Roads Not Taken Exhibition in German Historical Museum, Berlin

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

I do not remember seeing this exhibition mentioned on here, but please forgive me if it has. The Roads Not Taken exhibition has been running in the German Historical Museum in Berlin since December 2022 and continues until November 2024. If you are going to, or near, Berlin in coming months you might like to take a look.

Here are some details about this exhibition (in English): https://www.dhm.de/en/exhibitions/roads-not-taken-oder-es-haette-auch-anders-kommen-koennen/#/

There are resources in the website in English and English-language tours of the exhibition seem to be run once every afternoon.

There is an accompanying book in German, but an English version is due out this summer, 2023: https://www.dhm.de/en/publication/r...ed-out-differently-german-caesuras-1989-1848/

In reverse chronological order it looks at points in German history in which a different 'road' could have been taken:

1989 - the Peaceful Revolution in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany)
1969 - the launching of Ostpolitik
1961 - the building of the Berlin Wall
1952 - the Stalin Note
1950 - the Korean War
1948/9 - the Berlin Airlift
1945 - failure to blow the bridge at Remagen
1944 - attempted assassination of Hitler
1936 - the Occupation of the Rhineland
1933 - the Nazis coming to power
1932 - the ousting of Chancellor Brüning
1918 - the German Revolution
1914 - outbreak of the Great War
1866 - Austro-Prussian War
1848 - Germany's first attempt at a democratic awakening

 

[Coiler]

Remagen is weird choice. It doesn't really change anything beyond a few lines on the map in history textbooks. Barring some moon logic butterfly where a very slightly more difficult Western Allied advance results in someone who historically survived and became important later on dying in action, it's of effectively no significance whatsoever.

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

There is also an article apparently inspired by the exhibition but to look at British alternatives. Makes a good case for why alternate history should not be dismissed: https://www.theguardian.com/comment...ive-history-brexit-falklands-second-world-war

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

Remagen is weird choice. It doesn't really change anything beyond a few lines on the map in history textbooks. Barring some moon logic butterfly where a very slightly more difficult Western Allied advance results in someone who historically survived and became important later on dying in action, it's of effectively no significance whatsoever.

I guess from the German perspective maybe they feel more of Germany would have been overrun by the Red Army. However, Stalin kept to the lines that had been agreed with his allies and even gave up the Soviet zone of Austria. I guess the behaviour of the Red Army troops, especially the extensive raping, would have been inflicted on a wider slice of the German population if the British and Americans were stymied on the Rhine. There seems to be a sense at the exhibition, however, that it might have led to an atomic bomb being dropped on Ludwigshafen.

 

[Charles EP M.]

That is a really cool idea for an exhibition

 

[Warthog]

Thanks for posting this @Alexander Rooksmoor , I'd read Kettles piece in the Guardian and came here looking for more, wasn't disappointed

The suggestions for a British exploration:

what about the Conservative party’s serious internal debate about whether to dismantle the nationalised health service in 1951?

The very nearly made appointment of Edward Wood as Neville Chamberlain’s successor in 1940 as the Wehrmacht overran France?

The decision that the pro-Nazi Edward VIII might have taken in 1936 to make a morganatic marriage which might have seen him on the throne at the same time, determined to sue for peace with Hitler? Not all the roads not taken would be sunlit.

Sections on Ireland and the empire, perhaps in the context of the William Gladstone home rule bills of 1886 and 1893.

Sections on Britain’s imperial politics might include Joseph Chamberlain’s attempt to turn back free trade in favour of the empire as a trading block

Early but rare domestic British efforts, by Keir Hardie and others, for Indian independence.

The exhibition might end with parliament’s rejection of votes for women in 1867.

 

[Warthog]

I don't know if this has been shown anywhere else.
The Deutsches Historisches Museum has an exhibition on


Found via this Guardian article which includes some description of what is shown but merely to suggest what would be in a British version.

What would Britain look like today if we’d chosen to follow the roads not taken? | Martin Kettle

An exhibition in Berlin explores 14 alternative histories for Germany. What a shame that we don’t do the same, says Guardian columnist Martin Kettle

www.theguardian.com

Thanks Mark. It's really interesting
Replying here now there's a thread.

 

[Arthur_Phuxache]

Remagen is weird choice. It doesn't really change anything beyond a few lines on the map in history textbooks. Barring some moon logic butterfly where a very slightly more difficult Western Allied advance results in someone who historically survived and became important later on dying in action, it's of effectively no significance whatsoever.

Given that the largest crossing of the Rhein was miles north of Remagen, it does seem superfluous to include it.

Operation Plunder, like Operation Husky, is another massively successful Allied undertaking that seems to have been forgotten.

 

[iainbhx]

And the Remagen bridge was so important that it was never replaced.

 

[Death's Companion]

It was fairly unimportant I think, Plunder is right there but Patton didn't have much trouble forcing a crossing either. The Allies had brought a lot of bridging equipment forward and indeed had replaced the Remagen with multiple bridges close by, it was useful for the easy foothold it bought, not because it was super critical to logistics.

I think by that point literally anywhere the Allies attacked they'd have broken through given they did break through everywhere they attacked partially intact bridge or no.

