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Dictatorship of the Supreme Military Command

  • During WWI the leaders of the German Supreme Military Command (OHL), Hindenberg and Ludendorff, held the most power in Germany, even more than the Kaiser himself. However they were generals not politicians.
  • They sacrificed everything for 'total military victory' and in 1918 when they realized it was hopeless, the option for peaceful negotiation with the allies was over.
  • The German people knew nothing accurate about how the war was going, just propaganda, so talks were conducted in secret between Hindenberg, Ludendorff and the Social Democrats, who were leading the revolution for democracy at the time, namely Frederick Ebert as well as representatives from the Catholic Church, namely Matthais Erzberger, who were urged to "do their patriotic duty by Hindenberg.
  • On November 9 1918 Germany was declared a Republic and three civilian representatives were sent to meet with the allies.
  • Thus the myth of the civilians 'stabbing the military in the back' was born. Notably Hindenberg and Ludendorff did nothing to correct this assumption.

The Homefront

Propaganda

  • Conditions on the German homefront were pretty terrible. The major issue was a severe food shortage that occurred partially due to the overtaxing of farmers to feed the army but also the Allied blockades which prevented the shipping of goods.
  • There was also a major labor shortage due to the mass conscriptions and to compensate women and youths were introduced into the workplace however they were often grossly underpaid and overworked, the women especially. This also lead to children leaving school earlier in order to contribute to the household.
  • In 1915 there were riots when the food shortage seemed to have reached it's peak.
  • The 'Turnip Winter' took place in the winter between 1916 and 1917 when due to a rainy autumn on half of the expected crops were yielded. Because of this many local governments handed out nothing but turnips.
  • After the Turnip Winter bread rations were once again reduced to the people's outrage in order to compensate for the conscription Hindenberg ordered in September of 1916
  • Throughout all this the German people were given very little more than propaganda about how the war was progressing.
  • During WWI there seemed to be a propaganda war going on between England and Germany with each country churning out propaganda through publishing houses and newspapers each trying to out do the other
  • Propaganda replaced news for the German people as most were kept completely in the dark about the how the war was truly going, and only given propaganda
  • Much of the German propaganda put the army and military leaders on a pedastel while also asking for support, such as the slogan 'coal is bread'.
  • Naturally there were also a good deal of posters dedicated to the destruction the enemy, namely the Allies.
  • One of the famous anti-American propaganda books Germany printed was The War Plotters on Wall Street.
  • Publishing houses were used extensively by Germany as well as England to publish propaganda laden books and pamphlets.

The Stab in the Back Myth

By: Alice Lee and Glenn Skidmore

Germany Revolution 1918

  • Started at the end of World War 1
  • German officers knew they were about to lose the war
  • Officers ask the kiesar, Wilhem II, for a peace agreement with America
  • Kiesar, in secret, told America that Germany would surrender ending the first World War
  • On the other hand, Wilhem told the Germany public to remain optimistic about the war, stabbing the public in the back
  • Communists in Berlin, and other big cities in Germany, started a revolution
  • German Generals turned to the Social Democrats to form a Republic which would still hold the old German tradition
  • New government allowed nation’s army officers, bureaucrats, judges, and teachers to keep their jobs
  • On November 9 the kaiser was exiled to the Netherlands and the Social Democrats declared Germany a republic

Weimar Republic

November Criminals

  • New German leaders met in Weimar Germany
  • Started to create a constitution the days following the armistice signing, ended in the winter
  • created a democracy
  • 3 branches of government, judicial, legislative, and executive
  • Judicial was appointed by , not voted by the people, other branches were voted by people
  • Germans voted for Reichstag party, not an individual. The party itself chose the indiviudal to
  • If party got 1% of votes, there was 1 representative from that party in the Reichstag
  • Party with majority in Reichstag chose the nation’s chancellor, or prime minister
  • In 14 years the Weimar Republic had 20 different types of government
  • 56 articles spelled out the “basic rights and obligations” of the German people
  • guaranteed freedom of speech and press, allowed women an equal say in government.
  • Before the end of World War 1, German officials told the public to remain optimistic about the war
  • However, the same officals were talking behind close doors to the United States saying Germany was going to surrender
  • When Germany lost the war the public was confused on how this could happen
  • German Admiral Ernst Vanselow, German Count Alfred von Oberndorff of the Foreign Ministry, German General Detlof von Winterfeldt signed the Armistice treaty
  • In the eyes of the German public, the men who signed the treaty were cowards and traitors who went against their country
  • After committing the cowardly act, the three General's were giving the name "November Criminals" who went against their country

WWI German Jews

  • As conditions decreased in quality during WWI anti-semitism increased, following the pattern of needing someone to blame.
  • During WWI there was a largely held view that Jews were shirking their duty, something supported by a study conducted that said that for every single Jew who died on the front three hundred non-Jewish Germans died.
  • In reality 100,000 German Jews enlisted in the army, which ended up being relatively few in relation to the army but only because they only made up 1% of the German people in the first place.
  • Later Hitler would tout this as deliberate avoidance of the frontlines
  • This anti-semitism didn't end after the war, in fact it increased especially with the advent of the stab in the back myth as many Social Democrat leaders, like Kurt Eisner and Rosa Luxemberg, were Jewish
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