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Stab-in-the-back myth

The stab-in-the-back myth (Dolchstoßlegende,, lit. 'dagger-stab legend') was an antisemitic conspiracy theory that was widely believed and promulgated in Germany after 1918. It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield, but was instead betrayed by certain citizens on the home front – especially Jews, revolutionary socialists who fomented strikes and labour unrest, and republican politicians who had overthrown the House of Hohenzollern in the German Revolution of 1918–1919. Advocates of the myth denounced the German government leaders who had signed the Armistice of 11 November 1918 as the "November criminals" (Novemberverbrecher).

When Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power in 1933, they made the conspiracy theory an integral part of their official history of the 1920s, portraying the Weimar Republic as the work of the "November criminals" who had "stabbed the nation in the back" in order to seize power. Nazi propaganda depicted Weimar Germany as "a morass of corruption, degeneracy, national humiliation, ruthless persecution of the honest 'national opposition' – fourteen years of rule by Jews, Marxists, and 'cultural Bolsheviks', who had at last been swept away by the National Socialist movement under Hitler and the victory of the 'national revolution' of 1933".

Historians inside and outside of Germany, whilst recognising that economic and morale collapse on the home front was a factor in German defeat, unanimously reject the myth. Historians and military theorists point to lack of further Imperial German Army reserves, the danger of invasion from the south, the overwhelming of German forces on the western front by more numerous Allied forces particularly after the entrance of the United States into the war, as evidence that Germany had already lost the war militarily by late 1918.

Background
In the later part of World War I, the Supreme High Command (Oberste Heeresleitung, OHL) controlled not only the military but also a large part of the economy through the Auxiliary Services Act of December 1916, which under the Hindenburg Programme aimed at a total mobilisation of the economy for war production. In order to implement the Act, however, Generalfeldmarschall Paul von Hindenburg and his Chief-of-Staff, First Quartermaster General Erich Ludendorff had to make significant concessions to labour unions and the Reichstag. Hindenburg and Ludendorff threatened to resign in July 1917 if the Emperor did not remove Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg. He had lost his usefulness to them when he lost the confidence of the Reichstag after it passed the Reichstag Peace Resolution calling for a negotiated peace without annexations. Bethmann Hollweg resigned and was replaced by Georg Michaelis, whose appointment was supported by the OHL. After only 100 days in office, however, he became the first chancellor to be ousted by the Reichstag.

After years of fighting and having incurred millions of casualties, Britain and France were wary about an invasion of Germany with its unknown consequences. However the Allies had been amply resupplied by the United States, which had fresh armies ready for combat. On the Western Front, although the Hindenburg Line had been penetrated and German forces were in retreat, the Allied armies not only crossed the 1914 German frontier in a few places in Alsace-Lorraine (see below map). Meanwhile on the Eastern Front, Germany had already won its war against Russia, concluded with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In the West, Germany had successes with the Spring Offensive of 1918 but the attack had run out of momentum, the Allies had regrouped and in the Hundred Days Offensive retaken lost ground with no sign of stopping. Contributing to the Dolchstoßlegende, the overall failure of the German offensive was blamed on strikes in the arms industry at a critical moment, leaving soldiers without an adequate supply of materiel. The strikes were seen as having been instigated by treasonous elements, with the Jews taking most of the blame.

The weakness of Germany's strategic position was exacerbated by the rapid collapse of the other Central Powers in late 1918, following Allied victories on the Macedonian and Italian fronts. Bulgaria was the first to sign an armistice on 29 September 1918, at Salonica. On 30 October the Ottoman Empire capitulated at Mudros. On 3 November Austria-Hungary sent a flag of truce to the Italian Army to ask for an armistice. The terms, arranged by telegraph with the Allied Authorities in Paris, were communicated to the Austro-Hungarian commander and accepted. The armistice with Austria-Hungary was signed in the Villa Giusti, near Padua, on 3 November. Austria and Hungary signed separate treaties following the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Importantly the Austro-Hungarian capitulation left Germany's southern frontier under threat of Allied invasion from Austria. Indeed, on 4 November the Allies decided to prepare an advance across the Alps by three armies towards Munich from Austria territory within five weeks.

After the last German offensive on the Western Front failed in 1918, Hindenburg and Ludendorff admitted that the war effort was doomed, and they pressed Kaiser Wilhelm II for an armistice to be negotiated, and for a rapid change to a civilian government in Germany. They began to take steps to deflect the blame for losing the war from themselves and the German Army to others. Ludendorff said to his staff on 1 October:

"I have ... asked His Majesty to include in the government those circles who are largely responsible for things having developed as they have. We will now see these gentlemen move into the ministries. Let them be the ones to sign the peace treaty that must now be negotiated. Let them eat the soup that they have cooked for us!"

