NSDAP begins as 10-year-old schoolboys' "wargame club"

Adolf could have been playing Kriegsspiel, originated in 1812 for training Prussian army officers.

Kriegsspiel, though, is a pretty complex simulation, and requires the use of what we would today call a "gamemaster". Not sure if it's the sort of thing that would appeal to most 10-year-old boys, I think it required a lot of mathematical calculation to figure things like artillery trajectories and such.
 

Shackel

Banned
Indeed. A rational, non-anti-Semite Hitler who was more competent in strategic and operational thinking than OTL would probably be able to win the war for Germany outright. TTL's NSDAP would probably be pretty much identical in ideology to the Italian Fascist Party.

That's what I was thinking.
 
Kriegsspiel, though, is a pretty complex simulation, and requires the use of what we would today call a "gamemaster". Not sure if it's the sort of thing that would appeal to most 10-year-old boys, I think it required a lot of mathematical calculation to figure things like artillery trajectories and such.

Could easily be a dumbed down version of it, or another similar game made in Britain.

Now, how do they get back together after the War and get into Germany to take power...?
 
He had a nickname?

I don't think I've heard it, then. You'll have to enlighten me.

...has NOBODY around here heard of "GroFAZ"?
Probably I've heard it in passing, somewhere. It obviously didn't make much of an impression :p
Gröfaz — German soldiers' derogatory acronym for Größter Feldherr aller Zeiten, a title initially publicized by Nazi propaganda to refer to Adolf Hitler during the early war years; literally, the "Greatest Field Commander of all Time".​
 
Adolf could have been playing Kriegsspiel, originated in 1812 for training Prussian army officers.

Wasn’t he more interested in painting watercolours?

Think of it this way; he'd have the best-painted figurines in the group.

Germany made some very good "flats" -- figures stamped from a sheet. Some model wargamers used them, back when they were cheap. (I saw some rules for playing with 54-mm figures, which are . . . ouch. Firing wood pegs at them, H. G. Wells style, no less.)

So all the boys would want Adolf to paint their armies for them. Wouldn't want to be the one who asked to have the Jewish Brigade painted, though . . .
 
Oh, this sounds interesting.

"Sieg heil! Sieg heil! Sieg heil!" A chorus of voices echoed down the hallway, and the adults in the living room smiled in indulgence. It was, after all, natural for boys to be interested in such military pursuits. One of the men chuckled, sipped his coffee, and spoke.

"Alois, it seems your son is a natural Feldherr. I've no doubt he just gave little Otto a drubbing to match the one he gave my Johann a week past."

The man he spoke to smiled into his tea. "Yes. I must thank you for bringing back that game for the boys from Britain. It seems to have awakened a man in my son."

"Aren't you glad we convinced you to stay in Linz and not go run off to dig in the dirt? Imagine how lonely your family would have been there!" A third man asked, gesticulating wildly with a book in his hand. His wife scowled.

"Michael, please, be careful with that book your hand! You remember the last time you became overly excited, don't you? Look, your friend's beautiful print of that Frenchman's painting is right across from you."

Suitably chastised, the boisterous man lowered his book. "Yes dear." He returned to his book, his interest in Eastern religions overcoming his natural loudness.

"I don't understand your fascination with the Orientals, you know. I personally find the Norse myths so much more fascinating." A fourth man remarked. Whatever Michael would say, he was suddenly cut off, as the sound of a dozen pairs of feet thundering down hardwood floor was heard.

"Papa, papa, I won, I won!" The boy in the lead shouted, as the friends barreled into the living room. "I'm the commander now! I'm the greatest commander of all time!"

His father smiled. "Good boy, Adolf. But if you're a military commander, shouldn't you and your friends act and dress like soldiers?"

Adolf scowled. "But papa, we get scolded by the police if we wear real uniforms. Plus, I think the army's salute looks silly."

"Then why not make your own? I'm sure there's plenty of things in this room that can inspire you, and your mother can help you make the uniforms. How about, say, an armband? So that you can wear it everywhere?"

With suddenly contemplative eyes, the ten year old boy looked around the living room...


Cookie for anyone who finds the Nazi references here. Hint: other then "sieg heil" (which I don't consider a 'Nazi' reference anyways, it's much like the Japanese usage of 'Banzai'), there's 5.

The PoDs are 1) the invention of a wargame in Hitler's youth, and 2) Hitler's father is talked out of going into retirement on a farm, which IOTL was a major source of his bitterness in later life.

You sir have obtained my interest.
 
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