Introduction & Post-War Germany Overview
Introduction:
This is a project I began planning a few days ago. It's still in its early stages, though for the record it is partially going to be inspired by Winston Churchill's designs for Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. It's not going to be a perfect recreation of his plans by any means, mostly because he severely overestimated British power and Stalin's cooperation (and at times proposed a continuation of WW2 to topple the Soviet Union alltogether), so this is my take on it all. I hope you enjoy.
Chapter One - The Post-War Democratic German States
When the Western Allies started discussing the future of Europe with the Soviet Union, the four big players of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviets had vastly different ideas on how the continent should once the Nazis were defeated. For instance during the 1943 Moscow Conference one of the issues discussed was the future of Austria. All four parties were generally in favor of Austria being treated as a conquered nation, but what that would exactly entail was up for debate. British prime minister Winston Churchill strongly advocated for Austria to get included into something he called the Danubian Federation, a strong federal monarchy covering at the very least the traditional states of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, and Austria, which could potentially get expanded to also include Hungary (maybe even including parts of the territory Hungary gained before the formal outbreak of World War Two) and Czechoslovakia, which he dreamed would be ruled by the Habsburg heir Otto, who since 1940 was in American exile.
Churchill's allies however did not agree with the particulars of that plan. France feared that the state would be too strong and might use its strength to push for Alsace-Lorraine, the United States didn't want huge plurinational states in general, while the Soviets had their own designs for Europe and they feared that such a massive state would limit their influence over the continent. In the end everyone, in France's case reluctantly, agreed that Austria may become part of a German state, but not a united Germany. This idea would get expanded upon at the 1944 Tehran Conference, in which the basic idea of the partition of Germany would be formulated.
There France strongly pushed for an independent Rhineland as an effective buffer between itself and potential future German aggression. The American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt also liked the idea, though his opinion on de Gaulle was mixed at best. Churchill also wasn't opposed and hoped that an independent Rhineland could be easily integrated into a post-war Western alliance system. Since Josef Stalin also didn't object, the Rhineland was a set matter. The exact borders were to be ironed out later, but it was decided early on that France should gain the Saar area as compensation, with the intention of using the Saar's coal and steel industry to rebuild France.
Next up was southern Germany. Here again the Western Allies were mostly united, since all of them were in favor of an independent entity, though they had vastly different ideas. Roosevelt wanted a republican Greater Bavaria and an independent Austria, France was just hoping for a weakened Germany, and Churchill had his Danubian Federation idea stuck in his head. Stalin's sole objective was to keep Austria distinct from Berlin. Because of this relative apathy towards specific solutions, Churchill ended up convincing his allies that a Danubian Federation was a good idea, however he did agree to scrap the expansion of it into Hungary and Czechoslovakia as a concession to his equals.
The remainder of Germany (ultimately excluding the island of Heligoland, which would go to the British) would be allowed to stay Germany, though the eastern border with Poland was still uncertain. Stalin wanted to shift Poland westwards, using the Piast-ruled kingdom as his main argument, while Churchill and Roosevelt favored fewer annexations of German territory to Poland. France meanwhile sided with Stalin as part of its general strategy of weakening German power. In the end the combination of the Oder and Neisse rivers was chosen as Germany's new eastern border, though two oddities would remain: East Prussia and Danzig.
While both the Danubian Federation and the Rhineland were to be put into the Western Allies' sphere of influence, (North) Germany was ultimately agreed upon as an intentionally neutral state. East Prussia however was to be put under Soviet control and Stalin had a peculiar idea for the German exclave: an independent client state, like what he envisioned for most of Eastern Europe. At Tehran he proposed to give the Allenstein plebiscite district of interwar East Prussia to Poland, while the remaining parts of the state would become a communist state under Moscow's supervision. Danzig was still uncertain though when the Tehran Conference concluded...
End note: I legitimately do not know what I want to with Danzig. East Prussia is planned out, but Poland doesn't necessarily need the port and I don't know if I want an independent Danzig, or add it to either Poland or (East) Prussia. Also the borders in that preview are the modern ones and I'll post nation profiles tomorrow (I have written them out already, but I wanna do infoboxes for the major current political parties of the three states at hand). Also this is my first bigger alternate history project in years, so I hope it's good.
