What would it take for Poland to take Germany's place in History?

Have the Hohenzollerns pull a Habsburg and inherit Poland Lithuania in the fifteenth century. From there it's simply a matter of subjugating Pomerania and Silesia and maybe conquering or inheriting Bohemia or Hungary.

Said state would probably be more of a Russia though- big, vast eatern expanses, relatively populated western area.

Alternately go back and screw ottonian Germany so the Polabian Slavs stay independent, then have a strong Poland gradually annex them, putting the Polish-German border on the Elbe. They probably also control Bohemia in this scenario.
 
Alternately go back and screw ottonian Germany so the Polabian Slavs stay independent, then have a strong Poland gradually annex them, putting the Polish-German border on the Elbe. They probably also control Bohemia in this scenario.

Basically this, although I think even the Ottonian era is a bit too late. Instead, avert the Carolingian rise and screw the Franks as necessary, such that "East Francia" as an entity never arises or is effectively restricted to Franconia. Old Saxony retains its independence, and the Bavarian dukes reassert some measure of autonomy or full independence in the atmosphere of Frankish decline. Then a sufficiently fortunate Polan state arises which subjects the Bohemians, Moravians, Slovaks, Pomeranians, and Wends/Polabians, and get yourself a united West Slav kingdom. Poland takes Germany's "place in history" in the sense that it becomes the dominant north-central European state, while what remains of the German states are consigned to being an uneasy border zone squeezed between the Franks and Poles.

Fast forward to the Early Modern era and have the troubled Saxon-Bohemian Confederation get picked apart by the French and Polish empires in a series of "Partitions of Germania" to complete the alt-historical symmetry. ;)

A more thoroughgoing/serious "what would it take" answer would have to address things like the political and dynastic infighting which consistently hobbled medieval Poland, the deeper roots of Frankish hegemony in the early middle ages, and perhaps demographic imbalances between Poland and Germany as well, but I'm not all that well versed on those topics.
 
Philip of Burgundy dies in the 1490s, before Charles V is conceived. His father, Maximilian, marries off Philip's sister to the King of Poland. Max also remarries and tries for another son, but without success. On his death Austria and Burgundy unite with Poland, and (assuming Mohacs isn't butterflied away) Bohemia and Hungary as well in 1526. This Greater-PLC becomes the dominant power in Central Europe.
 
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