Okay, boring title for the thread, but it's descriptive.
I watched the first two seasons of Babylon Berlin around New Year, which takes place in Berlin in the late 20's. A recent discussion elsewhere about the TV-series, and after reading the Chaosium's Berlin - The Wicked City I got really inspired to have it as a potential setting to RP in. It is a "dynamic" city rife with vice, crime, and political violence. Located in central Europe, it isn't far for a change of pace either.
However, as the different eras of Germany is so distinct, I don't want the feeling of just playing the prelude to Nazi Germany. I'm also not much for meta plot when I game. So I'm thinking about going with an Alt-History. The Wall Street crash won't happen on October 24th 1929 (but that isn't saying it won't happen at some other point), and having Hitler die during the Beer Hall Putsch in November 9th 1923 (in real history, it was the man next to Hitler that got shot).
In history, the aftermath of the Putsch was quite a transformative period of the Nazi party. Hitler's speeches during the trial got them followers outside of Bavaria (they were apparently pretty much unknown in the rest of Germany) and the writing of Mein Kampf. Now, the book itself might not have been that influential, but the structuring and sorting of ideas definitely was. Both the shift from a "take power through a coup" to "work within the system to take power" and the focus on Lebensraum apparently came from there. Hitler also stepped down (well, officially) as party leader, and as I understand it he spent quite a bit of 1926 to put the party back together as it was splintering in all kind of directions.
With Hitler dead, the unifying force would be gone and it opens up the setting to a lot of different potential futures. The Nazis wouldn't be gone, but they would most likely just be one extremist group among all the others. Maybe a new "strong man party" would rise up to take power. Maybe the none would, and the stock market crash would just through the country back to the hyper inflation days, cementing the Weimar era well into the 40's or 50's. Maybe it leads up to Stalin is done with his internal restructuring, and now looks outward. Maybe the recent buddy buddy between the British and the French empires breaks down, as they don't have a common enemy in Germany anymore. Or maybe it won't break down, as they have one in the Soviet Union. Etc and so on.
Personally, I love having all those "maybes". I want to place the potential butterflies of the alt-history setting to potentially lead to a lot of different outcomes, regardless of if I pick one or if I want to let it play out during gaming. However, I also prefer it when they are plausible. Those where an historian would nod and think "that could have happened."
My first headache when it comes to this alt-history would be what would happen at the trial. Without Hitler's speeches, I believe both Röhm (15 months, changed to probation) and Ludendorff (acquitted) sentences would not be the same as what they did end up with. Considering Röhm built up quite a formidable force by creating the Frontbann -- as an alternative to the now (temporary) outlawed SA -- during 1924-1925, the potential outcomes of that trial are important.
However, this thread is about Noir-ish roleplaying in the Weimar republic's Berlin. So anything related to that is on-topic in my opinion. So for those that don't care about talking about the Nazis, but want to chime in on other stuff related to the era, feel free to join in.
I watched the first two seasons of Babylon Berlin around New Year, which takes place in Berlin in the late 20's. A recent discussion elsewhere about the TV-series, and after reading the Chaosium's Berlin - The Wicked City I got really inspired to have it as a potential setting to RP in. It is a "dynamic" city rife with vice, crime, and political violence. Located in central Europe, it isn't far for a change of pace either.
However, as the different eras of Germany is so distinct, I don't want the feeling of just playing the prelude to Nazi Germany. I'm also not much for meta plot when I game. So I'm thinking about going with an Alt-History. The Wall Street crash won't happen on October 24th 1929 (but that isn't saying it won't happen at some other point), and having Hitler die during the Beer Hall Putsch in November 9th 1923 (in real history, it was the man next to Hitler that got shot).
In history, the aftermath of the Putsch was quite a transformative period of the Nazi party. Hitler's speeches during the trial got them followers outside of Bavaria (they were apparently pretty much unknown in the rest of Germany) and the writing of Mein Kampf. Now, the book itself might not have been that influential, but the structuring and sorting of ideas definitely was. Both the shift from a "take power through a coup" to "work within the system to take power" and the focus on Lebensraum apparently came from there. Hitler also stepped down (well, officially) as party leader, and as I understand it he spent quite a bit of 1926 to put the party back together as it was splintering in all kind of directions.
With Hitler dead, the unifying force would be gone and it opens up the setting to a lot of different potential futures. The Nazis wouldn't be gone, but they would most likely just be one extremist group among all the others. Maybe a new "strong man party" would rise up to take power. Maybe the none would, and the stock market crash would just through the country back to the hyper inflation days, cementing the Weimar era well into the 40's or 50's. Maybe it leads up to Stalin is done with his internal restructuring, and now looks outward. Maybe the recent buddy buddy between the British and the French empires breaks down, as they don't have a common enemy in Germany anymore. Or maybe it won't break down, as they have one in the Soviet Union. Etc and so on.
Personally, I love having all those "maybes". I want to place the potential butterflies of the alt-history setting to potentially lead to a lot of different outcomes, regardless of if I pick one or if I want to let it play out during gaming. However, I also prefer it when they are plausible. Those where an historian would nod and think "that could have happened."
My first headache when it comes to this alt-history would be what would happen at the trial. Without Hitler's speeches, I believe both Röhm (15 months, changed to probation) and Ludendorff (acquitted) sentences would not be the same as what they did end up with. Considering Röhm built up quite a formidable force by creating the Frontbann -- as an alternative to the now (temporary) outlawed SA -- during 1924-1925, the potential outcomes of that trial are important.
However, this thread is about Noir-ish roleplaying in the Weimar republic's Berlin. So anything related to that is on-topic in my opinion. So for those that don't care about talking about the Nazis, but want to chime in on other stuff related to the era, feel free to join in.