This is a project I began planning a few days ago. It's still in its early stages, though for the record it is partially going to be inspired by Winston Churchill's designs for Europe in the aftermath of the Second World War. It's not going to be a perfect recreation of his plans by any means, mostly because he severely overestimated British power and Stalin's cooperation (and at times proposed a continuation of WW2 to topple the Soviet Union alltogether), so this is my take on it all. I hope you enjoy.
Chapter One - The Post-War Democratic German States
When the Western Allies started discussing the future of Europe with the Soviet Union, the four big players of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviets had vastly different ideas on how the continent should once the Nazis were defeated. For instance during the 1943 Moscow Conference one of the issues discussed was the future of Austria. All four parties were generally in favor of Austria being treated as a conquered nation, but what that would exactly entail was up for debate. British prime minister Winston Churchill strongly advocated for Austria to get included into something he called the Danubian Federation, a strong federal monarchy covering at the very least the traditional states of Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, and Austria, which could potentially get expanded to also include Hungary (maybe even including parts of the territory Hungary gained before the formal outbreak of World War Two) and Czechoslovakia, which he dreamed would be ruled by the Habsburg heir Otto, who since 1940 was in American exile.
Churchill's allies however did not agree with the particulars of that plan. France feared that the state would be too strong and might use its strength to push for Alsace-Lorraine, the United States didn't want huge plurinational states in general, while the Soviets had their own designs for Europe and they feared that such a massive state would limit their influence over the continent. In the end everyone, in France's case reluctantly, agreed that Austria may become part of a German state, but not a united Germany. This idea would get expanded upon at the 1944 Tehran Conference, in which the basic idea of the partition of Germany would be formulated.
There France strongly pushed for an independent Rhineland as an effective buffer between itself and potential future German aggression. The American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt also liked the idea, though his opinion on de Gaulle was mixed at best. Churchill also wasn't opposed and hoped that an independent Rhineland could be easily integrated into a post-war Western alliance system. Since Josef Stalin also didn't object, the Rhineland was a set matter. The exact borders were to be ironed out later, but it was decided early on that France should gain the Saar area as compensation, with the intention of using the Saar's coal and steel industry to rebuild France.
Next up was southern Germany. Here again the Western Allies were mostly united, since all of them were in favor of an independent entity, though they had vastly different ideas. Roosevelt wanted a republican Greater Bavaria and an independent Austria, France was just hoping for a weakened Germany, and Churchill had his Danubian Federation idea stuck in his head. Stalin's sole objective was to keep Austria distinct from Berlin. Because of this relative apathy towards specific solutions, Churchill ended up convincing his allies that a Danubian Federation was a good idea, however he did agree to scrap the expansion of it into Hungary and Czechoslovakia as a concession to his equals.
The remainder of Germany (ultimately excluding the island of Heligoland, which would go to the British) would be allowed to stay Germany, though the eastern border with Poland was still uncertain. Stalin wanted to shift Poland westwards, using the Piast-ruled kingdom as his main argument, while Churchill and Roosevelt favored fewer annexations of German territory to Poland. France meanwhile sided with Stalin as part of its general strategy of weakening German power. In the end the combination of the Oder and Neisse rivers was chosen as Germany's new eastern border, though two oddities would remain: East Prussia and Danzig.
While both the Danubian Federation and the Rhineland were to be put into the Western Allies' sphere of influence, (North) Germany was ultimately agreed upon as an intentionally neutral state. East Prussia however was to be put under Soviet control and Stalin had a peculiar idea for the German exclave: an independent client state, like what he envisioned for most of Eastern Europe. At Tehran he proposed to give the Allenstein plebiscite district of interwar East Prussia to Poland, while the remaining parts of the state would become a communist state under Moscow's supervision. Danzig was still uncertain though when the Tehran Conference concluded...
End note: I legitimately do not know what I want to with Danzig. East Prussia is planned out, but Poland doesn't necessarily need the port and I don't know if I want an independent Danzig, or add it to either Poland or (East) Prussia. Also the borders in that preview are the modern ones and I'll post nation profiles tomorrow (I have written them out already, but I wanna do infoboxes for the major current political parties of the three states at hand). Also this is my first bigger alternate history project in years, so I hope it's good.
