can't happen here"
(7) the uncle of nicholas II, now Tsar of all rusians by grace of god and the Brusilov dominated White Junta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Nicholas_Nikolaevich_of_Russia_(1856–1929)
(8) Heck, Pilsudki and Dmwoski fought each other in the streets in 1905 OTL but still worked together (sort of) after independence. TTL, of course, The Tsar views Pilsudki as persona non grata but many of his followers recieve amnesty.
So this is sort of a trial balloon. I've read various TLs in which the Kaiserreich emerges from the war victorious or after a draw and there seems to be considerable disagreement over what exactly would happen.
I'll be quite upfront in admitting TTL has a bias towards reactionary regimes in Europe getting a second lease on life by employing the military (and vice verca) and/or the church and co-opting sympathetic quasi Fascist movements (rather than the other way around OTL). Part of the whole "old new land in an new-old world" theme. But I am trying to be realistic. So if the following scenario looks far fetched I'm open to retconning. Still, some factors to take into account in the following post:
1. The SPD has not yet split in 1916. So crypto revolutionaries and reformists are still sitting in the same party and are held accountable for each other's words and actions.
2. The Zentrum and the progressive liberals still supported the war in 1916 and were not yet aligned with the SPD in opposition to the government.
3. While the German military has taken more of a body blow TTL in late 1916 it has done so on the defensive and has successfully repulsed the Mega Brusilov offensive in spite of losing some ground. Nor have it's hopes been raised by crushing Russia and then dashed when the spring offensive failed in the West. No suicidal order given to the navy leading to massive mutiny.
4. OTL, Ludendorff was a broken man by November 1918. He had become Germany's effective dictator over the previous two years and had run the army to the ground by his ill planned spring offensive, fucked up the German home front by the ill planned "Hindenburg program" and backed terribly catastrophic policies (Unrestricted submarine warfare, pushing the Bolsheviks too hard at Brest Livotsk and tying up troops in the east for longer than was necessary). He became unhinged and enstranged from Hidenburg, thereby eliminating his political power base and went off on a neo pagan spin thereby eliminating himself from the political scene completely. But TTL he does not have cause to blame himself for the failure- he blames others and views himself as the most competent person to restore Germany to it's glory. Worse, so does most of the army.
5. When push came to shove, be it 1848, 1864, 1870, 1919 or 1933, German liberals, if pushed to a choice, always chose German unity and national power over universal application of their principles. Bismark understood that. So does Ludendorff.
Warsaw, September 1916
"They've stabbed you, stabbed us, in the back!", Raged Erich Ludendorff. In contrast to his flammable "subordinate" Hindenburg is the epitome of the Prussian Junket. Calm, modest in word thought and deed… and as those who know him closely must admit, prone to dozing off and mumbling incoherently in the middle of important discussions.
"A great honor Erich, a great honor…"
"Nein. It might have been a great honor two years ago. Then we could have turned the army eastwards, kept Britain out of the war and been in St.petersburg within a year. After that France would have begged us for terms. Or a year ago, after we proved how easy the Russians were to defeat given adequate resources. We could have, should have, pushed the Nish offensive to a conclusion. Instead, that fool Falkenhyven has frittered away any hope of victory. All that is left now is to make the best peace we can."
"The Kaiser must have faith in us to salvage the situation, else he would not have appointed us joint chiefs of staff. Let us have Faith in he who is most high."
"The Kaiser? Don't you understand? He did not appoint you to salvage the situation. He appointed you to take the blame for the peace which will be signed (1). He knows that you are the only general popular enough to threaten him".
"Threaten him? You are raving, Erich. And coming very close to suggesting treason."
"My dear Paul, you are too good, too noble for this fallen world. It is the nature of the pure to disregard the motivations of those who do not share their principles (2)"
"He is the Kaiser! We have sworn on oath to the Kaiser! Do you dare question it?"
"Have we sworn an oath to the office or to the man? To the office or the nation? And has the man not endangered both? Has he not made unfortunate decisions?"
Hindenburg is silent for a time. No one can doubt that Willhelm is no Bismark. When he ascended the throne France was isolated and Germany was friendly with Britain and allied with Austria, Italy, Rumania and even Russia. Today? Germany is at war with all of Europe and much of Asia and it's sole ally, for whose sake it had entered the war, is on the point of collapse and draining far more strength from the alliance than it is contributing.
He leaves those thoughts unsaid.
"It is not for us to question policy, only to carry it out."
"And if we continue blindly carrying out his policy we shall face disgrace, Germany shall be defeated in war, the socialists will take over the Reichstag, The Reichstag shall abolish the monarchy, and then private property, and the army shall be powerless to stop it"
"While you would abolish the monarchy to save it?"
"No. Merely give our ruler the chance to save it himself"
Berlin, December, 1917.
"This a putsch then?"
Kaiser Wilhelm kept a surprisingly calm voice. After all, he had always known that they all despised him. His British cousins. The Generals. Women. Court sycophants, even his own parents. And all because an accident of birth had left him a cripple. He could always see it in their eyes, even when they feigned respect.
It is Hidenburg that answers. "Never, Sire. We merely respectfully suggest that the burden of your duties have grown too heavy for any one man and that you permit your son to assume the helm of state. Your sacrifice may very well mean better terms from the Entente and may be all that stands between Germany and a socialist republic"
"With you as chancellor, of course. And if I refuse to abdicate?".
Ludendorff shrugs. "Then you leave us no choice but to resign… all of us."
The isolated Kaiser looks at the grim faces of Groener , von Seeckt and his other generals and the realization of how badly he has mismanaged his inheritance hits him.
"And where do you intend to exile me? St Helena is rather far, after all. Perhaps you plan to ask the British to place me under guard in Heligoland?"
The General feet shuffling of the gives him some small comfort. If he can only shame them sufficiently then perhaps…
Ludendorff slays his hopes. "A prolonged hunting vacation in Konigsberg, perhaps followed by a leisurely cruise in the Baltic once peace is fully achieved may be a good idea. Just long enough for the public to clearly disassociate you from the crown prince. We will, of course ensure that funds and an honor guard be made available to serve your every need. We would not wish you, after all to come to harm"
Hindenburg and Groener wince. This is far more brutal than they had agreed upon. But it seems to do the trick.
"I will sign."
Berlin, Janurary 1st, 1917.
Snow is falling on the streets of Berlin as Christmas carols fill the night air. Friedrich Ebert knows that for the woman besides him the hyms celebrating the birth of the prince of peace mean little or nothing but shrugs off the sense of alieness of which he is vaguely ashamed. Many of most useful and passionate leaders of his party are Hebrews, after all, even if they have abandoned their ancient religion in favor of the dialectic. So, of course, have many Christian socialists… and yet, somehow, a gulf remains.
Which is, of course, one reason it is he who assumed the leadership of the party while the woman before him is the co-leader of the radical wing of the party, many of whom share her heritage. No respectable political group, which is what he aspires the SPD to become, could have a Jew, let alone a Jewess, as its leader, no matter how talented. Is it any wonder that those with political skills and ambitions have gravitated towards the radicals (3)?
Rosa Luxemburg arches her eyebrows upwards as they stand beneath the street lamp, fully lit now that the blockade and rationing are ended. "Herr Ebert. Had you wished to seduce me, surely you could have found someplace warmer?"
Ebert reddens and sputters as he realizes a mistletoe is affixed to the lamp. He refuses to let her put him off balance however. "I am sure you are being watched and I would not wish to be arrested in your company if we had gone somewhere… more comfortable. Do you undertand how close you and Karl came to being arrested last May (4)?"
"And if we had been? I almost wish we hadn't permitted you to convince us to cancel the preparations for the strike. The war was lost by then. We could only have saved lives."
"Or encouraged the Entente to continue the war to Germany's destruction! Not to mention splitting the party and tainting it as a traitorous organization in the eyes of the public! Now the war is over, the regime is discredited and we must turn ourselves to capitalizing on the situation"
"Yes. The war is over. The war which has devastated Europe, slain Millions, and blackened the name of Germany. The war for which you, Herr Ebert, voted war credits. The regime is discredited? We knew they were warmongers! It is we whom you have discredited! Was it worth it? even had Germany won It would have been too high a cost. But we didn't win, did we? We were defeated, no matter how much Hindenburg proclaims our returning troops "undefeated and unbowed.""
Ebert turns his face aside and allows his grief to rise to the surface. " Heinrich Is dead. Killed during the fall of Sarajevo (5). I… I just received word."
Rosa gasps, her hand moving automatically for his arm. "I'm sorry. I truly am. But you understand, don't you? You understand that it is not the Slavic Untermenshen, not perfidious Albion, and certainly not some conspiracy of Jewish plutocrats and sellswords who are responsible for you ragony. Our leaders did this. They jumped over the brink of war, and dragged us all down with them."
Ebert sighs. "However you may lambast me in party meetings you surely know that I never put any credence in the Pan-German rants. I know the faults of my country, her moods, her hysterics, even her thirst for blood and hatred. But it is among our people that we live. Had the party not supported the war it would have been forever tarred with the brush of treason and lack of patriotism. Do you have any doubt that Bismark's anti-socialist legistlation would have been renewed?"
Luxembourg stiffens "If it had we would have risen from the ashes with our principles unblemished and as a viable alternative to the capitalist-feudal regime. But we can still do a Tikkun. Now is the time to overthrow the monarchy, now is the time to take power!"
Ebert shakes his head firmly. "As your comrades attempted to do in Russia after the war with Japan? How well did they fare? "
"This is not Russia. There are no Cossacks here, no Feudal levies and savage tribesmen from the casaucas to be used by a blood thirsty monarch to shoot down his people. This is Germanyand the soldiers, if not the officers, are with the people!"
Ebert is silent for a time, and as the streetlamp glitters a shadow passes over his face.
"What is it? What are you not telling me?"
"I've heard rumors... and my sons have written to me from their units. There have been soldiers pulled out of their regular postings. Invariably they are the better troops, those more experienced, more disciplined, more deadly, and more eager for blood. The rumors are that they will be formed into special units which will emulate and improve on Brusilov's Huttier tactics"
"So?"
"It it is also another type of soldier which is being pulled out. The type which has strong political ideas. Followers of the Thule society, the anti-Semitic league and the other rif-raf on the far right. The name floating around for them is "Strom troopers". There, I fear, are your cossacks"
Rosa grimaces. "I don’t doubt that Ludendorff and military funding are also behind the formation of the Vaterland Front and the German Worker's party. There, I suppose are our Black Hundreds. They are trying to confound the workers, split their vote and blind them to their class interests by raising the flames of anti-Semitism. But this is not Russia (5). If the party newspaper exposes the connection then the DNVP will also be tainted by association and the workers will understand their true interests"
"Exactly- which is why we need to concentrate our efforts on electoral reform, ensuring that a new election is held as soon as possible, and only then seeking to limit the authority of the Kaiser. "
"You would be satisfied with a constitutionalist monarchy? Not even a bourgeois republic?! Is this what generations have struggled towards?
Berlin, February, 1917.
"They will never agree to this!"
Ludendorff Sighs. "No, of course they won't. But that's not the point."
Hindenburg blinks. "Then what is the point? Why propose a change to the electoral law that you know the Reichstag will reject?"
"To force the Socialist's hand. So far they have refrained from showing their true colors, they even voted for war credits! But some among them are impatient. If we give them a target, something which they cannot endure, they will strike, either with terror or with sabotage. And if the target they strike at is one that is dear to the hearts of many ordinary Germans, and in particular to those who have shed their life's blood in the war… well, then we have them where we want them."
