The other day I was working on a Central Powers map - because I have no life
- and the thought came to me: what if, after WWI, a victorious Germany in addition to the pressure brought to bear by the Socialists for Constitutional Reform, the Poles living in the eastern parts of Germany began to clamor for greater representation?
In OTL, the Prussian Province of Posen was originally the Grand Duchy of Poznan. I thought: might it not be possible for the Emperor to reconstitute the Grand Duchy to appease some of the ethnic discontent? Wilhelm II would absolutely NEVER do this, so let's say he dies by 1922 at the latest. Wilhelm III was definitely a more sensitive soul - he was genuinely appalled by the Verdun Campaign and strategy of trying to murder the French army. So, perhaps he offers some Imperial condescension.
Were there any Polish nobles that might be considered for the Grand Ducal throne? Other possibilities I suppose would be Habsburg cadets: the sons of Franz Ferdinand are floating around somewhere.
In OTL, the Prussian Province of Posen was originally the Grand Duchy of Poznan. I thought: might it not be possible for the Emperor to reconstitute the Grand Duchy to appease some of the ethnic discontent? Wilhelm II would absolutely NEVER do this, so let's say he dies by 1922 at the latest. Wilhelm III was definitely a more sensitive soul - he was genuinely appalled by the Verdun Campaign and strategy of trying to murder the French army. So, perhaps he offers some Imperial condescension.
Were there any Polish nobles that might be considered for the Grand Ducal throne? Other possibilities I suppose would be Habsburg cadets: the sons of Franz Ferdinand are floating around somewhere.