What if Germany went Communist after WW1, as nearly happened?

If Germany had become a Communist State after WW1, would there still have been a second war with Germany?
Feel free to comment.

 

That is a very interesting what if. I don't know very much about that era other than there was alot of poverty in Germany. I suppose it would depend on weather France felt threatened by a communist neighbor. Also weather the communists could pull the Germans out of poverty and make things work again. It could backfire and put Germany in a civil war. I do know not all the German states thought alike on government policy.

I don't think there would be much aid from the Russians as they were in a civil war also.

I will have to wait for Za to tell me what to think !

 

I can remember from School that the Communists were very popular in Germany for a bit after the first world war. IIRC a few "Soviets" were set up in certain areas. I also recall that Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemberg were the leaders of German Communism. I also remember being taught that Great Britain and France were very worried about the prospect of Germany turning to communism.
Personally I think there would have been a war even if Germany had gone communist, maybe a different war, but nevertheless a war. I believe that it was almost unavoidable given the state that Germany was left in by the Kaiser in 1918, and then the punitive measures adopted by the Treaty of Versailles. These conditions made Germany the ideal breeding ground for extremism and discontent.

A Civil War within Germany could, I suppose, spark into a war involving most of Europe, given the right conditions. Germany is, after all the largest nation in Europe.

 

I would suspect that there would have been a civil war in Germany if this appeared to be happening. Certainly neither the Junker class, the various business leaders, nor the military would have stood for it. With an out-and-out civil war going on the Allied powers likely would have occupied parts of Germany to protect their interests and even have taken sides to a degree just as they did in the Russian Civil War.
The likely result in Germany would have been similar to that in Spain; a socialist or facist government that is now faced with restoring order and the economy. World War 2 might have been delayed but, it still likely would have occured in one form or another.

 

This is a very vague what-if. We have no precedent for this, I don't think the Spanish situation serves as a guide here as those were two very different affairs. As Spitfire suggest, we can study Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht's movements and their outcomes. In any case until Hitler's victory the Left in general was very strong, and had significant militias just like the SA and other right-wing militias (there were more than the SA!). In the end the Nazis were better at street fighting and better at political manoeuvering, that was what counted, the Left followed its eternal tradition of divisivness and ineffectiveness. But the civil war climate was there already.

As I said we can only speculate, this is almost as vague as imagining what would have happened in the US if Sacco and Vanzetti had been able to form a successful movement. What then?

 

Communism only appealed to a minority-few after World War I. With the ousting of the Kaiser, a few political groups tried to take power but none succeeded. Like in a previous post i mentioned, the Communists were one such group but only had 1,000 willing members at the time. Germany rose up in blood-less revolution (it wasn't organised, but military etc started it) which led to the Kaiser being removed and the Wiemar Republic being formed. Wiemar was where the constitution was written.

During the late 20's, when the Nazi's began to rise in popularity, there was also a growing sentiment against the Russian Communists. A lot of people voted for the Nazi's because they didn't want the Communists in power.

So, i don't think it was very likely at all that the Communists would have succeeded in being voted-into-power.

 

Definitely alot of anti communist attitude at that time. If somehow a communist government took over I doubt they would last very long.

 

I don't think the communist had the brass balls to do what the Nazis did.

 

I agree!

 

The question was if Germany had turned communist, not could Germany turn communist. So based on that, I would assume that the majority of the population would have been pro-communist. It may have sparked a domino effect and other surrounding countries would have been worried about it happening to them much like the French revolution did.

 

Thankyou PzJgr, I certainly think there would have been a domino effect. Hostilities could then have easily followed.