To the Victor, Go the Spoils (Redux): A Plausible Central Powers Victory

[Ombra]

Never heard of Es Geloybte Aretz. What’s the non-spoilery TLDR? Lord knows I have enough TLs I’m reading rn but still could be good to have one for when I finish Osman Reborn

Early death of Wilhelm II, Wilhelm III is crowned emperor with Prince Albert as regent. It is technically a Germanwank in that Germany has a much better 20th century, and because by many ITTL Germany is seen as "the good guy". But it's also not a traditional wank in the sense that Germany doesn't magically land lucky breaks, and the narrative never shies away from the dark sides of German politics and society. The author has an unconventional conception of what a wank TL is, as well. Like others have said, the Reich is given an opportunity to fix what is broken within it. On some things it succeeds, on others, it doesn't. It's a very deep exploration, from urbanism to academia, and avoids the typical clichés very deftly.

Apologies for the OT TheReformer, rest assured it is not meant as a way to distract from your work. To me, you're already in the same league as the great classics

 

[KingSweden24]

Haven't read that one fully yet either (too many things to read, not enough time, you know? ) but IIRC from looking briefly once the starting premise is Wilhelm II dying shortly after being crowned

Early death of Wilhelm II, Wilhelm III is crowned emperor with Prince Albert as regent. It is technically a Germanwank in that Germany has a much better 20th century, and because by many ITTL Germany is seen as "the good guy". But it's also not a traditional wank in the sense that Germany doesn't magically land lucky breaks, and the narrative never shies away from the dark sides of German politics and society. The author has an unconventional conception of what a wank TL is, as well. Like others have said, the Reich is given an opportunity to fix what is broken within it. On some things it succeeds, on others, it doesn't. It's a very deep exploration, from urbanism to academia, and avoids the typical clichés very deftly.

Apologies for the OT TheReformer, rest assured it is not meant as a way to distract from your work. To me, you're already in the same league as the great classics

Thanks!

And with that… back to our scheduled programming!

 

[Gabingston]

Es Geloybte Aretz isn't that long tbh.

It is several hundred pages in its first thread and, more importantly, has no threadmarks for me to keep track of my progress. I'd love to get into it, but it'd a grind to say the least.

 

[AustrianFanboy]

I'd like to get into those two TL's, but they're so damn long that I just can't.

I read A day in July and found It very good, but with Major caveats:
A) I found the peace treaty ending WW1 utterly implausible
B) Everybody and their cousin falls to revolution, and said civil wars are very frustrating to read: basically always the same scheme: faction A Is on the verge of winning when faction B draws unexpected forces out of somewhere and turns the ride...rinse and repeat.

Concerning Es Geloybte Aretz, I tried to read It, but got Stick with the first narrative chapters, as I am not really into narrative TLs, but I will give It a second look

 

[kham_coc]

It is several hundred pages in its first thread and, more importantly, has no threadmarks for me to keep track of my progress. I'd love to get into it, but it'd a grind to say the least.

It exists as a finished timeline. 5 pages nothing but the TL.

Es Geloybte Aretz - a Finished Germanwank

The timeline is now finished, and can be posted here in a retconned, story-only format. Departure: Vierkaiserjahr Potsdam, November 1888 A dreadfully apprehensive quiet had settled over the room, only occasionally broken by the rustle of cloth and the creak of furniture as the assembled...

www.alternatehistory.com

 

[Mayukh]

It exists as a finished timeline. 5 pages nothing but the TL.

Es Geloybte Aretz - a Finished Germanwank

The timeline is now finished, and can be posted here in a retconned, story-only format. Departure: Vierkaiserjahr Potsdam, November 1888 A dreadfully apprehensive quiet had settled over the room, only occasionally broken by the rustle of cloth and the creak of furniture as the assembled...

www.alternatehistory.com

It ends 1908 was it abondend or the story ends in1908?

