This is very fascinating stuff, but would work better if it was under an English title, and the german used for a redirect. Is there a standard translation for this? "Legend of the stab in the back" looks like a home-made translation, and if my rusty german is correct, misses the "dagger" element.
Thank you! Glad it piqued your interest. In the literature I've read, it's usually just called the Dolchstosslegende as a matter of course and presented in translation only once. It's a pretty important term in Holocaust and Weimar studies, but the German term is the norm in my experience. What's the standard on here?
If there's a more exacting translation, though, I'd love to see it!
Thanks -- Dr.scientist
A rule -- to the extent that one can have rules in a wiki -- that's been crystallizing of late is "This is the English wikipedia". My take on it is to use an English term if it well-known in comparison to the word in the original language. For example, "Frederick the Great" instead of "Friedrich II", or "Bavaria" instead of "Bayern". But "Kristallnacht" is OK, because that's what an English speaker would generally call it too. Plus there are other issues that arise (for example, when to use Danzig or Gdansk).
If there's no reasonably common English translation of "Dolchstosslegende", then don't sweat it. I can't think of one, but then this is not a period I know well. -- Paul Drye
I did some digging and found that "Dolchstosslegende" is used more frequently in the literature, but the latest work that I had (Ian Kershaw's Hitler biography) used "stab-in-the-back legend" without introducing the German term. It is worth noting that, in doing so, he also didn't explain the term or put it in context, which implies that he assumed his readers would already know what he was on about. What say you all? Maybe add a redirect from
Stab-in-the-Back Legend?
Dr.scientist
Sounds good to me
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