Weber's Germany: The Veterinarian Totalitarian
(index here) is a counterfactual history hosted on AlternateHistory.com, written by the user "Tom Colton".
The primary focus of the timeline is on a certain Friedrich Weber, who in Real Life was a scholar in veterinary science who led one of the paramilitary Freikorps in the early days of the Weimar Republic, joined the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler and involved himself in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch in November 1923.
However, in this timeline, a meddling American named Paul Driscoll shoots Hitler in the middle of the Beer Hall Putsch, injuring him just grievously enough for him to dictate Mein Kampf (called Der Deutsche Kampf in-universe) to Weber before dying. Weber takes over the Nazi Party after Hitler's death, and eventually the Nazi Party takes over all of Germany - but some things are just noticeably different, and the divergences become full-blown once World War II breaks out...
The primary inspiration for this timeline were the plethora of threads discussing slightly saner wartime policies for Nazi Germany to pursue during World War Two, all mostly coming to the conclusion that any adjustment of German policy in such a direction would require someone besides Hitler and his cronies, with their lunatic ambitions for Europe and the World, to be in charge of Germany.
The main question thus posited by this series is: What if a slightly more pragmatic Führer had led Nazi Germany? Not everyone, especially not the populace of Eastern Europe, will like the answer...
The story was concluded in late 2018 with an announcement that there would be no further installments, followed by a wrap-up of the various trajectories.
Weber's Germany: The Veterinarian Totalitarian provides examples of the following tropes:
- Alternate History: Diverging from a critical moment in the Munich Beer Hall Putsch.
- Allohistorical Allusion: An admitted habit by the author.
- Kristallnacht now refers to a clash between Nazi Party supporters and rival right-wingers, giving Weber and co. a pretext to take over the government.
- The Stasi takes over the role of the SD and the Gestapo in this timeline.
- The European Economic Community is now a trade bloc formed solely by Axis powers.
- Balkanize Me: Following the alternate Munich Conference, Czechoslovakia eventually gets divided into Czechia and the Slovak Republic.
- Much like our timeline, Yugoslavia gets carved up by the Axis Powers.
- Cold Ham: Descriptions of Weber's speaking style imply him to be this.
- Continuity Snarl: The role of the time-traveller Paul Driscoll in the events of the narrative, leading to the author flat-out stating he didn't want to talk about it any more.
- Darkest Africa: At the end of the Spring War, Germany regains its colonies in Togoland and Kamerun, which quickly turn into this. TTL's version of The Holocaust involves shipping the Jews, Roma, and other "undesirables" to Kamerun to work as slaves on the rubber plantations. While the native Africans are still treated as an inferior race (rebels are sent to work in the plantations), they are still recruited as collaborators and "guard dogs" to guard over the open-air concentration camp that is Kamerun.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Himmler never forms, let alone takes command of, the SS, instead dying as a stepping stone for Weber to seize control of Germany.
- Mussolini is assassinated in 1941, massively improving his reputation, strangely enough.
- Fictional Document: The main narrative is told in the pages of The Rise and Fall of the Greater German Reich, by Professor Norman Iverson.
- Fictionalized Death Account:
- Adolf Hitler dies from the long-term complications of a gunshot wound, rather than shooting himself.
- Since Ernst Röhm never returns to Germany from Bolivia, he eventually dies of natural causes rather than being purged.
- Unlike OTL, where he committed suicide, Heinrich Himmler is killed in a street brawl.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: See page image.
- Hitler's Time Travel Exemption Act: Second type. Hitler dies, and Weber seizes control of his legacy, his party, and his country.
- Ironic Nickname: As IOTL, Himmler is referred to as "der treue Heinrich" (the loyal Heinrich). However, in this version of history, he's called that sarcastically, since he turned against the Nazis.
- Irony: Weber gets caricatured in political cartoons as being as thin as a rake with a beak nose and thick glasses-pretty much identical to caricatures of Jews.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Technically, the first divergence is Paul Driscoll choosing to kill Hitler before his rise to power, in an environment where bullets are flying everywhere anyway. He couldn't have predicted that someone even worse would take the helm.
- O.C. Stand-in: By
Word of God, Weber, otherwise a historical enigma, was chosen so that any character traits necessary for the plot could be projected onto him.- Queen Consort (and later Regnant) Nancy Kennedy was the real-life daughter of Canadian industrialist Archibald Fraser and widow of Hugh Kennedy, the Alternate History kicking in when making Hugh Kennedy one of the Kennedies.
- Queen Consort (and later Regnant) Nancy Kennedy was the real-life daughter of Canadian industrialist Archibald Fraser
- Point of Divergence: What if Hitler was killed early in his career, leaving another Nazi, Friedrich Weber, to take up the reins of the Nazi Party?
- Another way at looking at this: what if Paul Driscoll actually managed to shoot Hitler?
- Also, the first other major change not arising directly from this divergence is Nikolai Yezhov choosing to blow the lid open on the Great Purge after he'd been declared inessential to the State.
- Pretext for War: Clashes between Nazis in Danzig with Polish authorities provide one for World War II to begin.
- Put on a Bus: As in OTL, Ernst Röhm goes to Bolivia. Unlike OTL, he never returns to Germany.
- Shout-Out:
- The leader of the Kameruner Sonderkommando (and later, the self-declared "Fuhrer of the Cameroonian Empire") is named Julius Winfred. For the picture of him, the author used a shot of Samuel L. Jackson in Nazi uniform from The Spirit.
- Hitler's assassin is directly taken from The Twilight Zone (1959). Like... directly directly.
- Doc Brown exists in the Weberverse, as seen here.
- Sinister Schnoz: Weber's beak nose is frequently mentioned.
- Spin-Off: "The Canadian Queen of England", a brief mini-update detailing the history of the British monarchy if King Edward VIII had ran into a Canadian widower instead of an American divorcee.
- Sublime Rhyme: The main reason why the subtitle is as such.
