Step 1 : Introduction to the question "7. In Weimar Germany, the Nationalists (and some others) claimed that the country hadn't really been defeated in WWI but 'stabbed in the back'. What seemed to lend support to this claim?"
...1. All of these 2. In 1917 Germany had succeeded in defeating Russia 3. At the time of the armistice in November 1918 there was almost no fighting on German soil 4. The German Army returned home in good order in November-December 1918 When the first troops returned to Berlin, Friedrich Ebert (of all people) told them that they had 'not been beaten in the field'. In the English-speaking countries, it became conventional wisdom to blame the Treaty of Versailles for the Nazis' rise to power, but it's very hard to imagine any realistic peace treaty that would have satisfied people who were convinced they hadn't been defeated at all.
