![]() ![]() Germany had to disarm, hand over territory, and pay steep reparations to the victorious powers, essentially footing the bill for the most expensive war ever fought. They rejected what they saw as the hypocrisy of the Allied powers, who claimed to be fighting for the high ideal of “making the world safe for democracy,” but seemed more interested in a good old-fashioned punitive peace. Drawn up by the Allies and forced on Germany without negotiation or possibility of amendment, the pact outraged most Germans. Indeed, one political rabble-rouser, a veteran soldier returned from the front and eager to avenge the defeat, rode that very slogan to political power. They weren’t defeated, many Germans argued, but betrayed, “stabbed in the back.”Įlection poster of the Deutschnationalen Volkspartei (the German National People's Party) in 1924 with the trope of the German soldier being “stabbed in the back.” Here, the poster for the conservative party depicts the “November criminal” (see the mask) as a socialist (he is wearing red). In fact, many Germans focused their anger for the defeat not on the Allies, but on revolutionary groups on the home front who had overthrown the emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, at war’s end. In modern parlance, the Allies didn’t put “boots on the ground” to teach the Germans the error of their militarist ways. Years of Allied blockade had weakened the German economy and led to near-starvation conditions among the civilian population, but there never was a climactic “battle for Germany” that saw the Allies drive deep into the Reich. When the armistice ended the fighting on November 11, 1918, German troops still stood everywhere on enemy soil: in Belgium, France, and Russia. ![]() ![]() Although the country lost World War I, many Germans refused to accept defeat. Twenty years later, in 1939, Foch looked like a prophet.īut why? Why did World War I lead, with seeming inevitability, to World War II? From left to right: Major Wilhelm Oxenius (Colonel General Jodl's Adjutant), Colonel General Alfred Jodl, Chief of OKW Operation Staff (who signed the Instrument of Surrender on behalf of the OKW), General admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg, Commander-in-Chief of the German navy (OKM), Major General Kenneth W. ![]() Signing of the German surrender in Reims, American Headquarters. Perusing the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war in June 1919, he stood up from the table and declared that it wasn’t a peace at all, but a mere “twenty year’s armistice.” One wise observer, Marshal Ferdinand Foch of the French army, got it just right. The Great War was supposed to be the “war to end all wars,” but it didn’t come close. Defeated Germany soon recovered its strength and became even more aggressive, neighboring powers grew even more fearful, and it wasn’t long before they were all fighting again. The whole world suffered, and in the end, winners and losers weren’t all that easy to tell apart. The fighting stretched on for years and killed millions. A war had just ended, one so immense that people at the time labeled it the “Great War.” Fought to solve a specific problem-an overly aggressive Germany-the conflict took on a life of its own. Just be sure you know what you’re doing, or you might find yourself swimming for your life-or on fire. Maybe it’s a leaky pipe or a faulty light switch. Everyone’s been there: something breaks at home, you try to play handyman and fix it, but you only make it worse. ![]()
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