 

[embo]

It ends 1908 was it abondend or the story ends in1908?

nope the main story line was finished.

the author does update the story somewhat:

Es Geloybte Aretz Continuation Thread

Though the thread begins in 1908, it is the continuation of the TL Es Geloybte Aretz - A Germanwank with a POD in 1888 which is why I put it here. The format differs, with entries now taken from fictional history books later in the TL rather than 'live' novelistic vignettes. This being a work in...

www.alternatehistory.com

 

[TheReformer]

Chaos in Germany
The General Strike
October 1918​

Faced with the threat of a general strike in the midst of negotiations with their war foes, the German Government under the military clique of Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Bauer and Hoffman, under the implicit leadership of Chancellor Georg von Hertling, initially dismissed the threats by the interfactional committee.

Continuing on with their planned path forward to dominate Europe and dismantle France, which involved foisting hostile peace treaties upon their former enemies and using force where necessary to crush any anti-German revolutionary movements in France and Italy, von Hertling rejected the suggestion that elections were needed. Calling into question the loyalty of the interfactional committee and harking tones associated with the Fatherland Party, von Hertling labelled the SPD and peace group as anti-German traitors who wished to throw away all of Germany’s war gains.

Ironically, they met with little friendship from the Fatherland party. While supportive of Hindenberg and Ludendorff, the Fatherland Party by the end of 1918 was quickly coming apart as competing personalities within the group tore it apart. Having won the war, a nationalistic zealout of a political party seemed increasingly less necessary, and thus while it’s membership remained high it’s actual voting potential was quite low.

Tirpitz, who had formed the party with the backing of the Pan-German League alongside Heinrich Claß, August von Dönhoff and Wolfgang Kapp, had himself grown disillusioned with the party and did not see it as a likely governing party. Further still, the party had grown to draw similar conclusions to the German left by concluding that German imperial throne would be better suited by Wilhelm II’s son the Crown Prince rather than the Kaiser.

Being torn apart politically between an extreme left and an extreme right, Germany’s populace in the centre - happy with the victory but desperate for improvements in their daily life, generally took the view that by now the war should be over.

Germans felt content to have defeated France, Russia and the Italians - and thus despite Britain having been billed as Germany’s main foe throughout the war, most middle class Germans familiar with the circumstances the country found herself in understood that the Kaiserliche Marine would not be magically defeating the Royal Navy any time soon.

This left many Germans sympathising with the SPD and the liberal bloc far more than the militarists who seemed keen to continue the conflict no matter the cost, while the political right disagreed on a path forward and thus took no immediate action. The liberals had the opening move.

Thus when Ebert, a highly respected monarchist socialist who had backed the war despite his political leanings and also personally worked to end earlier strikes in January 1918, told workers to lay down their tools - they did.

Within a day the call had been reiterated by not just the parties of the left, but the rest of the peace group too, along with all of Germany’s unions. Involving over twelve million workers, the country was completely and instantly paralysed.

In Berlin, the gas, water and power supply all stopped overnight, leaving the Kaiser’s palace suspended in darkness until sunrise - the monarch remarking that morning that it ‘were as if all of Germany had in an instant abandoned him’.

Still refusing to believe that the country could be brought to such a total stand still by the Reichstag, who passed a motion calling for new elections under universal suffrage that same morning on October 6th, the Government initially sought to crack down on protests.

Deploying a force of thousands of soldiers into Berlin to contain protests that now had swelled into the tens or even hundreds of thousands, the soldiers in many cases simply joined protestors or refused to fire upon demonstrating families and veterans.

Rapidly losing control of the situation, the Kaiser met with the military high command of the OKL in the early hours of November 6th to establish a solution. Wary of the impact of a general strike on the country in the midst of peace talks, the Kaiser expressed both his shock and confusion over the protests.

Vice Chancellor Friedrich von Payer, an actual backer of the strike, faced a crescendo of angry voices in the Government furious at his intransigence, but remained stalwart that the solution to the crisis simply was to call new elections and appoint a Government with the confidence of the Reichstag. In the end, after significant discussion, the cabinet failed to come to any agreement and the strike continued for another day.

