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Angst, hoop en het concept autosuggestie gedurende de Duitse Revolutie van 1918-1919

Samenvatting

In this article the author discusses the role of autosuggestion in the German Revolution of 1918-1919. The theory, famously used by Georges Lefebvres in his work on the French Revolution and more recently by Mark Jones in his work on the German Revolution of 1919, can give historians an explanation as to why certain events escalate beyond the control of the main actors. Jones explains autosuggestion as the explanation of how self-generated beliefs allowed historical actors to truly and firmly believe that particular events were happening when they in fact were not. Both sides severely overestimated the strength of the Spartacists during the rebellion, causing the Spartacists themselves to overreach and the German Provisional Government to overreact.