Your favourite Germany

[Max]

vote

[??????????]

Option 1.

Option 2 was way to weak, option 3 was very insane and options 4 & 5 are just, bleh.

[minionofmidas]

Option 1.

Option 2 was way to weak, option 3 was very insane and options 4 & 5 are just, bleh.

Option 1 was quite insane too.

OK, so what I'd like best would be some alternative history scenario in which Prussia and Austria-Hungary are broken up in 1848, and the minor German states happily coexist in loose federation and petty squabbles ever after, but democratize speedily throughout the 19th century.
As a result, the 1st World War is between France, England and Russia (two of them against the third), though perhaps fought largely here in Germany and Central Europe, and the second World War and the current US world domination just never happen. Unfortunately, I can't think of any turn of events that brings up such a development in the first place...

Barring that, I'll take the post 1990 FRG.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Option 1 was quite insane too.

Only quite?

[??????????]

Option 1 was quite insane too.

Only quite?

Not at all actually.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Let's see... at the risk of giving the politically correct answer:

1) Federal Republic of Germany (1949- )
note:all other options below 1) suck more or less
2) Weimar Republic (1918-1933)
3) German Empire (1871-1918)
4) German Democratic Republic (1949-1990)
5) Third Reich (1933-1945)

[minionofmidas]

Option 1 was quite insane too.

Only quite?

Not at all actually.

Hmm... let's have a look
completely unelected government that could not be removed, however indirectly, through the process of elections
virtually powerless, democratically elected federal parliament
much more powerful, completely undemocratically elected parliament in the largest state - most other states were much the same o/c, but it's Prussia that's relevant here

Someone once described the above setup as perfect for the purpose of alienating the population.

Not to mention
borderline insane foreign policy
frequent extralegal killings by police
frequent repression of major opposition parties, though not to the point of banning any

I could go on & on...

[Frodo]

1. German Federal Republic
2. German Empire under the Second Reich (under the Hohenzollerns)
3. Weimar Republic

[Boris]

I actually liked the Federal Republic of Germany from 1945-1990, before it was reunited with East Germany, more than I do the current Germany.

[© tweed]

1. GFR
2. GDR
3. Weimar
4. Empire
5. Third Reich

[The Dowager Mod]

I would have picked pre unification prussia around 1745 or so.

[minionofmidas]

I would have picked pre unification prussia around 1745 or so.

I never had you down for an absolutist.

[Cubby]

Besides hyperinflation and the rise of the Nazis (not to trivialize either, but work with me here) what was so fundamentally wrong with the Weimar Republic?

[??????????]

Besides hyperinflation and the rise of the Nazis (not to trivialize either, but work with me here) what was so fundamentally wrong with the Weimar Republic?

No stability?

[DWPerry]

I vote for NOTA.

Tribal Germany - pre-Roman Empire invasion!

[minionofmidas]

Besides hyperinflation and the rise of the Nazis (not to trivialize either, but work with me here) what was so fundamentally wrong with the Weimar Republic?

Even before the Nazis, the German Right never really accepted the Republic, including lots of people in positions of power. With the result that right-wing political murders almost always went unpunished.

Almost every political group made revanchist demands for territories lost recently.

The constitution always had a lot of legroom for authoritarian rule, and the descent into dictatorship began in earnest in 1930, three years before Hitler came to power.

Most political parties, even the SPD, had their paramilitary groups.

And of course, most people would want to add that the Communists (who until 1924 made occasional local risings in order to bring in world revolution, and who were essentially under direct control from Moscow from 1924 - yeah, it's the same date for a reason) were polling a sixth of the vote towards the end.

Need more?

[Cubby]

Besides hyperinflation and the rise of the Nazis (not to trivialize either, but work with me here) what was so fundamentally wrong with the Weimar Republic?

Even before the Nazis, the German Right never really accepted the Republic, including lots of people in positions of power. With the result that right-wing political murders almost always went unpunished.

Almost every political group made revanchist demands for territories lost recently.

The constitution always had a lot of legroom for authoritarian rule, and the descent into dictatorship began in earnest in 1930, three years before Hitler came to power.

Most political parties, even the SPD, had their paramilitary groups.

And of course, most people would want to add that the Communists (who until 1924 made occasional local risings in order to bring in world revolution, and who were essentially under direct control from Moscow from 1924 - yeah, it's the same date for a reason) were polling a sixth of the vote towards the end.

Need more?

No thats okay

Why didn't the right accept Weimar? Was it anger at losing the War or because they wanted the monarchy back?

[MarkWarner08]

German Empire. Long live Otto Von Bismarck!

[DWPerry]

I prefer Tribal Germany the one from before the "Holy" Roman Empire invaded

[Middle-aged Europe]

Why didn't the right accept Weimar? Was it anger at losing the War or because they wanted the monarchy back?

Both?

[Frodo]

I vote for NOTA.

Tribal Germany - pre-Roman Empire invasion!

I have often wondered how European history would have been shaped had the Varian Massacre of 9 A.D. never occured, and the Romans succeeded in expanding the limits of their empire all the way to the River Elbe (and maybe beyond), making all of what-was West Germany a Roman province. 

[Platypus]

Big fan of the whole Mecklemburg-Holstein-Wurzburg-Saxony days myself. Split up into dozens of little countries not really able to cause massive harm to the world, or at least significant agitation.