Hindenburg shakes his head "it isn't just the socialists! What about the centrum and the progressives?"
Ludendorff gives a death head grin. "That is the beauty of it. How can the liberals reject the application of the timocratic principle to Germany when it is the liberal party in Britain which has been the first to embrace it? As for the Centrum, have no concern. Their time will also come".
"I still don't see why we should be the ones to suggest a change. What's wrong with keeping things just as they are?"
"If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change. If they do not they will foist a republic on us"
The Lights that failed, Zara Steiner 1998.
"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time". So said Sir Edward gray as the summer of 1914 gave way to autumn, as the tread of armies thundered across Europe.
In the Christmas of 1917 many hoped he would be proved wrong. That after two years and four months of bloodshed Europe would return to normality and that the march of progress and liberalism would continue apace.
There was reason for this hope. Prior to the great war, education, life expectancy, and prosperity were steadily rising all over Europe with a concurrently greater degree of informed opinion and participation by the masses in public affairs. Universal manhood suffurage, while still largely confined to France and Switzerland, was gradually being seen as an achievable target in most of Europe West of the Vistula. Even Russia had been forced to put on a show of parlimantary participation. In Germany, parties commited to democracy were gaining by leaps and bounds in every election, in spite of the German version of rotten buroughs. Those relics of the ancient regime, as well as the abortion of the Prussian three class electoral system seemed well on their way to the dustbin of history.
It seemed, for a time, that the Great war would hasten the process. Instead, they lead to a head on confortation between the more radical socialist revolutionaries and a still functioning military organism. By so doing, the great war gave the reaction a sufficient jolt to adapt and channel societal changes according to it's own perceived interest. Worse, the centralization of economic life and communication by the war, and the technological progress which preceded it, gave governments an unprecedented capability and experience in shaping society.
Britain escaped the darkening political horizaon of continental Europe. Yet we must not forget that It is Britian which introduced the idea by which the conservative forces in Germany were able to stifle the possibility of reform. The timocratic principle might be harmless in Britian, where rising living standards have made 90% of it's men, and 75% of it's women eligible for the vote while timocracy provided a means for upward mobilization for the working classes.
In Germany, however, Industrial and urban workers were deliberately excluded from the military prior to the great war. Even during the great war many had been granted deferments as their work had been viewed as essential for the war effort. Furthermore, the cap placed on future German military spending by the peace of London meant that conscription in the future would be even more selective or even abolished altogether, especially given the expanding German population.
Therefore, the Hindenburg programme of abolishing electoral districts altogether and replacing them with "regimental districts" was met with outraged opposition by the SPD, even as it split some of it's potential allies in the centrum and progressive liberal parties.
Nontheless, the program lacked sufficient support to be passed in the Reichstag, leading to an impasse as the government refused to authorize new elections until it's programme was passed and the Reichstag preventing almost any new government iniated legistlation from being passed. In the meantime, army funds were covertly diverted to support the growth of a "patriotic alternative" to social democracy while "politically reliable" soldiers were concentrated and retrained in storm trooper units specialized in urban crowd suppression (6). The Vaterland Front, though initially small, was far better funded than the social democrats and would come to contest many of the Social democrat strogholds
Ultimately, Ebert was overruled by the radicals in his party and a general strike was called to support demands for unconditional universal manhood suffarage, release of all political prisoners, and placing the chancellery, ministers and the army under control of the Reichstag.
This strike may well have led to the fall of the Ludendorff regime as Kaiser Wilhelm III, much like his father, did not wish to open his reign with a bloody campaign against his subjects. "But it would be terrible if I had to stain the first years of my reign with the blood of my subjects. Everyone who means well by me will do his outmost to avert such a catastrophe. I intend to be le roi des gueux! (the King of the Mob!) My subjects shall know that their King is concerned for their welfare."
However, before negotiations could commence a new development ensued. Russia, though a titular victor in the great war was facing many of the same problems as Germany was. Unlike Germny, with it's tradition of parlimantary legistlation and compromise, however imperfect, the Russian monarchy was a true autocracy and it's disenfranchised subjects far more susceptible to revolutionary movements. By June 1917 the Russian troubles were in full swing with many of the Northern Industrial cities dominated by "Worker and soldiers Soviets" and with the countryside aflame as army backed landlords fought demobilized peasant soldiers intent on redistruting the great estates amongst themselves.
The more radical elements of the SPD sought to emulate these revolutionaries and neither Ebert nor Rosa Luxembourg were able to entirely prevent them from engaging in "direct action" against government figures and buildings.
Of greater significance, however, were developments in Poland. When Germany had withdrawn it's forces from Congress Poland Nicholas II vowed to rule Poland "in personal union" and to "respect it's ancient traditions". However insincere he may have been, Nicholas III(7), faced with insurgency in Russia and central Asia, decided to honor that pledge and permitted Roman Dmwoski's forces to assume responsibility for expeling Josef Pilsudki's socialists from Poland and administering the grand duchy. Unlike northern Russia, Pilsudki's bloody defeat was followed by more or less genuine national reconciliation and consolidation as Poles of either ideological spectrum viewed self rule as more important than ideology (8).
Unfortunately, the consolidation of the Grand duchy of Poland concurrently with the paralysis of the German Reich led the Poles of Posen and upper Silesia, bolstered by demobilized soldiers and guns smuggled across the border, to act….
(1) Which is what Ludendorff did OTL by insisting on the SPD civilian government being made to sign the armistice. Human nature is to ascribe to others your own motivations, base or otherwise. Not that Ludendorff is necessarily wrong in this case.
(2) And vice verca.
(3) Fun fact- number of Jews in the Bolshevik party in 1917? 350 out of 25,000. 1.3%. Which is about a third of their proportion in the population of the Russian empire even if one includes politically inactive Central Asian Turks. But if you look at the number of those in leadership positions…
(4) OTL both were arrested after an attempt in June to organize a strike. TTL, the earlier "Mega Brusilov" offensive, the generally stronger Position of Russia and the Eastern orientation of combat leads more in the SPD to oppose a strike which would aid "Tsarist AUtocracy". By the time the radicals muster sufficient numbers to organize a credibal strike the war is over.
(5) OTL, he died in Macedonia in Feburary. But the fighting on the Serbian front is far heavier and involves more German troops TTL.
(6) Well ,no. Of course "it can't happen here"
(7) the uncle of nicholas II, now Tsar of all rusians by grace of god and the Brusilov dominated White Junta http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Duke_Nicholas_Nikolaevich_of_Russia_(1856–1929)
(8) Heck, Pilsudki and Dmwoski fought each other in the streets in 1905 OTL but still worked together (sort of) after independence. TTL, of course, The Tsar views Pilsudki as persona non grata but many of his followers recieve amnesty.
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Given OTL, Liberal parlimantary democracy in the fringes of Europe seems likely to undergo a period of crisis at least after TTLs great depression hits. How prolonged and serious it is depends on whether it is abolished in Germany, France, or
I've seen (though never read) this book: Europe of the dictators, 1919-1945 by Elizabeth Wiskemann. The premise is, well, accurate - in that period, dictators ruled at least part of the time in Germany, Italy, Spain (twice), Portugal, Austria, Greece, Romania, Russia, Hungary, arguably Poland...
yboxman
Banned
You can add Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Albania. Royal (or warlord) dictatorships with a co-opted and sometime rival facist movement. The Baltic states were non too democratic either. The exceptions are easier to count. Basically, Czechoslovakia, Switzerland, Scandinavia, the low countries and France were the only holdouts.
France is the crucial state.
It had two points between 1934-1936 which came close to toppling parlimantary rule,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stavisky_Affair, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léon_Blum#First_ministry_.284_June_1936_.E2.80.93_22_June_1937.29.
Both, oddly enough, were linked to Jews and antisemitism. Not sure how an early Israel, a flood of Jewish refugees from Russia, Poland and Romania and (probably) an earlier Spanish civil war would affect those crisises or whether they would be completely butterflied out.
Belgium also had a two fairly significant fascist movements
a. Waloon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rexist_Party.
b. Flemish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flemish_National_Union
If France had gone facist/authoritarian I can see them feeding each other and becoming a major factor.
Sweden had a constitutional crisis at the outbreak of WWI when the king effectively dismissed the Riksdag and appointed a conservative/technocrat government http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtyard_Crisis
If WWI ends early but with Russia and Germany still millitary giants do things cool down
More generally, I think it is fair to say that technology and social developments had combined to present challenges to parlimantary democracy which it found hard to overcome in the 1930s. WWI excaberated the problems but was not it's primary cause. Where universal suffarage met a predominantly agrarian/protelatarian population the result was disastorous. Germany, in this case, was the outlier. It's population was the most educated and advanced in Europe- and yet democracy not only failed but the movement and attitudes which took power were far more radical than their Iberian, Balkan and Italian equivalents.
How things turn out TTL... not sure. I initially thought a conservative Millitary Junta gelding the reichstag after the great depression. But then I started musing on how I would act in HLs place in 1916 and things assumed a life of their own.
yboxman
Banned
Post #31 Dolchstoßlegende
OTL Events:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Poland_Uprising_(1918–19)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Poland_Uprising_(1848)#Role_of_German_militia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Settlement_Commission
Pre WWI attempt to settle Ethnic Germans in Prussia's Polish marchlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Border_Strip
Ludenroff's WWI plan for the annexation of an ethnically cleansed (from 300 thousand Jews as well as 2 million Poles) strip of land in Western and Northern Congress poland at the war's conclusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenish_Republic
Not just a French ploy.
People:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Dmowski Right wing pro-Tsarist and anti-German Polish nationalist leader. Also venomously anti-Semitic and anti-minorities in general.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski Moderate centrist Polish international pianist turned diplomat and first president of the Polish republic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Józef_Piłsudski Pro-Austro/German socialist-nationalist Polish leader and post war leader of poland. Does rather less well TTL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hugenberg Aristo-Nazi. Or something close to it.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NaziNobleman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Strasser Communazi http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CommieNazis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ritter_von_Epp His early patron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler who needs, unfortunately, no introduction
Warsaw castle, August 1917
The former headquarters of the Oberost (1), where a year ago Luddenorf harangued Hindenburg into a putsch retained little of it's former décor. With typical Prussian thoroughness, Hoffman had stripped the office of every transportable amenity, with rather more rigor than he had guarded the German magazines and armories.
Much of the content of those armories had found it's way into the hands of the Pidulskis socialists and even into those of the Bundists, the German minority of congress Poland, and even the Bundists and a wide variety of Jewish self defense groups who had collaborated with the German occupation (2). Scattered sounds of gunfire are a reminder of the legacy of the German occupation.
Igancy paderewski grimaces when he realizes that the Red and White Polish flag, proud emblem of Polish unity in the face of adversity, also bears the marks of the ongoing fighting.
Roman Dmwoski, Chief minister to the newly crowned Grand Duke Maurycy Zamoyski, frowns he notes the shrapnel scars on the flag hanging outside his window. "Hoffman left the Piłsudskites with a few pieces of artillery as well as small arms. They took a potshot at the castle two days ago from within the Jewish quarter. We've taken hostages in reprisal. It won’t happen again. The issue is decided and many of the Piłsudskites have already defected. Now that the Czech legion is fighting with us it is only a matter of time"
"It is time and past time to put this quarrel aside" urged Paderewski.
