Dolchstoßlegende - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

On November 11, 1918, the civilian representatives of the newly formed Weimar Republic of Germany signed an armistice with the Allies which would end World War I. The war itself had killed 1,770,000 German soldiers and 760,000 German civilians and devastated the economy. The subsequent Treaty of Versailles led to further territorial and financial losses. People were looking for a scapegoat, and the German military found it in communists, republican politicians and "international Jewry", together called the "November criminals". They, the commanders alleged, had "stabbed them in the back" on the home front. This Dolchstoßlegende, literally dagger-blow legend, would play an important role in inter-war Germany.

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 Emperor. 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 Erich 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!"

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Dolchsto?legende - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia