The Psychology of Sacrifice in a Nation Under Siege

When Germany entered World War I in 1914, it faced a coalition of nations with superior manpower and resources. This imbalance necessitated a unique psychological response—a collective embrace of sacrifice as both necessity and virtue. German intellectuals, clergy, and political leaders framed this willingness to endure hardship as a moral imperative. As one evangelical pastor declared on August 8, 1914—a day designated by the Kaiser as a “Day of Repentant Prayer for War”—Germany’s confidence in victory did not stem from military might alone, but from divine favor earned through self-denial.

Theologians like Paul Wurster of Tübingen reinforced this narrative after battlefield successes, interpreting victories like the recapture of Lviv in 1915 as divine validation. Wurster invoked Psalm 33:16 (“The warrior is not saved by his great strength”) to argue that Germany’s triumphs defied materialist logic. Such rhetoric positioned the war as a spiritual struggle against enemies who relied on numerical superiority rather than moral fortitude.

The Chosen People Complex: Germany as God’s Instrument

The sense of encirclement by hostile powers led many Germans to draw parallels with biblical Israel. Prominent theologians, including Samuel Eck of the University of Giessen, proclaimed Germany the modern “chosen people,” tasked with fulfilling God’s will through warfare. Eck’s sermons on Isaiah 7:9 (“If you do not stand firm in faith, you will not stand at all”) framed military successes as evidence of divine endorsement. This ideology, however, remained vague about Germany’s ultimate purpose beyond resisting enemies.

Sociologist Georg Simmel offered a secular counterpart to this theology. In his 1914 lecture Germany’s Inner Transformation, he argued that the war could purge Germany of Mammonismus—the worship of wealth that had corrupted the post-1871 economic boom. Simmel envisioned the conflict as a crucible for forging a “new humanity,” free from materialism. His ideas resonated with a nation eager to ascribe transcendent meaning to its suffering.

The Clash of Values: Heroism vs. Merchant Mentality

German intellectuals framed the war as a cultural showdown between Germanic “heroic values” and Anglo-French “mercantile values.” Philosopher Max Scheler’s The Genius of War (1915) condemned British capitalism as a corrosive force imposing foreign rules on Germany. He portrayed the war as a liberation struggle—not just against Britain, but against the capitalist ethos itself.

Economist Werner Sombart took this further in Merchants and Heroes (1915), polarizing the conflict as a battle between self-sacrificing German “heroes” and profit-driven British “merchants.” Sombart’s rhetoric celebrated wartime sacrifice as antidote to prewar decadence, echoing Nietzschean critiques of modernity. These arguments, while intellectually ambitious, often conflated Germany’s geopolitical struggles with metaphysical destiny.

Defending “German Spirit”: The Propaganda War

Allied propaganda, epitomized by French philosopher Henri Bergson’s 1914 speech The Meaning of the War, cast Germany as the barbaric antithesis of Western civilization. The invasion of Belgium and the destruction of cultural landmarks like Leuven’s library and Reims Cathedral fueled accusations of militaristic brutality.

German scholars retaliated with manifestos like the Declaration to the Cultural World (October 1914), signed by 93 intellectuals. They defiantly reclaimed “militarism” as a virtue, arguing that Germany’s military discipline was inseparable from its cultural greatness. Thomas Mann’s wartime essays epitomized this stance, celebrating Germany’s “inwardness” while dismissing Western democracy as superficial.

Yet these defenses often backfired. Neutral observers found German rhetoric strident and self-justifying. Attempts to deflect blame—such as highlighting Russian atrocities in East Prussia or French use of colonial troops—failed to counter the indelible image of the “Hun” cemented by Allied propaganda.

Legacy: The Unraveling of War Ideologies

Germany’s ideological constructs could not withstand military defeat. The war’s end exposed the fragility of narratives built on sacrifice and cultural superiority. Postwar disillusionment birthed the Dolchstoßlegende (stab-in-the-back myth), which blamed domestic betrayal rather than battlefield failures for the collapse.

The wartime rhetoric left a complex legacy. It revealed how nations under existential threat manufacture meaning through religion, philosophy, and nationalism. It also underscored the perils of intellectual complicity in state propaganda—a lesson echoing through later conflicts.

Ultimately, Germany’s World War I ideology was a mirror reflecting both its deepest fears and its most audacious aspirations. The gap between those ideals and reality would shape the turbulent decades to come.