Tyrolean Wilson

So I'm going back to Austria and World War One again soon, but I had a random thought before that.

American involvement was a long time coming, because of German-Americans. So it made me wonder what would happen if Woodrow Wilson's mother was German. And not just German, but from Tyrol.

Does this completely push America out of the war? Do they stay neutral? Join the Central Powers? And if they do join the Allies, does Tyrol stay in one piece? And what does Italy do in that case?
 
So I'm going back to Austria and World War One again soon, but I had a random thought before that.

American involvement was a long time coming, because of German-Americans. So it made me wonder what would happen if Woodrow Wilson's mother was German. And not just German, but from Tyrol.

Does this completely push America out of the war? Do they stay neutral? Join the Central Powers? And if they do join the Allies, does Tyrol stay in one piece? And what does Italy do in that case?


If she's from Tyrol, she's almost certainly Catholic. Would she still marry a Protestant? Even if she did, if this led to Woodrow becoming Catholic, it would knock him out of contention as a Presidential choice.

Champ Clark is a better bet. Though not German himself, he made his career largely in a Congressional district with a massive German population, and was popular enough to hang on to his seat even in 1918.

I agree, though, that a half-German Woodrow Wilson is interesting. It doesn't guarantee him staying neutral, but could affect his attitude on various points. Frex, he would probably be aware of the three million Germans in Bohemia/Moravia, about whom, as he famously said "Masaryk never told me." Whether it changes the treaties in a big way is another matter.
 
I agree, though, that a half-German Woodrow Wilson is interesting. It doesn't guarantee him staying neutral, but could affect his attitude on various points. Frex, he would probably be aware of the three million Germans in Bohemia/Moravia, about whom, as he famously said "Masaryk never told me." Whether it changes the treaties in a big way is another matter.

One thing that people don't realize is that there was a time when Wilson, like many Americans, was sympathetic to Prussia/Germany. "To Wilson circa 1890, for example, the Prussian administrative model was superior to the French one (not to mention Anglo-American administrative impotency); the Prussian constitutional state was preferable to the immature democracy of France; and Prussian local government was the shining model of "self-government" not despite but partly because of its three-class voting system. If any West European country deviated from Wilson's norms it was France, not Germany." https://web.archive.org/web/20130302024321/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/oren.htm

It took a lot of effort for Imperial Germany to lose the widespread sympathy Americans had for it from the 1870's to the 1890's.
 
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One thing that people don't realize is that there was aa time when Wilson, like many Americans, was sympathetic to Prussia/Germany. "To Wilson circa 1890, for example, the Prussian administrative model was superior to the French one (not to mention Anglo-American administrative impotency); the Prussian constitutional state was preferable to the immature democracy of France; and Prussian local government was the shining model of "self-government" not despite but partly because of its three-class voting system. If any West European country deviated from Wilson's norms it was France, not Germany." https://web.archive.org/web/20130302024321/https://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/oren.htm

It took a lot of effort for Imperial Germany to lose the widespread sympathy Americans had for it from the 1870's to the 1890's.


And even later. It still persisted even in 1912.

Reading (and reviewing for Amazon) Lewis L Gould's Four Hats In the Ring, I couldn't resist a smile about the fulsome praise for Germany by both Roosevelt and Wilson. She was highly regarded for her social benefits and the treatment of her workers, and generally viewed as an excellent example to us all. Not quite what they were saying five years later.
 
If she's from Tyrol, she's almost certainly Catholic. Would she still marry a Protestant? Even if she did, if this led to Woodrow becoming Catholic, it would knock him out of contention as a Presidential choice.

Champ Clark is a better bet. Though not German himself, he made his career largely in a Congressional district with a massive German population, and was popular enough to hang on to his seat even in 1918.

I agree, though, that a half-German Woodrow Wilson is interesting. It doesn't guarantee him staying neutral, but could affect his attitude on various points. Frex, he would probably be aware of the three million Germans in Bohemia/Moravia, about whom, as he famously said "Masaryk never told me." Whether it changes the treaties in a big way is another matter.
It's certainly too early for the US to accept a Catholic president. But any number of factors could result in Wilson remaining Protestant.

For me, I'd think Wilson would consider Tyrol as having those national lines listed in his Fourteen Points. I just don't know how that would change the other allies' positions.
 
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