Feels like a weird reunion of sorts. Imagine 2 high school friends meeting again after so many years, one is an accomplished businessman and the other a very rich drug dealer.
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I actually feel bad for Hitler a bit. He’s in a crowded room yet he is so alone. It’s sad to see another human being not really fit in with the rest.
I know once Hitler is Volksführer and war atrocities and public crackdowns begin I’ll lose that but it is a credit to your writing that you can make Hitler seem alone in a crowded room and someone who I do not agree with politically seem almost sympathetic.
That’s the danger of men like Hitler.
For sure, that movie is so good because it portrays the Nazis as humans, flawed and terrible yes, but humans all the same which is both more terrifying and saddening.That's why the movie Downfall is so...chilling.
Even knowing what Hitler has done, and I'm Jewish, Hitler's furious rant is how I've felt at certain periods in my life.
I take the view that Hitler was nothing special: all the great powers of the world indulged in racism and imperialism. Hitler's version of the two was just much, much more cold-blooded.
For sure, that movie is so good because it portrays the Nazis as humans, flawed and terrible yes, but humans all the same which is both more terrifying and saddening.
His rise to power in OTL honestly sounds like a wacky alt-history with little plausibility: a penniless Austrian who was refused entry into art school then goes on to lead one of the largest far right parties in Germany, leads a coup that fails miserably then goes to prison only to become Chancellor and then a year later a total dictator. it almost sounds so crazy to have even really happened.
Another great chapter! Ernst the weathercock indeed, and the DAR's flash-forwards indicate his treachery won't have a happy ending. Things in Bavaria seem to be cooking up too; I fear the referendum results' integrity will be, at the very least, questioned.
For a second I legitimately thought the "he was more taken aback" was leaning up to the pamphlet refreshing Pete's memories of his real first encounter with Hitler, that encounter with his father was way better. Waiting for the next update!
I completely understand. I just finished going through that whole list on Wikipedia, and excluding the four people I originally listed, I could only find 10 people on that list that used to align with the left, and that was before I started narrowing down which ones would fit in more with TTL's Germany. The rest just consisted of a bunch of businessmen, industrialists, army or navy officers, far-right politicians and activists, and a surprising amount of monarchists.
Feels like a weird reunion of sorts. Imagine 2 high school friends meeting again after so many years, one is an accomplished businessman and the other a very rich drug dealer.
I actually feel bad for Hitler a bit. He’s in a crowded room yet he is so alone. It’s sad to see another human being not really fit in with the rest.
I know once Hitler is Volksführer and war atrocities and public crackdowns begin I’ll lose that but it is a credit to your writing that you can make Hitler seem alone in a crowded room and someone who I do not agree with politically seem almost sympathetic.
That’s the danger of men like Hitler.
Hitler's furious rant is how I've felt at certain periods in my life.
I guess he does cut a kinda pathetic figure, despite all he's accomplished he's still awkward outside of his comfort zone and the certainty of his beliefs get intermingled with the need to project a father figure onto an older friend who isn't able to reciprocate. As you say though, Franz is right to be wary of him.
But Hitler could not have succeeded against his many rivals if it had not been for the attraction of his own personality, which one can feel even in the clumsy writing of Mein Kampf, and which is no doubt overwhelming when one hears his speeches…The fact is that there is something deeply appealing about him. One feels it again when one sees his photographs—and I recommend especially the photograph at the beginning of Hurst and Blackett’s edition, which shows Hitler in his early Brownshirt days. It is a pathetic, dog-like face, the face of a man suffering under intolerable wrongs. In a rather more manly way it reproduces the expression of innumerable pictures of Christ crucified, and there is little doubt that that is how Hitler sees himself. The initial, personal cause of his grievance against the universe can only be guessed at; but at any rate the grievance is here. He is the martyr, the victim, Prometheus chained to the rock, the self-sacrificing hero who fights single-handed against impossible odds. If he were killing a mouse he would know how to make it seem like a dragon. One feels, as with Napoleon, that he is fighting against destiny, that he can’t win, and yet that he somehow deserves to. The attraction of such a pose is of course enormous; half the films that one sees turn upon some such theme.
I think that was one of the things that made Bruno Ganz's performance so fantastic, a rant about betrayal leads to Hitler falling into utter despair and it is a moment which humanises him. But then the initial betrayal was Steiner refusing to use teenagers with no ammunition to launch a pointless counter-attack. The cabin fever atmosphere of the bunker helps but there is an element of the hypnotism at play there as well. You have the portrait of a man whose mental and physical faculties are in steep decline, veering in and out of reality whilst at the same time there are kids and elderly people dying to maintain this farce for as long as possible. The response from the highest ranking Nazi who's aware of the situation but nonetheless remains loyal to Hitler? "I don't care."
Thing is, this man don't have lot in common with OTL Hitler beside of name. He is battle harden revolutionary, who saw ww1 for what it was. Pointless slaughter for benefit of the rich. This man will not butcher 20 million people for fun. Ww2 will be war of classes, clash of ideologies.That's very nice of you to say although I must admit I remain surprised at the notion of some people finding ITTL Hitler sympathetic.