"The matter is not entirely in my hands. As for myself I would be pleased to accept Pilsudki's submission and confine him to internal exile in Vlnus for a time. But he took up arms against Russia and for Germany. The Tsar wants his head. "
"But don’t you see? While the sons of Poland are spilling each other's blood we are missing what may be the only opportunity we will have for a generation to achieve a truly free and unified Poland! Russia is in turmoil. Germany is in turmoil. Now is the time to make our bid for freedom!"
"Russia and Germany will both recover in time. If Poland is to survive and thrive we must align ourselves with one of those powers. Better Russia, which is of inferior culture and development than Germany. The first will become our market and can never hope to Russianize us. The second has superior culture and development and will make us into either a colony or a German marchland like unto Posen".
"They already hold 5 million of our brothers in bondage! (3). If we put aside our quarrel now then we have a chance of wresting back Western Poland from the Teutons- or at least gaining them autonomy and protection from further germanisation".
Dmwoski sends Paderewski a calculating look. "you've spoken to him, haven't you? Well, where is he, and what is the old thief suggesting?"
"Josef will order his men to recognize you as legitimate ruler of Poland… including his organization in Poznan. In return he asks only for full amnesty for all his subordinates and safe conduct for himself to the Austrian border."
Dmwoski consider for a moment and then nods sharply. "done!"
"And Poznan?"
"I cannot act directly. But if an uprising were to take place at the right time… well, the Tsar would certainly protect us from any unfortunate consequences. And France, of course, might also be persuaded to support us."
"It would help, especially with Britain, if your men were not quite so hard on the Jews (4)"
"The Zhids have Jerusalem. Let them keep it (5). They have no place in Poland. "
"As you say, they have Jerusalem. They will move there of their own accord, or can be encouraged to do so, without the Pogroms you men are perpetuating (6)! Don't you understand that sympathy for our cause in the West depends on distinguishing ourselves from Russian barbarity?"
"I'll remind the men of the need to preserve the good reputation of Poland. But the Zhids and Germans must go! How can we become a true nation while our capitalists, lawyers and professionals are not Polish? We cannot remain a nation of landlords and peasants forever!"
The Lights that failed, Zara Steiner 1998.
The Polish revolt could have come at no worse time for Germany nor better time for Ludendorff. In July Kaiser Wilhelm III, facing a paralyzed national Reichstag, used his role as King of Prussia and the dominance of the conservative, free conservative, and national liberals in the landtag, to announce new elections to the Prussian landtag in accordance with the "Three ranks electoral system". This system, though somewhat more representative than the previous one, not only disenfranchised those who were not members of a Prussian based regiment from the elections but enabled the reserve officers and NCOs of each Prussian regiment to vote for their own quota of representatives in addition to participating in the general elections. More seriously, it buried hopes that universal manhood suffarage would be granted in Prussia and threatened it nationally. For the SPD stalwarts this was the final straw (7). The General strike was no longer deemed sufficient.
In Bavaria, the SPD, led by Kurt Eisner seized control of the Munich municipal government, and led to the flight of the royal family to Nurnberg. The proclamation of the "Free state" of Bavaria was followed by similliar proclamations in Baden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Prussia's own Rhineland province. In Saxony and many of the smaller German states the local monarchial governments struggled to reach compromises or called on Federal forces to aid them in restoring order. Berlin itself became the scene of widespread demonstrations which the regular military was loathe to disperse and which overburdened the resources of the Storm troopers.
Democratic Socialism remains, of course, one of history's untried experiments. If the scattered wave of socialist uprisings had united to overthrow Ludendorff 's veiled military dictatorship what might have occurred? Would Wilhelm III have continued to back suppression if it could be achieved only by wholesale massacre of German citizens? Would the Centrum and liberal parties have joined with the SPD to overthrow the monarchy if he had? And would the result be a true, American style universal suffarage democracy or merely a prelude to the Marxist dictatorship of the Protelatarian? The final possibility, was, of course the boogeyman which Ludendorff and those who followed him used to sway the middle class to their side.
Yet in Germany the middle class remained unpersuaded until the revolutionary wave spread to the Polish marches.
The Greater Poland uprising, like the previous acts of Poland's romatic tragedy, appears to have been largely unplanned, at least by the Poles. While many accusations have filtered up through the years that the uprising was the act of agent provaceatures I have uncovered no evidence, beyond the pure circumstantial, that Ludendorff was more than an opportunist gratefully taking advantage of the developing situation.
The tragic story of Paderewski's final Piano performance in the Poznan orchestra hall is well known. Turning at the conclusion of his masterful performance to salute the citizens of the "grand duchy of Poznan", his words, meant in all likelihood to do no more than raise the statues of Germany's Polish citizens to international attention, were viewed by some of the audience as a signal for general revolt.
The Polish veteran's committee which seized control of Poznan declared the formation of a "Free Grand duchy" united in personal rule with Wilhelm III as emperor of Germany but not as King of Prussia. They further declared a universal suffrage based electoral system and sought to portray their revolt in the context of German progressive revolt against the Prussian Junkers. Ethnic warfare between German millitias and Polish ones, murder of civilians, the destruction of government property, and the westward flows of "volunteers" and arms from Poland, all made a lie of those proclamations and provided political hay for Alferd Huggenberg's Die Gartenlaube. The rapturous calls for the liberation of "Western Poland" in the newspapers of Warsaw, Paris and Tsarist Kiev were disseminated widely to the German public and the arrival of German (8) refugees from Lodz firmly swung German public opinion against the Poles and behind Ludendorff's steps to "restore order" and "Protect the nation" from chaos. The declaration of martial law throughout the German Reich, and the illegalization of the Polish and Danish parties was passed in the Reichstag nearly unaminously.
In the SPD, Ebert called for a temporary hiatus in the strikes until "national freedom was protected in the east". By the time he did, however, he had lost control of both the central organs of the party and, more importantly, of the dynamic situation in the various uprisings throughout the reich.
Socialist strikes and "free state" movements failed to fully abate and radical socialist fringe factions sought to sabotage the announced mobilization by claiming, presciently, that bayonets used to spill the blood of Polish workers would next be turned on German workers.
Using these incidents as an excuse, the Wilhelm III (9) ordered the re-application of the anti-socialist laws of the 1880s as well as the arrest of all known SPD leaders- including the Reichstag representatives.
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
The Reichstag delegates are at a state of near riot when Hindenburg approaches its hollowed chambers.
"Are you quite sure about this Erich?"
"Sure? Of course I am sure Paul. This is the moment. You must show them who is master. Do not be concerned, they will quiet down once you begin speaking"
As Hindenburg approaches the Podium, the cries in the chamber rise rather than decrease. A third of the chamber is empty, the Polish, Dnish and Alsatian delegates are gone now, as are the socialists, arrested over the previous night by detachments of storm troopers. The chamber looks odd with the leftmost section of the seats conscipously empty.
The empty seats do not prevent angry questions from being shouted at him from the ranks of the Progressive liberals and the Centrum, only to be shouted down by the conservative and national liberal delegates. The latter group, and the small Free conservative, German Reich, , German reform, Agrarian league and Bavarian peasent's league represent only 129 out of the 397 members of the full Reichstag. But with the socialists, Poles, Danes and Alsace-Lorraine members arrested or in hiding their allies in the centrum and progressive parties can muster no more than 133 members in opposition. And that opposition is split.
Many of the Centrum and Progressive members remain seated refusing to join in the acrimony between their more liberal party members and their opponents to the right.
When the shouting fails to die down Hindenburg does the only thing he know how to do.
"Alles in Ordnung!", He bellows with his best Drill sergent imitation
The shocked delegates, conditioned by years of military service, very nearly straigten into attention. Before they can recover, ordered ranks of Stormtroopers burst in from the rear entry doors to fill the Reichstag hall- including the empty seats of the socialist delegates.
Into the shocked silence, interspersed with murmurs of discontent, Hindenburg speaks.
"I will now read a statement."
"General's Hoffmans forces have routed the traitorous rebels in the east and are meting out just punishment for their crimes!"
Poznan, September 1917
" Slawen aus! Slawen aus!"
Feldwebel Adolf Hitler bangs his rifle butt furiously against the doorway. His squad, accompanies by local ethnic German millita, have been tasked with clearing this street of all non Germans and he was nothing if not fanatical in carrying out his duties. He had already seen how Slavic treachery had undermined the empire of his birth and had no desire to see his new, adopted homeland, falling to the same curse.
The doors opened hesitantly and the father of the household, hands held high to forestall aggression stepped back from the doorway.
" aus! aus! You and all your family! Take 10 minutes to collect your belongings. After that everyone who remains will be shot!"
"But we are not Poles! My Family is loyal to the Reich!"
Adolf blinked. most Germans had been driven out of theis section of the city during the rebellion and had not yet returned and the man certainly did not look German to him. On the other hand, his home certainly appeared wealthier and better kept than most of those in the neighborhood.
"Papers!"
Quickly the bearded, swarthy man handed over his document. In the corner, his family huddled as Hitler examined the papers.
"Juden."
One of the millita men, assigned to assit in identification spoke up. "Yes, I think I know him. This is Shmuel the doctor. He's not a bad sort. And the Jews did not support the rebellion here"
Hitler spits to the side in disgust, uncertain about his orders. The orders had said nothing about Jews specifically. But surely the Reich would be safer, more healthy, with all Non-Germans gone. Finally he opted for the safer course.
"You can stay… for now. Until I clarify my orders. But remain inside. A curfew is in place"
Ignoring the sputtering thanks of the family, he slams the door shut. Withdrawing his bayonet, he angrily etches a crude star of David on the door. Behind him the millita man nervously chuckles.
Within the home the father comforts his children.
"Aba, where are they sending them? Where are they taking the Poles?"
"To the East, to Warsaw. But it is best not to ask too many questions. It does not matter now, what matters is that we are safe.".
" First they came for the Poles, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Pole."
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
"Likewise, steps have been taken to ensure the security of the Reich's northern borders"
Schleswig, Northern Prussia, September 1917
Northern command General order #1310:
"All Danish and Frissian speaking citizens of the reich are hereby informed of a two month grace period in which they may sell their immovable property to their neighbors or to the General quatermaster's office. They are further offered the opportunity to either resettle within the borders of the Reich, particulary in the Eastern marches where land for cultivation will be made avaliable, or to relocate to Denmark or elsewhere as they choose. Transportation at reduced rates will be made available upon application at the regional offices at…."
Then they came for the Danes, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Dane.
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
"In the south and in the West the Deutsches Heer, with the support of the brave men of the FreiKorps, have proven truimpahnt over the enemies of the Reich and have restored order"
Munich, September 1917
"Aim!"
Franz Ritter Von Epp's shout pierces the chilly autum air. Unlike some of the other members of the firing squad Gregor Strasser does, in fact aim his rifle carefully at the head of the Jew who had attempted to delude the peasants and workers of Bavaria.
"Ready!"
Kurt Eisner had declined the blindfold. His dark, tired eyes fixed themselves on the man he mistakenly identified as his true enemy, trying to force him to watch and take full moral responsibility for his execution.
At the last minute Crown Prince Rupperecht, de facto royal dictator of Bavaria, turns away and Eisner permits his eyes to close and half forgotten words to rise to his lips.
"Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu, …"
"Fire!"
" Adonai Ehad!"
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew."
"Cologne, Prussian Rhineland, September 1917"
"Vater unser im Himmel,"
The echo of the shot barely reaches the site of a second, nearly simultaneous execution.
"geheiligt werde dein Name;"
It is far less public. Konrad Adenaur had far too much support with too many conservative cathlics for that.
