The Dolchstosslegende

 NY Times: 1918 Germany Has a Warning for America -  Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” campaign recalls one of the most disastrous political lies of the 20th century. By Jochen Bittner

Its core claim was that Imperial Germany never lost World War I. Defeat, its proponents said, was declared but not warranted. It was a conspiracy, a con, a capitulation — a grave betrayal that forever stained the nation. That the claim was palpably false didn’t matter. Among a sizable number of Germans, it stirred resentment, humiliation and anger. And the one figure who knew best how to exploit their frustration was Adolf Hitler.