In this way, Ludendorff was setting up the republican politicians – many of them Socialists – who would be brought into the government, and would become the parties that negotiated the armistice with the Allies, as the scapegoats to take the blame for losing the war, instead of himself and Hindenburg. Normally, during wartime an armistice is negotiated between the military commanders of the hostile forces, but Hindenburg and Ludendorff had instead handed this task to the new civilian government. The attitude of the military was "[T]he parties of the left have to take on the odium of this peace. The storm of anger will then turn against them," after which the military could step in again to ensure that things would once again be run "in the old way".

On 5 October, the German Chancellor, Prince Maximilian of Baden, contacted U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, indicating that Germany was willing to accept his Fourteen Points as a basis for discussions. Wilson's response insisted that Germany institute parliamentary democracy, give up the territory it had gained to that point in the war, and significantly disarm, including giving up the German High Seas Fleet. On 26 October, Ludendorff was dismissed from his post by the Emperor and replaced by Lieutenant General Wilhelm Groener, who started to prepare the withdrawal and demobilisation of the army.

On 11 November 1918, the representatives of the newly formed Weimar Republic – created after the Revolution of 1918–1919 forced the abdication of the Kaiser – signed the armistice that ended hostilities. The military commanders had arranged it so that they would not be blamed for suing for peace, but the republican politicians associated with the armistice would: the signature on the armistice document was of Matthias Erzberger, who was later murdered for his alleged treason.

Given that the heavily censored German press had carried nothing but news of victories throughout the war, and that Germany itself was unoccupied while occupying a great deal of foreign territory, it was no wonder that the German public was mystified by the request for an armistice, especially as they did not know that their military leaders had asked for it, nor did they know that the German Army had been in full retreat after their last offensive had failed.

Thus the conditions were set for the "stab-in-the-back myth", in which Hindenburg and Ludendorff were held to be blameless, the German Army was seen as undefeated on the battlefield, and the republican politicians – especially the Socialists – were accused of betraying Germany. Further blame was laid at their feet after they signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, which led to territorial losses and serious financial pain for the shaky new republic, including a crippling schedule of reparation payments.

Conservatives, nationalists, and ex-military leaders began to speak critically about the peace and Weimar politicians, socialists, communists, and Jews. Even Catholics were viewed with suspicion by some due to supposed fealty to the Pope and their presumed lack of national loyalty and patriotism. It was claimed that these groups had not sufficiently supported the war and had played a role in selling out Germany to its enemies. These November Criminals, or those who seemed to benefit from the newly formed Weimar Republic, were seen to have "stabbed them in the back" on the home front, by either criticising German nationalism, instigating unrest and mounting strikes in the critical military industries, or by profiteering. These actions were believed to have deprived Germany of almost certain victory at the eleventh hour.

Contemporary
When consulted on terms for an armistice in October 1918, Douglas Haig, commander of the British and Commonwealth forces on the western front, stated that "Germany is not broken in the military sense. During the last weeks her forces have withdrawn fighting very bravely and in excellent order". Ferdinand Foch, Supreme Allied Commander, agreed with this assessment, stating that "the German army could undoubtedly take up a new position, and we could not prevent it". When asked about how long he believed it would take for German forces to be pushed across the Rhine, Foch responded "Maybe three, maybe four or five months, who knows?".

In private correspondence Haig was more sanguine. In a mid-October letter to his wife he stated that "I think we have their army beaten now". Haig noted in his diary for 11 November 1918 that the German army was in "very bad" condition due to insubordination and indiscipline in the ranks.

British army intelligence in October 1918 assessed the German reserves as being very limited, with only 20 divisions for the whole western front of which only five were rated as "fresh". However, they also highlighted that the German Class of 1920 (i.e., the class of young men due to be conscripted in 1920 under normal circumstances, but called up early) was being held back as an additional reserve and would be absorbed into German divisions in the winter of 1918 if the war continued. Aerial reconnaissance also highlighted the lack of any prepared fortified positions beyond the Hindenburg line. A report from the retired German general Montgelas, who had previously contacted British intelligence to discuss peace overtures, stated that "The military situation is desperate, if not hopeless, but it is nothing compared to the interior condition due to the rapid spread of Bolshevism.".

Post-war
Writing in 1930, the British military theorist Basil Liddell Hart wrote that: "The German acceptance of these severe terms [i.e., the Armistice terms] was hastened less by the existing situation on the western front than by the collapse of the 'home front,' coupled to exposure to a new thrust in the rear through Austria." Analysing the role that developments on the western front had played in the German decision to capitulate, Hart emphasised particularly the importance of new military threats to Germany that they were ill-equipped to meet, alongside developments within Germany, stating that: "More truly significant was the decision on November 4, after Austria’s surrender, to prepare a concentric advance on Munich by three Allied armies, which would be assembled on the Austro-German frontier within five weeks. In addition Trenchard’s Independent Air Force was about to bomb Berlin: on a scale hitherto unattempted in air warfare. And the number of American troops in Europe had now risen to 2,085,000, and the number of divisions to forty-two, of which thirty-two were ready for battle."

