What's the status of these German politicians? Haven't had these ones answered yet, realizing it.
Let's add in Friedrich Ebert, Hermann Goering, Otto Grotewahl, Erich Hoekner, Alfred Hugenberg, Wilhelm Pieck, Ernst Thalmann, Walter Ulbricth , and Otto Wels.
My reply will be divided into more than one part.
Erich Honecker didn’t exist in TTL.
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The analogue in TTL to Ernst Thalmann was Johannes Thalmann, born on a slightly different date in comparison to our world. His life diverged early from that of his OTL counterpart when his parents were not arrested by the authorities. Johannes Thalmann, like his OTL counterpart, would eventually leave home and travel to the USA in the early 1900s while working on a freight ship. Unlike in our world, Thalmann would eventually leave permanently for the USA, arriving in New York City in 1912. By the outbreak of the First Great War in 1914, Thalmann was living in Chicago, within the large German-American community.
Thalmann enlisted in the US Army, and served on the Ontario Front, where he was wounded in action in 1915 and eventually sent back to Chicago. His experiences on the Western Front led to the development of anti-war views. Thalmann was already an enthusiastic supporter of the Socialist Party, and celebrated the victory of Upton Sinclair in the presidential elections of 1920.
Thalmann found work during the 1920s as a correspondent for several German-language newspapers in Chicago. He also started to write short works of fiction on the side; he would write in German and then have them translated into English before submitting them to journals or newspapers affiliated with the Socialist Party. Most of Thalmann’s short stories involved working class protagonists overcoming a personal struggle or struggle as they became committed Socialists.
Thalmann’s remained a staunch supporter of the Socialist Party for the rest of his life, although he never ran for office himself. His own antiwar views began to erode in the 1930s in response to the rise of the Featherston regime in the CSA. By the time of the plebiscites organized by the Al Smith administration, Thalmann had more or less repudiated his earlier antiwar positions; he was wary, as a resident of Illinois, of the CSA regaining Kentucky.
Thalmann, with the outbreak of the Second Great War in 1941, went to work in a Chicago armaments factory. His eldest son, Upton, enlisted in the US Army, and would survive the Battle of Pittsburg and the subsequent long campaign to defeat the CSA. Johannes Thalmann was devastated by the news of the British superbomb attack against Hamburg in 1944, and by the loss of several relatives of his.
After the end of the SGW, Upton Thalmann was stationed in North Carolina for another two years, before leaving the military in 1946. Johannes Thalmann finally began his own retirement in 1950, and spent the rest of his life both writing fiction and participating in postwar college courses offered by Chicago universities for retirees and veterans. Thalmann died in 1965.
Upton Thalmann was encouraged by his father to pursue his own literary ambitions, and saw his first work of science fiction published in a Chicago journal in 1952. Upton Thalmann’s best known work by 2021 is
Lunar Flame, published in 1962 and proving to be a bestseller. The setting for this story is a futuristic colony on the Moon in which the colonists succeed in revolting against their dictator, a thinly-veiled caricature of Jake Featherston. Although several attempts at a film adaptation of
Lunar Flame in the 1960s and 1970s failed, Upton Thalmann was able to successfully oversee - a successful 1989 Broadway adaptation of
Lunar Flame as a Space Opera.
By 2021, several members of the extended Thalmann family are working in film, stage, and television in both Los Angeles and New York City. One member of the family, Sylvia Thalmann Dupont, is a noted cinematographer, as well as a part-time instructor at the New School of Cinema and Fine Art in New York City.
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The analogue in TTL to Walter Ulbricht was Ernst Ulbricht, born on a slightly different date in comparison to our world. Ulbricht in TTL worked as a joiner. He served in the Imperial German Army in the First Great War, and would return to working as a joiner. Ulbricht was a staunch supporter of the Social Democratic Party, but never engaged in political activism.
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The analogue in TTL to Otto Grotewohl was Emil Grotewohl, born on a slightly different date in comparison to our world. He enlisted in the Imperial German Army in 1914, and was killed in action on the Eastern Front in 1916.
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The analogue to Hermann Göring was Wilhelm Göring, born on a slightly different date in comparison to our world. Wilhelm Göring served in the Imperial German Army during the First Great War. He never became a combat pilot. He was severely wounded during the Battle of Verdun. Göring, while recovering from his injuries, developed a morphine addiction, and eventually died of a drug overdose in 1919.