WI Hitler died in ww1?

Let's say that soldier took his shot and dropped the Fuehrer - I'd it safe to say World War 2 wouldn't have happened? Would Germany have become a communist state? Would the soviet union have invaded Poland anyway?
 
maybe Communist Germany

A military putsch seems way more likely to me. The communists never controlled more than 15% of the electorate and had a lot less firepower than the Reichswehr and the Freikorps. A second communist revolution would fail just like the one in 1919 did IMHO.
 
The belief that if not for Hitler, Germany would have gone Communist is part of a more general overestimation of the prospect of successful Communist revolutions in the 1930's. In case you didn't notice, there weren't any. In 1929 the only areas of the globe under Communist control were the USSR and its satellites Mongolia and Tuva. In 1939, they were *still* the only areas of the globe under Communist control.

The usual outcome of a failure of interwar democracy in Europe was not Communism or (strictly speaking) Fascism but authoritarian military or semi-military governments of the traditional Right. In Germany, you wouldn 't even need a coup to get this; Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution would provide a "legal" basis for a transition to conservative authoritarianism.
 

Perkeo

Banned
The right wing will be disunited between the royalists/aristrocrats and the lower class nationalism. Maybe a few years of right-wing/military dictatorship, maybe not. But no WWII and in the end democracy will win.
 
Hitler did not create the National Socialist Party, it already existed.

If the only POD is the death of Hitler, Germany still loses WWI with is faced with back-breaking reparations. If not Hitler than someone similar rises from obscurity to lead Germany into WWII.

And who knows, maybe does a bit better...
 

Perkeo

Banned
Hitler did not create the National Socialist Party, it already existed.

But it was totally unimportant before the Great depression, even with Hitler.

If the only POD is the death of Hitler, Germany still loses WWI with is faced with back-breaking reparations. If not Hitler than someone similar rises from obscurity to lead Germany into WWII.

And who knows, maybe does a bit better...

Some one may do so, but only if there's only one. More than two right wing leaders are no danger to democracy. Additionally, only Hitler was
- mad enough to start WWII but
- smart enough not to loose it before it becomes a WW.
 
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If not Hitler than someone similar rises from obscurity to lead Germany into WWII.

Not sure I agree- this seems too pat and deterministic for the era in question. As demonstrated by all of the discussion above this was a very chaotic time in Germany- there were a lot of balls in play, politically. And Hitler's rise was very much due to a personality cult. So I guess this is an instance where I fall on the the side of the "great men theory" of history. Without him, at the very least, an awful lot is different. Maybe there is still a WWII, and maybe not. There were certainly forces driving another conflict in Europe at the time, even without him. So...

Let's say that soldier took his shot and dropped the Fuehrer - I'd it safe to say World War 2 wouldn't have happened?

No, I don't think it's "safe to say". But it's not ridiculously improbable.
 
I don't think you can say WWII wouldn't of happened, the root causes of it still remain. The only thing you can truly say is that WWII wouldn't have happened the same way. The German people will still want to regain it's previous territories and status as a great power. Japan will still invade China and the Soviets will still seek any advantage they can get. Interestingly though if war hasn't already broken out in Europe the war there could well start with the Soviet attack on Finland. (If Stalin risks it) This could lead to the European part of the war being Britain, France and Germany against the Soviet Union.
 
Let's say that soldier took his shot and dropped the Fuehrer - I'd it safe to say World War 2 wouldn't have happened? Would Germany have become a communist state? Would the soviet union have invaded Poland anyway?
No, the Germans were smarting from the Treaty of Versailles and still suffering from an economic depression. Like in Italy and Japan, it was ripe ground for a dictator to emerge. Perhaps in Hitler's absence, it would even be someone more competent.
 
No, the Germans were smarting from the Treaty of Versailles and still suffering from an economic depression. Like in Italy and Japan, it was ripe ground for a dictator to emerge. Perhaps in Hitler's absence, it would even be someone more competent.

And yet no such thing happened in the immediate aftermath of WWI, when there was also an economic depression. Nor, for that matter, did it happen until several years into the Great Depression, after Schleicher convinced Hindenberg to appoint Hitler Chancellor, something that could have easily been avoided by simply agreeing to a coalition with the SPD instead. His rise wasn't even remotely inevitable IOTL, never mind changing the underlying circumstances or leaving things in the hands of someone else.
 
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NoMommsen

Donor
Things would have been pretty much the same (without Hitler) till the time of the 'Beerhall-Putsch'. Without him there still might have been something like some big demonstrations and parades of 'Homeguards' claiming more independance/automomy for Bavaria but most likely no 'putsch' to overthrow the goverment in Berlin. Gustav von Kahrs ambitions weren't so high.

In the aftermath Streseman as chancellor would/could have survived longer (dunno how long), since the non-reaction of the goverment against the Hitler-putsch compared to the reaction against leftish putschist in middle-germany was not the least reason the SPD jumped off his bandwaggon, killing the 'Weimar Coalition'. The first election of 1924 could have been avoided making things with the Daws-plan easier.
 
Let's say that soldier took his shot and dropped the Fuehrer - I'd it safe to say World War 2 wouldn't have happened? Would Germany have become a communist state? Would the soviet union have invaded Poland anyway?
WW2 probably wouldn't have happened, but there would be a lot of smaller, regional conflicts. I.e. war between Poland and USSR would be probably inevitable, as Russia never stopped hungering for eastern Poland.
Though, if we assume there won't be figure that simply replaces Hitler, in a fascist/nationalist politics of Germany, there'd probably no Popular Front strategy adopted by Komintern. Which means no victory of left coalition in Spain in 1936 and so no Spanish Civil War.
 
Some other far right movement might arise and take power. I think this is far more likely than a communist revolution.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
WW2 probably wouldn't have happened, but there would be a lot of smaller, regional conflicts. I.e. war between Poland and USSR would be probably inevitable, as Russia never stopped hungering for eastern Poland.
Though, if we assume there won't be figure that simply replaces Hitler, in a fascist/nationalist politics of Germany, there'd probably no Popular Front strategy adopted by Komintern. Which means no victory of left coalition in Spain in 1936 and so no Spanish Civil War.
There was no 'Popular Front' strategy in Germany, quite the difference. The SPD, mocked as 'social-fascists' was seen as the prime target to counter and overcome for the KPD.

Some other far right movement might arise and take power. I think this is far more likely than a communist revolution.
None only nearly as powerfull as Hitlers NSDAP.

IMO Hitler WAS someone 'special', as he had the ability to unite all the other nationalists under his flagg - or at least make them follow him personally. I don't see any any person of OTL, who had the same or at least a similar amount of 'charisma' to achieve this with all the other 'völkisch' nuts (as well as some 'educated' persons of better standing).
 
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