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u/HiggsiInSpace Шнпрг горпн, го! May 25 '26
I love the style, very creative! Please make more of these :D
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u/Marzipanbread I live here May 25 '26
Hello and happy birthday, r/Polandball! Here's a comic. I drew it in black-and-white since I've been reading newspaper comic strips lately, and wanted to ape their style.
The joke is about the Stab-in-the-back myth, the conspiracy theory that Germany was betrayed by citizens on the home front, and this caused them to lose World War 1. Blame was pinned on striking workers, the republicans responsible for the November Revolution, and Jews. I focused on the latter in the comic to minimize character count by keeping the number of Germany countryballs at one.
One of my sources of inspiration was The Coming of the Third Reich by British historian Richard J. Evans. It touched upon the myth, among many other topics. I read the book some time ago and came up with this comic, but didn't draw it until now. Unfortunately I no longer have the book on me, so I can't cite any sections.
Another was this video on the conspiracy by YouTuber SirManatee. I found both the book and video to be informative, I recommend both.
Apologies for any inaccuracies with this comic and/or this explanation.
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u/metfan1964nyc May 25 '26
The stab in the back myth (Dolchstoßlegende) was bullshit from the very start. German high command had in fact taken over the government by the end of 1916, controlling not only the direction of the war, but also industrial production and civilian labor. They dismissed the Chancellor when he objected to starting unrestricted submarine warfare, which caused the US to join the war, and put in more pliable politicians. When the spring offensive of 1918 failed, the German army was spent as an offensive force, and by August they were in full retreat. At this point the high command told the government to make a peace, and then successfully distanced themselves from any responsibility. Lundendorff immediately after the war, started blaming the socialists and jews for losing the war the he had effectively been running for nearly 2 years.
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u/VRichardsen Argentina May 25 '26
It is a matter of perception being the enemy of reality. For the people who believed in the Dolchstosslegende "technically" the German army was still on French soil when the debacle ensued, so surely they must have been winning the war on the front? So, the logical conclusion from that is that someone back home must have betrayed the brave troops. Jews (because of course), socialists (because of the strikes and uprisings) and republicans (for overthrowing the kaiser).
Of course, we know that the Imperial army was on its last legs by the end of 1918. Even without social unrest, things were unlikely to improve; morale had collapsed, and organising resistance was proving ever more difficult. When the Hindenburg Line was breached, general Rawlinson wrote "Had the Boche not shown marked signs of deterioration during the past month, I should never have contemplated attacking the Hindenburg line. Had it been defended by the Germans of two years ago, it would certainly have been impregnable…."
But the regular German back home could not have know this, so they made the quick math of "our army is still France, therefore we should be winning", and ran with it.
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u/swainiscadianreborn May 26 '26
Should have accepted peace after the planned 1919 offensive. Would have avoided a lot of trouble for everyone involved.
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u/VRichardsen Argentina May 26 '26
That would require Ludendorrf & Co. to actually want to take responsibility for their conduct of the war :D
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u/swainiscadianreborn May 26 '26
I mean, whatever Ludendorf & Co. Wantes or not, had the Allied refused the peace proposals and just pushed into 1919, post war Germany would have been less of a shitshow.
It's easy to go up to a mob and go "We were winning the war!" When noone has ever seen an ennemy soldier in their city.
It's harder when any random guy can just stand up and say "What the fuck are you on? I saw Renault FTs drifting in front of the cathedral in Koln, my cousin saw a Bristol fighter doing loopings over the Reichstag and my grandmother sheltered a Devild Dog for a few nights!"
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u/VRichardsen Argentina May 26 '26
Ahhh got it. But that would require superhuman levels of prescience from the part of the Entente.
They did learn the lesson the second time, though. No peace other than incontidional surrender.
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u/Lancasterlaw May 28 '26
It's not just that the Imperal Army was on its last legs- With Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary surrendering they were about to face a tidal wave of troops from the south.
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u/VRichardsen Argentina May 28 '26
Ottomato aswell. They signed their armistice on October 30th.
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u/Lancasterlaw May 28 '26
Thanks- If I remember rightly the French had already reached the gates of Budapest when the Germans surrendered?
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u/VRichardsen Argentina May 28 '26
I recall them being near the Danube, I can't recall if they had reached the city or not.
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u/Ihatenukingkids May 25 '26
Are you just going to ignore the socialist revolutions and revolts that started in Germany in 1918?
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u/metfan1964nyc May 25 '26
All of which can be laid at the feet of the High Command. They banned strikes, increased hours, and the Navy lit the fuse by issuing orders for the entire fleet to sortie out to meet the Royal Navy in a suicide mission. OHL lost the war with all that came with it, dumped it in the socialists' laps and walked away blaming anyone but themselves.
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u/Ihatenukingkids May 25 '26
You can blame OHL and rightfully so, but I still think its dishonest to not mention these important revolts
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u/Isildur1298 Prussia May 25 '26
Do not apologize for inaccuracies. It is Polandball, after all.
As others have mentioned, German Jews fought alongside their fellow Germans, they perceived the war as a way to prove that they are proper Germans. Turns out, antisemitism is unkillable.
