ABSTRACT
The German defeat in November 1918 was total. The country was demoralised and exhausted, with at least one-and-a-half million dead and another four million wounded. It was also guilty, blamed for starting the war and having to bear the cost through the humiliating settlement at Versailles. All combatant countries had suffered; but others-albeit for a short time only-had the comforts of victory. ‘A war ends in rags and dust’, says Anton Gill.1 There is no better description for Germany in November 1918.
