Defeat in the First World War, the War Guilt Clause and the difficult peace deal meted out in the Versailles Treaty in 1919 determined the political development of Germany in the 1920's and 1930's. The stab-in-the-back-myth became one of the most effective propaganda weapons against the Weimar Republic. Gerd Krumeich, well-known historian, writes from the viewpoint of contemporaries how the trauma of defeat led to a culture of hate.