The Adventure of the Retired Colourman (working title)

Lumsden

Banned
Flieg, Deutsche fahne, flieg!

After a couple of abortive attempts at scenarios, I’ve finally found an interesting one to work with and which I know a bit about. In order to buy myself a little time (as I have exams, it will be a week before the first real update is 'up') but in order to try and get a little interest - nothing worse, I'm sure, for a forum than someone talking to themselves - here's a selection of images that suggest - I've removed the very obvious ones - the divergence and the way the timeline goes.

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The flag of the German Reich in 1920.
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The divergence should be obvious enough; albeit an extremely interesting scenario.
 
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Lumsden

Banned
Chapter I - the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch

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Note: I debated whether or not to put this divergence into the ASB forum. The Army did not support von Kapp and von Luettwitz in OTL, so they were defeated, but General Ludendorff and Admiral von Trotha, the chief of the German Navy, both did. I don't think it's implausible the Putsch might have worked.

"Troops do not fire on troops. So, you perhaps intend, Herr Minister, that a battle be fought before the Brandenburg Gate between troops that have fought side by side against a common enemy? When Reichswehr fires on Reichswehr all comradeship within the officers' corps will have vanished"
- General Hans von Seeckt.
The coup was planned by General Walther von Lüttwitz, fervent monarchist commander of the Berlin Reichswehr and organiser of Freikorps units in the wake of World War I, Wolfgang Kapp, a 62-year-old nationalist East Prussian civil servant, and retired general Erich Ludendorff who played an important role but kept in the background. The goal was to establish an authoritarian regime (though not a monarchy) with a return to the federal structure of the Empire. Discussions about the coup had started as early as July 1919.
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In March 1920 orders were issued for the disbandment of the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt, a Freikorps of about 5,000-6,000 men. Its leaders were determined to resist dissolution and appealed to General von Lüttwitz for support. Lüttwitz responded by calling on President Ebert and Defense Minister Gustav Noske to stop the whole programme of troop reductions. When Ebert refused, Lüttwitz ordered the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt to march on Berlin and seize the main buildings of the capital. It occupied the capital on 13 March. Lüttwitz, therefore, was the driving force behind the 1920 putsch, even though its nominal leader was Kapp.
He encountered a blank refusal. The Chef der Heeresleitung General Hans von Seeckt, one of the Reichswehr's senior commanders, spoke for many of his comrades when he said: "troops do not fire on troops. So, you perhaps intend, Herr Minister, that a battle be fought before the Brandenburger Tor between troops that have fought side by side against a common enemy? When Reichswehr fires on Reichswehr all comradeship within the officers' corps will have vanished". The government, forced to abandon Berlin, moved to Dresden, where they hoped to get support from Generalmajor Maercker. When they realized that Maercker did not want to take a clear stance they moved further to Stuttgart.
Meanwhile, Kapp was declared Chancellor (Reichskanzler) by his troops and attempted to form a provisional government. Lüttwitz served as minister of defense. Several well-known conservatives and former secretaries of state were invited to assume government positions and accepted
In the provinces, many Army commanders were sympathetic while virtually the entire naval officer corps came out in support of the putsch. Admiral Adolf von Trotha, the Navy's commander came out in support of the coup as soon as he learned of it.
On March 13 the Cabinet issued a proclamation calling on Germany's workers to defeat the putsch by means of a general strike. The strike call received some early support among the working class. The unions, sympathetic to the government dominated by social democrats, joined the strike on the same day; the communists joined one day later. However, the striking workers – particularly the Communists – were not prepared for a long struggle and when General von Ludendorff openly declared his support for von Kapp they wavered. Adolf Hitler, the leader of the NSDAP, who had been in contact with the instigators of the coup and was eager to help it along, flew into Berlin from Munich. The strike was defeated with the news that Gustav Ritter von Kahr had taken power in Bavaria and too declared for von Kapp’s government. There would be several more left-wing uprisings in Berlin over the next fortnight, but they came to nothing. The remaining leadership of the Weimar Republic were arrested or went abroad – Ebert to France, Noske to Switzerland - The coup was a success.
From A Short History of Germany, 1871 to the Present
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Freikorps in Berlin after the success of the Putsch
 
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Lumsden

Banned
Part II - Ludendorff or Hindenburg?

Once the Freikorps and the Army were in control of Germany, they needed to appoint a President and quickly. No-one in Berlin doubted for an instant that the new German Reich would be greeted with anything but condemnation - or maybe even war - on the international stage (1). Nevertheless, the men who now met in Berlin were a heterogeneous lot - the monarchists around Luettwitz and with heavy support in the Freikorps, those like von Kapp who were monarchists by sympathy but who above all wanted order in Germany and the small, revolutionary and very noisy group around Hitler and the Strasser brothers.

