Hey all, just thought I'd pass this recent train of thought along to you all: what might it have been like if Manfred von Richthofen, had he survived, tried to go into politics after the Great War ended (still presuming a Central Powers defeat)? He seemed to be quite the popular national hero to Germany, propaganda or no propaganda, and probably one of the most successful flying aces of the era, which brings me more to the point: could he, and not someone like Adolf Hitler, tried to bring Germany back to its greatness, maybe even helping trigger another world war? Would he regress the nation into a quasi-Fascist state (or completely, more like Mussolini)?
What effects might this have had on the Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine (after all, while he'd had some experience in the army, his speciality was in aircrafts; knowing that Hitler preferred both the air force and land force to the German naval one, might Richthofen display a similar bias?)? If all of that were indeed even possible, whom might he try to ally Germany with?
What effects might this have had on the Wehrmacht and Kriegsmarine (after all, while he'd had some experience in the army, his speciality was in aircrafts; knowing that Hitler preferred both the air force and land force to the German naval one, might Richthofen display a similar bias?)? If all of that were indeed even possible, whom might he try to ally Germany with?
