The Spirit of 1914 refers to the alleged jubilation in Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 at the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Many individuals remembered that euphoria erupted on 4 August 1914 after all the political parties in the Reichstag, including the previously antimilitarist Social Democratic Party of Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 (SPD), supported the war credits in a unanimous vote, later referred to as the Burgfrieden

Burgfrieden

Burgfrieden—literally "fortress peace" or "castle peace" but more accurately "party truce"—is a German term used for the political truce the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the other political parties agreed to during World War I...

 (literally fortress peace, but more accurately party truce). Many, particularly those in the middle class, believed Germany had ended its decades of bitter domestic political conflict. The string of military victories in the following weeks, which demonstrated what Germany could accomplish when unified and suggested that the war would be short, reinforced the ebullience. Many on the political right accordingly believed, and continued to believe into the Nazi era, that these first weeks of the war were Germany's finest hour, the German equivalent to 1789 in France

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

. Until the 1990s, most historians took the memory of the Spirit of 1914 at face value and claimed that the enthusiasm in August 1914 was universal.

The reality was more complex. There was widespread apprehension when Germany declared war on 1 August 1914 and civilians watched their loved ones march off to battle in the following weeks. Middle-class nationalists were the most enthusiastic and published countless tracts and editorials hailing the new political unity. An estimated one million war poems were sent to German newspapers in August 1914 alone. Dissent was smothered by this overabundance of literature cheering the war, the promise not to violate the Burgfrieden, and fear of undermining support for loved ones on the front. It accordingly appeared that the Spirit of 1914 was universal. The memory of Spirit of August 1914 persisted, even when the actual support for the war waned with the horrifying casualties on the front and the terrible hunger on the home front caused by the British blockade of Germany

Blockade of Germany

The Blockade of Germany, or the Blockade of Europe, occurred from 1914-1919 and was a prolonged naval operation conducted by the Allied Powers during and after World War I in an effort to restrict the maritime supply of raw materials and foodstuffs to the Central Powers, which included Germany,...

.

During the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

 the popular perception that Germany had been stabbed in the back

Dolchstosslegende

The stab-in-the-back legend is the notion, widely believed in right-wing circles in Germany after 1918, that the German Army did not lose World War I but was instead betrayed by the civilians on the home front, especially the republicans who overthrew the monarchy...

 rendered the public vulnerable to the Nazis, who embraced the language of the Spirit of 1914 in their aim of seizing power throughout Germany.