Spirit of 1914

The Spirit of 1914 (German: Geist von 1914; or, more frequently, Augusterlebnis, lit. 'August Experience') was the name given to the feeling of euphoria that affected parts of the German population at the start of World War I. For many decades after the war, the enthusiasm was portrayed as nearly universal, but studies since the 1970s have shown that it was more limited. It was experienced primarily by the educated upper and middle classes in the large cities who saw it as exciting, a chance to reshape lives and to lift Germany to its proper role as a great world power. The urban working class and rural Germans, however, took little part in the jubilation. They looked at the war sceptically and as a matter of duty.

The government portrayed the war to the people as purely defensive and likely to be short, lasting perhaps only a few months. When the German military failed to achieve the quick victory everyone expected, the euphoria faded into a grim determination. The memory of the August experience was nevertheless regularly recalled after Germany's defeat, in part by the politicians of the Left who wanted to justify their support for the war.