Was post-WW1 Germany destined to end up where it did, with or without Hitler?

by [deleted]

[deleted]

Galactor123

I will warn you that delving into alternative history type topics tend to bring out opinions as much as facts, and so objectivity will be a bit blurred here.

That being said, yes, I firmly believe that a drastic political change was all but inevitable in Germany, though if you mean "same direction" as in the rise specifically of anti-semiticism, or of a government that would have inevitably led to WW2? That gets a bit hairier, to the point where I don't think I'm quite qualified to even guess.

As for specifically "was a huge political change inevitable" there is a good deal of evidence supporting yes (again in my own opinion). The German Revolution of 1918-1919 that brought into being the Weimar Republic also briefly formed a socialist German republic in Bavaria being proclaimed in 1919 alongside nationwide socialist/communist uprisings. These were famously put down by the Freikorp, not by any semblance of a national military due to the fact that by this point that almost didn't exist.

And that sort of set the mood for the entirety of the Weimar republic. 1920 brought the Kapp Putsch, where the Freikorp commander who just the year before was putting down communists now was attempting to roll back the republicanism brought by Wilhelm's abdication and the revolutions of a year prior. 1923, communists in Hamburg briefly led an uprising. 1924 brought Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch. All of these showcase a society that was definitely not politically stable.

Not to mention, the entire existence of the Freikorp in general, and the governments approval of them. They were used to put down the Spartacists officially, but there were German Freikorps that occupied Latvia, tacitly an independent country after WW1, at first with the idea of holding back the Red Army, but later launching a coup attempt with the idea of returning Latvia back under German rule. You had similar cases in German occupied Silesia, where Freikorps put down Polish uprisings. And again, its important to remember that these are armed and trained soldiers, now technically citizens, being appropriated by the Weimar government to solve the problems of ethnic and political uprisings that were becoming rampant already.

So yes, you have a populace that is deeply torn politically, heavily armed, and with a purposefully made weak central government, you have a recipe for disaster.