"dein Reich komme;"
When the kneeling man completes the opening Stanza of the lords prayer, Ernest Rohm impatiently squeezes the trigger of the Pistol at the back of Adenaur's neck and curses as the spray of blood stains his blouse.
Kicking the body aside he barks at his men.
"Well? What are you waitng for? Gather up the traitor's documents. We'll find out how the French have been paying the Schweinehund!"
"Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Catholic."
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
"In order to destroy the threat to the Vaterland this government has had to take important steps without seeking prior approval by the Reichstag. Seeking such approval publicly would have permitted the enemies of the German people Thus order and law to be preserved had to be breached. I now ask you to remedy this lack, to authorize the steps taken so far, and to recognize the authority of the chancellor, operating with the approval of the Kaiser, to carry out any new steps required to preserve the security of the Reich. Especially, I ask your approval to expunge the Reichstag of the nest of traitors and vampires known as the SPD!"
Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
(1) OTL, Headquarters were in Konigsberg and Poland was administered separately from the Oberost proper. TTL, GT is somewhat less successful leading to much of Courland and Lithuania remaining unoccupied, Austria is far more desperate, making Poland a German occupation zone rather than a co-dominum earlier and Germany places agreater premium on securing Polish cooperation. So oberost HQ is in Warsaw by 1916.
(2) Yet another fun fact- in WWI Jews were without a doubt the most pro-German element in the Russian empire, possibly even more than the Baltic Germans. Between Wilhelm II and Nicholas II there was no hesitation. Makes the whole Nazi attitude even more counter rational than it already was.
(3) More like three million- but like other nationalists Paderewski is "creative" in his counting including Mazurians, Kashubians, Sorbs and German minorities.
(4) OTL Paderewski tried mediating a meeting between the the American Jewish appeal and Dmwoski. It did not go well. When the Jewish representatives tried getting Dmwoski to commit to legal equality for Polish Jews in return for their support for an expanded Polish state he basically told them to go to hell. Later, he would blame a "Jewish conspiracy" for his defeat in the elections and for Poland not receiving all of upper Silesia. He would also come to the conclusion that a Jewish state in Palestine would be a base for world domination in general and subjugation of Poland in Particular.
(5) Like other right wing nationalists at the time Dmwoski was anti-clerical, atheistic and believed in some form of Neopaganism (ancestor worship in his case, The old Norse gods in Luddenorf's ) would be useful in modernizing the Polish nation.
(6) OTL, Dmwoski did not openly condone violence against Polish Jews in order to drive them out. Instead, he advocated economic boycotts, divestments and sanctions. But TTL, instead of merely voting against him in the elections some Polish Jews have the temerity to take arms in favor of first the Germans, and then Pilsudski.
(7) As an indication of how badly the Prussian electoral system excluded the SPD, they only got 10/443 members into the landtag in 1913, compared to 34.8% of the votes and 110/397 of the seats of the 1912 national reichstag election.
(8) And Jewish. Jews are going to find themselves in a VERY uncomfortable position between the rival nationalism and anti-semitism of Dmwoski and Luddendorf
(9) Who by this point is a sock puppet for Hindenburg who is a sock puppet for Luddendorf
OTL Events:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Poland_Uprising_(1918–19)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Poland_Uprising_(1848)#Role_of_German_militia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prussian_Settlement_Commission
Pre WWI attempt to settle Ethnic Germans in Prussia's Polish marchlands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish_Border_Strip
Ludenroff's WWI plan for the annexation of an ethnically cleansed (from 300 thousand Jews as well as 2 million Poles) strip of land in Western and Northern Congress poland at the war's conclusion.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhenish_Republic
Not just a French ploy.
People:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Dmowski Right wing pro-Tsarist and anti-German Polish nationalist leader. Also venomously anti-Semitic and anti-minorities in general.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignacy_Jan_Paderewski Moderate centrist Polish international pianist turned diplomat and first president of the Polish republic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Józef_Piłsudski Pro-Austro/German socialist-nationalist Polish leader and post war leader of poland. Does rather less well TTL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hugenberg Aristo-Nazi. Or something close to it.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NaziNobleman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Strasser Communazi http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CommieNazis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franz_Ritter_von_Epp His early patron
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler who needs, unfortunately, no introduction
Warsaw castle, August 1917
The former headquarters of the Oberost (1), where a year ago Luddenorf harangued Hindenburg into a putsch retained little of it's former décor. With typical Prussian thoroughness, Hoffman had stripped the office of every transportable amenity, with rather more rigor than he had guarded the German magazines and armories.
Much of the content of those armories had found it's way into the hands of the Pidulskis socialists and even into those of the Bundists, the German minority of congress Poland, and even the Bundists and a wide variety of Jewish self defense groups who had collaborated with the German occupation (2). Scattered sounds of gunfire are a reminder of the legacy of the German occupation.
Igancy paderewski grimaces when he realizes that the Red and White Polish flag, proud emblem of Polish unity in the face of adversity, also bears the marks of the ongoing fighting.
Roman Dmwoski, Chief minister to the newly crowned Grand Duke Maurycy Zamoyski, frowns he notes the shrapnel scars on the flag hanging outside his window. "Hoffman left the Piłsudskites with a few pieces of artillery as well as small arms. They took a potshot at the castle two days ago from within the Jewish quarter. We've taken hostages in reprisal. It won’t happen again. The issue is decided and many of the Piłsudskites have already defected. Now that the Czech legion is fighting with us it is only a matter of time"
"It is time and past time to put this quarrel aside" urged Paderewski.
"The matter is not entirely in my hands. As for myself I would be pleased to accept Pilsudki's submission and confine him to internal exile in Vlnus for a time. But he took up arms against Russia and for Germany. The Tsar wants his head. "
"But don’t you see? While the sons of Poland are spilling each other's blood we are missing what may be the only opportunity we will have for a generation to achieve a truly free and unified Poland! Russia is in turmoil. Germany is in turmoil. Now is the time to make our bid for freedom!"
"Russia and Germany will both recover in time. If Poland is to survive and thrive we must align ourselves with one of those powers. Better Russia, which is of inferior culture and development than Germany. The first will become our market and can never hope to Russianize us. The second has superior culture and development and will make us into either a colony or a German marchland like unto Posen".
"They already hold 5 million of our brothers in bondage! (3). If we put aside our quarrel now then we have a chance of wresting back Western Poland from the Teutons- or at least gaining them autonomy and protection from further germanisation".
Dmwoski sends Paderewski a calculating look. "you've spoken to him, haven't you? Well, where is he, and what is the old thief suggesting?"
"Josef will order his men to recognize you as legitimate ruler of Poland… including his organization in Poznan. In return he asks only for full amnesty for all his subordinates and safe conduct for himself to the Austrian border."
Dmwoski consider for a moment and then nods sharply. "done!"
"And Poznan?"
"I cannot act directly. But if an uprising were to take place at the right time… well, the Tsar would certainly protect us from any unfortunate consequences. And France, of course, might also be persuaded to support us."
"It would help, especially with Britain, if your men were not quite so hard on the Jews (4)"
"The Zhids have Jerusalem. Let them keep it (5). They have no place in Poland. "
"As you say, they have Jerusalem. They will move there of their own accord, or can be encouraged to do so, without the Pogroms you men are perpetuating (6)! Don't you understand that sympathy for our cause in the West depends on distinguishing ourselves from Russian barbarity?"
"I'll remind the men of the need to preserve the good reputation of Poland. But the Zhids and Germans must go! How can we become a true nation while our capitalists, lawyers and professionals are not Polish? We cannot remain a nation of landlords and peasants forever!"
The Lights that failed, Zara Steiner 1998.
The Polish revolt could have come at no worse time for Germany nor better time for Ludendorff. In July Kaiser Wilhelm III, facing a paralyzed national Reichstag, used his role as King of Prussia and the dominance of the conservative, free conservative, and national liberals in the landtag, to announce new elections to the Prussian landtag in accordance with the "Three ranks electoral system". This system, though somewhat more representative than the previous one, not only disenfranchised those who were not members of a Prussian based regiment from the elections but enabled the reserve officers and NCOs of each Prussian regiment to vote for their own quota of representatives in addition to participating in the general elections. More seriously, it buried hopes that universal manhood suffarage would be granted in Prussia and threatened it nationally. For the SPD stalwarts this was the final straw (7). The General strike was no longer deemed sufficient.
In Bavaria, the SPD, led by Kurt Eisner seized control of the Munich municipal government, and led to the flight of the royal family to Nurnberg. The proclamation of the "Free state" of Bavaria was followed by similliar proclamations in Baden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Prussia's own Rhineland province. In Saxony and many of the smaller German states the local monarchial governments struggled to reach compromises or called on Federal forces to aid them in restoring order. Berlin itself became the scene of widespread demonstrations which the regular military was loathe to disperse and which overburdened the resources of the Storm troopers.
Democratic Socialism remains, of course, one of history's untried experiments. If the scattered wave of socialist uprisings had united to overthrow Ludendorff 's veiled military dictatorship what might have occurred? Would Wilhelm III have continued to back suppression if it could be achieved only by wholesale massacre of German citizens? Would the Centrum and liberal parties have joined with the SPD to overthrow the monarchy if he had? And would the result be a true, American style universal suffarage democracy or merely a prelude to the Marxist dictatorship of the Protelatarian? The final possibility, was, of course the boogeyman which Ludendorff and those who followed him used to sway the middle class to their side.
Yet in Germany the middle class remained unpersuaded until the revolutionary wave spread to the Polish marches.
The Greater Poland uprising, like the previous acts of Poland's romatic tragedy, appears to have been largely unplanned, at least by the Poles. While many accusations have filtered up through the years that the uprising was the act of agent provaceatures I have uncovered no evidence, beyond the pure circumstantial, that Ludendorff was more than an opportunist gratefully taking advantage of the developing situation.
The tragic story of Paderewski's final Piano performance in the Poznan orchestra hall is well known. Turning at the conclusion of his masterful performance to salute the citizens of the "grand duchy of Poznan", his words, meant in all likelihood to do no more than raise the statues of Germany's Polish citizens to international attention, were viewed by some of the audience as a signal for general revolt.
The Polish veteran's committee which seized control of Poznan declared the formation of a "Free Grand duchy" united in personal rule with Wilhelm III as emperor of Germany but not as King of Prussia. They further declared a universal suffrage based electoral system and sought to portray their revolt in the context of German progressive revolt against the Prussian Junkers. Ethnic warfare between German millitias and Polish ones, murder of civilians, the destruction of government property, and the westward flows of "volunteers" and arms from Poland, all made a lie of those proclamations and provided political hay for Alferd Huggenberg's Die Gartenlaube. The rapturous calls for the liberation of "Western Poland" in the newspapers of Warsaw, Paris and Tsarist Kiev were disseminated widely to the German public and the arrival of German (8) refugees from Lodz firmly swung German public opinion against the Poles and behind Ludendorff's steps to "restore order" and "Protect the nation" from chaos. The declaration of martial law throughout the German Reich, and the illegalization of the Polish and Danish parties was passed in the Reichstag nearly unaminously.
In the SPD, Ebert called for a temporary hiatus in the strikes until "national freedom was protected in the east". By the time he did, however, he had lost control of both the central organs of the party and, more importantly, of the dynamic situation in the various uprisings throughout the reich.
Socialist strikes and "free state" movements failed to fully abate and radical socialist fringe factions sought to sabotage the announced mobilization by claiming, presciently, that bayonets used to spill the blood of Polish workers would next be turned on German workers.
