What if hitler had not taken power?

[Eric Ertman]

Most Germans regarded Hitler as a savior and the remainder thought that he was at least the lesser of two evils. His aim to keep communism out of Europe met with approval of not only the mass of the German people, but also of the governments of Western Europe. As a result not only did Germany(and with her the whole of eastern Europe) not fall victim to Bolshevist ideology,but,having achieved that measure of national unity which other nations had achieved centuries before, she also became Europe's strongest bulwark aginst the onslought of communism.

Personally I would rather have my door kicked in by a civilised German than one from of the mongol hordes .But then I'm not Jewish or physically or mentally impaired(questionable).

[Sam H.]

yeah ... instead of Europe being taken over by comunism it was almost taken over by the Nazi's ... some choice, I stick with Democracy, thank you very much

[gorbag]

The western Europeans had invaded Russia once before with their dissatisfaction for the Communist rule (1919, in support of the white Russians). If Hitler hadn't taken power, Stalin would probably have made noise and threatened, but he'd have to go through Poland and Weimar Germany in the north, and a rather unfriendly bunch of fellows (Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey) in the south to get any kind of territory. One place he might have had some success would be in Iraq, being rather fed up with the protectorate status the British had given them.

If Stalin did decide to push things, he would have led himself into a slaughter. He'd purged his officer corps of any original thinkers, his weapons development was sadly lacking, and though his army was huge, it was still strategically quite backwards.

[Bruno]

He'd purged his officer corps of any original thinkers,

Actually he purged the Russian officiers trained by the Germans prior to the war.

[Maximilian]

More weak and poor,remember the situation before Hitler.
It seems some countries , right now , beeing more and more poor without a strong leader,just corrupt politics and the people not together working for the same target.

[Eric Ertman]

As a result of having lost the first World War and thanks to the brutal provisions of the VersailleTreaty, Germany in the 1920s and early30s got into ever increasing political and economic difficulties. Under the Weimar Republic the german people had accepted a constitution that was incapable of dealing with internal dessension ,a fast growing communist party, unemployment and economic collapse. Germany was on the road to dictatorship. Germany had become impossible to rule without emergency measures. By the 1930s the choice had narrowed down to that of a Bolshevist state or an anti bolshevist dictatorship. To say that one preferred democracy is fine and dandy now,but in light of the times was not an available option.

The legacy left by Clemenceau, Wilson,George as the drew new boundaries through countries they new zilch about as they drank their tea and macaroons at Versaille paved the way for future disasters.