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[[File:Stab-in-the-back postcard.jpg|thumb|250px|The "Dagger-stab-in-the-back Legend": Austrian right-wing [[caricature]] of a [[Jew]] stabbing the [[German Army (German Empire)|German Army]] in the back with a dagger. The capitulation was blamed upon the unpatriotic populace, the [[socialism|Socialists]], [[Bolshevism|Bolsheviks]], the [[Weimar Republic]], and especially the Jews. (1919)]]
The '''stab-in-the-Back legend''' ([[German language|German]]: {{Audio|De-Dolchstoßlegende.ogg|''Dolchstoßlegende''}}) is the
Historically, the ''Dolchstoßlegende'' proved important to the political [[Adolf Hitler's rise to power|ascension of Adolf Hitler]]; as the [[Nazi Party]] grew, it maintained an original, true-believer base, embittered Great War veterans who believed the patriotic legend and its mythic interpretation of Germany’s recent military history. The ''Dolchstoßlegende'' ideologically encapsulates the justifications of [[Nazi Germany]]’s persecution and murder of [[anti-Semitism|Jews]], [[communist]]s, socialists and [[intellectual]]s, bringing into line every dissident.
==The Treaty of Versailles==
{{Main|Treaty of Versailles}}
German popular reaction to the Treaty of Versailles was highly negative. As a result of the Treaty, Germany's territory was reduced by about 13%, several millions of ethnic Germans came under foreign rule, even though they were the majority in many of those areas, the Rhineland was demilitarized and Allied troops occupied several areas. (see [[Territorial changes of Germany]]). There were also enormous war reparations to be paid over a period of 70 years, although they ended in 1931 (but were resumed after World War II). 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 hostilities. The Treaty was enormously unpopular in Germany. 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===
[[Image:1920 poster 12000 Jewish soldiers KIA for the fatherland.jpg|thumb|left|''"12,000 Jewish soldiers died on the field of honor for the fatherland."'' A leaflet published in 1920 by German Jewish veterans in response to accusations of the lack of patriotism]]
Conservatives, nationalists and ex-military leaders began to speak critically about the peace and Weimar politicians, socialists, [[communists]], [[Jew]]s, and sometimes even Catholics were viewed with suspicion due to presumed extra-national loyalties. It was claimed 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 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, Berlin remained 450 miles from the nearest front, and the German armies retired from the field of battle in good order.
The Allies had been amply resupplied by the United States, which also had fresh armies ready for combat, but the UK and France were too war-weary to contemplate an invasion of Germany with its unknown consequences. On the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]], no Allied army had penetrated the western German frontier, and on the [[Eastern Front (World War I)|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.{{Citation needed|date=April 2009}} 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.
The weakness of Germany's strategic position was exacerbated by the rapid collapse of other central powers in late 1918, following Allied victories on the Eastern and Italian fronts. Bulgaria was the first to sign an armistice on September 29, 1918 at [[Saloniki]].<ref name = "indiana.edu-1918">{{cite web|url=http://www.indiana.edu/~league/1918.htm|title=1918 Timeline}}</ref> On October 30 the [[Ottoman Empire]] capitulated at [[Mudros]].<ref name = "indiana.edu-1918"/> On November 3 Austria-Hungary sent a [[White flag|flag of truce]] to ask for an [[Armistice]]. The terms, arranged by telegraph with the Allied Authorities in Paris, were communicated to the Austrian commander and accepted. The [[Armistice of villa Giusti|Armistice with Austria-Hungary]] was signed in the Villa Giusti, near [[Padua]], on November 3. Austria and Hungary signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the [[Habsburg monarchy]].
Nevertheless, the idea of domestic betrayal resonated among its audience, and its claims would provide some basis for public support for the emerging [[National Socialist German Workers Party|National Socialist Party]], under an autocratic form of nationalism. Anti Jewish sentiment 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]]. Many of the Bavarian Soviet Republic's leaders were Jewish, allowing anti-Jewish propagandists to connect Jews with Communism (and thus treason).
==Origins==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1973-076-58, Reichskanzler Cuno und Reichspräsident Ebert crop Ebert only.jpg|thumb|left|''Reichspräsident'' [[Friedrich Ebert]]: (1923), as Provisional President of the Weimar Republic in 1919, he contributed to the myth, in telling home-coming veterans that “no enemy has vanquished you”.]]
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<blockquote style="margin::1em;">As long as the front holds, we damned well have the duty to hold out in the homeland. We would have to be ashamed of ourselves in front of our children and grandchildren if we attacked the battle front from the rear and gave it a dagger-stab. (''wenn wir der Front in den Rücken fielen und ihr den Dolchstoß versetzten.)''</blockquote>
Barth also shows that the term was primarily popularized by the
Charges of a Jewish conspirational element in Germany's defeat drew heavily upon figures like [[Kurt Eisner]], a Berlin-born German Jew who lived in Munich. He had written about the illegal nature of the war from 1916 onward, and he also had a large hand in the Munich revolution until he was assassinated in February 1919. The Weimar Republic under Friedrich Ebert violently suppressed workers' uprisings with the help of [[Gustav Noske]] and Reichswehr General [[Wilhelm Groener|Groener]], and tolerated the [[paramilitary]] [[Freikorps]] forming all across Germany. In spite of such tolerance, the Republic's legitimacy was constantly attacked with claims such as the stab-in-the-back. Many of its representatives such as Matthias Erzberger and [[Walther Rathenau]] were assassinated, and the leaders were branded as "criminals" and Jews by the right-wing press dominated by [[Alfred Hugenberg]].
