If he could convince himself letting the Rhineland go was an acceptable sacrifice, there's not really much in the way of a similar decision for Hannover, for once. I could see him doing some mental gymnastics to convince himself it's the right thing for Germany, if not for Prussia.
The Weimar Republic's justice system may have been way too lenient towards the far right (blind on the right eye) while overly harsh towards the far left, but they didn't sentence KPD leaders to life sentences if they hadn't commited other criminal acts justifying it like e.g. Erich Mielke's murder of 2 police officers, for which he served a prison sentence after 1990. Without aggrevating circumstances the prison sentences for KPD leaders after the party's ban would've been single digit tops.
I don't think that would happen TTL, Soviets would be much more interested in invading the Baltics and slicing off Western Poland and would require some sort of approval or at least non intervention from Germany, so Stalin would be clever enough to keep playing nice with them
I meant more like Hesse unification proposals that didn't include the breaking up of Prussia.
How would you divide my beloved Lower Saxony then?
Well... just between us...
The Navy is not high on his priority list at all and he doesn't have any plans currently to interfere with its building so, at least for the next few years, it will be about on the level that Weimar Germany had.
I don't imagine so, at least not as the prevailing opinion. Personally, I feel that Lettow-Vorbeck is also retaining hope in winning over the British and therefore making the naval point at least somewhat moot
Should a member of the Kamarilla catch wind of that idea though, even if it's a really fringe view or something said sarcastically, then might the thought not occur that they could play this up, via the newspapers that they own for example? If the public opinion of the navy were to drop, and thus allow the navy to stay a small Baltic coastal force, this could both help to keep naval spending down and also 'help Germany align with Britain's interests' to use an anachronistic phrase. Even if a small navy didn't actively improve German-British relations, it would certainly avoid a naval rearmament which would actively damage German-British relations, as happened OTL.
Coincidentally, that is something I am trying to write about right now. Struggling a bit though, because, as you said, he would be opposed to LGBTQ rights, but he also wouldn't go after it unless he had a reason to. Lettow-Vorbeck really strikes me as someone who will avoid stirring up trouble unless it is necessary. It is the Bismarckian mindset I am giving him, basically, and Bismarck's biggest mistake was stirring up trouble with minorities.
I’d say that the main reason not to do it is that even if they banned the KPD, they are still trying to keep a largely democratic image. Cracking down on stuff like this erodes that.
Fair point. I think he will keep an eye on them as potential "dissidents" with his new little secret police, the Vosist.
also a saner Göring probably would have stayed in contact with Anthony Fokker, which might have some consequences on aircraft development in germany
Sure, that sounds about right. Don’t get me wrong, Göring was most definitely a committed nazi, but I also see him as smart enough to be pragmatic about it, as OTL he did seem more concerned with personal gain than anything else. I’d also say that there’s an argument to be made that ITTL he and other nazis would be less radicalized. They would probably hold a lot of their opinions, but very few people would’ve promoted something like the Final Solution in the early 30s. Without the rise of Hitler, I’d say it’s plausible and even likely that Nazi ideology never evolves to that point, and in fact gets closer and closer to your average far-right party.
and long time opiate use does cause some mental changes - people tend to become more selfish, empathic capability seems to reduce. some of which seems to persist even after the use stops.