German historian Imanuel Geiss also emphasised the importance of the Austro-Hungarian collapse, alongside internal factors affecting Germany, in the final decision by Germany to make peace: "Whatever doubts may have lingered in German minds about the necessity of laying down arms they were definitely destroyed by events inside and outside Germany. On 27th October Emperor Karl threw up the sponge [...] Germany lay practically open to invasion through Bohemia and Tyrol into Silesia, Saxony, and Bavaria. To wage war on foreign soil was one thing, to have the destructions of modern warfare on German soil was another."

Geiss further linked this threat to Germany's borders with the fact that the German revolutionary movement emerged first in the lands that were most threatened by the new invasion threat – Bavaria and Saxony. In Geiss's account, this led to the two competing movements for peace – one "from above" of establishment figures that wished to use the peace to preserve the status quo, and one "from below" that wished to use the peace to establish a socialist, democratic state.

Naval historian and first world war Royal Navy veteran Captain S.W. Roskill assessed the situation at sea as follows: "There is no doubt at all that in 1918 Allied anti-submarine forces inflicted a heavy defeat on the U-boats ... the so-called 'stab in the back' by the civil population's collapse is a fiction of German militaristic imagination" Although Roskill also balanced this by saying that what he characterised as "the triumph of unarmed forces" (i.e., pressure from the German civilian population for peace under the influence of the Allied blockade) was a factor in Allied victory alongside that of armed forces including naval, land, and air forces.

Development of the myth
According to historian Richard Steigmann-Gall, the stab-in-the-back concept can be traced back to a sermon preached on 3 February 1918, by Protestant Court Chaplain Bruno Doehring, nine months before the war had even ended. German scholar Boris Barth, in contrast to Steigmann-Gall, implies that Doehring did not actually use the term, but spoke only of 'betrayal'. Barth traces the first documented use to a centrist political meeting in the Munich Löwenbräukeller on 2 November 1918, in which Ernst Müller-Meiningen, a member of the Progressive People's Party in the Reichstag, used the term to exhort his listeners to keep fighting:

"As long as the front holds, we damned well have the duty to hold out in the homeland. We would have to be ashamed of ourselves in front of our children and grandchildren if we attacked the battle front from the rear and gave it a dagger-stab (wenn wir der Front in den Rücken fielen und ihr den Dolchstoß versetzten)."

However, the widespread dissemination and acceptance of the "stab-in-the-back" myth came about through its use by Germany's highest military echelon. In Spring 1919, Max Bauer – an army colonel who had been the primary adviser to Ludendorff on politics and economics – published Could We Have Avoided, Won, or Broken Off the War?, in which he wrote that "[The war] was lost only and exclusively through the failure of the homeland." The birth of the specific term "stab-in-the-back" itself can possibly be dated to the autumn of 1919, when Ludendorff was dining with the head of the British Military Mission in Berlin, British general Sir Neill Malcolm. Malcolm asked Ludendorff why he thought Germany lost the war. Ludendorff replied with his list of excuses, including that the home front failed the army.

"Malcolm asked him: 'Do you mean, General, that you were stabbed in the back?' Ludendorff's eyes lit up and he leapt upon the phrase like a dog on a bone. 'Stabbed in the back?' he repeated. 'Yes, that's it, exactly, we were stabbed in the back'. And thus was born a legend which has never entirely perished."

The phrase was to Ludendorff's liking, and he let it be known among the general staff that this was the "official" version, which led to it being spread throughout German society. It was picked up by right-wing political factions, and was even used by Kaiser Wilhelm II in the memoirs he wrote in the 1920s. Right-wing groups used it as a form of attack against the early Weimar Republic government, led by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which had come to power with the abdication of the Kaiser. However, even the SPD had a part in furthering the myth when Reichspräsident Friedrich Ebert, the party leader, told troops returning to Berlin on 10 November 1918 that "No enemy has vanquished you," (kein Feind hat euch überwunden!) and "they returned undefeated from the battlefield" (sie sind vom Schlachtfeld unbesiegt zurückgekehrt). The latter quote was shortened to im Felde unbesiegt (undefeated on the battlefield) as a semi-official slogan of the Reichswehr. Ebert had meant these sayings as a tribute to the German soldier, but it only contributed to the prevailing feeling.

