War guilt lie

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The political battle term war guilt lie was coined in the Weimar Republic in order to portray as a lie the "sole war guilt" of the German Reich and its allies in the First World War as formulated in the Versailles Peace Treaty . At the same time, this was intended to fend off the allies' demands for reparations and to attack political opponents as their “fulfillment politicians” and “ November criminals”.

Weimar Republic

The German delegates already used the term at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 (January 18-21). He then became a propaganda figure for the political right-wing parties and media close to them in Germany. Above all, the NSDAP and the DNVP used it to deny any responsibility Germany had at the outbreak of the World War and thus to question the Weimar Constitution . The historical processing of the question of war guilt was largely omitted, as it was influenced by political guidelines and controlled by the state in all participating states.

Historical processing

It was only publications by the historian Fritz Fischer from 1959 onwards that set in motion a sustainable and differentiated research into the causes of the First World War in Germany , France and Great Britain .

Heinrich August Winkler sees an essential responsibility of the MSPD since 1914 for the success of the propaganda against the Versailles Treaty:

“Germany was primarily to blame for the outbreak of the First World War: This was already known to the Scheidemann government at the beginning of 1919 on the basis of German diplomatic files . But after four years of granting war loans , the majority social democracy shied away from publicly admitting that the war, contrary to their assertions, was not a German defensive struggle. The benefits from the repression of war guilt question drew the nationalist right: The war un blame legend, the twin sister of the stab was the breeding ground against the dictation of Versailles. ' "

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Heinrich August Winkler: "Germany before Hitler", in: Walter Pehle (Ed.): The historical place of National Socialism. Approximations. Fischer TB, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-596-24445-5 , p. 17.

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