Thread by @GrayConnolly

Noticing this map going around showing the long term impact of Communism on the former East Germany (noticing also there were underground churches in the former DDR as well as an official church in which Angela Merkel's father was a pastor). In the West, the pre-war continues.

Germany's Reformation settlement had, generally, Protestantism strongest in the North & East with Catholicism strongest on the Rhine and in Bavaria. To survive as a large minority, Catholics (of all classes) had their own party (and best art) from 1870s: the Zentrum/Centre Party

In simplex, the electoral history of Germany pre-1933 was the Catholic Centre Party winning the Rhineland & Bavaria versus whoever won periodic battles between the Old Right, Social Democrats, Communists & Nazis.

Nazis' rose against very strong local Communist & Social Democratic parties in North & East - all these parties battled for essentially the same Protestant working/aspiring class demos. Catholics simply voted for the Zentrum from the Kulturkampf onwards to its end in 1933.

German Catholics of all classes voted for the Centre Party pre-1933 as they do now for the CDU/CSU - a historical continuity going back to the Reformation and Bismarck's brief but unwise kulturkampf. The anti-Nazi resistance was always Catholic-based well beyond Stauffenberg & Co

Nazis were least successful in Catholic areas of Germany. Where Catholics were, esp South & West, the Centre Party did very well. Whereas the Nazis main electoral success was in North & East. This held in 2017 ie CDU/CSU base in Bavaria/Rhine vs AfD grows from old Prussia & DDR

Angela Merkel grew up in the DDR with a father pastoring in the Communist church - and yet she was made Chancellor despite great misgivings of this bio. Odds are, though, her successsor looks more like her than a Franz Josef Strauss. Bavaria/Rhine still on outer, even now.

Zentrum folding in 1933 was a (if not the) great tragedy of Weimar politics. Zentrum could have been an alternative voice but, as Catholicism solidified its electoral base, this also meant it was never mainstream enough to be a sufficient alternative to the Red & Brown extremes

The most idiotic of Weimar politics was the social democrats/liberals' 'Three Arrows' push - which held the Monarchists (ie the people who would lead the Valkyrie resistance) were as dangerous as the Communists & Nazis. Proof that liberal stupidity knows no geographic boundaries.

Anyway there was a range of ways that 1933 could have been different & all involve the Zentrum & monarchists .... the grasping buffoonery of Kurt von Schleicher was one wild card but then the Nazis murdered him & his wife on the NOTLK