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Paul von Hindenburg
Von Kapp and Luettwitz deplored the 'little Bohemian corporal' and his rackety ideology of 'National Socialism' whose men were more conspicuous for drunkenness than anything else and whose wild speeches with the Strasser brothers calling for a German revolution met with great distaste.
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Erich Ludendorff

The candidates for ‘Reichspraesident’ were realistically either General Ludendorff or von Hindenburg, who headed the German army during the Weltkrieg. The former had the support of his own circle of officers (later to be called the Tannenbergbund) and certain of the Freikorps. Hindenburg was seen as a traditional and stabilising man, supported by the Junkers and most of the officer corps and seen as a possible way to a restoration of the Hohenzollern monarchy.


Who is it to be?

(1) The Reich had, in addition to the 100,000 men of the Reichswehr, the loyalty of all the Freikorps* or slightly more than thirty-thousand men and for the time the Nazi Saal-Abteilung, the precursor to the OTL SA, who I cannot find figures for but I highly doubt numbered more than a thousand men.
* I estimate this number as, according to Brittanica, there were more than sixty-five Freikorps. thirty-thousand men of Freikorps Erhardt, Luetzow, Epp and others who seem to have made up the great bulk of the Freikorps, I have added a small number more to account for those not there and will gladly be corrected by anyone with proper figures.



 
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Lumsden

Interesting but that early after WWI I think a militaristic coup in Germany is likely to get a pretty strong reaction in the recently victorious allies. If the French and Belgians are willing to occupy the Ruhr in 23 over German refusal to pay repatriations then a coup in 20 that puts the military back in control is likely have a lot of people worried. I think intervention is very likely.

One big complication is that this is also during the Soviet-Polish war. In one way this is a good thing for Germany as it means the Poles aren't able to intervene from the east. However depending on how the crisis develops it could mean that the Poles, without aid from France, are defeated and the Soviets occupy much/all of Poland.

Steve
 

sharlin

Banned
Intersting stuff and well written too! I'm impressed and going to keep an eye on this one :) Don't be put off by a lack of responses, it can take a bit of time
 
If the French and Belgians are willing to occupy the Ruhr in 23 over German refusal to pay repatriations then a coup in 20 that puts the military back in control is likely have a lot of people worried. I think intervention is very likely.
Actually, I think that might make for an excellent story - Germany gets occupied by the Allies in 1920 for breaching the ToV, and they do an early analogue to the de-Nazification of 1945 or so. That potentially means that by about the 1930s you end up with an embryonic Cold War, with the iron curtain being on the Polish border and an isolationist America.
 

Lumsden

Banned
Lumsden

Interesting but that early after WWI I think a militaristic coup in Germany is likely to get a pretty strong reaction in the recently victorious allies. If the French and Belgians are willing to occupy the Ruhr in 23 over German refusal to pay repatriations then a coup in 20 that puts the military back in control is likely have a lot of people worried. I think intervention is very likely.

One big complication is that this is also during the Soviet-Polish war. In one way this is a good thing for Germany as it means the Poles aren't able to intervene from the east. However depending on how the crisis develops it could mean that the Poles, without aid from France, are defeated and the Soviets occupy much/all of Poland.

Steve
Thank you. You've beaten me to it on the other two points - at least, certainly, on the Ruhr point. All I'll say to that is, remember, only one or two days have actually passed in this timeline - certainly, I had a war in the West planned.

Sharlin - Thank you!
Pdf - Wait and see.
Oh yes - my first map, quite crude (Paint) and only Europe.
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view
 
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Lumsden

Banned
Interlude I – The NSDAP




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Adolf Hitler, the young leader of the NSDAP
The NSDAP was founded by Anton Drexler in 1918 under the name of the German Worker's Party. It remained small until Herr Adolf Hitler became leader in 1920. He would rename the party the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP). The Party's Twenty-Five Point programme was thoroughly syncretic.