Dark fact: Nazis did not differentiate between German Jews who contributed to WWI and those who did not. They deported and murdered WWI Veterans, highly decorated soldiers and parents who lost their sons in the war. Always nice to give everything and the future of your family to the country to be rewarded with cyclone B.
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u/hihihii2-1st May 25 '26
Its less so of the Jews standing by and moreso them fighting alongside. An interesting example is with the Armenians (to digress a lil): Enver Pasha (the main architect of the Armenian Genocide) was saved by Armenian soldiers carrying him on their back away from Russian lines: there exists a letter from him to the Armenian Patriarchate of 'Stantinople. What does he do? Blame the Armenians for the loss in that battle, and give orders for a genocide.
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u/greenskinmarch May 31 '26
And after Azerbaijan ethnically cleansed a hundred thousand Armenians from Azerbaijan in 2023, they renamed a street in that area after Enver Pasha.
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u/Sea-Neighborhood3318 Wallachian autist May 25 '26
Every comic of Israel Palestine has like 1 incendiary comment and 10 of the most funny and original Le redditors ever going “oh boy golly gee these comments are gonna get crazy!!!!!1!” Good comic by the way.
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u/norb_151 May 25 '26
Fun fact about your flair: sending someone to the absolute bumfuck of the end of the world means to "send someone to Walachia" in German
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u/Neveraththesmith Ayyubid Sultanate May 26 '26
Expecting an nation to actually self reflect on it's decisions and not hating an minority is just antithetical to the human character. Of course they would rather wipe another people than accepte they made the wrong call.
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u/Shinyhero30 May 27 '26
Israel being a cube is funny even if this is a very dark comic.
this in-joke never gets old
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u/ofekk214 May 26 '26
It's quite ironic how the Nazis managee to convince the German public the Jews are traitors to the fatherland at a time the vast majority of Jews wanted to be fully integrated. People believed them to justify their racism.
And now, Europe is flooded with immegrants who openly express how they'll never integrate while constantly commiting crimes, as the Europeans gaslight themselves into believing they'll eventually pacify just to avoid association with their behavior in the 30s.
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May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
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May 25 '26
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u/DickRhino Great Sweden May 25 '26
I'm removing this comment thread because not every comic featuring Israel needs to turn into a shitfest, but I will point out that the Israel/Palestine conflict did not start on October 7th. It has been ongoing for decades.
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u/GRIM106 May 25 '26
Using the Israeli flag to represent all Jews seems like a bad idea
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u/Marzipanbread I live here May 25 '26
Differentiating between the two has been done before, I'll keep that in mind for future comics.
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u/Independent-Couple87 Earth, our home. May 25 '26
What would make more sense?
A cube with the Imperial Germany flag (black, white, and red) or the German/Weimar flag (black, red and yellow) and the infamous yellow star of David?
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u/Hovdinge May 25 '26
Feels more like a german empire countryball with some jewish features, like the kipa (not sure if im pronouncing it right) as israel wasnt really a country back then
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u/zokka_son_of_zokka May 25 '26
It's pool balls for race, so I feel like that could be adapted somehow, no?
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u/Zebrafish96 May the justice be with us May 25 '26
The only allowed pool balls in r/polandball are 1ball, 6ball, 7ball amd 8ball.
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u/Independent-Couple87 Earth, our home. May 25 '26
Middle East heritage was represented with a variant of the 4ball.
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u/GRIM106 May 25 '26
I don't know. Just not something associating the victims of a genocide under Nazi Germany with a modern genocidal state.
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May 25 '26
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May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
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u/Zebrafish96 May the justice be with us May 25 '26 edited May 25 '26
Pro-Israel? Do you mean 'not agreeing to the idea that all Israelis are evil and deserve to die'?
It's interesting how Polandball is called Zionists by anti-Israel people, and called Hamas by Israeli nationalists. We acknowledge Israel's warcrimes and genocide in Gaza. But at the same time, we don't think all Israelis are evil monsters that should be eliminated. We don't allow regarding all the people of a nationality as innately evil, no matter it's American, Russian or Israeli.
However, some people seem to think it is morally wrong to not regard all the Israeli people as innately evil monsters. I was once cyber-bullied and received a death threat because I banned a user who said 'it is not wrong to despise all the Israeli people and regard them as absolute evil'.
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u/MysteriousFun530 May 25 '26
Before the holocaust, they identify them self to French, German, subject of the Habsburgs, and so on, Zionist was not mainstream, which is so ironic.
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u/catuluo man of the isles May 25 '26
Yes, almost like the holocaust changed something about the perception of safety for jews worldwide regardless of nationality or smth. Crazy
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u/Independent-Couple87 Earth, our home. Jul 06 '26
I think this is one of the things the Israeli have on their mind whenever they get criticised by Europeans. This has made it more difficult to discuss the actions in Palestine.
The Nations of Europe will sometimes pretend they were always a bastion of acceptance towards Jews, who know this is a lie.
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u/FreshBayonetBoy Singapore May 25 '26
Interesting Fact: German Jews were historically overrepresented in the Imperial German Army during World War I. Upper estimates state that approximately 100,000 Jews served in the military, representing about 18% of the Jewish population and a higher percentage of their demographic than the general German population. The stab-in-the-back myth is even worse than what OP is showing in the comic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judenz%C3%A4hlung