Divided Germany

Divided Germany (German: Geteiltes Deutschland) was a period in the history of Germany starting in 1918 following the First Great War where the German people where divided into multiple states as post-war punishment. The most powerful of the German states in the Divided Germany period were the Republic of Brandenburg, Free State of Bavaria (until 1933), and the Bayern Reich (from 1933). The period of Divided Gemany ended in 1936 with the start of the German Civil War.
The term "Divided Germany" was first coined by the leader of the Bavarian National Socialist Party (BNSP) Adolf Hitler in 1931. While the term was rejected by most people at the time as to not legitimize the BNSP, an academic paper written by George Orwell in 1946 using the term led to its popularization among historians, academics, and scholars.
== Prelude ==
=== United Germany (1871-1914) ===
Following the Franco-Prussian War between the pre-unification German states and the French Empire, the German people were united into the German Empire. The unified German nation was quick to work for the industrialization of Germany, transitioning from feudalism to capitalism. Upon uniting, Germany also jumped into the international systems of colonialism and imperialism, carving up colonies in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Ocean.
The German Empire initially worked to form an alliance with Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire, signing the Dual Alliance with the former and the Reinsurance Treaty with the latter. Germany also acted as an arm supplier to Russia during their 1904-1905 war with Japan. Relations with France, however, remained tense following the Franco-Prussian War. Germany also developed ties with the Sublime Ottoman State, souring their relations with Russia. Russia then turned on their alliance with Germany and signed an alliance with the French. Meanwhile, relations with Britain soured as Germany challenged the dominance of their Royal Navy and the Germans targeted the British ally of Portugal. This forced Britain into an alliance with France and Britain against Germany, surrounding Germany on all sides. Germany attempted to make an alliance with Italy as well, however Italy ended up signing a treaty with the French.
=== Militarized Germany (1914-1918) ===
Main article: First Great War
In 1914, a Bosnian Serb assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand - the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne - in the city of Sarajevo, controlled by Austria-Hungary. This resulted in a major European political crisis where Germany backed Austria-Hungary and Russia and France backed Serbia. So when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, Germany joined the war on Austria's side and they ended up at war on both sides with France to the west and Russia to the east.
While the Russians were still struggling to moblize in the east, the Germans concentrated their power against the French by invading Belgium to get around the border defenses. Belgium, which had treaties with the British, brought Britain to war against Germany. Early into the war, France, Britain, and the British ally of Japan conquered many of the German colonies around the world. Despite this, the Germans managed to steamroll most of Belgium and began pushing towards Paris. However, they were defeated outside of Paris and a long prolonged period of trench warfare.
While the trench warfare staled the front in France, the Russians launched an attack into East Prussia. However, the Germans managed to repell them and began making gains into Poland early in the war. In 1915, the Germans suffered a devastating defeat at the Attack of the Dead Men at the Osoweic Fortress in Russian-controlled Poland. The 1916 Brusilov offensive saw a Russian victory at the expense of losing more ground in Lithuania and Latvia. In 1917, the Russian war effort collapsed as infighting, revolution, and eventually civil war engulfed the country and allowed the Germans to carve up several puppet states from Russia's former territories.
In 1917, the Germans attempted to form an alliance with Mexico. However, this failed and resulted in the United States declaring war on Germany. As American troops arrived in France, further German attempts to take Paris were repelled. The German Navy also began to collapse as a mutiny broke out in Kiel and the Germans were forced to surrender to the French-British-American-Belgian coalition on November 11 of 1918.
== History ==
=== Collapse of the German Empire (1918-1919) ===
Main article: German Spring
In the closing months of the Great War, the German Navy began to break. The German government ordered a desperate final charge against the Royal Navy. The German Navy's sailors in Kiel (Germany's biggest port city at the time) knew the charge was suicidal and began to mutiny. As the German government surrendered the Great War on November 11 of 1918, the mutiny grew more widespread and German communist groups such as the Spartacus League began revolting around the country, triggering the German Spring. The Spartacus League allied with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and together the communists and social democrats overthrew the Kaiser and dissolved the German Empire. The communist-social democrat alliance was short lived, however, as the SPD proclaimed the First German Republic and allied with the former German monarchists in order to crush the Spartacus. The Spartacus League was left in taters as their leaders were brutally executed.
=== Division Crisis (1919-1923) ===
Main article: German Division Crisis
When the Treaty of Versailles was signed into effect on 28 June 1919, the First German Republic was dissolved. The German nation was completely destroyed and Germany was disunited. Of the new states created in the aftermath, many were brought into chaos in the German Division Crisis as they fell into civil wars. The new Kingdom of Hanover got into a territorial dispute with the People's Republic of Westphalia, leading to a failed Hanoverian invasion of Westphalia's territory. Meanwhile, the Free State of Bavaria fell into a civil war as the remnants of the Spartacus League attempted to form the United Soviet Councils of Bavaria (USCB). The Republic of Brandenburg also came into conflict with its various neighbors as it refused to recognize the division of Germany as legitimate and tried to form a Second German Republic. However, the Brandenburgian attempts to reunite the country failed by 1923. The former German monarchy of the House of Hohenzollern relocated eastwards and established the Kingdom of East Prussia.
=== Debt trap crisis (1923-1929) ===
Main article: American debt traps in Divided Germany
=== Early Great Depression (1929-1933) ===
Main article: Great Depression in Divided Germany
=== Nazi Crisis (1933-1936) ===
Main article: Nazi Crisis
== German states ==
=== Sovereign states ===
* Austria, Republic of
*Bavaria, Free State of
* Baden-Wurttemburg, Republic of
* Bayern Reich
* Brandenburg, Republic of
* East Prussia, Kingdom of
* Hanover, Kingdom of
* Hesse, Kingdom of
* Mecklenburg, Communes of
* Pomeranian Republic
* Saxony-Anhalt, State of
* Saxony, Kingdom of
* Silesian People's Republic
* Thuringia, Republic of
* Westphalia, People's Republic of
=== Puppet states ===
* Rhine Republic
* Schleswig-Holstein, Principality of
Category:What if Germany was divided after World War I?