World War One had a devastating impact on Germany. Throughout World War One, the people of Germany had been lead to believe by their government that they were winning the war. Government propaganda had been used to great effect. When the temporarily blinded Adolf Hitler had gone into hospital in 1918 (the result of a gas attack), he, along with many German soldiers, was convinced that Germany was not only winning the war but was in the process of putting together a major military assault on Allied lines. They refused to accept defeat and the terrible strains it put upon their nation. Germany could not afford to loose and in the rubble that was their nation various groups fought for power.