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The problem with imagining a Post-WWI Germany without a Hitler is that a charismatic German "Fuehrer" would surely have emerged from the chaos of the Weimar Republic. This Fuehrer might have been a Moscow-oriented Communist, a Monarchist, a proto-Nazi or an authoritarian military type, but (whatever else he was) he would surely have been bad news for Europe and the world. This alternate Fuehrer would not have suffered from Hitler's peculiar Sado-Masochism and megalomania, which caused him to disregard reflexively the best and brightest of his military, scientific, political and economic advisers.

I agree that the Weimar Republic was headed for some kind of authoritarian state. I don't agree that such a state would have had to be headed by some kind of charismatic Fuehrer figure. I can easily imagine a military dictatorship headed by a thoroughly uncharismatic type like Schleicher.