Conclusion: the myth of the “spirit of 1914” in German political culture, 1914–1945

Summary

The myth of the “spirit of 1914” was first articulated in articles in conservative newspapers on the enthusiastic crowds in the larger German cities on 25 July 1914. Conservative journalists claimed that these crowds spoke for public opinion, that in August 1914 all Germans felt “war enthusiasm,” that the enthusiasm was a spiritual experience which had transformed a materialistic, egotistical German “society” into an idealistic, fraternal, national German “community.” These were extraordinary articles, in part because the events were themselves extraordinary, in part because the conservative journalists’ interpretation of these events did not apprehend the historical reality, and in part because of the uses that would be made of these and similar interpretations of these events, of the myth of the “spirit of 1914,” over the course of the next thirty years.

Germans experienced the outbreak of the war as a moment of powerful intensity and sharpness. Some experienced it as a moment of great adventure such as few generations are given. In the words of one soldier: “for a moment my heart stood still. I feel that I am a witnessing an immensely powerful moment. This is a piece of history which is happening here.” Some Germans, especially German intellectuals, experienced the August days as a liminal experience, as a moment when individual and collective identities were transformed, as a miracle, a renewal of oneself, a liberation, a rebirth.