...a large what-if...

[Bavarian Raven]

...lets say that during the last few months before world war two began-right after the last annexations happened by germany...hitler dies...some weird medical thing...maybe something as simple as a heart attack...plane crash...who knows...

...now lets say the new person in charge does not start world war two but works to unify the newly aquired territory into one massive central german empire...and lets say his views are less radical...no mass executions or concentration camps......

...now here comes the question...fifteen or so years have gone by...this massive german empire is now one massive prosperous country...still militarily advanced then her surrounding european countries and has developed things such as V2 rockets and the such...

...do you think they could have reached the moon first and second of all, how would this impact our modern day world?

 

[Berra]

But would they prosper economically? A lot of the economy went into building guns. And would the possible replacement leader (Hess?) avoid the war? And why would they go to the moon?

 

[von kressenstein]

Lebensraum .. why else..

Of course the point has been made.. woudl the german economy hold up or just implode when all the credit came due.. .. Depends on who runs the show.. and if they can get the many facets of the screwed up economy working .. take out the massive coruption and bribes.. rein in the SS and Ghestopo.. unfortunatly the nazis were built on fear and if the fear doesnt have a face or an outlet it either becomes over played or goes away..

case in ponit.. terrorisim.. most americans find the constant jabber to be over rated and a farce .. with out the painted picture of fear.. nazism implodes in 5-10 years and germany may then brake back up into its smaller parts freeing austria and such ..

 

[dualshock71]

Ok, time to tackle my take on this thing.

First off, I don't think that WW2 could be avoided because Hitler was killed. There would simply be someone who would do something like hold him up as a national hero and continue his ideals.

Second off, even if the theoretically less radical leader comes about, there's still "brooding giant" Russia. I think that if Germany hadn't started WW2, Russia might have just done it out of necessity.

Third, assuming that there is no WW2, Germany might have reached the Moon first. Of course, it'd be equally as likely for either Germany or anyone else to get to the Moon first. Just depends on how fast your scientists worked.

I can imagine that, at the end of the war, both the US and USSR seized some of Germany's surviving brilliant scientists, thus enabling them to get the job done easier. With Germany still around, it all depends on who produces the first real rocket scientist.

And fourth, assuming that Germany wins the Space Race, I think that the rest of the world might feel more than a tad demoralized, especially America. "A non-democracy beating us into space? Maybe they do some things right that we don't?"

While I can imagine Russia and the rest of the world not being to happy that it was Germany and not America/Russia who got there first, I can only see real problems happening in America.