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alternatehistory.com
I don’t know if this has been touched on before but I didn’t see anything on the subject, so…
Adolf Hitler is today regarded by the vast majority of people as one of history’s villains, particularly for starting WWII and the Holocaust, and for the racial ideology that underpinned most of these decisions: the intrinsic supremacy of the Aryan race, Lebensraum, anti-Slavicism and a particularly virulent form of anti-Semitism.
Let’s say that Hitler doesn’t develop these ideas. Possibly it’s enough to have him meet a few different people and not read certain books and pamphlets. Perhaps young Adolf grows up listening to Mendelssohn instead of Wagner. Or maybe he has to be more psychologically stable and so a Chiroptys Galactica slightly tweaks his genetics.
Regardless, we get to, say, 1920 with history pretty much as in OTL; the Treaty of Versailles, the stab-in-the-back attitude among many Germans and a youngish corporal with a silly moustache. He has broadly the same political views – that is, nationalist, right-wing authoritarian, pro-military and anti-communist – but he is more pragmatic and isn’t ruled by the idea of racial supremacy. Maybe he is – for want of a better and less offensive word – casually anti-Semitic and anti-Slavic, but he doesn’t consider such a matter to be worth killing someone over. He is still capable of spellbindingly impassioned oratory – provided he has an issue to be impassioned about.
With these parameters in mind, I’d like some thoughts on the following issues:
Can Hitler still become a major political figure without being driven by a belief in Aryan supremacy and directing hatred toward Jews and similar groups?
What will Germany end up looking like? Left or right? Who’s up, who’s down and who’s flying around? And who is that magnificently fat man in a flying machine?
Do we get a World War II? Who allies with who and which lot win?