The harsh conditions imposed by the Allies, including painful reparation payments, burnished the sense of betrayal. Newspapers and postcards depicted German soldiers being stabbed in the back by either evil figures carrying the red flag of socialism or grossly caricatured Jews.īy the time of the Treaty of Versailles the following year, the myth was already well established. “Im Felde unbesiegt” - “undefeated on the battlefield” - was the slogan with which returning soldiers were greeted. It was too much to bear for many: Military officers, monarchists and right-wingers spread the myth that if it had not been for political sabotage by Social Democrats and Jews back home, the army would never have had to give in. 9, 1918, Wilhelm abdicated, and two days later the army leaders signed the armistice. They had no appetite to be butchered in the hopeless yet supposedly holy mission of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the loyal aristocrats who made up the Supreme Army Command.Ī starving population joined the strikes and demands for a republic grew. The entry of the United States into the war the year before, and a sequence of successful counterattacks by British and French forces, left German forces demoralized. Instead, the campaign should be seen as what it is: an attempt to elevate “They stole it” to the level of legend, perhaps seeding for the future social polarization and division on a scale America has never seen.
Trump’s irrational claim that the election was “rigged” as a laughable last convulsion of his reign or a cynical bid to heighten the market value for the TV personality he might once again intend to become, especially as he appears to be giving up on his effort to overturn the election result.īut that would be a grave error.
But the Dolchstosslegende provides a warning. And the one figure who knew best how to exploit their frustration was Adolf Hitler.ĭon’t get me wrong: This is not about comparing Mr. Among a sizable number of Germans, it stirred resentment, humiliation and anger. That the claim was palpably false didn’t matter. It was a conspiracy, a con, a capitulation - a grave betrayal that forever stained the nation. Defeat, its proponents said, was declared but not warranted. Its core claim was that Imperial Germany never lost World War I. Their denial gave birth to arguably the most potent and disastrous political lie of the 20th century - the Dolchstosslegende, or stab-in-the-back myth. One hundred years ago, amid the implosions of Imperial Germany, powerful conservatives who led the country into war refused to accept that they had lost. Yet watching President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign since Election Day, I can’t help but see a parallel to one of the most dreadful episodes from Germany’s history. HAMBURG, Germany - It may well be that Germans have a special inclination to panic at specters from the past, and I admit that this alarmism annoys me at times.
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