WI: Germany fights until bitter end in WW1?

abc123

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So, what would happen if Germany, instead of asking for truce in November decides to fight until the bitter end like in WW2?

Whate effect would that have on peace terms imposed on Germany after the war?
 
Germany pretty much did fight for as long as it could in 1918. Although the German Army tried to pretend this wasn't the case (and here is the origin of the stab-in-the-back myth), Germany had nothing left to give and its army was crippled.

By the end of the war, the German people were on the brink of starvation due to a combination of Allied blockade and massive mismanagement of the economy. Their empire in the east was collapsing. The completely pointless attacks in the west (even before the Americans arrived, the Allies outnumbered the Germans in the west heavily) had been defeated not by fifth-columnists but by the Allied armies.

Germany was either going to surrender in 1918 or it was going to collapse into civil war in 1919, with the Allies supporting one side or the other. In effect, the Germans had already fought to the bitter end.
 
So, what would happen if Germany, instead of asking for truce in November decides to fight until the bitter end like in WW2?

Difficult. Quite some fanatism needed for this - and nobody would be that fanatic for that Kaiser...

What you could get, though, is the fighting to continue longer and the allies actually invading Germany.

Whate effect would that have on peace terms imposed on Germany after the war?

I doubt that the peace terms would be that harsher. The French couldn'T demand more than they demanded IOTL - and did not get through to Britain and the US, which would still have no interest in splitting up Germany altogether I think.

What I could definitely imagine is more widespread occupation, for example the Ruhr, Frankfurt and Mannheim occupied from the start. That is actually not that bad for Germany I think.

A long-term effect would be that the Germans would accept the terms far more willingly being ultimately defeated rather than loosing while still standing on foreign soil. No Dolchstosslegende could arise with French troops crossing the Rhine.
 
in November 1918 German Empire existence only on Paper

Emperor Wilhelm II deprived of power by his generals
Those generals were also deprived of there power
because there orders was mostly neglected by the Officer or politician

German Officer at front had to look out,
or they would be lambaste or even killed by there demoralized soldiers !

with other words in 11. November 1918, the Germany had fights until bitter end...
 
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Like people have said, Germany was on the verge of collapsing by war's end, both sides were stretched to the brink in terms of resources (though the entry of America had given the Allies the one thing they needed, manpower) and pushing the war on for even one more year almost guarantees that multiple governments, probably on both sides, will collapse.

Whatever the new German government is will probably be willing to accept (somehow) even more punishing peace terms than Versailles.
 
A theory I came up with is that WWI may be seen as far more of an imperialistic "European" war, especially by WWII. The war is commonly seen as imperialistic already, if it just ends up Germany fighting for survival rather than colonies and land, then public opinion(mainly in America) may change heavily.

Seeing how America treated Germany after the war/during Versailles, German-American relations may be even higher.
 
A theory I came up with is that WWI may be seen as far more of an imperialistic "European" war, especially by WWII. The war is commonly seen as imperialistic already, if it just ends up Germany fighting for survival rather than colonies and land, then public opinion(mainly in America) may change heavily.

Seeing how America treated Germany after the war/during Versailles, German-American relations may be even higher.
Yeah sure get cossy with the one who shooted at your shildren.
 
Yeah sure get cossy with the one who shooted at your shildren.

Considering German-American relations in the interwar years were actually pretty good what with the Dawes Plan and things like that it's not too implausible. Americans were pissed at the Germans during the war but once the Kaiser was gone and a new, democratic government was put in its place and then it proceeded to be swamped by problems with its reparations public opinion turned towards Germany to feel that they were being spited unfairly.
 

Deleted member 9338

They may have been able to fight into 1919 but with certain changes.


  • I see Germany broken into regions (Saxony, Bavaria and the like).
  • Poland would have been supported sooner and would have taken East Prussia in total. That was so the Prussians could not rise again.
  • The politics of the northern Germany states would be more socialist/communist with support from the saliors.
Just my thoughts.
Jon
 
"Aspirin" would never have been a trademark in any country. Any pill containing acetyl-salicycilic acid could have been marketed as aspirin in any country whatsoever.

Heroin would likely be called "acetylcodine", since Heroin is merely natural codine with an organic acid gorup attached so that it crosses the blood/brain barrier faster.

Perhaps with the drug companies in what's left of Germany on the ropes, LSD never gets invented until the 70s rather than the 50s.

The UK probably becomes more advanced in chemical weapons tech, though their homegrown Lewisite is about as good as it gets. I'm a huge propenent of blister agents over nerve gas, Nerve gas is fine on the tactial scale, but the blister stuff messes things up on the strategic level.

Perhaps the western allies might attack the newborn Soviet Union with chemical weapons in 1919.
 
Perhaps the western allies might attack the newborn Soviet Union with chemical weapons in 1919.

That's an interesting notion. World War I as per OTL, war with the Soviet Union in 1919 and maybe war with a reunified Germany some time after that, say in the 1950s?
 
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