Further "proof" of the myth's validity was found in British general Frederick Barton Maurice's book The Last Four Months, published in 1919. German reviews of the book misrepresented it as proving that the German Army had been betrayed on the home front by being "dagger-stabbed from behind by the civilian populace" (von der Zivilbevölkerung von hinten erdolcht), an interpretation that Maurice disavowed in the German press, to no effect. According to William L. Shirer, Ludendorff used the reviews of the book to convince Hindenburg about the validity of the myth.

On 18 November 1919, Ludendorff and Hindenburg appeared before the Committee of Inquiry into Guilt for World War I (Untersuchungsausschuss für Schuldfragen des Weltkrieges) of the newly elected Weimar National Assembly, which was investigating the causes of the war and Germany's defeat. The two generals appeared in civilian clothing, explaining publicly that to wear their uniforms would show too much respect to the commission. Hindenburg refused to answer questions from the chairman, and instead read a statement that had been written by Ludendorff. In his testimony he cited what Maurice was purported to have written, which provided his testimony's most memorable part. Hindenburg declared at the end of his – or Ludendorff's – speech: "As an English general has very truly said, the German Army was 'stabbed in the back'".

Furthering, the specifics of the stab-in-the-back myth are mentioned briefly by Kaiser Wilhelm II in his memoir:"I immediately summoned Field Marshal von Hindenburg and the Quartermaster General, General Groener. General Groener again announced that the army could fight no longer and wished rest above all else, and that, therefore, any sort of armistice must be unconditionally accepted; that the armistice must be concluded as soon as possible, since the army had supplies for only six to eight days more and was cut off from all further supplies by the rebels, who had occupied all the supply storehouses and Rhine bridges; that, for some unexplained reason, the armistice commission sent to France–consisting of Erzberger, Ambassador Count Oberndorff, and General von Winterfeldt–which had crossed the French lines two evenings before, had sent no report as to the nature of the conditions."Hindenburg, Chief of the German General Staff at the time of the Ludendorff Offensive, also mentioned this event in a statement explaining the Kaiser’s abdication:"The conclusion of the armistice was directly impending. At moment of the highest military tension revolution broke out in Germany, the insurgents seized the Rhine bridges, important arsenals, and traffic centres in the rear of the army, thereby endangering the supply of ammunition and provisions, while the supplies in the hands of the troops were only enough to last for a few days. The troops on the lines of communication and the reserves disbanded themselves, and unfavourable reports arrived concerning the reliability of the field army proper."It was particularly this testimony of Hindenburg that led to the widespread acceptance of the Dolchstoßlegende in post-World War I Germany.

Antisemitic aspects
The antisemitic instincts of the German Army were revealed well before the stab-in-the-back myth became the military's excuse for losing the war. In October 1916, in the middle of the war, the army ordered a Jewish census of the troops, with the intent to show that Jews were under-represented in the Heer (army), and that they were over-represented in non-fighting positions. Instead, the census showed just the opposite, that Jews were over-represented both in the army as a whole and in fighting positions at the front. The Imperial German Army then suppressed the results of the census.

Charges of a Jewish conspiratorial element in Germany's defeat drew heavily upon figures such as Kurt Eisner, a Berlin-born German Jew who lived in Munich. He had written about the illegal nature of the war from 1916 onward, and he also had a large hand in the Munich revolution until he was assassinated in February 1919. The Weimar Republic under Friedrich Ebert violently suppressed workers' uprisings with the help of Gustav Noske and Reichswehr general Wilhelm Groener, and tolerated the paramilitary Freikorps forming all across Germany. In spite of such tolerance, the Republic's legitimacy was constantly attacked with claims such as the stab-in-the-back. Many of its representatives such as Matthias Erzberger and Walther Rathenau were assassinated, and the leaders were branded as "criminals" and Jews by the right-wing press dominated by Alfred Hugenberg.

Anti-Jewish sentiment was intensified by the Bavarian Soviet Republic (6 April – 3 May 1919), a communist government which briefly ruled the city of Munich before being crushed by the Freikorps. Many of the Bavarian Soviet Republic's leaders were Jewish, allowing antisemitic propagandists to connect Jews with communism, and thus treason.

In 1919, Deutschvölkischer Schutz und Trutzbund (German Nationalist Protection and Defiance Federation) leader Alfred Roth, writing under the pseudonym "Otto Arnim", published the book The Jew in the Army which he said was based on evidence gathered during his participation on the Judenzählung, a military census which had in fact shown that German Jews had served in the front lines proportionately to their numbers. Roth's work claimed that most Jews involved in the war were only taking part as profiteers and spies, while he also blamed Jewish officers for fostering a defeatist mentality which impacted negatively on their soldiers. As such, the book offered one of the earliest published versions of the stab-in-the-back legend.

A version of the stab-in-the-back myth was publicised in 1922 by the anti-Semitic Nazi theorist Alfred Rosenberg in his primary contribution to Nazi theory on Zionism, Der Staatsfeindliche Zionismus (Zionism, the Enemy of the State). Rosenberg accused German Zionists of working for a German defeat and supporting Britain and the implementation of the Balfour Declaration.

