What If Hitler was killed in World War 1?

Churchill

Banned
What If Hitler was killed in World War 1?
How would this effect future German and European politics and history?
 
Who knows?

Did his cult of personality work that well, as well as some eye witnesses recall? Admittedly he seems to have reinvigorated the Nazi Party during the early 1920s, but perhaps someone else (either extreme Left or Right) would have performed similarly successfully?
 
Well,if we look at other Nazis,none seem to match Hitlers evil charisma. Its easy to say'Well,another Hitler esque leader will emerge'but IMO its unlikely. The Nazis may simply become another footnote in history[kinda like the Limerick Soviet etc]. I'd still say Weimer Germany is doomed in the long run. Its always going to be looked on as a political unit forged from defeat in War. Versailles is another nail in the coffin for Weimer Germany[reparations,territorial losses being particulary hard to forget]. A communist takeover is a possibility in the early/mid 30s. A military coup to prevent the rise of communists also seems likely. So,its either a Red Germany or a military dictatorship by the early 40s. A possible war with Poland for the Danzig corridor and perhaps some conflict with France. Maybe,a larger war but its unlikely.
 

Churchill

Banned
Well,if we look at other Nazis,none seem to match Hitlers evil charisma. Its easy to say'Well,another Hitler esque leader will emerge'but IMO its unlikely. The Nazis may simply become another footnote in history[kinda like the Limerick Soviet etc]. I'd still say Weimer Germany is doomed in the long run. Its always going to be looked on as a political unit forged from defeat in War. Versailles is another nail in the coffin for Weimer Germany[reparations,territorial losses being particulary hard to forget]. A communist takeover is a possibility in the early/mid 30s. A military coup to prevent the rise of communists also seems likely. So,its either a Red Germany or a military dictatorship by the early 40s. A possible war with Poland for the Danzig corridor and perhaps some conflict with France. Maybe,a larger war but its unlikely.

Red take over seems possible but my bet would be a German Fascist Party along Mussolini based lines being created and taking enough of the Working Class vote to form a coalition with the German National Peoples Party and the Centre party by the early 1930's.
Failing that German could end up like Sweden or the Soviets may well over run Eastern Europe.
 
There was no gambler quite like Hitler. Other leaders like, say, Göring didn't want war (at least not right away), didn't want Barbarossa, didn't want to gut Czechoslovakia for fear of the British etc.

I can see an authoritarian Germany being content with Hitler's 1939 gains plus Danzig and the Corridor; Britain might deal with them as they wouldn't /couldn't with Hitler.
 
80% chance a more conventional right wing dicatorship- possibly inviting back Willie the stupid to be emporer.

There may be some conflict but they will not provoke a World war, probably

10% chance, somehow Weimar survives

10% chance, some kind of lefty regime- not too democratic.
 
The Nazis would still be there, but the intense blame-placing hatred that led to genocide against the Jews would not have happened.
 
I can see an authoritarian Germany being content with Hitler's 1939 gains plus Danzig and the Corridor; Britain might deal with them as they wouldn't /couldn't with Hitler.
Most would be quite content with Hitler's 1939 gains plus Danzig and the Corridor, but not including Bohemia-Moravia (excepting Sudeten).

As a side note, the 'Nazis', technically, probably wouldn't be around, as it was Hitler that changed the name to add NS to DAP.
 
80% chance a more conventional right wing dicatorship- possibly inviting back Willie the stupid to be emporer.

There may be some conflict but they will not provoke a World war, probably

10% chance, somehow Weimar survives

10% chance, some kind of lefty regime- not too democratic.

I'd put it at 75% Right, 24% Communist, 1% Democratic.

Honestly! "lefty regime- not too democratic" in Weimar? It was always going to be bloody Red Revolution or nothing.
 
Most would be quite content with Hitler's 1939 gains plus Danzig and the Corridor, but not including Bohemia-Moravia (excepting Sudeten).