Thing is, this man don't have lot in common with OTL Hitler beside of name. He is battle harden revolutionary, who saw ww1 for what it was. Pointless slaughter for benefit of the rich. This man will not butcher 20 million people for fun. Ww2 will be war of classes, clash of ideologies.
Comintern should be nothing like Axis alliance, and with ww2 coming sooner, this man could probably save thousands in Soviet Union and stop Stalin purges. Ironical, but so far for me this timeline is full of hope for communism. All thanks to this Austrian painter. Hilarious to think that die hard communist will find Hitler sympathetic, but you did marvellous job so far.
TTL Hitler is still a monster. Just not quite on the level of his OTL counterpart.The notion that all people are fundamentally good might seem harmless, if naïve, yet in the first half of the twentieth century tens of millions saw that belief skewed to the extent that the bodies piled higher than ever during the revolutionary terror in France.
If OTL Hitler and Stalin were a 10/10 in monstrosity, this Hitler will probably be a 7/10. I don’t see him wiping people out due to ethnic or religious views, but he’ll definitely imprison ideological enemies and will be a totalitarian state that has “re-education camps” where I’m sure hundreds of thousands will die either from neglect, hard labor or occasional execution. I can’t see gas chambers coming into play at all under the DAR, or human experimentation like Mengele. Maybe euthanization of the elderly or disabled but that’s about it.TTL Hitler is still a monster. Just not quite on the level of his OTL counterpart.
Ehhhhhh, I'll withhold judgement on that. In OTL there have been genocidal acts in communist countries too. Let's wait and see what happens to the "Rhineland bastards" and "rootless cosmopolitans" (remember the scene with Hitler and the French Senegalese bloke? and Marxism-Leninism-Hitlerism's idea of the International Financier Plot?) before we make any assumptions about whether ATL Hitler is less genocidal than the OTL one.If OTL Hitler and Stalin were a 10/10 in monstrosity, this Hitler will probably be a 7/10. I don’t see him wiping people out due to ethnic or religious views,
Yeah, very true...we'll just have to wait and see...Ehhhhhh, I'll withhold judgement on that. In OTL there have been genocidal acts in communist countries too. Let's wait and see what happens to the "Rhineland bastards" and "rootless cosmopolitans" (remember the scene with Hitler and the French Senegalese bloke? and Marxism-Leninism-Hitlerism's idea of the International Financier Plot?) before we make any assumptions about whether ATL Hitler is less genocidal than the OTL one.
I agree it'll be harder to turn re-education camps into death-camps ITTL (unless Stalin turns a blind eye) and Hitler doesn't have a Siberia to send enemies of the state to.Yeah, very true...we'll just have to wait and see...
however, my prediction goes more in line with Tanner: He'll be a genocidal maniac, sure, he'll just be slightly less of one...Political "enemies of the state" (so anyone who dares speak out against the Volksführer), will most certainly be imprisoned and potentially sent to above mentioned "re-education camps"...depending on what happens next, there's a chance he'll start prosecuting religion as a whole, but Jews a little bit more because they are generally rich, and part of the "elite"
so yeah, hundreds of thousands are going to die, but I doubt it'll be the kind of mechanised, industrialised slaughter that the holocaust was
Ironical, but so far for me this timeline is full of hope for communism. All thanks to this Austrian painter.
Hilarious to think that die hard communist will find Hitler sympathetic, but you did marvellous job so far.
TTL Hitler is still a monster. Just not quite on the level of his OTL counterpart.
I wonder if the Exile States in Africa will transition to viewing themselves as Angola or Algeria or whatever
On another note, Romania will have the USSR and the DAR plus their client states all around so Romania might actually go far right, more so than OTL, with the Iron Guard coming to power . Romania could be the ethno-nationalist state that eliminates minorities within its own borders via mass executions, ghettoes and gas chambers. Hmm. Corneliu Codreanu could be the racist mass genocidal demagogue of this timeline.
there's a chance he'll start prosecuting religion as a whole, but Jews a little bit more because they are generally rich, and part of the "elite"
Question: would Stalin allow Hitler to send his enemies to Siberian re-education camps?
You mean more "efficient"?I feel like prestige would come into it, not to mention the legal and logistical issues. It's worth noting that German Ideology does kinda see the Soviets as backward in their development. They're fellow workers but they're not quite what Marx envisioned either. Why send dissidents to Soviet gulags, or make your own, when you can try and improve upon the whole concept of re-education?
yeah, I was indeed refering to the perception rather than reality...obviously there is no way Jews actually controlled the economy and all the money...that's rediculous, and was a complete lie made up by the Nazis to make themselves and their anti-semitism more popular and acceptableI'm sure you were talking about perceptions here rather than realities but just for the sake of clarity, Jewish people weren't generally richer than average in the Weimar Republic. Although Germany was a better place to live than much of Europe, antisemitism was all too common amongst the real elites.
Damn kulaks. I'm sure that the Soviets can help in finding a solution to this.Other smallholders hadn’t been interested in merging their plots at all and had set out on their own, some succeeding to make a profit and others failing to do so. Some of the latter were now selling their plots to the more successful and Gerda dreaded to think that within a few years estates might reappear where they had once been.