Aftermath
The Dolchstoß was a central image in propaganda produced by the many right-wing and traditionally conservative political parties that sprang up in the early days of the Weimar Republic, including Adolf Hitler's Nazi Party. For Hitler himself, this explanatory model for World War I was of crucial personal importance. He had learned of Germany's defeat while being treated for temporary blindness following a gas attack on the front. In Mein Kampf, he described a vision at this time which drove him to enter politics. Throughout his career, he railed against the "November criminals" of 1918, who had stabbed the German Army in the back.

German historian Friedrich Meinecke attempted to trace the roots of the expression "stab-in-the-back" in a 11 June 1922 article in the Viennese newspaper Neue Freie Presse. In the 1924 national election, the Munich cultural journal Süddeutsche Monatshefte published a series of articles blaming the SPD and trade unions for Germany's defeat in World War I, which came out during the trial of Hitler and Ludendorff for high treason following the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The editor of an SPD newspaper sued the journal for defamation, giving rise to what is known as the Munich Dolchstoßprozess from 19 October to 20 November 1925. Many prominent figures testified in that trial, including members of the parliamentary committee investigating the reasons for the defeat, so some of its results were made public long before the publication of the committee report in 1928.

World War II
The Allied policy of unconditional surrender was devised in 1943 in part to avoid a repetition of the stab-in-the-back myth. According to historian John Wheeler-Bennett, speaking from the British perspective,"It was necessary for the Nazi régime and/or the German Generals to surrender unconditionally in order to bring home to the German people that they had lost the War by themselves; so that their defeat should not be attributed to a 'stab in the back'."

Wagnerian allusions
To some Germans, the idea of a "stab in the back" was evocative of Richard Wagner's 1876 opera Götterdämmerung, in which Hagen murders his enemy Siegfried – the hero of the story – with a spear in his back. In Hindenburg's memoirs, he compared the collapse of the German Army to Siegfried's death.

Psychology of belief
Historian Richard McMasters Hunt argues in a 1958 article that the myth was an irrational belief which commanded the force of irrefutable emotional convictions for millions of Germans. He suggests that behind these myths was a sense of communal shame, not for causing the war, but for losing it. Hunt argues that it was not the guilt of wickedness, but the shame of weakness that seized Germany's national psychology, and "served as a solvent of the Weimar democracy and also as an ideological cement of Hitler's dictatorship".

United States
Parallel interpretations of national trauma after military defeat appear in other countries. For example, it was applied to the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War and in the mythology of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy.

title: Stab-in-the-back myth


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Davenport, Iowa

Davenport is a city in and the county seat of Scott County, Iowa, United States. Located along the Mississippi River on the eastern border of the state, it is the largest of the Quad Cities, a metropolitan area with a population of 384,324 and a combined statistical area population of 474,019, ranking as the 147th-largest MSA and 91st-largest CSA in the nation. According to the 2020 census, the city had a population of 101,724, making it Iowa's third-most populous city after Des Moines and Cedar Rapids. Davenport was founded on May 14, 1836, by Antoine Le Claire and named for his friend George Davenport.

From 1860 until 1980, Davenport enjoyed a long period of industrial and population growth, averaging yearly increases of about 760 people. Over that period, Davenport industries were diverse, from manufacturing locomotives, a major meat-packing plant, a Caterpillar loader plant, a historic movie-projector plant, to car and truck wheel manufacture. These and other industries left, and since 1980, population growth has been flat, hovering around 100,000 over the past 40 years.

The city is prone to frequent flooding due to its location on the Mississippi River and the city's resistance to building a modern levee, unlike its sister cities. Davenport's flood wall dates from the 1919, while Rock Island's higher flood wall dates from 1970 and Bettendorf's from the 1980s. The latter two protected their respective downtowns during the 2019 flood. The history and historical costs of proposed levee projects were summarized in 2023 by the local paper after Davenport received national media attention for the 2019 flood.

There are two main universities: St. Ambrose University and Palmer College of Chiropractic, where the first chiropractic adjustment took place. Several annual music festivals take place in Davenport, including the Mississippi Valley Blues Festival, the Mississippi Valley Fair, and the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festival. An internationally known 7 mi foot race, called the Bix 7, is run during the festival. The city has a Class A minor-league baseball team, the Quad Cities River Bandits. Davenport has 50 plus parks and facilities, as well as more than 20 mi of recreational paths for biking or walking.

