What if Friedrich III, Wilhelm II's father, lives a long live: An attempt to rewrite history from the 1890s into the Cold War

DoryElTec

DoryElTec

Here in this scenario we will explore how Friedrich III living longer would impact history. A world war is going to be unavoidable seeing French irredentism over Alsace Lorraine, the situation in the Balkans and imperialist conflicts. I'm going to avoid the thinking of him being there could avert the Great War like an author said according to his Wikipedia page.

To sum it up before his death he was an admirer of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband. He and his wife planned to rule as consorts, like Albert and Queen Victoria, and to reform what they saw as flaws in the executive branch that Bismarck had created for himself. The office of Chancellor, responsible to the Emperor, would be replaced with a British-style cabinet, with ministers responsible to the Reichstag. Government policy would be based on the consensus of the cabinet. Frederick "described the Imperial Constitution as ingeniously contrived chaos." Here in my scenario, he carries some reforms but due to his oppositions in the government, he doesn't manage to carry the rest of his intended reforms.

In this timeline, without Wilhelm II's overambitious personality, Germany never managed to be despised by Britain. In fact Germany is a close friend to Britain due to his ties to Britain and how liberals in Britain likes him. In the first part we're going to see the effect from Friedrich III's ascension into the Great War.
 

Deleted member 94680

I’ve often heard of these “Friedrich was a liberal” arguments before, but also seen that his liberalism and plans to overhaul the German constitution were overstated. Do you have a good source for his plans, or is this simply the PoD?
 
DoryElTec

DoryElTec

Stenz said:
I’ve often heard of these “Friedrich was a liberal” arguments before, but also seen that his liberalism and plans to overhaul the German constitution were overstated. Do you have a good source for his plans, or is this simply the PoD?
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Yeah it is pretty overstated and can be seen as exaggerated due to the mistakes that Wilhelm II made during his tenure; and as a figure used to keep liberal movements in Germany strong after his death.

Adding to that, according to Arthur Rosenberg, despite his liberal tendencies Frederick still firmly believed in Bismarck and his system, with Dorpalen adding that in any case Frederick had too weak and ineffectual a character to have brought about real change, regardless of how long he reigned. -WP

Anyway in the end he's very likely won't antagonize the Brits like Willy did in our timeline and I simply use this as a POD of a scenario I'm going to write.
 
DoryElTec

DoryElTec

LordVorKon said:
Shouldn't this be in 'Before 1900'?
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In the end I'm going to talk much more about WW1, the interwar and WW2 itself. I'm a bit divided as his OTL death date is only 12 years prior 1900, Friedrich III's still having power and influence beyond 1900, and it has resemblances to other thread about an alternate WW1 that POD's can precede the year 1900. That's only my decision tho, other people may have a say on this.
 

LordVorKon

EpicAldariasky said:
In the end I'm going to talk much more about WW1, the interwar and WW2 itself. I'm a bit divided as his OTL death date is only 12 years prior 1900, Friedrich III's still having power and influence beyond 1900, and it has resemblances to other thread about an alternate WW1 that POD's can precede the year 1900. That's only my decision tho, other people may have a say on this.
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That's fair, but as the POD occurs before 1900, I believe it should go in the other forum. It might only be 12 years prior, as you say, but those dozen years ought to change things quite a bit.
 

InMediasRes

The POD would also have to be a bit more than 12 years prior to the turn of the century. No divergence in 1888 could save his life long-term, at best better medical treatment might buy him a few months at that point.
 
33k7

33k7

Frederick the Third maintains the Russian German Alliance if he lives another 10 years or into 1900 things get interesting considering he can't speak so most of his orders will be written down so historians will love him Frederick will probably be remembered as the quiet emperor he'll be a continuation of bismarck's policies with the Germans not making too many waves once his son gets to power things will be different but with the added decade or a little longer of a more peaceful foreign policy not to mention less aggressive.
Europe might be less of a powder keg
 
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