RE: Was Hitler objectively bad?
October 18, 2010 at 3:15 pm
(This post was last modified: October 18, 2010 at 3:23 pm by Anomalocaris.)
Hitler's blunders not withstanding, He had five things going with the German military: 1. They were indebted to him for throwing off the restrictions of Versaille, 2. for the rearmament of 1934-1939, 3. for satisfying the nationalist demand to recover territories lost in 1919, 4. he had credibility from the military victories of 1939-1942 made possible by his regime, and 5. German military personale all swore oath of loyalty to him personally.
None of the three people had any of those going for them. Goering might have had a little military credential by virtue of being head of Luftwaffe, but Luftwaffe is the junior service to the army, and his clout more or less evaporated by 1942. Himmler had waffen SS, but Waffen SS is mostly at the front and under army's operational command. SD, Gestapol, and police would be no match for the army. Borman's authority stems from proximity to Hitler. If Hitler dies he is nobody.
Nazi party might be powerful. But it is only united while Hitler is alive. Hitler purposedly built overlapping authorities to promote mutural hostility of different nazi party department to enable himself to retain better control. With Hitler gone, nazi party will disintegrate into a nonfunctional collection of infighting feifdoms. This will leave the German army as the most powerful influence in the state.
So I think if any of those three people succeed him, it's only a matter of time before the army depose of him and install a professional solder as next head of state.
Negotiating with any of those three people, or with a military dictator nominated by the army, would be unacceptable to the Allies. So Germany would still go down in total defeat.
None of the three people had any of those going for them. Goering might have had a little military credential by virtue of being head of Luftwaffe, but Luftwaffe is the junior service to the army, and his clout more or less evaporated by 1942. Himmler had waffen SS, but Waffen SS is mostly at the front and under army's operational command. SD, Gestapol, and police would be no match for the army. Borman's authority stems from proximity to Hitler. If Hitler dies he is nobody.
Nazi party might be powerful. But it is only united while Hitler is alive. Hitler purposedly built overlapping authorities to promote mutural hostility of different nazi party department to enable himself to retain better control. With Hitler gone, nazi party will disintegrate into a nonfunctional collection of infighting feifdoms. This will leave the German army as the most powerful influence in the state.
So I think if any of those three people succeed him, it's only a matter of time before the army depose of him and install a professional solder as next head of state.
Negotiating with any of those three people, or with a military dictator nominated by the army, would be unacceptable to the Allies. So Germany would still go down in total defeat.