I'd guess it mattered more to the Germans because multiple divisions pouring across the Rhine was very psychologically damaging. Also the Germans wasted a lot of resources they did not have trying to take it back and took casualties and exhausted the forces that were meant to be holding the Rhine long before the main battle began. So to the Germans looking back it might have seemed the big moment where things became totally irretrievable in terms of substantially delaying the Allies.

 

[Mark]

Readers replies to the Guardian article

How Britain was shaped by the roads not taken | Letters

Letters: Readers respond to a piece by Martin Kettle about an exhibition in Berlin that explores 14 alternative histories for Germany

www.theguardian.com

I think nothing unexpected. However I did not know about the STV vote in 1917

 

[Thande]

This is clearly a good way to get AH out to a more general audience, as my head of department just mentioned he'd read about this exhibition when it came up that I'm an AH writer in my spare time.

Would definitely be interesting to see one done here, especially if it was focused on lesser-known PODs.

I did visit the DHM in Berlin in 2009 and was very impressed, especially by how everything is accompanied by a detailed and period-accurate map (something a lot of British museums could learn from, ahem ahem).

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

Given that the largest crossing of the Rhein was miles north of Remagen, it does seem superfluous to include it.

Operation Plunder, like Operation Husky, is another massively successful Allied undertaking that seems to have been forgotten.

It would be great if we could get whoever was behind the various scenarios to come and talk to us here about the thinking behind them, perhaps especially about that one. Maybe we could flag it that it would be a good publicity for them ahead of the release of the English language version of the book in October.

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

This is clearly a good way to get AH out to a more general audience, as my head of department just mentioned he'd read about this exhibition when it came up that I'm an AH writer in my spare time.

Would definitely be interesting to see one done here, especially if it was focused on lesser-known PODs.

I did visit the DHM in Berlin in 2009 and was very impressed, especially by how everything is accompanied by a detailed and period-accurate map (something a lot of British museums could learn from, ahem ahem).

I know it is quite commonly discussed in AH fields, but I do have the sense that the general British public do not realise how close Britain came to not participating in the Great War, even with its supposed commitments. If Sir Edward Grey had been struck down ill ahead of his pivotal speech, then there is a good chance Britain would not have entered the war or possibly not until some months or even years later.

 

[Yokai Man]

I know it is quite commonly discussed in AH fields, but I do have the sense that the general British public do not realise how close Britain came to not participating in the Great War, even with its supposed commitments. If Sir Edward Grey had been struck down ill ahead of his pivotal speech, then there is a good chance Britain would not have entered the war or possibly not until some months or even years later.

The problem is that I don’t know how you manage to do that apart from “Sir Edward gets run over by a car due to his poor eyesight” and even that didn’t become more serious til during the war,when he nearly became blind.

 

[Alexander Rooksmoor]

I do not think it needs to be that severe. Hidden History (2013) by Gerry Docherty and James MacGregor shows how very little support there was in government for going to war. Remember it was a Liberal government in power that counted pacifists in its ranks. Grey was one of a tiny band of politicians who sought a battle with Germany, but was heavily outnumbered in the Cabinet let alone the wider government. It seems Lloyd George, previously (and later known) for pacific views was bought off, but if he had stuck to his principles, let alone if other ministers had spoken against Grey, he could have been diverted from what was a significant task: to win over a large majority to supporting a view contrary to that which they had held when they woke up that day. Some error, some interruption, some error or stumbling in what he said may have weakened his case, let alone if his relationships as a widower and the illegitimate children from them had come to light.

 

[David Flin]

Lloyd George.

Stuck to his principles.

Hmmm.

 

[Delta Force]

I know it is quite commonly discussed in AH fields, but I do have the sense that the general British public do not realise how close Britain came to not participating in the Great War, even with its supposed commitments. If Sir Edward Grey had been struck down ill ahead of his pivotal speech, then there is a good chance Britain would not have entered the war or possibly not until some months or even years later.

The United Kingdom was an even larger creditor than the United States. If the war starts to turn against the Entente Powers to an extent that it risks defeat and thus a default on the loans, collapse of the banking sector, and an economic depression then the British government would likely find a convenient excuse to intervene just like the United States did. The banking sector gets propped up, there's a rally around the flag effect for the leadership, and wartime control measures make it easier to go after dissidents, unionists, reformers, etc.

 

[Jared]

The United Kingdom was an even larger creditor than the United States. If the war starts to turn against the Entente Powers to an extent that it risks defeat and thus a default on the loans, collapse of the banking sector, and an economic depression then the British government would likely find a convenient excuse to intervene just like the United States did. The banking sector gets propped up, there's a rally around the flag effect for the leadership, and wartime control measures make it easier to go after dissidents, unionists, reformers, etc.

The UK getting into the war later is quite likely, but a later entry has potentially significant ramifications on how long Germany can keep up trade in the meantime, and also possibly if and where the front lines settle on the Western Front.

 

[David Flin]

It would be great if we could get whoever was behind the various scenarios to come and talk to us here about the thinking behind them, perhaps especially about that one. Maybe we could flag it that it would be a good publicity for them ahead of the release of the English language version of the book in October.

Asked.

We'll see what comes of it. We are, after all, fairly small beer. Still, don't ask, don't get.