MerryPrankster, in fact Germany in the last months of the war did everything possible to hold off the Soviets.
If you have not looked into the career of General Heinrici, the 'master of disaster', commanding much of the Eastern Front from January 1945 to the end, you certainly should. By any account he held out longer than anyone could have imagined.
Given the losses by July 20 I seriously doubt Army Group Center could have salvaged much more than it did and what does a full retreat do except invite further action by the Red Army? Likewise Guderain's proposals, which would also have advanced the Soviet occupation of the Balkans by several months, this before Stalin agreed to throw Churchill the bone of Greece. Put the Iron Curtain in the Adriatic and the Soviets are actually doing better than OTL in the Balkans.
Austria had nearly twenty years to join Germany and yet somehow failed to do so, even during the Great Depression, until occupied. And what was unpleasant about the elected government in Austria in 1938?
Dismemberment is what happened to Czechoslovakia at Munich. Any analysis of the economic, military, transport, etc. damage done confirms this, not to mention the expulsion of @800,000 Czechs and other rendered destitute while 250,000 Germans remained inside the remaining state as a fifth column.
The Germans may feel that they've somehow paid their dues which will only make matters worse vis a vis Jews, Poles and everyone else they mistreated or invaded.
True about FDR and I respect your standing up for him, nor do I dispute the (inevitable) nutjobs of his or any administration but nonetheless any ATL which considers impeaching a president for continuing the policies of a near-saintly figure in the public's eye when that president absolutely has the right to do so...
The Valkyrie crowd included more than enough Prussian officers and others contemptous of democratic values, not to mention war-mongers whose main grudge against Hitler was the tide turning against Germany, rather than any ethical basis.
A Germany restored to a weak Weimer-type republic with powerful voices wanting a kaiser, a new arms race or what have you does not remotely serve Anglo-American interests and how does London or Washington DC sign a treaty with the regime, defend it against the inevitable massive criticism, then throw their German partners under the bus without admitting either moral error or deliberate intent to betray?
There's also possible effects on Germany if, for the second time in 26 years the military overthrows and betrays the government for their own personal goals.