Between the 7th and 8th, the Kaiser came under growing pressure to stabilise the situation. Emboldened by the size of the strike, members of the Independent Social Democratic Party, extremist leftists, had begun to organise factory councils and even military councils in some districts of the Empire - particularly at Wilhelmshaven where partly mutinous and temporarily confined High Seas Fleet had moored after their failure to give battle, many crews refusing to move their boats or leave their barracks

Overwhelmed by events but aware something must be done, the Kaiser was even approached by his sons urging him to break the political instability in the country by agreeing to new elections and appointing a new transitional Chancellor to buy time for the signing of peace treaties.

Ultimately, on October 10th after a further day of deliberation, Chancellor von Hertling chose to resign and proposed that Friedrich von Payer, who clearly had the support of the peace faction, take over as Chancellor.

Accepting the role initially with some hesitation, von Payer became Chancellor on the 11th and was officially backed in the role by the Reichstag on the 14th. In the role, he announced his intent to pass limited reforms in a twenty day window to amend the German constitution with the Kaiser’s blessing, aiming to provide greater legislative control over Government, while calling for elections to be held soon after.

While this was undoubtedly a delaying tactic agreed by von Payer, who sought to satisfy both the Kaiser, OKL and German people at once with the aid of Ebert, the strike was brought to an immediate halt and the country set back on track.

 

[Leonidas]

Hooray for peace and democracy 🥳

 

[FesteringSpore]

Wilhelm II and the OHL: Imperialism in our time, baby

Ebert:

 

[Kylia]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. SPD may be less nasty than OHL, but I'm sure they'll be happy with all sorts of soft imperialism in the East.

 

[Drizzt]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. SPD may be less nasty than OHL, but I'm sure they'll be happy with all sorts of soft imperialism in the East.

If Socialists do it, it's not Imperialism but benevolent protection from counter-revolutionary forces .

 

[Komnenos002]

Fantastic update! This is going to give the far-right some variant of a Stab in the Back Myth, I fear.

 

[TheBalkanizer]

Fantastic update! This is going to give the far-right some variant of a Stab in the Back Myth, I fear.

Not enough to lead to the carnage of OTL

 

[Kylia]

If Socialists do it, it's not Imperialism but benevolent protection from counter-revolutionary forces .

And benevolent protection from the heretical Bolshevik socialists in the USSR.

 

[miketr]

Why are the socialists worried about Universal suffrag? Reichstag has been elected by universal male suffrage since the formation of German Empire in 1871. Yes Weimar constitution added right to vote to woman. BUT. What was the point of contention was the three tiered franchise for election to Prussian Diet and that the Chancellor served at sole pleasure of the Kaiser. Whats more they wanted the various state secretaries to be responsible ministers that the Reichstag could question. In other words they wanted power to shift to Reichstag and government to function like parliamentary governmen.

Change in franchise for Reichstag zero impact.
Doing an election for Reichstag zero impact.

Kaiser can chose whoever as Chancellor and all of the state Secretaries. Yes without cooperation of Reichstag the Chancellor would have major problem. BUT with Germany at war and a state of siege declared the Chancellor / Government had VERY wide powest.

nice story.

Michael

 

[TheReformer]

Why are the socialists worried about Universal suffrag

Because I keep 👏 forgetting 👏 to remove 👏 that 👏 bit 👏 like 👏 a dumbass 👏

You're absolutely right - Im gunna comb through and amend later today.

Basically I mixed up universal suffrage (Austria Hungary issue) with the Prussian three tiered system and keep forgetting to update it.

Cheers for spotting!

 

[Gman]

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. SPD may be less nasty than OHL, but I'm sure they'll be happy with all sorts of soft imperialism in the East.

That's the best kind of imperialism. /s

 

[Hohensaufen]

good update! The fella is called HindenbUrg, tho.

 

[TheReformer]

good update! The fella is called HindenbUrg, tho.

I have no idea why my brain always insists on writing his name like an Iceberg.