From a nationalistic standpoint, yes, but that makes the borders much harder to defend; the military won't like that. Plus, there are still a lot of Germans in Prague to liberate. Nevermind that there are also Czechs; people weren't too big on the rights of small nations back then.
 
From a nationalistic standpoint, yes, but that makes the borders much harder to defend; the military won't like that. Plus, there are still a lot of Germans in Prague to liberate. Nevermind that there are also Czechs; people weren't too big on the rights of small nations back then.
It's the gamble thing, really. Most leaders wouldn't really be willing to go back on their promises to the west in such a blatant way without more important (nationalistic) gains, or so early. The claims on Polish-controlled lands was generally seen as far more important then even Sudeten, let alone the remained of Czechia. It's likelier that the German leaders would bully the Czechs into conceding lots of special rights for the Germans, IMO.
 
It's the gamble thing, really. Most leaders wouldn't really be willing to go back on their promises to the west in such a blatant way without more important (nationalistic) gains, or so early. The claims on Polish-controlled lands was generally seen as far more important then even Sudeten, let alone the remained of Czechia. It's likelier that the German leaders would bully the Czechs into conceding lots of special rights for the Germans, IMO.

Well, they might still take it later, if and when there's a fight with France (it was "ancient German lands", after all, being a key part of the Crown's Lands of A-H), but in the short term, I agree, you're right.
 
Well, they might still take it later, if and when there's a fight with France (it was "ancient German lands", after all, being a key part of the Crown's Lands of A-H), but in the short term, I agree, you're right.
The claim on the area's traditional German connection was even better then them just being a part of the Crown Lands of Austria-Hungary: they had been a quite important part of the Kingdom of Germany, and had, in fact, been the Emperor's place of residence of residence for a while.
 
No Hitler = No major NSDAP

OTL the Nationalist Party lost a lot of members to the NSDAP. If there is no Nazi Party then those hard-liners stay in the Nationalist Party which becomes more right wing.

Hitler did not fully invent the role of the Fuehrer, he stepped into that role created, in part, by the times. Political thinkers, the press, and many others kept on calling for "The One" to come forward and save the nation. Only Hitler had the hubris to actually step up.

Without Hitler, Alt-Germany would also yearn for "The One". Eventually someone would be forced into that role.

How about Alfred Hugenberg? He co-founded the Nationalist Party and in OTL he funded Hitler and the Nazis. He was very rich and owned a newspaper empires - so funding and propaganda should not be a problem.

If Hugenberg becomes "The Leader" then Germany focuses more on industry and less on the military.
 
Well Hitler was such a dominant personality that with him gone the whole Nazi movement could very well be dramatically different. Probably less successful. Obviously the German Workers' Party wouldn't be renamed the National Socialist German Workers' Party without Hitler.

Beyond that I recall that in the 1920s when the Nazis were just one of many minor far-right parties there were discussions about a merger between the Nazis and another small far-right party. Anton Drexler and the other old guard Nazi leadership were in favor of that proposal but Hitler was against it knowing that he couldn't maintain his exclusive supreme leader role after merging with other parties that had their own dominant figures. If Hitler isn't around I can imagine that the German Worker's Party would eventually merge with and be effectively absorbed by other rightist movements and never become a dominant political force. The party could be ideologically different as well without Hitler's influence. It retain its original more leftist economic ideas (profit-sharing, abolition of interest, etc.). Also many key Nazi ideas, such as Lebensraum weren't formulated by Hitler until after the beerhall putsch and his time in prison so without him they might never be part of the ideology at all.

Weimar democracy was probably still doomed. When the conservatives allowed Hitler to become Chancellor they thought it was a temporary measure, they never imagined the Nazis would be able to completely take over. They were still intent on doing away with democracy however. The plan was to do away with party politics all together and have the country be dominated by the military and civil service under a restored monarchy, with the old crown prince as monarch. With no Hilter they might very likely be successful. No one but Hitler is likely to be as big a gambler as he was so Germany is unlikely to make the same dramatic territorial gains over the 1930s. I believe there had for a while been talk of a German-Austrian customs union so that could go through.
 
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