The plethora of victorious Naziism threads.

Why all the Naziwanks?

Re the original question:

1. Obviously, it's the major POD in recent history. If the Nazis won, history would be very, very different. Notice the Civil War is #2 in the heavily American AH community. (I'm told a lot of French AH people like alternate histories where Napoleon wins.)

2. Most AH fans are men. A Nazi victory allows for the idea of a grim struggle against an evil enemy, which is very manly. (Notice the way Regency and other historical romances allow women to fantasize about wealthy men with cultured manners who perform lengthy courtships.)

3. OK, so why not Communism? First of all, a lot of Europeans embraced social democracy, so that struggle isn't quite as black-and-white to them. Second, the demonization (and they were pretty demonic to begin with, don't get me wrong) by Hollywood of Nazis as cultured, sadistic villains makes them sexier. Hollywood was always softer on Communism for historical and cultural reasons (ie they were liberal, so they didn't hate Commies, and Jewish, so they hated Nazis), which ironically meant they didn't get as much play as villains and hence, none of the glamour. Look at the way Gordon Gekko became a hero to Wall Street types, or the way Bela Lugosi turned vampires from walking corpses into sexy aristocrats. (Also, a lot of people might have been afraid, subconsciously, of turning the Cold War Hot and hence nuclear if they made very anti-Russian movies.)

It's kind of ironic, because we're now friends with Germany and enemies with Russia.
 
Re the original question:

1. Obviously, it's the major POD in recent history. If the Nazis won, history would be very, very different. Notice the Civil War is #2 in the heavily American AH community. (I'm told a lot of French AH people like alternate histories where Napoleon wins.)

2. Most AH fans are men. A Nazi victory allows for the idea of a grim struggle against an evil enemy, which is very manly. (Notice the way Regency and other historical romances allow women to fantasize about wealthy men with cultured manners who perform lengthy courtships.)

3. OK, so why not Communism? First of all, a lot of Europeans embraced social democracy, so that struggle isn't quite as black-and-white to them. Second, the demonization (and they were pretty demonic to begin with, don't get me wrong) by Hollywood of Nazis as cultured, sadistic villains makes them sexier. Hollywood was always softer on Communism for historical and cultural reasons (ie they were liberal, so they didn't hate Commies, and Jewish, so they hated Nazis), which ironically meant they didn't get as much play as villains and hence, none of the glamour. Look at the way Gordon Gekko became a hero to Wall Street types, or the way Bela Lugosi turned vampires from walking corpses into sexy aristocrats. (Also, a lot of people might have been afraid, subconsciously, of turning the Cold War Hot and hence nuclear if they made very anti-Russian movies.)

It's kind of ironic, because we're now friends with Germany and enemies with Russia.

No government that has held power centered in Moscow has ever really been the "friend" of the United States, has it?
 
Theory: Wargamers like Nazi-victory scenarios because Nazis are more fun to play in wargames. When playing a grand strategy wargame, it's more fun to play Germany because at the start of the war, Germany has the initiative. Even in a Eastern Front game, Germany starts with the initiative. Playing the Allies in 1939 or the USSR in 1941 is not as much fun--trying to stop a steamroller as it rolls over you is not much fun. And in computer wargames at least, you're not likely to play to the bitter end if you start losing.
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
No government that has held power centered in Moscow has ever really been the "friend" of the United States, has it?
Well, the only Moscow-centered governments that have existed since the United States' creation are the USSR and the Russian Federation, so technically...

Contrarily, the United States had pretty good relations with all of the tsars up till Bloody Nicky.
 
Last edited:
Re the original question:

1. Obviously, it's the major POD in recent history. If the Nazis won, history would be very, very different. Notice the Civil War is #2 in the heavily American AH community. (I'm told a lot of French AH people like alternate histories where Napoleon wins.)

2. Most AH fans are men. A Nazi victory allows for the idea of a grim struggle against an evil enemy, which is very manly. (Notice the way Regency and other historical romances allow women to fantasize about wealthy men with cultured manners who perform lengthy courtships.)

3. OK, so why not Communism? First of all, a lot of Europeans embraced social democracy, so that struggle isn't quite as black-and-white to them. Second, the demonization (and they were pretty demonic to begin with, don't get me wrong) by Hollywood of Nazis as cultured, sadistic villains makes them sexier. Hollywood was always softer on Communism for historical and cultural reasons (ie they were liberal, so they didn't hate Commies, and Jewish, so they hated Nazis), which ironically meant they didn't get as much play as villains and hence, none of the glamour. Look at the way Gordon Gekko became a hero to Wall Street types, or the way Bela Lugosi turned vampires from walking corpses into sexy aristocrats. (Also, a lot of people might have been afraid, subconsciously, of turning the Cold War Hot and hence nuclear if they made very anti-Russian movies.)

It's kind of ironic, because we're now friends with Germany and enemies with Russia.

Point one, because of endemic flaws in the system of National Socialism, they never really had a shot, if you change them enough to allow them to win then by that point they aren't Nazis anymore.

Point Two Stalin and the strict doctrinal COmmunists hated AMerican Hollywood as much if not more than mainstream conservatives did/do. Joseph Stalin found it endlessly amusing that American Conservatives were claiming to protect AMerica, by attacking the very things that made America different from his regime.
 

Thanos6

Banned
There's another reason as well, I think; people are always interested in World Domination. WW2 is the last time you have the spectre of that. Sure, the Axis probably couldn't REALLY do it, but on the surface or to the layman it looks plausible.

After that, WMD and MAD sort of put the kibosh on Taking Over The World. In fiction set in the modern day, the only types who try it now are aliens, supervillains, and time-travelling conquerors from the future, all of whom can use ultra-tech to stop WMDs from being used in the first place.
 
There's another reason as well, I think; people are always interested in World Domination. WW2 is the last time you have the spectre of that. Sure, the Axis probably couldn't REALLY do it, but on the surface or to the layman it looks plausible.

After that, WMD and MAD sort of put the kibosh on Taking Over The World. In fiction set in the modern day, the only types who try it now are aliens, supervillains, and time-travelling conquerors from the future, all of whom can use ultra-tech to stop WMDs from being used in the first place.


Even then many of the modern threats in fiction are just thinly veiled Nazi allegories. BOY do we ever miss those guys.
 
Even then many of the modern threats in fiction are just thinly veiled Nazi allegories. BOY do we ever miss those guys.

This is one reason I based my own stories off of China and Austria-Hungary, to *avoid* those kind of tropes (while including just enough familiar elements to hopefully attract an audience). Germany and the Roman Empire have been done to death, authors need to pick different societies to use as models.
 
This is one reason I based my own stories off of China and Austria-Hungary, to *avoid* those kind of tropes (while including just enough familiar elements to hopefully attract an audience). Germany and the Roman Empire have been done to death, authors need to pick different societies to use as models.

Mongols have been pretty exhausted too from what I can tell.
 
Top