Using these incidents as an excuse, the Wilhelm III (9) ordered the re-application of the anti-socialist laws of the 1880s as well as the arrest of all known SPD leaders- including the Reichstag representatives.
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
The Reichstag delegates are at a state of near riot when Hindenburg approaches its hollowed chambers.
"Are you quite sure about this Erich?"
"Sure? Of course I am sure Paul. This is the moment. You must show them who is master. Do not be concerned, they will quiet down once you begin speaking"
As Hindenburg approaches the Podium, the cries in the chamber rise rather than decrease. A third of the chamber is empty, the Polish, Dnish and Alsatian delegates are gone now, as are the socialists, arrested over the previous night by detachments of storm troopers. The chamber looks odd with the leftmost section of the seats conscipously empty.
The empty seats do not prevent angry questions from being shouted at him from the ranks of the Progressive liberals and the Centrum, only to be shouted down by the conservative and national liberal delegates. The latter group, and the small Free conservative, German Reich, , German reform, Agrarian league and Bavarian peasent's league represent only 129 out of the 397 members of the full Reichstag. But with the socialists, Poles, Danes and Alsace-Lorraine members arrested or in hiding their allies in the centrum and progressive parties can muster no more than 133 members in opposition. And that opposition is split.
Many of the Centrum and Progressive members remain seated refusing to join in the acrimony between their more liberal party members and their opponents to the right.
When the shouting fails to die down Hindenburg does the only thing he know how to do.
"Alles in Ordnung!", He bellows with his best Drill sergent imitation
The shocked delegates, conditioned by years of military service, very nearly straigten into attention. Before they can recover, ordered ranks of Stormtroopers burst in from the rear entry doors to fill the Reichstag hall- including the empty seats of the socialist delegates.
Into the shocked silence, interspersed with murmurs of discontent, Hindenburg speaks.
"I will now read a statement."
"General's Hoffmans forces have routed the traitorous rebels in the east and are meting out just punishment for their crimes!"
Poznan, September 1917
" Slawen aus! Slawen aus!"
Feldwebel Adolf Hitler bangs his rifle butt furiously against the doorway. His squad, accompanies by local ethnic German millita, have been tasked with clearing this street of all non Germans and he was nothing if not fanatical in carrying out his duties. He had already seen how Slavic treachery had undermined the empire of his birth and had no desire to see his new, adopted homeland, falling to the same curse.
The doors opened hesitantly and the father of the household, hands held high to forestall aggression stepped back from the doorway.
" aus! aus! You and all your family! Take 10 minutes to collect your belongings. After that everyone who remains will be shot!"
"But we are not Poles! My Family is loyal to the Reich!"
Adolf blinked. most Germans had been driven out of theis section of the city during the rebellion and had not yet returned and the man certainly did not look German to him. On the other hand, his home certainly appeared wealthier and better kept than most of those in the neighborhood.
"Papers!"
Quickly the bearded, swarthy man handed over his document. In the corner, his family huddled as Hitler examined the papers.
"Juden."
One of the millita men, assigned to assit in identification spoke up. "Yes, I think I know him. This is Shmuel the doctor. He's not a bad sort. And the Jews did not support the rebellion here"
Hitler spits to the side in disgust, uncertain about his orders. The orders had said nothing about Jews specifically. But surely the Reich would be safer, more healthy, with all Non-Germans gone. Finally he opted for the safer course.
"You can stay… for now. Until I clarify my orders. But remain inside. A curfew is in place"
Ignoring the sputtering thanks of the family, he slams the door shut. Withdrawing his bayonet, he angrily etches a crude star of David on the door. Behind him the millita man nervously chuckles.
Within the home the father comforts his children.
"Aba, where are they sending them? Where are they taking the Poles?"
"To the East, to Warsaw. But it is best not to ask too many questions. It does not matter now, what matters is that we are safe.".
" First they came for the Poles, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Pole."
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
"Likewise, steps have been taken to ensure the security of the Reich's northern borders"
Schleswig, Northern Prussia, September 1917
Northern command General order #1310:
"All Danish and Frissian speaking citizens of the reich are hereby informed of a two month grace period in which they may sell their immovable property to their neighbors or to the General quatermaster's office. They are further offered the opportunity to either resettle within the borders of the Reich, particulary in the Eastern marches where land for cultivation will be made avaliable, or to relocate to Denmark or elsewhere as they choose. Transportation at reduced rates will be made available upon application at the regional offices at…."
Then they came for the Danes, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Dane.
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
"In the south and in the West the Deutsches Heer, with the support of the brave men of the FreiKorps, have proven truimpahnt over the enemies of the Reich and have restored order"
Munich, September 1917
"Aim!"
Franz Ritter Von Epp's shout pierces the chilly autum air. Unlike some of the other members of the firing squad Gregor Strasser does, in fact aim his rifle carefully at the head of the Jew who had attempted to delude the peasants and workers of Bavaria.
"Ready!"
Kurt Eisner had declined the blindfold. His dark, tired eyes fixed themselves on the man he mistakenly identified as his true enemy, trying to force him to watch and take full moral responsibility for his execution.
At the last minute Crown Prince Rupperecht, de facto royal dictator of Bavaria, turns away and Eisner permits his eyes to close and half forgotten words to rise to his lips.
"Shema Israel Adonai Eloheinu, …"
"Fire!"
" Adonai Ehad!"
"Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew."
"Cologne, Prussian Rhineland, September 1917"
"Vater unser im Himmel,"
The echo of the shot barely reaches the site of a second, nearly simultaneous execution.
"geheiligt werde dein Name;"
It is far less public. Konrad Adenaur had far too much support with too many conservative cathlics for that.
"dein Reich komme;"
When the kneeling man completes the opening Stanza of the lords prayer, Ernest Rohm impatiently squeezes the trigger of the Pistol at the back of Adenaur's neck and curses as the spray of blood stains his blouse.
Kicking the body aside he barks at his men.
"Well? What are you waitng for? Gather up the traitor's documents. We'll find out how the French have been paying the Schweinehund!"
"Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Catholic."
Berlin, the Reichstag, October 1917
"In order to destroy the threat to the Vaterland this government has had to take important steps without seeking prior approval by the Reichstag. Seeking such approval publicly would have permitted the enemies of the German people Thus order and law to be preserved had to be breached. I now ask you to remedy this lack, to authorize the steps taken so far, and to recognize the authority of the chancellor, operating with the approval of the Kaiser, to carry out any new steps required to preserve the security of the Reich. Especially, I ask your approval to expunge the Reichstag of the nest of traitors and vampires known as the SPD!"
Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
(1) OTL, Headquarters were in Konigsberg and Poland was administered separately from the Oberost proper. TTL, GT is somewhat less successful leading to much of Courland and Lithuania remaining unoccupied, Austria is far more desperate, making Poland a German occupation zone rather than a co-dominum earlier and Germany places agreater premium on securing Polish cooperation. So oberost HQ is in Warsaw by 1916.
(2) Yet another fun fact- in WWI Jews were without a doubt the most pro-German element in the Russian empire, possibly even more than the Baltic Germans. Between Wilhelm II and Nicholas II there was no hesitation. Makes the whole Nazi attitude even more counter rational than it already was.
(3) More like three million- but like other nationalists Paderewski is "creative" in his counting including Mazurians, Kashubians, Sorbs and German minorities.
(4) OTL Paderewski tried mediating a meeting between the the American Jewish appeal and Dmwoski. It did not go well. When the Jewish representatives tried getting Dmwoski to commit to legal equality for Polish Jews in return for their support for an expanded Polish state he basically told them to go to hell. Later, he would blame a "Jewish conspiracy" for his defeat in the elections and for Poland not receiving all of upper Silesia. He would also come to the conclusion that a Jewish state in Palestine would be a base for world domination in general and subjugation of Poland in Particular.
(5) Like other right wing nationalists at the time Dmwoski was anti-clerical, atheistic and believed in some form of Neopaganism (ancestor worship in his case, The old Norse gods in Luddenorf's ) would be useful in modernizing the Polish nation.
(6) OTL, Dmwoski did not openly condone violence against Polish Jews in order to drive them out. Instead, he advocated economic boycotts, divestments and sanctions. But TTL, instead of merely voting against him in the elections some Polish Jews have the temerity to take arms in favor of first the Germans, and then Pilsudski.
(7) As an indication of how badly the Prussian electoral system excluded the SPD, they only got 10/443 members into the landtag in 1913, compared to 34.8% of the votes and 110/397 of the seats of the 1912 national reichstag election.
(8) And Jewish. Jews are going to find themselves in a VERY uncomfortable position between the rival nationalism and anti-semitism of Dmwoski and Luddendorf
(9) Who by this point is a sock puppet for Hindenburg who is a sock puppet for Luddendorf
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I like how you interspersed the various incidents of repression with the "first they came for the Jews..." bits from Niemoller.
Good update. Dark, but good.
Good update. Dark, but good.
yboxman
Banned
Thanks- it's a dark period, OTL and TTL (though TTL will probably tend be more dark grey and longer). Is it plausible/likely though? always open to retroconning.
Grim stuff. But very interesting.
Two very minor nitpicks. Dmowski's associate Count Maurycy Zamoyski would be more likely to receive the post as opposed to Dwomski himself. By the way, why is Poland formally a grand duchy instead of a kingdom?
Hmm. Dmowski himself was hardly a devout catholic, but I haven't heard about him embracing neopaganism, especially not as the road to future for Poland. He is the man who, in 1927, wrote: " drawing the [Polish] nation away from religion and the Church would destroy the nation's very essence".
Dmowski condoning physical violence beyond pacifying the insurgents, as opposed to the usual boycotts, would indeed be a major change from OTL and I don't think it would be likely (although, due to the very nature of civil wars, even actions intended strictly to crush insurgents would be quite unpleasant)... Unless something truly dramatic such as, to chose a random example, the sudden influx of several million additional Poles into the already densly-populated area were to take place - after such a turn of events it's impossible to predict what happens.
The uprising seems a bit contrived since it comes after the peace to end all peace settles the final borders. But if it were to take place before the final peace treaty (as in OTL), only for the treaty to leave the border between Russia and Germany virtually unchanged...
I wonder what the international reaction to such barbarism closer to the middle of Europe then Turkey is will be. Can the Russian Empire at large avoid immediate serious consequences from the arrival of a wave of expellees, especially in its current state? Presumably we'll find out soon enough.
Two very minor nitpicks. Dmowski's associate Count Maurycy Zamoyski would be more likely to receive the post as opposed to Dwomski himself. By the way, why is Poland formally a grand duchy instead of a kingdom?
Hmm. Dmowski himself was hardly a devout catholic, but I haven't heard about him embracing neopaganism, especially not as the road to future for Poland. He is the man who, in 1927, wrote: " drawing the [Polish] nation away from religion and the Church would destroy the nation's very essence".
Dmowski condoning physical violence beyond pacifying the insurgents, as opposed to the usual boycotts, would indeed be a major change from OTL and I don't think it would be likely (although, due to the very nature of civil wars, even actions intended strictly to crush insurgents would be quite unpleasant)... Unless something truly dramatic such as, to chose a random example, the sudden influx of several million additional Poles into the already densly-populated area were to take place - after such a turn of events it's impossible to predict what happens.
The uprising seems a bit contrived since it comes after the peace to end all peace settles the final borders. But if it were to take place before the final peace treaty (as in OTL), only for the treaty to leave the border between Russia and Germany virtually unchanged...