Three interstates (80, 74 and 280) and two major United States Highways serve the city. Davenport has seen steady population growth since its incorporation. National economic difficulties in the 1980s resulted in job and population losses. Notable people from the city have included jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Susan Glaspell, former National Football League running back Roger Craig, UFC Welterweight Champion Pat Miletich, IBF Middleweight and WBA Super Middleweight boxing champion Michael Nunn, and former two-time WWE Champion and WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins.

History
The land was originally owned by the historic Sauk people, Meskwaki (Fox), and Ho-Chunk (Winnebago) Native American tribes. France laid claim to this territory as part of its New France and Illinois Country in the 18th century. Its traders and missionaries came to the area from Canada (Quebec), but it did not have many settlers here. After losing to Great Britain in the Seven Years' War, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi River to the victor, but retained lands to the west.

In 1803, France sold its holdings in North America west of the Mississippi River to the United States under the Louisiana Purchase. Lieutenant Zebulon Pike was the first United States representative to officially visit the Upper Mississippi River area. On August 27, 1805, Pike camped on the present-day site of Davenport.

In 1832, a group of Sauk, Meskwaki, and Kickapoo people were defeated by the United States in the Black Hawk War. The United States government concluded the Black Hawk Purchase, sometimes called the Forty-Mile Strip or Scott's Purchase, by which the US acquired lands in what is now eastern Iowa. The purchase was made for $640,000 on September 21, 1832, and contained an area of some 6 e6acre, at a price equivalent to 11 cents/acre ($26/km$2$). Although named after the defeated chief Black Hawk, he was being held prisoner by the US. Sauk chief Keokuk, who had remained neutral in the war, signed off on the purchase. It was made on the site of present-day Davenport. Army General Winfield Scott and Governor of Illinois, John Reynolds, acted on behalf of the United States, with Antoine Le Claire, a mixed-race (Métis) man, serving as translator. He later was credited with founding Davenport.

Chief Keokuk gave a generous portion of land to Antoine Le Claire's wife, Marguerite, the granddaughter of a Sauk chief. Le Claire built their home on the exact spot where the agreement was signed, as stipulated by Keokuk, or he would have forfeited the land. Le Claire finished the 'Treaty House' in the spring of 1833. He founded Davenport on May 14, 1836, naming it for his friend Colonel George Davenport, who was stationed at Fort Armstrong during the war. The city was incorporated on January 25, 1839. The area was successively governed by the legislatures of the Michigan Territory, the Wisconsin Territory, Iowa Territory and finally Iowa.

Scott County was formed by an act of the Wisconsin Territorial legislature in 1837. Both Davenport and its neighbor Rockingham campaigned to become the county seat. The city with the most votes from Scott County citizens in the February 1838 election would become the county seat. On the eve of the election, Davenport citizens acquired the temporary service of Dubuque laborers so they could vote in the election. Davenport won the election with the help of the laborers. Rockingham supporters protested the elections to the territorial governor, on the grounds the laborers from Dubuque were not Scott County residents. The governor refused to certify the results of the election. A second election was held the following August. To avoid another import of voters, the governor set a 60-day residency requirement for all voters. Davenport won by two votes. Because the margin of victory was so close, a third election was held in the summer of 1840. As the August election drew nearer, Rockingham residents grew tired of the county seat cause. Davenport easily won the third election. Consequently, to avoid questions about the county seat, Davenport quickly built the first county courthouse.

The Rock Island Railroad built the first railroad bridge across the Mississippi River in 1856. It connected Davenport to Rock Island, Illinois. This railway connection resulted in significant improvements to transportation and commerce with Chicago, a booming 19th-century city. The addition of new railroad lines to Muscatine and Iowa City, and the acquisition of other lines by the Rock Island Railroad, resulted in Davenport becoming a commercial railroad hub. Steamboat companies rightly saw nationwide railroads as a threat to their business. On May 6, 1856, just weeks after the bridge was completed, a steamboat captain deliberately crashed the Effie Afton into the bridge. The owner of the Effie Afton, John Hurd, filed a lawsuit against the Rock Island Railroad Company. Abraham Lincoln was the lead defense lawyer for the railroad company. The hung jury meant that neither party was awarded damages; the bridge was repaired within the span of a few months, and no further intentional sabotage was pursued. However, further litigation continued for many years, until ultimately the United States Supreme Court upheld the right to bridge navigable streams; the bridge, and others like it that had been built in the interim, were allowed to remain. Prior to the start of the Civil War, Governor Samuel J. Kirkwood declared Davenport to be Iowa's first military headquarters; five military camps were set up in the city to aid the Union.

The Davenport City Hall was built in 1895 for price of $100,000 ($ in dollars). Architectural journals of the time poked fun at the project due to the small amount of money budgeted. The skyline began forming in the 1920s with the construction of the Kahl Building, the Parker Building, and the Capitol Theatre during a period of economic and building expansion. By 1932, thousands of Davenport residents were on public relief, due to the Great Depression. A shantytown of the poor developed in the west end of the city, along the Mississippi River. Sickness, hunger, and unsanitary living conditions plagued the area.

