What if Hitler died in the Beer Hall Putsch

During the Beer Hall Putsch when Hitler and his supporters encountered the police, a firefight broke out and the police took shots at Hitler. During this, a bullet that was meant for Hitler instead killed the man next to him.

But what if that bullet had instead ended Hitler's life during the Beer Hall Putsch?
 
Either the Communists or a military junta takes power when the Depression brings the Roaring Twenties of Weimar crashing down.
 
Either the Communists or a military junta takes power when the Depression brings the Roaring Twenties of Weimar crashing down.
Or nobody, since the Weimar economy was actually starting to recover by 1933 and the Autobahn network was set to begin with or without Hitler.
 

SsgtC

Banned
One of two things. Either the NSDAP completely collapses. Or someone slightly more sane (read practical) takes it over and Nazi Germany becomes an even bigger headache and problem than in OTL.
 
Would in exchange for Hitler's death the butterflies allow Horst Wessel or Leo Schlageter to survive? If so, we'd just have a little switcheroo at the top and Adolf Hitler would now be the name of a tank battalion or a training ship.
 
Or nobody, since the Weimar economy was actually starting to recover by 1933 and the Autobahn network was set to begin with or without Hitler.
With how unstable the political system was and how incompetent Hindenberg was, I just don't see wobbly Weimar surviving past the 40s at best. With trade walls in the 30s limiting markets, an aggressive Communist party, and the military effectively independent and at times manipulating policy, not to mention the system never really being accepted by the German people, Weimar can't survive without reform.
 
one thing after "the Little Annoying Austrian" dies, is that the NSDAP implode, first it get banned by Bavarian Government
and surviving NSDAP members involve in the Beer Hall Putsch are pursued for trail
means Göring, Hess or Himmler are on run, in mean time the NSDAP member goes there own way.

it very Likely that most join the German National Freedom Party (Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei) like OTL but instead of be a Rival to NSDAP they are there successor.
but without "the Little Annoying Austrian" the chances that Erich Ludendorff transform the party into popular people party is unlikely...
 
During the Beer Hall Putsch when Hitler and his supporters encountered the police, a firefight broke out and the police took shots at Hitler. During this, a bullet that was meant for Hitler instead killed the man next to him.

But what if that bullet had instead ended Hitler's life during the Beer Hall Putsch?
A certain veterinarian takes over the Nazi Party and Germany.
 

Perkeo

Banned
With how unstable the political system was and how incompetent Hindenberg was, I just don't see wobbly Weimar surviving past the 40s at best. With trade walls in the 30s limiting markets, an aggressive Communist party, and the military effectively independent and at times manipulating policy, not to mention the system never really being accepted by the German people, Weimar can't survive without reform.
I think Weimar Germany is underrated and the claim that it was a lost cause is a myth.
  • The rate of exchanging the chancellors was extremely high, but not higher than the third French republic or post WWII Italy.
  • Nor did the German people fail to accept the system. All parliamentary elections between 1918 and 1932 yielded a solid mayority for the parties that supported the system, and in 1933, Hitler was already in power and the bill of rights suspended, and still he failed to accomplish an absolute majority.
  • Hindenburg's incompetence is not a problem either, since it doesn't take much of a POD to prevent his election and either way he won't be in power in the 1940s.
  • And last but not least: Even if Weimar indeed can't survive without reform, why coudn't it survive with reform?
one thing after "the Little Annoying Austrian" dies, is that the NSDAP implode, first it get banned by Bavarian Government
and surviving NSDAP members involve in the Beer Hall Putsch are pursued for trail
means Göring, Hess or Himmler are on run, in mean time the NSDAP member goes there own way.

it very Likely that most join the German National Freedom Party (Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei) like OTL but instead of be a Rival to NSDAP they are there successor.
but without "the Little Annoying Austrian" the chances that Erich Ludendorff transform the party into popular people party is unlikely...
There will be lots of right wing parties and they will cause trouble, but uniting all the very different ideologies is a difficult task unlikely to be accomplished by anyone else.
 
Last edited:

NoMommsen

Donor
There will be lots of right wing parties and they will cause trouble, but uniting all the very different ideologies is a difficult task unlikely to be accomplished by anyone else.
it very Likely that most join the German National Freedom Party (Deutschvölkische Freiheitspartei) like OTL but instead of be a Rival to NSDAP they are there successor.
but without "the Little Annoying Austrian" the chances that Erich Ludendorff transform the party into popular people party is unlikely...
One name : Gregor Strasser

He actually joined the DVFP and became part of the 'triumvirate' leading it :
-Gregor Strasser himself
- Ludendorff as figurehead
- Albrecht von Graefe, comming from DNVP, being the 'networker' to the more established rightwingers

When Hitler returned from his too honorable imprisonment he almost immediatly left it an started to use his by the DVFP made contacts to build up the NSDAP formations north of the bavarian border.

I could well envisage him doing the same for the DVFP, even better, as von Graefe and Ludendorff could be easily sidelined by him. Both were too much 'old-style' to grab on actual politics and the new mechanisms (esp. propaganda).
 

CaliGuy

Banned
One name : Gregor Strasser

He actually joined the DVFP and became part of the 'triumvirate' leading it :
-Gregor Strasser himself
- Ludendorff as figurehead
- Albrecht von Graefe, comming from DNVP, being the 'networker' to the more established rightwingers

When Hitler returned from his too honorable imprisonment he almost immediatly left it an started to use his by the DVFP made contacts to build up the NSDAP formations north of the bavarian border.

I could well envisage him doing the same for the DVFP, even better, as von Graefe and Ludendorff could be easily sidelined by him. Both were too much 'old-style' to grab on actual politics and the new mechanisms (esp. propaganda).
Did Strasser have Hitler's charisma, though?
 
How important was Goering at this time. he seems to me to be the most charismatic Nazi.
Goering was a major member of the Nazi party, but he fled Germany after the Putsch and only returned when amnesty was granted in 1927. He wouldn't become top dog at this point absent Hitler.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
Did Strasser have Hitler's charisma, though?
No, he didn't, at least not in the mesmerizing way Hitler was able to.

However, he has always been called a very good rhetorian, able to exicte an audience in a beer-hall as well as in the Reichstag. It was his job to build up the propaganda machine of the NSDAP, he trained and set up training courses for nazi rhetorians, in a way he "made" Goebbels. He didn't "build on" Hitlers abilities alone in that respect, as he knew : Hitler can't be everywhere.

About other right-wing leaders ... well perhaps he might not be able to get them on "his" boat. But without his abilities to organize a party - as well as its propaganda apparatus - they would quite quickly dwindle into maybe loud but otherwise meaningless, obscure sectarians (as Ludendorff did).
 
Top