What if Adolf Hitler stayed an Austrian at heart, joining the Austrian Nazi party and somehow still rising to power in Austria? Does WW2 still happen? Does he attempt an Anschluss of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire territories? Well, what happens?
WI: Hitler Rises in Austria?
- Thread starter 9 Fanged Hummingbird
- Start date
Any reasonable POD that can at least give him some chance of leading Austria and not Germany?
Yes, I'd say so. Not in the way you described it in the OP, perhaps, but I'd call, say, Faeelin's Holding out for a Hero quite reasonable.
The problem with the OP, IMO, is that
1) without Hitler beginning in Germany, there might not be a National Socialist party as we would recognise it- or, perhaps rather, there might be a party very similar to the OTL Nazis, and there might be a party called National Socialist, but the two might not be the same.
2) per definition, no Nazi party would advocate Anschluss of the former Austro-Hungarian territories, though they might advocate annexation as Lebensraum- National Socialists, after all.
The easiest way to get a Hitler that leads Austria (for a time) and not Germany might be something like HOFAH does- Hitler is, for one reason or the other, forced to flee or go into exile from Germany after he has gotten followers that would be inclined to follow him, or aid him from Germany.
In Mein Kampf he expresses no support for the Autro-Hungarian Empire. He thought it was a chaotic, multi-national, multi-ethnic project that was doomed to failure. Hitler would almost certainly focus on Germany rather than the Balkans. 'Re-uniting' the German territories would be top of his prorities list.