The Stab-in-the-back Conspiracy Theory

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Everyone knows that Germany lost the First World War. Due to a combination of mistakes by the military, a lack of supplies and many other factors, German defeat only became a matter of time in 1918. After the war however, some contemporaries saw it a bit differently. They argued that the army could defintely have kept on fighting, had it not been stabbed in the back. This episode will tell you everything you need to know about the infamous stab-in-the-back myth, a conspiracy theory which circled around the young Weimar republic. Who invented it? Who spread it? Who believed it and why? And what role did it play in the end of German democracy?

Literature:
- Afflerbach, Holger: Auf Messers Schneide. Wie das Deutsche Reich den Ersten Weltkrieg verlor, München 2018.
- Evans, Richard: The Hitler Conspiracies. Oxford 2020.
- Geheran, Michael: Judenzählung (Jewish Census), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online... (accessed on 08.05.2024)
- Groß, Gerhard P.: Das Ende des Ersten Weltkriegs und die Dolchstoßlegende, Ditzingen 2018.
- Krumeich, Gerd: Die unbewältigte Niederlage. Das Trauma des Ersten Weltkriegs und die Weimarer Republik, Freiburg et al. 2018.
- Lohalm, Uwe: Völkischer Radikalismus. Die Geschichte des Deutschvölkischen Schutz- und Trutz-Bundes 1919-1923, Hamburg 1970.
- Lüdtke, Christian: Hans Delbrück und Weimar. Für eine konservative Republik - gegen Kriegsschuldlüge und Dolchstoßlegende, Göttingen 2018.

Chapters:
0:00 What was the stab-in-the-back myth?
2:52 The Generals refuse to take the blame
9:46 A socialist conspiracy?
15:09 The role of antisemitism
18:34 Conclusions
21:38 Outro