WI: Hitler dies in WWI

[Mirza Khan]

In OTL, Adolf Hitler was wounded during his service in WWI-how would history have gone if it had been fatal?

Who winds up ruling 1930's Germany? Does WWII still happen? If it doesn't, how does the US-Japan rivalry get resolved? Does the USSR still wind up ruling Eastern Europe?

Also, if people like Albert Einstein and Werner von Braun stay in Germany, is it possible that Germany might fill the OTL US's role as a center of science and technology?

 

[Wolfpaw]

I still see Germany going right-wing dictatorship. The Nazis won't be in charge, but we'll probably get something that emerges out of a coalition of something resembling the Harzburg Front. Göring may end up running the place since he's acceptable to pretty much everybody (the military, the Junkers, big business, fascists, veterans groups, etc., etc.) and he's a war hero to boot. His flamboyant personality will also serve him well; can't you just see him barnstorming in his plane as he preaches how great Germany will one day be

As a side note, Göring coming to power will not mean that Germany is fascist since he's bound to leave the military high command and the other entrenched elites alone. Fascists don't do either of these things (except for big business and religion, really). Once the military high command is broken and the roles filled by party favorites and cronies (the Junkers need not be broken, but since they're so tied up in the military high command it sort of makes them synonymous), then we have fascism. But until then, it's just a dictatorship.

Anyways, or whoever ends up taking over will most likely be far, far less bold and willing to take massive diplomatic and international risks like Hitler was and will probably be more willing to listen to the Western powers when told to back off. Genocide won't be on the menu, though ethnic cleansing and deportation may be. I don't know if we'll see something like the Drang nach Osten that the Nazis preached, but we'll likely see pan-German irredentism, or at least rhetoric to that effect. The Danzig Corridor is going to be a major factor too.

I've got to go now, but I'll get back if I think of anything more.

 

[stodge]

One Man...

So much depends on whether you think Hitler was such a pivotal force that he didn't just mould and shape pre-existing forces, he created new forces and threw them into the historical dynamic.

The failure of the post-WW1 settlement in central and eastern Europe was characterised by the decline from democracy to authoritarianism across a range of eastern and central European states in the 1920s. Only Czechoslovakia survived and whether fascistic or simply nationalist authoritarian, states like Poland were far from democratic by 1939.

In Germany, the economic policies of Weimar, conditioned by the circumstances of Versailles and the punitive programme of reparations, made the Republic incredibly vulnerable to the dislocation of the international economy after 1929. Hitler was, however, able to mobilise that sense of betrayal and disillusionment among the pauperised middle-class into a coherent movement based on a need for national renewal.

Could another have managed it ? Seems implausible. The drift to the extremist margins was well underway and an anti-communist dictatorship seems probable albeit without the racial overtones of Naziism. In the absence of external conflict, I think it could be argued these dictatorships would have come under growing internal pressure for reform by the 1950s.

 

[Voltaireness]

Well for start no Hitler might have a result no WW II.
Cehia and Slovakia will still be 2 countries.
We will have Great Germany and an economic eastern Europe dominated by german power.

If Germany goes after land lost to Poland they will not make the same mistake to let english expeditionary corp escape back home.
They might not go after Greece and might not invade Iugoslavia.
An early start of russian invasion will make german military machine achieve its goals saved from Hitlers blunders at every step.

Practically we will end up some how with what WW I seen in the east but no defeat of Germany in the west.

With Russia under ocupation and UK isolated no massive Uboats campains and no USA taking side of the UK and Russia.
Also Japan will not invade south but Siberia so the 2 allies will meat at Ural Mountains in Siberia.

 

[Grey Wolf]

Hitler was not unique when he started BUT what he did have was the will to mould a personality cult (Heil HITLER), use everyone else's ideas to his own ends, gather followers, associate and disassociate with names (Ludendorff) and win over people (somehow!)

Its certainly NOT a given that anyone else would arise to take his place

Interestingly what MIGHT happen without Hitler is a Bavarian secession and the restoration of the monarchy and all the repercussions from that

Its often ignored that Hitler and the Nazis warped BAVARIAN politics and took momentum away from other potentially powerful Bavarian movements

Best Regards
Grey Wolf