  1. We demand the unification of all Germans in the Greater Germany on the basis of the people's right to self-determination.
  2. We demand equality of rights for the German people in respect to the other nations; abrogation of the peace treaties of Versailles and St. Germain.
  3. We demand land and territory (colonies) for the sustenance of our people, and colonization for our surplus population.
  4. Only a member of the race can be a citizen. A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed. Consequently no Jew can be a member of the race.
  5. Whoever has no citizenship is to be able to live in Germany only as a guest, and must be under the authority of legislation for foreigners.
  6. The right to determine matters concerning administration and law belongs only to the citizen. Therefore we demand that every public office, of any sort whatsoever, whether in the Reich, the county or municipality, be filled only by citizens. We combat the corrupting parliamentary economy, office-holding only according to party inclinations without consideration of character or abilities.
  7. We demand that the state be charged first with providing the opportunity for a livelihood and way of life for the citizens. If it is impossible to sustain the total population of the State, then the members of foreign nations (non-citizens) are to be expelled from the Reich.
  8. Any further immigration of non-citizens is to be prevented. We demand that all non-Germans, who have immigrated to Germany since 2 August 1914, be forced immediately to leave the Reich.
  9. All citizens must have equal rights and obligations.
  10. The first obligation of every citizen must be to work both spiritually and physically. The activity of individuals is not to counteract the interests of the universality, but must have its result within the framework of the whole for the benefit of all. Consequently we demand:
  11. Abolition of unearned (work and labour) incomes. Breaking of debt (interest)-slavery.
  12. In consideration of the monstrous sacrifice in property and blood that each war demands of the people, personal enrichment through a war must be designated as a crime against the people. Therefore we demand the total confiscation of all war profits.
  13. We demand the nationalisation of all (previous) associated industries (trusts).
  14. We demand a division of profits of all heavy industries.
  15. We demand an expansion on a large scale of old age welfare.
  16. We demand the creation of a healthy middle class and its conservation, immediate communalization of the great warehouses and their being leased at low cost to small firms, the utmost consideration of all small firms in contracts with the State, county or municipality.
  17. We demand a land reform suitable to our needs, provision of a law for the free expropriation of land for the purposes of public utility, abolition of taxes on land and prevention of all speculation in land.
  18. We demand struggle without consideration against those whose activity is injurious to the general interest. Common national criminals, usurers, profiteers and so forth are to be punished with death, without consideration of confession or race.
  19. We demand substitution of a German common law in place of the Roman Law serving a materialistic world-order.
  20. The state is to be responsible for a fundamental reconstruction of our whole national education program, to enable every capable and industrious German to obtain higher education and subsequently introduction into leading positions. The plans of instruction of all educational institutions are to conform with the experiences of practical life. The comprehension of the concept of the State must be striven for by the school [Staatsbuergerkunde] as early as the beginning of understanding. We demand the education at the expense of the State of outstanding intellectually gifted children of poor parents without consideration of position or profession.
  21. The State is to care for the elevating national health by protecting the mother and child, by outlawing child-labor, by the encouragement of physical fitness, by means of the legal establishment of a gymnastic and sport obligation, by the utmost support of all organizations concerned with the physical instruction of the young.
  22. We demand abolition of the mercenary troops and formation of a national army.
  23. We demand legal opposition to known lies and their promulgation through the press. In order to enable the provision of a German press, we demand, that: a. All writers and employees of the newspapers appearing in the German language be members of the race; b. Non-German newspapers be required to have the express permission of the State to be published. They may not be printed in the German language; c. Non-Germans are forbidden by law any financial interest in German publications, or any influence on them, and as punishment for violations the closing of such a publication as well as the immediate expulsion from the Reich of the non-German concerned. Publications which are counter to the general good are to be forbidden. We demand legal prosecution of artistic and literary forms which exert a destructive influence on our national life, and the closure of organizations opposing the above made demands.
  24. We demand freedom of religion for all religious denominations within the state so long as they do not endanger its existence or oppose the moral senses of the Germanic race. The Party as such advocates the standpoint of a positive Christianity without binding itself confessionally to any one denomination. It combats the Jewish-materialistic spirit within and around us, and is convinced that a lasting recovery of our nation can only succeed from within on the framework: The good of the state before the good of the individual
  25. For the execution of all of this we demand the formation of a strong central power in the Reich. Unlimited authority of the central parliament over the whole Reich and its organizations in general. The forming of state and profession chambers for the execution of the laws made by the Reich within the various states of the confederation. The leaders of the Party promise, if necessary by sacrificing their own lives, to support by the execution of the points set forth above without consideration.


The wild oratory of Hitler and the Strassers (Gregor and Otto Strasser) appealed to the lower-middle classes and the proletariat by espousing plain Socialism couched in Nationalist and racial language in the name of a 'German Revolution'. The Saal-Abteilung would become notorious in Munich as drunken brawlers, clashing indiscriminately with the Communists and the traditional Nationalists.


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Flag of the NSDAP
Hitler, with Gregor Strasser and Ernst Roehm, flew to Berlin in 1920 as Kapp and Luettwitz were taking the Reichstag. They made several thoroughly popular speeches in the working-class districts of Berlin after the failure of a general strike.

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Gregor Strasser

However, their tone, claims of a 'National Revolution' with a redistribution of land and the frequent brush-ups at their speeches meant the Party was deplored by the traditionalists and monarchists in Kapp's new government and never acquired a substantial influence on the proceedings of the new Germany.
Politics in Germany from 1918 to 1930
 
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Lumsden

Banned
Part III - Hindenburg, Hitler and the Rhine Crisis

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Reichspraesident von Hindenburg
The German government decided to appoint von Hindenburg as President on the 20th of March 1920. Field Marshal von Ludendorff did not earn over much influence in the new government, nor did the Nazi Party. Indeed, not one Nazi minister nor official was appointed by the new President and Chancellor. Hitler was furious, but the internal troubles of a fractious party would have to wait, for almost as soon as Hindenburg was appointed, news came from the Western border that the French and Belgian armies had crossed into the demilitarised Rhineland.



The prospect of an invasion struck the Cabinet in Berlin very hard. The German army barely numbered the 100,000 men it was bound to in Versailles. There were perhaps 30,000 Freikorps. Nor could the loyalty of the German workers - many of whom had turned to the Communists - altogether be trusted. What was Hindenburg to do?


 
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Lumsden

Banned
Reserved. The above post will be filled out a lot later - will Hindenburg tear up Versailles and fight? I think Germany would lose that war. I'm thinking of a diplomatic 'solution' although inspiration is welcome.
 
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