The high-ranking Nazis who accompanied Adolf Hitler to commemorate the anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch on 8 November 1939 were Joseph Goebbels, Reinhard Heydrich, Rudolf Hess, Robert Ley, Alfred Rosenberg, Julius Streicher, August Frank, Hermann Esser and Heinrich Himmler. Hitler was welcomed to the platform by Christian Weber, a veteran from the Beer Hall Putsch and the Munich city councillor, oblivious to the fact that a powerful time bomb was ticking in the pillar directly behind the speaker's podium by Johann Georg Elser; a carpenter and cabinet maker, member of the left-leaning Federation of Woodworkers Union and of the Red Front Fighters' Association, who'd painstakingly planned and prepared for the attack for the past year, installed the bomb in the early hours of the morning over the course of three months, and late the previous night, had opened the bomb chamber to confirm that the clock mechanism was correctly set, before departing Munich by train that morning.
Whilst Hitler had initially cancelled his speech at the Bürgerbräukeller to devote his attention to planning the imminent war with France, he'd subsequently changed his mind and attended after all. Unknown to Elser though, since fog was forecast, possibly preventing him from flying back to Berlin the next morning, Hitler decided to return to Berlin the same night, by his private train. And with the Fuhrer's scheduled departure from Munich's main station set for 9:30 p.m., the start time of the reunion was brought forward by half an hour from 7:30 to 8 PM to accommodate him, with Hitler cutting his speech from the planned two hours to a one-hour duration. As a result, Hitler ended his address to the 3000-strong audience of the party faithful at 9:07 PM, with Elser's bomb exploding 13 minutes later at 9:20 PM- by which time, Hitler and his entourage had left the Bürgerbräukeller, along with all but about 120 members of the audience, lingering at the far end of the Bürgerbräukeller.
The bomb brought down part of the ceiling and roof, and caused the gallery and an external wall to collapse, killing 7 people immediately, fatally injuring another, and injuring another 63, 16 of them seriously. So then, here's a WI scenario- what if, when setting the timer for the bomb on the night of 7 Nov 1939, Elser had set it to explode half an hour earlier instead, rather than timing it to go off only 10 minutes before the end of Hitler's scheduled speech? As such, in this timeline, Elser's "infernal machine" detonates at 8:50 PM, while Adolf Hitler's still up on the speaker's podium, interrupting the climax of his speech by blowing him to smithereens, as well as either immediately killing or dealing fatal injuries to all of the high-ranking Nazis in his entourage who'd accompanied him to the event, along with 300-400 members of the audience in attendance.
With not only Hitler, but all of these other high-ranking members of the Nazi establishment wiped off the face of the earth as well, who would've taken charge- would it be guaranteed to have been Goering, or are there any other potential candidates who'd have had an outside chance? How would you imagine that the surviving remnants of the pre-established Nazi heirarchy, and the people of Nazi Germany in general, would have reacted to the Bürgerbräukeller Bombing ITTL? And how would the rest of the world have reacted to Hitler, and so many other high-ranking Nazi figures, meeting their demise in such a fashion, at this early juncture- less than two months after the start of WW2, one month to the day after the Fourth Partition of defeated Poland between the Nazis and Soviets, and 3 weeks before the (outbreak of OTL's) Winter War? How differently might WW2 pan out ITTL than it did IOTL?
Whilst Hitler had initially cancelled his speech at the Bürgerbräukeller to devote his attention to planning the imminent war with France, he'd subsequently changed his mind and attended after all. Unknown to Elser though, since fog was forecast, possibly preventing him from flying back to Berlin the next morning, Hitler decided to return to Berlin the same night, by his private train. And with the Fuhrer's scheduled departure from Munich's main station set for 9:30 p.m., the start time of the reunion was brought forward by half an hour from 7:30 to 8 PM to accommodate him, with Hitler cutting his speech from the planned two hours to a one-hour duration. As a result, Hitler ended his address to the 3000-strong audience of the party faithful at 9:07 PM, with Elser's bomb exploding 13 minutes later at 9:20 PM- by which time, Hitler and his entourage had left the Bürgerbräukeller, along with all but about 120 members of the audience, lingering at the far end of the Bürgerbräukeller.
The bomb brought down part of the ceiling and roof, and caused the gallery and an external wall to collapse, killing 7 people immediately, fatally injuring another, and injuring another 63, 16 of them seriously. So then, here's a WI scenario- what if, when setting the timer for the bomb on the night of 7 Nov 1939, Elser had set it to explode half an hour earlier instead, rather than timing it to go off only 10 minutes before the end of Hitler's scheduled speech? As such, in this timeline, Elser's "infernal machine" detonates at 8:50 PM, while Adolf Hitler's still up on the speaker's podium, interrupting the climax of his speech by blowing him to smithereens, as well as either immediately killing or dealing fatal injuries to all of the high-ranking Nazis in his entourage who'd accompanied him to the event, along with 300-400 members of the audience in attendance.
With not only Hitler, but all of these other high-ranking members of the Nazi establishment wiped off the face of the earth as well, who would've taken charge- would it be guaranteed to have been Goering, or are there any other potential candidates who'd have had an outside chance? How would you imagine that the surviving remnants of the pre-established Nazi heirarchy, and the people of Nazi Germany in general, would have reacted to the Bürgerbräukeller Bombing ITTL? And how would the rest of the world have reacted to Hitler, and so many other high-ranking Nazi figures, meeting their demise in such a fashion, at this early juncture- less than two months after the start of WW2, one month to the day after the Fourth Partition of defeated Poland between the Nazis and Soviets, and 3 weeks before the (outbreak of OTL's) Winter War? How differently might WW2 pan out ITTL than it did IOTL?