Dolchstoßlegende

The Dolchstoßlegende, (German "dagger-thrust legend," often translated in English as "stab-in-the-back legend") refers to a social mythos and persecution-propaganda theory popular among post-World War I Germany's nationalists , which claimed that Germany's defeat was attributable to German citizens who had sabotaged or otherwise 'lacked dedication to' the promoted cause for the war effort—ie. "to unify the German nation."

Der Dolchstoss is cited as a important factor in Adolf Hitler's later rise to power, as the Nazi Party grew its original political base largely from embittered WWI veterans and those sympathetic with the Dolchstoss interpretation of Germany's then-recent history.

Motivation

Views of the War, Spirit of 1914

The outbreak of World War I in 1914 appeared to erase many of the political divisions that had existed in German society initially; Roman Catholics, Jews, Lutherans, socialists, right-wingers and liberals were all admittedly overcome by the phenomenon of the "Spirit of 1914". Germany and Austria-Hungary promoted the war as a means to forge a larger and more unified German ethnic nation. Jubilant crowds gathered to hear the news of the war and a strong wave of euphoria took hold in the midst of public celebration. National pride had showed its potential as a force of unity and cohesion and many considered the changing conditions to be the start of a new age, based almost entirely on an underestimation of the horrors of war and faith in a quick and relatively bloodless victory.

Many were initially under the impression that the Triple Entente had ushered in the war, and as such saw the war as one in which Germany was justified. Imperial Russia was seen to have expansionist ambitions and France's dissatisfaction due to the outcome of the Franco-Prussian War was widely known. At the same time, it seemed as though the United Kingdom was using the Belgian neutrality issue to enter the war and neutralize Germany, which threatened Britain's commercial interests.

As the war dragged on, illusions of an easy victory were smashed, and Germans began to suffer tremendously from what would become an enormously costly war. With the initial euphoria gone, old divisions resurfaced. Suspicion of Catholics, Social Democrats and Jews grew as initial enthusiasms subsided and as the war dragged on, national loyalties came into question once again. There was a considerable amount of political tension prior to the war, especially due to the growing presence of Social Democrats in the Reichstag. This was a great concern for aristocrats in power. Social democrats opposed the expenditures for the German Army that Erich Ludendorff claimed were necessary and lobbied for.

Profiteering and civil unrest

Those who were profiting from the war were also subject to criticism, as well as industrial workers involved in labor strikes. Krupp himself was accused of manufacturing arms for both sides — an extremely profitable practice. Individual interests took precedence in other sectors. As administrators meddled with the economy by introducing price ceilings and other measures, producers often responded by switching goods, which created shortages. This led to great tensions between the cities and the countryside and, more importantly, exacerbated hardships and bred discord. In 1917, there were roughly five hundred strikes across Germany, resulting in over 2,000,000 total work days lost.

Civil disorder grew as a result of an inability to make ends meet. While it is true that production slumped in 1917 and 1918, the nation had maximized its war effort and could take no more. Raw production figures confirm that Germany could not have possibly won a war of attrition against Britain, France and the United States combined. Despite its overwhelming power, Germany's industrial might and population were matched and outclassed by the Entente as a whole. Russia's exit in 1917 did little to change the overall picture, as the United States joined the war shortly thereafter on April 16, 1917. American industrial capacity overtook Germany's singlehandedly.

Allied propaganda

In his memoirs, Erich Ludendorff consistently points out that the Hohenzollern leadership failed to acknowledge the power of Allied propaganda and conduct a successful campaign of its own. British and American presses were particularly successful with their leaflet and tabloid campaign, and the view that the German autocracy was an exporter of "Prussian militarism," and was guilty of crimes against humanity began to resonate even within German society. After Imperial Russia dropped out of the war, the claimed contrast between the free world that wanted peace versus the barbaric autocratic-led Germany that wanted war became a frequent theme.

Ludendorff was convinced that the Entente wanted nothing less than a draconian peace. This was not the message most Germans heard, and coming from the other side, Wilson's Fourteen Points were particularly popular among the German people. Socialists and liberals, especially the Social Democrats that formed the majority of the parliamentary body, were already known "agitators" for social change prior to 1914. When peace and full restoration were promised by the Allies, patriotic enthusiasm began to wane. Germany's allies likewise began to question the cause for the war as the conflict dragged on, and found their questions answered in the Allied propaganda.

When the armistice finally came in 1918, Ludendorff's prophecy appeared accurate almost immediately; although the fighting had ended, the British maintained their blockade of the European continent for a full year, leading to starvation and severe malnutrition. The non-negotiable peace agreed to by Weimar politicians in the Treaty of Versailles was certainly not what the German peace-seeking populace had expected.

The Treaty of Versailles

As a result of the Treaty, Germany's territory was reduced by a third, the Rhineland was demilitarized and Allied troops were to occupy many areas. There were also enormous war reparations to be paid for a period of 70 years (until 1988), although they ended in 1931 amid complicated circumstances. Perhaps the most important aspect of the Treaty relating to the Dolchstoßlegende was the War Guilt Clause, which forced Germany to accept complete responsibility for the war. The Treaty was enormously unpopular in Germany, in no small part because it impinged extensively on internal German sovereignty. The Dolchstoßlegende was the accepted antithesis of the War Guilt Clause, as the latter was in stark contrast to what the population found to be factual.

Post-war reactions and reflections

Conservatives, nationalists and ex-military leaders began to speak critically about the peace and Weimar politicians, socialists, communists, and Jews were viewed with suspicion due to their supposed extra-national loyalties. It was rumored that they had not supported the war and had played a role in selling out Germany to its enemies. These November Criminals, or those who seemed to benefit from the newly formed Weimar Republic, were seen to have "stabbed them in the back" on the home front, by either criticizing the cause of German nationalism, instigating unrest and strikes in the critical military industries or profiteering. In essence the accusation was that the accused committed treason against the "benevolent and righteous" common cause.

