German generals try to shift the blame to democratic politicians
As the military situation had become hopeless for Germany, the Supreme Army Command (OHL) moved in early autumn 1918 to demand that a new democratic government be convened to conclude an armistice with the Western powers. The new Chancellor Max von Baden sent a delegation led by Matthias Erzberger – a member of the Catholic Centre Party – to negotiate the armistice. The terms presented to the German delegation were punitive: Germany would have to hand over vast quantities of military equipment, locomotives and railway carriages, and agree to the occupation of all German territory west of the Rhine. Whilst these terms were being presented, revolution broke out in Germany, and both the new Social Democratic government and the OHL instructed Erzberger to accept the terms.
The signature of swingeing peace terms by a democratic German government was all part of a plan hatched by the German military to shift responsibility for the defeat onto the democratic proponents of a negotiated peace. Although the German army barely functioned in late 1918 and was on the verge of collapse, its generals were later able to claim that the army had remained “undefeated in the field” and had been robbed of victory by its own politicians. In essence, they had been “stabbed in the back”. This lie later fuelled the right-wing attack on the Weimar Republic, which was accused of being the product of the perfidy of the “November criminals”.
About the Deutschlandmuseum
An immersive and innovative interactive museum covering 2,000 years of German history
The whole year at a glance