The situation would soon change, as many citizens went to work for the Works Progress Administration. Davenport had an economic boom during and after World War II, driven by wartime industry and peacetime demand. As Davenport grew, it absorbed smaller surrounding communities, annexing Rockingham, Nahant, Probstei, East Davenport, Oakdale, Cawiezeel, Blackhawk, Mt. Joy, Green Tree, and others. Oscar Mayer, Ralston Purina, and other companies built plants in west Davenport. The Interstate highway network reached Davenport in 1956, improving transportation in the area. By 1959, more than 1,000 homes a year were being constructed.

By the late 1970s, the good times were over for both downtown and local businesses and industries. Railroad restructuring in the mid-20th century had caused a loss of jobs in the industry. The farm crisis of the 1980s negatively affected Davenport and the rest of the Quad Cities, where a total of 35,000 workers lost their jobs throughout the entire Quad Cities area. Restructuring of heavy industry also continued: the Caterpillar plant on the city's north side closed, causing another wave of job loss.

With the 1990s, the city finally showed the beginnings of a resurgence. In the early 21st century, many renovations and building additions have occurred to revitalize the downtown area, including repairing Modern Woodmen Park, the building of the Skybridge and the Figge Art Museum. In 2011, the Gold Coast and Hamburg Historic District was named as a 2011 "America's Great Place" by the American Planning Association.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 65.92 sqmi, of which 63.8 sqmi is land and 2.12 sqmi is water. Davenport is located approximately 170 mi west of Chicago and 170 mi east of the Iowa state capital of Des Moines. The city is located about 200 mi north of St. Louis, Missouri, and 265 mi southeast of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Farmland surrounds Davenport, outside the Quad Cities area.

Davenport is located on the banks of the Mississippi River. At this point the river has a maximum depth of around 30 to 40 ft and is 2217 ft wide where the Centennial Bridge crosses it. The river flows from east to west in this area, as opposed to its usual north to south direction. From the river the city starts to slope north up a hill, which is steep at some points. The streets of the city, especially downtown and in the central part of the town, follow a grid design.

Davenport often makes national headlines when it suffers seasonal flooding by the Mississippi River. It is the largest city bordering the Mississippi that has no permanent flood wall or levee. Davenport residents prefer to maintain open access to the river for parks and vistas rather than have it cut off by dikes and levees. Davenport has adopted ordinances requiring any new construction in the floodplain to be elevated above the 100-year-flood level, or protected with walls. As a result, former mayor Phil Yerington said that if they "let Mother Nature take her course, we'll all be better off". An example of a Davenport building that is elevated or flood-proofed is the Figge Art Museum.

Climate

Under the Köppen climate classification, Davenport is considered to have a humid continental climate (Dfa). Summers are very warm to hot with high levels of humidity. Winters have cold temperatures and often high winds, with snow likely from November through February. Average snowfall in Davenport is 30.7 in per year. January is on average the coldest month, while July is the warmest. The highest temperature recorded in Davenport was 111 °F on July 12, 1936. The lowest temperature, -29 °F, was recorded on January 18, 2009. Substantial weather changes frequently occur at three- to four-day intervals as a result of mid-latitude storm tracks, which is where low and high pressure extratropical disturbances occur. During the summers, farmers experience difficulties while farming such as shallow soil, the humidity, and cold damp winds

Although several minor tornadoes have occurred, no devastating tornado has ever touched down in Davenport. Flooding, however, is often a problem in Davenport due to the lack of a flood wall. During the Great Flood of 1993, the water crested at 22.63 ft on July 9. This is nearly 8 ft above the 14.9 ft flood stage. Major flooding in Davenport causes many problems. Roads in and around the downtown area, including U.S. Route 67, are closed and cause increased traffic on other city roads. The effects of major flooding can be long-lasting. For example, during the 2008 flooding, Credit Island in the city's southwest corner remained closed for 5½ months while crews worked on cleaning up damage and removing river debris. Duck Creek, a stream situated in Bettendorf and Davenport, is also vulnerable to flash flooding. Severe thunderstorms on June 16, 1990, created heavy flash flooding in Bettendorf and Davenport that killed four people. Another major flood happened on June 12, 2008, when severe thunderstorms caused Duck Creek to overflow its banks and flood properties and nearby streets (see Iowa flood of 2008). The Mississippi river flooded again in 2019 and 2023.

Neighborhoods

Davenport has several neighborhoods dating back to the 1840s. The original city plot was around current day Ripley and 5th Streets, where Antoine Le Claire had built his house. The city can be divided into five areas: downtown, central, east end, near north and northwest, and west end. Many architectural designs are found throughout the city including Victorian, Queen Anne, Tudor Revival, and others. Many of the original neighborhoods were inhabited by German settlers.