I wonder what the international reaction to such barbarism closer to the middle of Europe then Turkey is will be. Can the Russian Empire at large avoid immediate serious consequences from the arrival of a wave of expellees, especially in its current state? Presumably we'll find out soon enough.
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yboxman
Banned
Poland
Mostly because it was, like Finalnd, a grand duchy in 1830 and because a kingdom has associations of a formal independece and an independent foreign policy and Army (like Bavaria).
Zamoyski does look like a more likely candidate (he has the proper social background)- I'll make dmwoski his chief minister.
He assumed a more conventional public facade, like Mussolini and Maurras (or Hitler for that matter), after becoming a conventional politician. He will do the same TTL. I'll admit my source in all this is wikipedia, there seems to be relatively little English language literture on Dmwoski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Dmowski#Death. And I take it it was'nt exactly slavic neopaganism, more like a worship of the state/nation/national heroes.
Thing is, OTL Dmwoski never actually got his hands dirty with the business of engaging in Civil war (unless you count his tussle with Pilsudski in 1905) or, to the best of my knowledge, any field command. TTL he stayed in Russia and commanded his own "Polish Legions" (composed mostly of Austrian and German captives. Getting Western supplies makes Russia more susceptible to Western pressure) - and then had to use them to fight his own people. Also, unlike Pilduski, who depended on the votes of the minorites to solidify his position in post war Poland, Dmwoski has the opposite imperative. Still, I've left it vague whether he is actually ordering anti-German and anti-Jewish persecution or whether he is looking the other way when it happens.
Something like that is exactly what Luddendorf is doing in Posen. That would almost certainly result in the expulsion of the German minority of Lodz- and once people of one nation start being expelled other vulnerable minorities (as the gypsies found in Kosovo) are also likely to get the sharp end of the stick.
If it seems contrived I'm open to retroconning. The rationale is that:
a. Russia and Germany are both undergoing attempted revolutions which are paralyzing government and much of the millitary.
b. The uprisings formal aims are no more than what the Rhineland and other German progressives are demanding (separate their province from Prussia but not Germany and adopt a progressive electoral system). So even Poles who wish to remain part of the Reich feel as if they are not "really" burning their bridges.
c. The inability of Dmwoski to exert complete control over Posen partisans. he just won his own civil war when the German-Posen insurgency starts.
makes sense?
If not my thought was The borders have indeed already been settled by Septermber 1917. Unlike OTL, there are no long, drawn out negotiations which are carried out while Central and Eastern Europe are falling apart. The uprisings only start after the peace is signed and demobilization, winter shortages and demands for change by empowered working class vetrans combine to cause instability.
Outraged in France, overwhelmed in Russia and "This is really terrible but can we finally get the war over with and get back to business? Besides the Germans are no worse than the Russians and the Poles themselves, really" in Britian. I'll grant that the state of mind in TTL' 1917 is not quite as inured to this sort of thing as it was when Stalin engineered Eastern Europes second "great movement of people" but it's been a long, demoralizing war. I can't see the brits going back into the Trenches for the sake of "a far off place whose name one can barely pronounce". Given the state of unrest in Russia and Britian's "the balance of power is restored so leave us out of it" attitude France is basically left holding the bag. The state of the French army may be a bit better than OTL in 1917 but if it tries re-mobilizing for invasion of the rhineland when Germany's army is sstill intact and germany has not violated it's commitments to the treaty (no minority clause ITTL's peace)... well, hell and mutiny may very well break loose. One possible outcome is reprisals against the german minority in Poland proper and East Galicia (certain), Russia's baltic provinces (iffy. They are a mainspring of support to the reaction in Russia), the Ukraine and the Volga. Another is French expulsions of Germans who settled in AL since 1870.
I'll deal with the french political scene, and international reactions to the crisis in the next post, which will be centered on the reconvened second international in Bern. What happens when you put Leon Blum, Lev Trotsky, Rosa Luxembourg and our very own Ber Borochov accompanied by a promising young aide in the same room to discuss international affairs and the future of socialism? stay posted and find out.
The immediate reaction of the Russian empire is "not our problem- that's why you have an autonomous grand duchy and we didn't ask you to rebel against the Kaiser while we were busy crushing the Reds. Why couldn't you wait?". Some effort to resettle expelled Poles in the Volga land (is the Germans are expelled), the Northern caucaus, Central Asia, Siberia and North Manchuria (still a russian sphere of uinfluence and one they wish to safeguard against Japan) seems likely. Nicholas III, who was once Grand duke of Poland, may even be nice and give Poland the rest of East Galicia and maybe a slice of white Russia/Lithuania. Probably not though- it would get his own nationalists up in an uproar. The attitude of Russia towards the Polish dependency in general is decidely ambiguous- they have a chance of rebooting three generations of botched relations with the Polish nation. Unfortunately, this Being Russsia they are likely to botch this as well
Mostly because it was, like Finalnd, a grand duchy in 1830 and because a kingdom has associations of a formal independece and an independent foreign policy and Army (like Bavaria).
Zamoyski does look like a more likely candidate (he has the proper social background)- I'll make dmwoski his chief minister.
He assumed a more conventional public facade, like Mussolini and Maurras (or Hitler for that matter), after becoming a conventional politician. He will do the same TTL. I'll admit my source in all this is wikipedia, there seems to be relatively little English language literture on Dmwoski http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Dmowski#Death. And I take it it was'nt exactly slavic neopaganism, more like a worship of the state/nation/national heroes.
Thing is, OTL Dmwoski never actually got his hands dirty with the business of engaging in Civil war (unless you count his tussle with Pilsudski in 1905) or, to the best of my knowledge, any field command. TTL he stayed in Russia and commanded his own "Polish Legions" (composed mostly of Austrian and German captives. Getting Western supplies makes Russia more susceptible to Western pressure) - and then had to use them to fight his own people. Also, unlike Pilduski, who depended on the votes of the minorites to solidify his position in post war Poland, Dmwoski has the opposite imperative. Still, I've left it vague whether he is actually ordering anti-German and anti-Jewish persecution or whether he is looking the other way when it happens.
Something like that is exactly what Luddendorf is doing in Posen. That would almost certainly result in the expulsion of the German minority of Lodz- and once people of one nation start being expelled other vulnerable minorities (as the gypsies found in Kosovo) are also likely to get the sharp end of the stick.
If it seems contrived I'm open to retroconning. The rationale is that:
a. Russia and Germany are both undergoing attempted revolutions which are paralyzing government and much of the millitary.
b. The uprisings formal aims are no more than what the Rhineland and other German progressives are demanding (separate their province from Prussia but not Germany and adopt a progressive electoral system). So even Poles who wish to remain part of the Reich feel as if they are not "really" burning their bridges.
c. The inability of Dmwoski to exert complete control over Posen partisans. he just won his own civil war when the German-Posen insurgency starts.
makes sense?
If not my thought was The borders have indeed already been settled by Septermber 1917. Unlike OTL, there are no long, drawn out negotiations which are carried out while Central and Eastern Europe are falling apart. The uprisings only start after the peace is signed and demobilization, winter shortages and demands for change by empowered working class vetrans combine to cause instability.
Outraged in France, overwhelmed in Russia and "This is really terrible but can we finally get the war over with and get back to business? Besides the Germans are no worse than the Russians and the Poles themselves, really" in Britian. I'll grant that the state of mind in TTL' 1917 is not quite as inured to this sort of thing as it was when Stalin engineered Eastern Europes second "great movement of people" but it's been a long, demoralizing war. I can't see the brits going back into the Trenches for the sake of "a far off place whose name one can barely pronounce". Given the state of unrest in Russia and Britian's "the balance of power is restored so leave us out of it" attitude France is basically left holding the bag. The state of the French army may be a bit better than OTL in 1917 but if it tries re-mobilizing for invasion of the rhineland when Germany's army is sstill intact and germany has not violated it's commitments to the treaty (no minority clause ITTL's peace)... well, hell and mutiny may very well break loose. One possible outcome is reprisals against the german minority in Poland proper and East Galicia (certain), Russia's baltic provinces (iffy. They are a mainspring of support to the reaction in Russia), the Ukraine and the Volga. Another is French expulsions of Germans who settled in AL since 1870.
I'll deal with the french political scene, and international reactions to the crisis in the next post, which will be centered on the reconvened second international in Bern. What happens when you put Leon Blum, Lev Trotsky, Rosa Luxembourg and our very own Ber Borochov accompanied by a promising young aide in the same room to discuss international affairs and the future of socialism? stay posted and find out.
The immediate reaction of the Russian empire is "not our problem- that's why you have an autonomous grand duchy and we didn't ask you to rebel against the Kaiser while we were busy crushing the Reds. Why couldn't you wait?". Some effort to resettle expelled Poles in the Volga land (is the Germans are expelled), the Northern caucaus, Central Asia, Siberia and North Manchuria (still a russian sphere of uinfluence and one they wish to safeguard against Japan) seems likely. Nicholas III, who was once Grand duke of Poland, may even be nice and give Poland the rest of East Galicia and maybe a slice of white Russia/Lithuania. Probably not though- it would get his own nationalists up in an uproar. The attitude of Russia towards the Polish dependency in general is decidely ambiguous- they have a chance of rebooting three generations of botched relations with the Polish nation. Unfortunately, this Being Russsia they are likely to botch this as well
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To the best of my (limited) knowledge he didn't really worship anything in particular before his final years. Perhaps some of our other Polish members might know more details.
Now that you put it this way, it sounds more plausible. I missed the mention of somewhat similar events in the Rhineland and underestimated the general level of paralysis Germany was undergoing.
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yboxman
Banned
Damn, another Retcon
I had thought that only Karl Liebknecht was arrested in June 1916 after the sparticist attempt to organize a general strike. Turns out Rosa Luxemburg was as well.
I can have them both in prison or both free (No strike attempt since Germany seems to be in danger from the Tsar after the Brusilov offensive?) but it makes no sense for her to be out and him to be in. Will correct.
I had thought that only Karl Liebknecht was arrested in June 1916 after the sparticist attempt to organize a general strike. Turns out Rosa Luxemburg was as well.
I can have them both in prison or both free (No strike attempt since Germany seems to be in danger from the Tsar after the Brusilov offensive?) but it makes no sense for her to be out and him to be in. Will correct.
yboxman
Banned
Post #32: The Philosemite
Previous post corrected- now for an analysis of Jewish affairs by the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill. The original, only slightly modified ITTL, can be found here http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Zionism_versus_Bolshevism. The old adage that the Philosemite is an anti-Semite who happens to like Jews never seemed quite so apt.
A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People
By the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill.
SOME people like Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.
Disraeli, the Jew Prime Minister of England, and Leader of the Conservative Party, who was always true to his race and proud of his origin, said on a well-known occasion: "The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews." Certainly when we look at the travails of Russia, where of all countries in the world the Jews were the most cruelly treated, and contrast it with the fortunes of our own country, which seems to have been so providentially preserved amid the awful perils of these times, we must admit that nothing that has since happened in the history of the world has falsified the truth of Disraeli's confident assertion.
Good and Bad Jews
The conflict between good and evil which proceeds unceasingly in the breast of man nowhere reaches such an intensity as in the Jewish race. The dual nature of mankind is nowhere more strongly or more terribly exemplified. We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization.
