ABSTRACT
This paper is focused on the political debates and the German imaginary concerning the peace movement and the major German strikes in 1917 and 1918, reflecting about the transformation of its political significance in the immediate postwar period, particularly in conservative circles. These events turn into triggers for a paranoid wave that dominated German politics in the following years, enabling the rise of conservative and extremist groups, the Nazi Party among them. The article is divided in three parts: (1) a brief overview of the concept of paranoia; (2) some considerations about the relation between paranoia and conspiracy theory in the imaginary and in the conservative social spaces; (3) an empirical analysis of the myth of the “stab in the back”, the great conspiratorial narrative of the period, considering its influences in the spreading of anti-Semitism and hatred against the “internal enemies”, an essential feature of the national-socialist discursive strategy.
Keywords:
paranoia; Conspiracy Theory; Nazism