Okay, let's accept the following scenario:
Germany wins a hard late victory in the Great War, I'm talking after the Russian Revolution. The treaty goes something like this:
-Germany gets some land around around A-L from France along with heavy reparations, Luxembourg, German-speaking parts of Belgium.
-Austria-Hungary gets morsels of territory from Serbia and Italy.
-Germany accepts the lose of her colonial empire to Britain in return for a hefty sum (I mean ALL of it, none goes to France)
But during the 1920s, everything goes to shit. The German economy is hit hard, and the government doesn't do a very good job with providing jobs. Austria collapses into bloody ethnic civil war, and the Hapsburgs bite the bullet and request German assistance in keeping them in power. The war-weary German people hate this war, and even the Austrians have grown tired keeping their empire.
While Germany is being tied down, Stalin manages to snatch up the Ukraine, Finland, and Belarus with varying degrees of difficulty. But most importantly, Germany does nothing. This leaves the German sphere of influence in eastern Europe reduced to Congress Poland and the United Baltic Duchy, in personal union with the German Empire. Even a successful referendum on Baltic political union to the German Empire in the late 20s does little to lift the German national spirit, as the Great Depression hits right on time.
Now lets imagine Hitler, since regardless of how he feels after the war, is still sent to spy on right-wing radical parties by his superiors, and falls in love with one with many of the same early members and a very similar idealogy to the OTL Nazis. They still have plenty of issues to exploit (the economy, the Red Menace in the east, lost colonies, the Austrian War) to pick a bone with the current government, so is it possible they could ever gain power? With regards to the Austrian issue, they would probably advocate breaking up the Hapsburg empire and annexing Austria proper to Germany.
I can still see WW2 happening in this TL. They would most obviously want to take down the Russians for stabbing them in the back in the East, revanchist France and Italy would be knocking, and the German public may or may not wish for a more conclusive victory against the British.
Is any of this possible? Could we get a Nazi Kaissereich? If we do, how would history play out?
Germany wins a hard late victory in the Great War, I'm talking after the Russian Revolution. The treaty goes something like this:
-Germany gets some land around around A-L from France along with heavy reparations, Luxembourg, German-speaking parts of Belgium.
-Austria-Hungary gets morsels of territory from Serbia and Italy.
-Germany accepts the lose of her colonial empire to Britain in return for a hefty sum (I mean ALL of it, none goes to France)
But during the 1920s, everything goes to shit. The German economy is hit hard, and the government doesn't do a very good job with providing jobs. Austria collapses into bloody ethnic civil war, and the Hapsburgs bite the bullet and request German assistance in keeping them in power. The war-weary German people hate this war, and even the Austrians have grown tired keeping their empire.
While Germany is being tied down, Stalin manages to snatch up the Ukraine, Finland, and Belarus with varying degrees of difficulty. But most importantly, Germany does nothing. This leaves the German sphere of influence in eastern Europe reduced to Congress Poland and the United Baltic Duchy, in personal union with the German Empire. Even a successful referendum on Baltic political union to the German Empire in the late 20s does little to lift the German national spirit, as the Great Depression hits right on time.
Now lets imagine Hitler, since regardless of how he feels after the war, is still sent to spy on right-wing radical parties by his superiors, and falls in love with one with many of the same early members and a very similar idealogy to the OTL Nazis. They still have plenty of issues to exploit (the economy, the Red Menace in the east, lost colonies, the Austrian War) to pick a bone with the current government, so is it possible they could ever gain power? With regards to the Austrian issue, they would probably advocate breaking up the Hapsburg empire and annexing Austria proper to Germany.
I can still see WW2 happening in this TL. They would most obviously want to take down the Russians for stabbing them in the back in the East, revanchist France and Italy would be knocking, and the German public may or may not wish for a more conclusive victory against the British.
Is any of this possible? Could we get a Nazi Kaissereich? If we do, how would history play out?