And it may well be that this same astounding race may at the present time be in the actual process of producing another system of morals and philosophy, as malevolent as Christianity was benevolent, which, if not arrested, would shatter irretrievably all that Christianity has rendered possible. It would almost seem as if the gospel of Christ and the gospel of Antichrist were destined to originate among the same people; and that this mystic and mysterious race had been chosen for the supreme manifestations, both of the divine and the diabolical.
'National' Jews
There can be no greater mistake than to attribute to each individual a recognizable share in the qualities which make up the national character. There are all sorts of men -- good, bad and, for the most part, indifferent -- in every country, and in every race. Nothing is more wrong than to deny to an individual, on account of race or origin, his right to be judged on his personal merits and conduct. In a people of peculiar genius like the Jews, contrasts are more vivid, the extremes are more widely separated, the resulting consequences are more decisive.
At the present fateful period there are three main lines of political conception among the Jews. two of which are helpful and hopeful in a very high degree to humanity, and the third absolutely destructive.
First there are the Jews who, dwelling in every country throughout the world, identify themselves with that country, enter into its national life and, while adhering faithfully to their own religion, regard themselves as citizens in the fullest sense of the State which has received them. Such a Jew living in England would say, "I am an English man practising the Jewish faith." This is a worthy conception, and useful in the highest degree. We in Great Britain well know that during the great struggle the influence of what may be called the "National Jews" in many lands was cast preponderatingly on the side of the Allies; and in our own Army, as well as the Maccabee Corps Auxilaries, Jewish soldiers have played a most distinguished part, some rising to the command of armies, others winning the Victoria Cross for valour.
The National Russian Jews, in spite of the disabilities under which they have suffered, have managed to play an honorable and useful part in the national life even of Russia. As bankers and industrialists they have strenuously promoted the development of Russia's economic resources, and they were foremost in the creation of those remarkable organizations, the Russian Co-operative Societies. In politics their support has been given, for the most part, to liberal and progressive movements, and they have been among the staunchest upholder of friendship with France and Great Britain.
International Jews
In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt (1) to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), Emma Goldman (United States), and Leon Blum (France), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely recognizable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have attempted, in close coordination, to overthrow the great houses of the Romanoff's, Habsburgs, Hohenzollern and Savoy and replace them with a vast Eurasian federation controlled by themselves. They have played a role too in our very own Britain in the campaign to demand equal rights to those who have failed to heed the call of duty and in France in the assaults on Private property (2).
Terrorist Jews
There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of these international and for the most part atheistical Jews, in forming this international conspiracy. It is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. In St Petersburg the key figures in bringing the Menshevik and Bolshevik factions of the Marxist revolutionaries together into a common front was that of Trotsky, Zinovieff and Kaminiev. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders. Thus Tchitcherin, a pure Russian, is eclipsed by his nominal subordinate Litvinoff and the influence of Russians like Bukharin or Lunacharski cannot be compared with the power of Trotsky, or of Zinovieff, the Dictator of the Red Citadel (Petrograd) or of Krassin or Radek -- all Jews. In Germany it is Kurt Eisner who raised the standard of Socialist Rebellion against the government in Bavaria and Rosa Luxembourg who yet manages the dying embers of rebellion throughout Germany. And in the still unstable empire of Suastria-Hungary it is Bela-Kun who stands prominent in agitation for an overturn of the existing system of government in Budapest.
Their attempts, for now, appear to have met with abject failure. The great war, with all of it's regal tragedy, has enabled the forces of order of every country to shift the pure metal from the base and to turn the heroes of the great struggle upon the agents of chaos who had sought to capitalize upon it for their own nefarious aims.
Romanov and Hohenzollern, Savoy and Habsburg, now sit secure on the throne, albeit by using methods appropriate to centuries past rather than this enligtened age. Barbarity breeds barbarity and the would be revolutionaries have turned back to their roots, utilizing assassination, bombings and terror to disrupt government throughout the continent.
Unfortunately, in their zeal to drive out the rot, Many innocent Jews, as well as atheist revolutionaries, have been put to the sword, raising a grim prospect.
'Protectors of the Jews'
Where their writ runs and authority are respected, Wilhelm III, Nicholas Romanov (who may well yet prove one day to be the third of his name as well), and Roman Dmwosky have sought to alleviate the ineveitable retribution levied upon the kin of the revolutionaries.
These efforts have met with decidedly mixed results for, needless to say, the most intense passions of revenge have been excited in the breasts of the Russian, Polish and German people. The bands of brigands by whom the whole vast expanse of the Russian Empire had become infested did not hesitate to gratify their lust for blood and for revenge at the expense of the innocent Jewish population whenever an opportunity occurs. The brigands Makhno, Petlura and of Gregorieff, who signalized their every success by the most brutal massacres, everywhere found among the half-stupefied, half-infuriated population an eager response to anti-Semitism in its worst and foulest forms.
In Poland and Posen, where socialist revolution has fused with German-Polish race hatred, it all too often the Jews who have found themselves caught in the middle as the ongoing tragedy of the nationless refugees on the border between these nations.
The fact that in many cases Jewish interests and Jewish places of worship were excepted by the Social democrats from their universal hostility has tended more and more to associate the Jewish race in Russia with the villainies, which are now being perpetrated. This is an injustice on millions of helpless people, most of whom were themselves targeted as class enemies by the revolutionary movements. It becomes, therefore, specially important to foster and develop any strongly-marked Jewish movement which leads directly away from these fatal associations. And it is here that Zionism has such a deep significance for the whole world at the present time.
A Home for the Jews
Zionism offers the third sphere to the political conceptions of the Jewish race. In violent contrast to international communism, it presents to the Jew a national idea of a commanding character. it has fallen to the British Government, as the result of the prescient settlement of the Sinai and the swift conquest of Palestine, to have the opportunity and the responsibility of securing for the Jewish race all over the world the swift development of their center of national life.
Of course, Palestine is far too small to accommodate more than a fraction of the Jewish race, nor do the majority of national Jews in the more developed nations of Europe wish to go there. But if, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which might comprise three or four millions of Russian and Polish Jews, an event would have occurred in the history of the world which would, from every point of view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.
Furthermore, given the state of French wartime debt, is it not reasonable to expect that the prodigious energies of the Hebrew race, once the Jordan is developed, might not be turned towards purchasing the vague suzerainty our ally professes over the notorious Djemal Pasha and extending the writ of the Hebrew nation to the full extension of the Historic Empire of David and Solomon (2)?
Duty of Loyal Jews
It is particularly important in these circumstances that the national Jews in every country who are loyal to the land of their adoption should come forward on every occasion, as many of them in England have already done, and take a prominent part in every measure for combating the Bolshevik conspiracy. In this way they will be able to vindicate the honor of the Jewish name and make it clear to all the world that the Bolshevik movement is not a Jewish movement, but is repudiated vehemently by the great mass of the Jewish race (3).
But a negative resistance to Bolshevism in any field is not enough. Positive and practicable alternatives are needed in the moral as well as in the social sphere; and in building up with the utmost possible rapidity a Jewish national centre in Palestine which may become not only a refuge to the oppressed from the unhappy lands of Eastern Europe, but which will also be a symbol of Jewish unity and the temple of Jewish glory, a task is presented on which many blessings rest.
A Struggle for the soul of the Jewish people
Zionism has already become a factor in the political convulsions of Russia and Germany, as a powerful competing influence in Jewish circles with the international Socialist system. Nothing could be more significant than the fury with which Trotsky and Luxembourg have attacked the Zionists generally, and Dr. Weissmann in particular. The cruel penetration of his mind leaves him in no doubt that his schemes of a world-wide communistic State under Jewish domination are directly thwarted and hindered by this new ideal, which directs the energies and the hopes of Jews in every land towards a simpler, a truer, and a far more attainable goal. The struggle which is now beginning between the Zionist and Bolshevik Jews is little less than a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people.
This struggle is being played out today within the confines of the Alpine city of Basel where only a score of years ago was held the first Zionist congress headed by the revered Theoder Herzl. There, within spitting distance of each other (and have no doubt, spitting is certainly exchanged between the two groups!) are convened the first fully international Zionist and the first Socialist conferences to be held since the end of the war.
Symbolizing the split between the dark and light sides of the Jewish soul is Bear Borochov (4), a Canaanite delegate to both the reconvened second socialist international and the twelfth Zionist conference. While originally cleaving to Marxist revolutionary ideas, long years spent in the fields of Sinai and Canaan have turned the thoughts of this brilliant luminary to more edifying directions. Indeed on his very first opportunity the former revolutionary has outlined a vision of socialism that is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, constructive rather than destructive, which he advocates for world-wide adaption outside the narrow bounds of Canaan.
One can only hope that our own delegates from the Labor party heed his call- though as the frenzied retorts to his speech show such seems unlikely.
(1) Founder of the Illuminati To the best of my knowledge he was not Jewish and had no Jewish heritage. But anti-Semitic memes are rarely rational.
(2) Who actually probably held a far looser influence over the Aramite states than France holds over Djemal.
(3) Sort of the way Jews in Iran and Venezuela today are expected to demonstrate against "Zionism". Some things never change…
(4) A mistranslation by Churchill
Previous post corrected- now for an analysis of Jewish affairs by the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill. The original, only slightly modified ITTL, can be found here http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Zionism_versus_Bolshevism. The old adage that the Philosemite is an anti-Semite who happens to like Jews never seemed quite so apt.
A Struggle for the Soul of the Jewish People
By the Rt. Hon. Winston S. Churchill.
SOME people like Jews and some do not; but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.
Disraeli, the Jew Prime Minister of England, and Leader of the Conservative Party, who was always true to his race and proud of his origin, said on a well-known occasion: "The Lord deals with the nations as the nations deal with the Jews." Certainly when we look at the travails of Russia, where of all countries in the world the Jews were the most cruelly treated, and contrast it with the fortunes of our own country, which seems to have been so providentially preserved amid the awful perils of these times, we must admit that nothing that has since happened in the history of the world has falsified the truth of Disraeli's confident assertion.
Good and Bad Jews
The conflict between good and evil which proceeds unceasingly in the breast of man nowhere reaches such an intensity as in the Jewish race. The dual nature of mankind is nowhere more strongly or more terribly exemplified. We owe to the Jews in the Christian revelation a system of ethics which, even if it were entirely separated from the supernatural, would be incomparably the most precious possession of mankind, worth in fact the fruits of all other wisdom and learning put together. On that system and by that faith there has been built out of the wreck of the Roman Empire the whole of our existing civilization.
And it may well be that this same astounding race may at the present time be in the actual process of producing another system of morals and philosophy, as malevolent as Christianity was benevolent, which, if not arrested, would shatter irretrievably all that Christianity has rendered possible. It would almost seem as if the gospel of Christ and the gospel of Antichrist were destined to originate among the same people; and that this mystic and mysterious race had been chosen for the supreme manifestations, both of the divine and the diabolical.
'National' Jews
There can be no greater mistake than to attribute to each individual a recognizable share in the qualities which make up the national character. There are all sorts of men -- good, bad and, for the most part, indifferent -- in every country, and in every race. Nothing is more wrong than to deny to an individual, on account of race or origin, his right to be judged on his personal merits and conduct. In a people of peculiar genius like the Jews, contrasts are more vivid, the extremes are more widely separated, the resulting consequences are more decisive.
At the present fateful period there are three main lines of political conception among the Jews. two of which are helpful and hopeful in a very high degree to humanity, and the third absolutely destructive.
