On the one hand, an illustration from 1919 depicting the myth of the stab in the back which enormously influenced the German political scene between the two wars. On the other, a pro-Trump protester displays a "Stop the steal" campaign sign. Could there be a parallel between 1918 Germany and 2020 America? Germany's surrender in 2018, with its military virtually intact, and the subsequent retribution of the Versailles Treaty fueled the "stab in the back" myth that undermined the Weimar democratic experiment and fueled the rise of Nazism.
In a broadly similar way, the "stolen election" campaign, incessantly fueled by Trump and his supporters, can cause an irreparable tear in the American democratic fabric, one of the oldest and most solid democracies in the world.
Sadly, a poll informs us that 89 percent of Trump voters think the election was polluted by voter fraud and therefore the Biden administration was born under the banner of illegitimacy.
A frustration which, consolidating into anger, is able to strike a fatal blow to the heart of the democratic system and contributes to radicalizing American public opinion without remedy. Similarly, many Germans felt that the Weimar government had no legitimate basis after the 2018 backstabbing and Versailles sledgehammer.
Regarding this parallel between Germany 1918 and America 2020, we offer you an important contribution by the German scholar Jochen Bittner, published by the "New York Times". Enjoy the reading.
It may be that the Germans have a particular predisposition to panic over the specters of their history, and, at times, such scaremongering is excessive. Yet as you watch President Trump's "Stop the Steal" campaign unfold since Election Day, one can't help but draw parallels to one of the most ominous episodes in Germany's history.
A century ago, with the implosion of Imperial Germany, the powers that be who led the Germans into war refused to accept defeat. Their refusal to acknowledge reality produced the most powerful and disastrous political lie of the XNUMXth century, the Sweet legend, or the legend of the stab in the back.
THE LIE OF THE STAB IN THE BACK
According to this myth, Imperial Germany had never lost the First World War. Yes, surrender had been declared, but defeat on the field had never happened. It was a conspiracy, a swindle, a capitulation, an indelible betrayal that would forever stain the purity of the German nation.
That the statement was patently false didn't matter. It aroused resentment, humiliation and anger among a considerable number of Germans. And the figure who was best able to interpret this frustration was Adolf Hitler.
THE DOLCHSTOSSLEGENDE WARNING
Make no mistake: this is not about equating Trump to Hitler, which would be absurd. But the Sweet legend it's a warning. One can dismiss Trump's irrational “stolen election” claim as a laughable last episode of a Shakespearean comedy or a cynical attempt to raise the market value for his next-to-be TV character.
But it would be a grave mistake to indulge in this underestimation. Instead, Trump's campaign should be seen for what it is, a ploy to elevate the "stolen election" to the level of legend, in an attempt to bring polarization and social division to a scale America has never before. view.
THE REAL 1918 IN GERMANY
In 1918, Germany was on the road to defeat. The entry of the United States into the war the year before, and a string of successful counterattacks by Allied forces, had left the German forces demoralized. The sailors had gone on strike. They had no desire to sacrifice their lives in the desperate and falsely sacred mission of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the Prussian aristocrats and militarists who expressed the Supreme Command of the Army.
A starving population joined the strikes and calls for a republic became pressing. On November 9, 1918, Wilhelm abdicated, and two days later the army leaders signed the armistice. For many it was too much to bear: officers, career military men, royalists and right-wing politicians spread the myth that, but for the political and moral sabotage by the Social Democrats and the Jews, the German army would have finally triumphed.
IM FELDE UNBESIEGT
This lie has found diligent and willing supporters. “Im Felde unbesiegt” — undefeated on the battlefield — became the slogan with which soldiers returning from the front greeted each other. Newspapers and postcards showed German soldiers being stabbed in the back by evil figures carrying the red banner of Bolshevism or by crudely caricatured Jews.
With the Treaty of Versailles the following year, the myth was already well established among the Germans. The harsh conditions imposed by the Allies, including the absurd reparations, fueled the sense of betrayal.
It was particularly searing to see that Germany had, in just a couple of years, gone from one of the most powerful nations in the world to one of the most miserable.
THE PERSISTENCE OF THE MYTH
The amazing look of the Sweet legend is this: not only did it not subside after 1918, but it grew louder and more deafening. Faced with humiliation, inability or unwillingness to face the truth, many Germans allowed themselves to be enveloped in a disastrous illusion: the nation had been betrayed, but its honor and greatness could not be lost in this machination.
And those who had taken over the reins of the country - the left and even the elected government of the new Weimar republic - could not be recognized as the legitimate guardians of Germany's interests.
In this way, the myth was the wedge that separated the citizens from the Weimar Republic. But it was also at the center of Nazi propaganda and instrumental in justifying violence against opponents.
The key to Hitler's success was that, by 1933, a sizable portion of the German electorate had placed the ideas embodied in myth—honour, greatness, national pride—above democracy itself.
THE ASPIRATION FOR STRONG LEADING
The Germans were so exhausted by the lost war, by unemployment and by international humiliation that they were hypnotized by the promises of a "Führer", who promised to punish anyone guilty of treachery, as were the left and especially the Jews.
The myth of the stab in the back was central to all of this. When Hitler became chancellor on January 30, 1933, the Nazi newspaper "Völkischer Beobachter" wrote of the "uncontainable joy of millions who had fought so long to undo the shame of November 9, 1918."
Germany's first democratic experience fell apart. Without a basic consensus built on a shared reality, society split into groups of fervent and uncompromising opposing sects. And in an atmosphere of distrust and paranoia, the idea that opponents were a threat to the nation took hold.
IN THE UNITED STATES
Alarming! This appears to be what is happening in the United States today. According to the Pew Research Center, 89 percent of Trump supporters believe a Joe Biden presidency would do "lasting damage to the United States," while 90 percent of Biden supporters think the opposite.
While the question of which news outlets to trust has long divided American public opinion, Twitter is now also seen as biased. Since the election, millions of Trump supporters have installed Parler, the popular alternative social media app. Filter bubbles are turning into filter nets.
In such a landscape of social fragmentation, Trump's unfounded accusations of electoral fraud could do serious damage to democracy. A staggering 89 percent of Trump voters believe the election result is illegitimate, according to a poll by YouGov (which confirms that by the Pew Center). The myth of betrayal and stolen victory is deeply rooted in American society.
It took another war and decades of historical review for the Sweet legend was branded a disastrous, fatal and senseless lie. If it still has any value today, it is in the lesson it can teach other nations. The first of them: be careful going down this road.
Jochen Bittner he has been a columnist for the “International New York Times” since the autumn of 2013. Since 2001 he has been the political editor of the German weekly “Die Zeit”. From 2007 to 2011 he was also a correspondent in Brussels on topics relating to Europe and NATO. He also collaborated with the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung" and "Die Welt".
Bittner holds a PHD in philosophy of law from the University of Kiel, where he also taught constitutional law. He is the author of three books The IRA on Its Way From Myth to Mafia, Profession: Terrorist: A Diary of the New World Disorder e Not This Way, Europe!.
Lives in Hamburg, Germany.
Source: The New York Times, 1918 Germany Has a Warning for America, November 30 2020.
I would really like to know the truth this article is too biased it doesn't convince me at all.