These theories were given credence by the fact that when Germany surrendered in November 1918, its armies were still in French and Belgian territory. Not only had the German Army been in enemy territory the entire time on the Western Front, but on the Eastern Front, Germany had already won the war against Russia, concluded with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In the West, Germany had come close to winning the war with the Spring Offensive. Contributing to the Dolchstoßlegende, its failure was blamed on strikes in the arms industry at a critical moment of the offensive, leaving soldiers without an adequate supply of materiel. The strikes were seen to be instigated by treasonous elements, with the Jews taking most of the blame. This overlooked Germany's strategic position and ignored how the efforts of individuals were somewhat marginalized on the front, since the belligerents were engaged in a new kind of war. The industrialization of war had dehumanized the process, and made possible a new kind of defeat which the Germans suffered as a total war emerged.

Nevertheless, this social mythos of domestic betrayal resonated among its audience, and its claims would codify the basis for public support for the emerging Nazi Party, under a racialist-based form of nationalism. The anti-Semitism was intensified by the Bavarian Soviet Republic, a Communist government which ruled the city of Munich for two weeks before being crushed by the Freikorps militia. Most of the Bavarian Soviet Republic's leaders were Jewish, a fact that allowed anti-Semitic propagandists to tar all Jews with the brush of "Communist treason".

Origins

In the latter part of the war, Germany was practically governed as a military dictatorship, with the Supreme High Command (German: OHL, "Oberste Heeresleitung") and General Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg as commander-in-chief advising the Kaiser. After the last German offensive on the western front failed in 1918, the German war effort was doomed. In response, OHL arranged for a rapid change to a civilian government. General Ludendorff, Germany's Chief of Staff, said:

"I have asked His Excellency to now bring those circles to power which we have to thank for coming so far. We will therefore now bring those gentlemen into the ministries. They can now make the peace which has to be made. They can eat the soup which they have prepared for us!"

On November 11, 1918, the representatives of the newly formed Weimar Republic signed an armistice with the Allies which would end World War I. The subsequent Treaty of Versailles led to further territorial and financial losses. As the Kaiser had been forced to abdicate and the military relinquished executive power, it was the temporary, "civilian government" which sued for peace - the signature on the document was of the Catholic Centrist Matthias Erzberger, a civilian, who was later killed for his efforts. This led to the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Even though they publicly despised the treaty, it was most convenient for the generals — there were no war crime tribunals, they were celebrated as undefeated heroes, and they could covertly prepare for removing the republic which they had helped to create.

In 1919 the Reichswehr (National Militia) already began "educating" an impressionable Adolf Hitler about the causes of the war and the defeat, firmly placing the Dolchstoßlegende in his mind; it was Ludendorff who would lead the unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch on November 8, 1923 together with Hitler; it was the Reichswehr which provided early funding to the Nazi Party and it was an 85-year-old Paul von Hindenburg who would appoint Hitler as chancellor of Germany on January 30, 1933.

Richard Steigmann-Gall says that the stab-in-the-back legend traces back to a sermon preached on February 3, 1918, by Protestant Court Chaplain Bruno Doehring, six months before the war had even ended.Richard Steigmann–Gall, The Holy Reich: Nazi Conceptions of Christianity, 1919–1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003) p. 16 The official birth of the term itself possibly can be dated to mid 1919, when Ludendorff was having lunch with a British general Sir Neil Malcolm. Malcolm asked Ludendorff why it was that he thought Germany lost the war. Ludendorff replied with his list of excuses: The home front failed us etc. Then, Sir Neil Malcolm said that "it sounds like you were stabbed in the back then?" The phrase was to Ludendorff's liking and he let it be known among the general staff that this was the 'official' version, then disseminated throughout German society. This was picked up by right wing political factions and used as a form of attack against the hated Weimar regime, who were the exponents of the German Revolution.

The basis of charged complicity drew heavily upon figures like Kurt Eisner; a Berlin born Jew (by his own description) who lived in Munich. He was producing literature about the illegal nature of the war from 1916 onwards and he also had a large hand in the Munich revolution, from which the right wing counter revolution then took place. The Weimar Republic under Friedrich Ebert violently suppressed workers' uprisings with the help of the Reichswehr and tolerated the paramilitary Freikorps forming all across Germany. In spite of such tolerance of the extreme right, the Republic was viciously attacked. Many of its representatives such as Walther Rathenau were assassinated, and the leaders were branded as "criminals" and Jews by the right-wing press dominated by Alfred Hugenberg.

Related concepts outside of Germany and World War I

Other wars have been viewed as winnable but lost due to some sort of homefront betrayal. For example, some believe this had happened to the United States during the Vietnam War. However, the so-called "Vietnam Syndrome" is also a myth.

Some believe the post-WWII Stalin Note confirms another instance of betrayal. The 1952 Stalin Note proposed German reunification and Superpower disengagement from Central Europe but the United States and its allies rejected the offer.

Notes

Sources

Spielvogel, Jackson J. Hitler and Nazi Germany: A History. New Jersey, Prentice Hall: 2001.
Gerald D. Feldman, "Die Massenbewegungen der Arbeiterschaft in Deutschland am Ende des Ersten Weltkrieges 1917-1920" Politische Vierteljahrschrift 1972.
Chickering, Roger "Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918." Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2004.
OSS Psychological Profile of Hitler, Part Five
Kevin Baker, Stabbed in the Back! The past and future of a right-wing myth Harper's Magazine, June 2006.

Gourt Home::Gourt :: Dolchstoßlegende