Greater Germany by JJohnson1701 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

European territory of Germany.

Outlined territory is territory once claimed by this version of Germany, but which this version has long since given up any claim to having.

Short history:
-16th century: Protestant Reformation is much more widespread, including Bavaria and Austria, which become strongholds of Protestantism
-19th century: Confederation of the Rhine takes the place of the HRE, and soon the German Confederation; Prussia forms the Rhine Province, Westphalia, but loses them in 1848, as they declare themselves republics. In 1848, Austria reorganizes its own territories, creating German Bohemia, Sudetenland, and adds some of Bohemia/Moravia to Upper/Lower Austria; in 1866, creates a triple monarchy with the Hungarians and Bohemians. 1871, Frederick I (OTL: Frederick III) becomes the first Kaiser, ruling till 1891. His son, Wilhelm I (OTL: Wilhelm II) isn't a breech birth and a bit more anglophile.
-20th century: Germany (with OTL 1871 borders) avoids the pre-WW1 diplomatic missteps, and in 1914, Austria-Hungary declares war; Germany doesn't immediately declare for A-H, but instead entreats the UK to join in trying for peace, seeing Russia and A-H going to war over Serbia. Soon France declares war on A-H and Germany, and despite a large pro-German contingent, the UK joins on France's side. By 1919, the war ends, but the larger pro-German anti-war stance means the UK negotiates with the US for better terms in this Treaty of Versailles: lose Alsace-Lorraine, Nordschleswig, and a little bit of Silesia, no union with German Austria (which got its requested borders, including Ödenburg, Preßburg, St Gotthard, Wieselburg) for 25 years, and mild reparations to the Allied Powers, and abdication of Wilhelm I. A second Polish republic is created (with OTL borders, minus Posen and West Prussia), though not getting as much land as they wanted or were initially promised by France and some other powers.

Henry I is the new Kaiser, and makes a huge stabilizing effect, defeating two communist uprisings and helping modernize large swathes of the land, including electrification, plumbing improvements, and after the depression starts, creates several 'make-work' projects like the Autobahn, and encourages the Volkswagen "beetle" car as an affordable way to get people into cars. France hates this, and its government soon falls into a fascist one-party state, like Spain and Italy, which make a secret Axis alliance, soon joined by Austria, with the goal to wipe Germany off the map. By 1939, the alliance makes an attack, dividing Germany in their maps; Poland's Józef Piłsudski joins their alliance in 1940, with the backing of the USSR (secretly). Posen, Silesia, Pomerania, East, and West Prussia are under siege, and the Polish-speaking populations go 60/40 for Poland, greeting them as liberators for a 'Greater Poland.' France occupies Rhineland, Hessen, Westphalia, Hanover, and Schleswig-Holstein, while Austria takes Bavaria and Czechoslovakia. Russia flips to the allied side in 1942, when Poland attacks them, attempting to achieve 'Greater Poland' with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth borders.

The UK joins the war in 1940, and the US in 1941, and by 1945, after the invasions at Normandy and across the Alps, and from the north, the France and Polish are driven out; on May 1, Poland surrenders when Warsaw is surrounded. Poland is divided into occupation zones, and is soon divided east and west. France is divided into occupation zones between the UK, US, DE; Polish speakers in Posen and West Prussia are expelled to the new Poland.

France then loses Alsace-Lorraine, and the arrondissements of Briey and Belfort to Germany (permanently), with all French speakers expelled. Savoy, Haute Savoy, Briancon, Nice, and Corsica are ceded to Italy; Roussillon is ceded to Spain; Brittany is ceded in its historic borders as an independent, Celtic country (with urging by the Irish negotiators amongst the Allies); Artois and Lille are ceded to the United Kingdom of the Netherlands; Calais to the UK.

Germany lost the majority of its royal families, with the Hohenzollerns having lost over 60% of their family in French concentration camps, including Kaiser Heinrich I, and one by one, they abdicate their thrones. Germany declares itself a republic, with Prussia being broken into its constituent provinces, which join the new republic as sovereign states.