German historian Friedrich Meinecke already attempted to trace the roots of the term in a June 11, 1922, article in the Viennese newspaper ''Neue Freie Presse''. In the 1924 national election, the Munich cultural journal ''Süddeutsche Monatshefte'' published a series of articles blaming the SPD and trade unions for Germany's defeat in World War I, which came out during the trial of [[Adolf Hitler]] and Ludendorff for high treason following the [[Beer Hall Putsch]] in 1923. The editor of an SPD newspaper sued the journal for defamation, giving rise to what is known as the ''Munich Dolchstoßprozess'' from October 19 to November 20, 1924. Many prominent figures testified in that trial, including members of the parliamentary committee investigating the reasons for the defeat, so some of its results were made public long before the publication of the committee report in 1928.
The ''Dolchstoß'' was a central image in propaganda produced by the many right-wing and traditionally conservative political parties that sprang up in the early days of the Weimar Republic, including Hitler's [[National Socialist German Workers Party|NSDAP]]. For Hitler himself, this explanatory model for World War I was of crucial personal importance.<ref name="brendon8">[[Piers Brendon]], ''The Dark Valley: A Panarama of the 1930s'', p8 ISBN 0-375-40881-9</ref> He had learned of Germany's defeat while being treated for temporary blindness following a gas attack on the front.<ref name="brendon8"/> In ''Mein Kampf'', he described a vision at this time which drove him to enter politics. Throughout his career, he railed against the "November criminals" of 1918, who had stabbed the German Army in the back.
Even provisional President Friedrich Ebert contributed to the myth when he saluted returning veterans with the oration that "no enemy has vanquished you" (''kein Feind hat euch überwunden!'') and "they returned undefeated from the battlefield (''sie sind vom Schlachtfeld unbesiegt zurückgekehrt'')" on November 10, 1918. The latter quote was shortened to ''im Felde unbesiegt'' as a semi-official slogan of the ''[[Reichswehr]]''. Ebert had meant these sayings as a tribute to the German soldier, but it only contributed to the prevailing feeling.
==Use in American context==
In a June 2006 article published in ''[[Harper's Magazine]]'', journalist [[Kevin Baker]] extended the use of the phrase and applied it to [[American politics|politics in the United States]], claiming that the American [[Conservatism in the United States|right-wing]] has invoked the stab-in-the-back myth on numerous occasions;<ref>Kevin Baker, [http://harpers.org/archive/2006/06/0081080 "Stabbed in the Back! The past and future of a right-wing myth"], Harper's Magazine, June 2006</ref> recently in regards to the [[War in Iraq]], but also notably at the end of the [[Vietnam War]], when the homefront [[Opposition to the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War|anti-war movement]] and their sympathizers in the [[mass media]] were frequently blamed for the U.S. losing [[morale|the will to win]] the war. An early version of the stab-in-the-back theory in American politics was the "[[China Hands#The men who "lost" China|Loss of China thesis]]", which accused the Truman administration and the State Department of willfully allowing the victory of [[Mao Zedong]]'s Communists in the [[Chinese Civil War]].
==See also==
*[[Defeatism]]
*[[Antisemitism]]
*[[Interwar period]]
*[[National Socialism]]
==References==
{{Reflist|2}}
==Further reading==
*Chickering, Rodger, ''Imperial Germany and the Great War, 1914-1918''. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press: 2004
* Diest, Wilhelm, and E. J. Feuchtwanger, "The Military Collapse of the German Empire: the Reality Behind the Stab-in-the-Back Myth," ''War in History,'' April 1996, Vol. 3 Issue 2, pp 186–207
*[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text/oss-profile-05-04.html "OSS Psychological Profile of Hitler, Part Five"]
*Schivelbusch, Wolfgang. ''The Culture of Defeat: On National Trauma, Mourning, and Recovery''. New York, Picador: 2001
==External links==
*[http://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/history_wing/antisemitism/post_ww1.cfm Antisemitism in Germany Post World War 1]. The [[Florida Holocaust Museum]]
*[http://www.germanjewishsoldiers.com/introduction.php Die Judischen Gefallenen] A Roll of Honor Commemorating the 12,000 German Jews Who Died for their Fatherland in World War I.
*[http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/publications/reviews/BarthRev069.htm#ill Book review by Harold Marcuse, with 15 "stab-in-the-back" illustrations, 1918-1942]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stab-In-The-Back Legend}}
[[Category:World War I]]
[[Category:Military history of Germany during World War II]]
[[Category:Theories of history]]
[[Category:Weimar Republic]]
[[Category:Antisemitic canards]]
[[Category:Propaganda legends]]
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[[he:אגדת תקיעת הסכין בגב]]
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[[ja:背後の一突き]]
[[no:Dolkestøtlegenden]]
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[[ru:Легенда об ударе ножом в спину]]
[[sr:Легенда о убоду у леђа]]
[[fi:Selkäänpuukotusteoria]]
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[[zh:刀刺在背传说]]
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