First there are the Jews who, dwelling in every country throughout the world, identify themselves with that country, enter into its national life and, while adhering faithfully to their own religion, regard themselves as citizens in the fullest sense of the State which has received them. Such a Jew living in England would say, "I am an English man practising the Jewish faith." This is a worthy conception, and useful in the highest degree. We in Great Britain well know that during the great struggle the influence of what may be called the "National Jews" in many lands was cast preponderatingly on the side of the Allies; and in our own Army, as well as the Maccabee Corps Auxilaries, Jewish soldiers have played a most distinguished part, some rising to the command of armies, others winning the Victoria Cross for valour.
The National Russian Jews, in spite of the disabilities under which they have suffered, have managed to play an honorable and useful part in the national life even of Russia. As bankers and industrialists they have strenuously promoted the development of Russia's economic resources, and they were foremost in the creation of those remarkable organizations, the Russian Co-operative Societies. In politics their support has been given, for the most part, to liberal and progressive movements, and they have been among the staunchest upholder of friendship with France and Great Britain.
International Jews
In violent opposition to all this sphere of Jewish effort rise the schemes of the International Jews. The adherents of this sinister confederacy are mostly men reared up among the unhappy populations of countries where Jews are persecuted on account of their race. Most, if not all, of them have forsaken the faith of their forefathers, and divorced from their minds all spiritual hopes of the next world. This movement among the Jews is not new. From the days of Spartacus-Weishaupt (1) to those of Karl Marx, and down to Trotsky (Russia), Bela Kun (Hungary), Rosa Luxembourg (Germany), Emma Goldman (United States), and Leon Blum (France), this world-wide conspiracy for the overthrow of civilization and for the reconstitution of society on the basis of arrested development, of envious malevolence, and impossible equality, has been steadily growing. It played, as a modern writer, Mrs. Webster, has so ably shown, a definitely recognizable part in the tragedy of the French Revolution. It has been the mainspring of every subversive movement during the Nineteenth Century; and now at last this band of extraordinary personalities from the underworld of the great cities of Europe and America have attempted, in close coordination, to overthrow the great houses of the Romanoff's, Habsburgs, Hohenzollern and Savoy and replace them with a vast Eurasian federation controlled by themselves. They have played a role too in our very own Britain in the campaign to demand equal rights to those who have failed to heed the call of duty and in France in the assaults on Private property (2).
Terrorist Jews
There is no need to exaggerate the part played in the creation of these international and for the most part atheistical Jews, in forming this international conspiracy. It is certainly a very great one; it probably outweighs all others. In St Petersburg the key figures in bringing the Menshevik and Bolshevik factions of the Marxist revolutionaries together into a common front was that of Trotsky, Zinovieff and Kaminiev. Moreover, the principal inspiration and driving power comes from the Jewish leaders. Thus Tchitcherin, a pure Russian, is eclipsed by his nominal subordinate Litvinoff and the influence of Russians like Bukharin or Lunacharski cannot be compared with the power of Trotsky, or of Zinovieff, the Dictator of the Red Citadel (Petrograd) or of Krassin or Radek -- all Jews. In Germany it is Kurt Eisner who raised the standard of Socialist Rebellion against the government in Bavaria and Rosa Luxembourg who yet manages the dying embers of rebellion throughout Germany. And in the still unstable empire of Suastria-Hungary it is Bela-Kun who stands prominent in agitation for an overturn of the existing system of government in Budapest.
Their attempts, for now, appear to have met with abject failure. The great war, with all of it's regal tragedy, has enabled the forces of order of every country to shift the pure metal from the base and to turn the heroes of the great struggle upon the agents of chaos who had sought to capitalize upon it for their own nefarious aims.
Romanov and Hohenzollern, Savoy and Habsburg, now sit secure on the throne, albeit by using methods appropriate to centuries past rather than this enligtened age. Barbarity breeds barbarity and the would be revolutionaries have turned back to their roots, utilizing assassination, bombings and terror to disrupt government throughout the continent.
Unfortunately, in their zeal to drive out the rot, Many innocent Jews, as well as atheist revolutionaries, have been put to the sword, raising a grim prospect.
'Protectors of the Jews'
Where their writ runs and authority are respected, Wilhelm III, Nicholas Romanov (who may well yet prove one day to be the third of his name as well), and Roman Dmwosky have sought to alleviate the ineveitable retribution levied upon the kin of the revolutionaries.
These efforts have met with decidedly mixed results for, needless to say, the most intense passions of revenge have been excited in the breasts of the Russian, Polish and German people. The bands of brigands by whom the whole vast expanse of the Russian Empire had become infested did not hesitate to gratify their lust for blood and for revenge at the expense of the innocent Jewish population whenever an opportunity occurs. The brigands Makhno, Petlura and of Gregorieff, who signalized their every success by the most brutal massacres, everywhere found among the half-stupefied, half-infuriated population an eager response to anti-Semitism in its worst and foulest forms.
In Poland and Posen, where socialist revolution has fused with German-Polish race hatred, it all too often the Jews who have found themselves caught in the middle as the ongoing tragedy of the nationless refugees on the border between these nations.
The fact that in many cases Jewish interests and Jewish places of worship were excepted by the Social democrats from their universal hostility has tended more and more to associate the Jewish race in Russia with the villainies, which are now being perpetrated. This is an injustice on millions of helpless people, most of whom were themselves targeted as class enemies by the revolutionary movements. It becomes, therefore, specially important to foster and develop any strongly-marked Jewish movement which leads directly away from these fatal associations. And it is here that Zionism has such a deep significance for the whole world at the present time.
A Home for the Jews
Zionism offers the third sphere to the political conceptions of the Jewish race. In violent contrast to international communism, it presents to the Jew a national idea of a commanding character. it has fallen to the British Government, as the result of the prescient settlement of the Sinai and the swift conquest of Palestine, to have the opportunity and the responsibility of securing for the Jewish race all over the world the swift development of their center of national life.
Of course, Palestine is far too small to accommodate more than a fraction of the Jewish race, nor do the majority of national Jews in the more developed nations of Europe wish to go there. But if, as may well happen, there should be created in our own lifetime by the banks of the Jordan a Jewish State under the protection of the British Crown, which might comprise three or four millions of Russian and Polish Jews, an event would have occurred in the history of the world which would, from every point of view, be beneficial, and would be especially in harmony with the truest interests of the British Empire.
Furthermore, given the state of French wartime debt, is it not reasonable to expect that the prodigious energies of the Hebrew race, once the Jordan is developed, might not be turned towards purchasing the vague suzerainty our ally professes over the notorious Djemal Pasha and extending the writ of the Hebrew nation to the full extension of the Historic Empire of David and Solomon (2)?
Duty of Loyal Jews
It is particularly important in these circumstances that the national Jews in every country who are loyal to the land of their adoption should come forward on every occasion, as many of them in England have already done, and take a prominent part in every measure for combating the Bolshevik conspiracy. In this way they will be able to vindicate the honor of the Jewish name and make it clear to all the world that the Bolshevik movement is not a Jewish movement, but is repudiated vehemently by the great mass of the Jewish race (3).
But a negative resistance to Bolshevism in any field is not enough. Positive and practicable alternatives are needed in the moral as well as in the social sphere; and in building up with the utmost possible rapidity a Jewish national centre in Palestine which may become not only a refuge to the oppressed from the unhappy lands of Eastern Europe, but which will also be a symbol of Jewish unity and the temple of Jewish glory, a task is presented on which many blessings rest.
A Struggle for the soul of the Jewish people
Zionism has already become a factor in the political convulsions of Russia and Germany, as a powerful competing influence in Jewish circles with the international Socialist system. Nothing could be more significant than the fury with which Trotsky and Luxembourg have attacked the Zionists generally, and Dr. Weissmann in particular. The cruel penetration of his mind leaves him in no doubt that his schemes of a world-wide communistic State under Jewish domination are directly thwarted and hindered by this new ideal, which directs the energies and the hopes of Jews in every land towards a simpler, a truer, and a far more attainable goal. The struggle which is now beginning between the Zionist and Bolshevik Jews is little less than a struggle for the soul of the Jewish people.
This struggle is being played out today within the confines of the Alpine city of Basel where only a score of years ago was held the first Zionist congress headed by the revered Theoder Herzl. There, within spitting distance of each other (and have no doubt, spitting is certainly exchanged between the two groups!) are convened the first fully international Zionist and the first Socialist conferences to be held since the end of the war.
Symbolizing the split between the dark and light sides of the Jewish soul is Bear Borochov (4), a Canaanite delegate to both the reconvened second socialist international and the twelfth Zionist conference. While originally cleaving to Marxist revolutionary ideas, long years spent in the fields of Sinai and Canaan have turned the thoughts of this brilliant luminary to more edifying directions. Indeed on his very first opportunity the former revolutionary has outlined a vision of socialism that is evolutionary rather than revolutionary, constructive rather than destructive, which he advocates for world-wide adaption outside the narrow bounds of Canaan.
One can only hope that our own delegates from the Labor party heed his call- though as the frenzied retorts to his speech show such seems unlikely.
(1) Founder of the Illuminati To the best of my knowledge he was not Jewish and had no Jewish heritage. But anti-Semitic memes are rarely rational.
(2) Who actually probably held a far looser influence over the Aramite states than France holds over Djemal.
(3) Sort of the way Jews in Iran and Venezuela today are expected to demonstrate against "Zionism". Some things never change…
(4) A mistranslation by Churchill
Last edited:
yboxman
Banned
Thanks! Just back from conference in Harvard and have reams of data to process for paper so next update will probably be delayed by a weak or two.
Trying to describe the reconvention of the second International with Reaction truimphant in Russia and Germany and no communist/socialist split is turning out to be more of a headache than I thought.
Doing so from from the viewpoint of labor *zionism protagonists makes it even more difficult.
A non factor in what? Internationalist socialism, Ideological competition within the Jewish community or zionism? In internationalist socialism (as opposed to Bundism and Labor-religious zionism), which is Churchill's primary concern religous jewery was, obviously, pretty much a non-factor.
In Ideological competition within the Jewish community, Churchill (from what I can make out) tended to lump the Orthodox and Ultra-orthodox movements into the "good Jews" category on the basis that they were essentially socially conservative and avoided any clash with the dominant social classes or governments of the gentiles they lived among.
However, he seemed to view them as lacking an ability to retain the loyalty of the secularizing younger generation, and, given his own religious views, seemed to assume they would fade away given the theological fallacy of Judaism while leaving the younger Jewish genaration open to the lure of radical ideologies.
While prejudiced, this prediction historically turned out to be, while not totally correct (witness the ongoing vitality of ultra orthodox communities in the West), sufficiently prescient to render, from a conservative viewpoint, the encouragement of an alternative Jewish ideology which might lure young secular Jews away from radical politics into an attractive option.
That TTLs zionist state is building the third temple and allowing for greater use of religious symbols in the national life and ideology is just gravy on the top.
As to how strong the "non-national" orthodox religious establishment is in Russia-Poland TTL as opposed to OTL the answer is a mixed one. On the one hand, Tsarist Russia, unlike the Soviets, will continue to treat traditional religious authorities as community leaders rather than seeking to replace them with Bolsheviks and Ex Bundist Bolshevik converts.
But on the other hand, given greater and increasing levels of Russo-Polish persecution TTL, and the surface adoption of religious symbology by the "New Society", traditional Orthodox authority will be increasingly viewed by the younger authority as a Judenrat equivalent.
Churchill, as OTL, will be aware of the general trends within Jewish and Zionist circles, but will ignore nuances and will interpet them through his own ideological and religious filters.