The east side of the city dates back to 1850 and has always contained higher end housing. The proximity and commanding view of the river kept these neighborhoods a fashionable address, long after the original families departed. Lindsay Park, in The Village of East Davenport, was used as parade grounds for Civil War soldiers from Camp McClellan.

In contrast to the east side, the central and west neighborhoods originally contained many of the working class Germans who settled the town. Development on the west side started in the 1850s, with extensive construction occurring in the 1870s. Housing was mostly one and a half to two-story front gable American Foursquare and simplified Queen Anne style. The central Hamburg neighborhood, now known as the Hamburg Historic District, contains the most architecturally significant residences in the old German neighborhoods. Also in central Davenport, the Vander Veer Park Historic District is a neighborhood anchored by Vander Veer Park, a large park with a botanical garden and a fountain. The park was modeled after New York City's Central Park and originally shared its name. Vander Veer is surrounded by large Queen Anne and Tudor Revival style houses that were built between 1895 and 1915. Development of the Vander Veer Park was one of the first major beautification efforts.

Today, the eastern side of Davenport still contains many of the higher class houses in the city. The old Civil War parade grounds, in The Village of East Davenport ("The Village" for short), have been turned into Lindsay Park, which is surrounded by small specialty shops. West of The Village, Downtown contains the two tallest buildings in the Quad Cities; the Wells Fargo Bank Building, which is 255 feet tall, and the Mid-American Energy Building, which is 220 feet tall. Other tall buildings include the 11-story Hotel Blackhawk, the 150-foot Kahl Building and the Davenport City Hall.

Demographics
As of the census of 2020, the population was 101,724. The population density was 1594.5 PD/sqmi. There were 46,964 housing units at an average density of 736.2 /sqmi. The racial makeup of the city was 74.1% White, 12.0% Black or African American, 2.2% Asian, 0.4% Native American, 2.6% from other races, and 8.7% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 8.8% Hispanic or Latino of any race.

2010 census
According to the 2010 United States Census estimate, the city population grew to 99,685 and the Quad Cities metropolitan area grew to 379,690.

2000 census
As of the 2000 census, there were 98,359 people, 39,124 households, and 24,804 families residing in the city. The population density was 1566.5 PD/sqmi. There were 41,350 housing units at an average density of 658.5 /sqmi. Davenport's population density was 30 times the average density of Iowa and 20 times the average density of the United States. However, it was about a third less than Des Moines and 20 percent less than Cedar Rapids, the only two cities in Iowa with higher populations than Davenport. Sioux City, the next city smaller than Davenport in population, had a density of 5 people more per square mile.

The racial makeup of the area was 83.7% White (410,861), 11.43% Black or African American (27,757), 0.4% American Indian and Alaskan Native (1,255), 2.0% Asian (6,624), 0.03% Pacific Islander (156), and 2.0% from two or more races (11,929). 7.1% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race (37,070). There were 39,124 households, out of which 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.0% were married couples living together, 13.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.6% were non-families. Of all households, 29.5% were made up of individuals, and 9.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 3.03.

Age spread: 26.2% under the age of 18, 10.7% from 18 to 24, 30.1% from 25 to 44, 20.9% from 45 to 64, and 12.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.7 males.

Economy
Davenport's biggest labor industry is manufacturing, with over 7,600 jobs in the sector. John Deere is the second largest employer in the Quad Cities, after the Rock Island Arsenal as a whole. Deere, however, is the largest single employer, employing 7,200 workers in the Quad Cities and 948 on its north side Davenport plant. John Deere World Headquarters is located in Moline. Other large employers in Davenport and the Quad Cities include, Genesis Health System with 5,125 employees and 4,900 in Davenport, Trinity Regional Health System with 3,333, regional grocery store Hy-Vee with 3,138 and the Davenport Community School District with 2,237 employees.

Davenport is the headquarters for department store Von Maur, which has 24 stores. Davenport is also the headquarters of Lee Enterprises, which publishes fifty daily newspapers and more than 300 weekly newspapers, shoppers, and specialty publications, along with online sites in 23 states. As of September 2009, the unemployment rate in Davenport and the rest of the Quad Cities, had risen to 8.4%.

The median income for a household in the city was $40,378, with families earning $51,445. Males had a median income of $41,853 versus $30,002 for females. The per capita income for the city was $18,828. About 10.5% of families and 14.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 19.2% of those under age 18 and 6.4% of those ages 65 or over.

The surrounding Quad Cities have major places of employment, including the Rock Island Arsenal, KONE, Inc and Alcoa.

Landmarks
Downtown Davenport has many points of interest including the Davenport Public Library, the Davenport Skybridge, Figge Art Museum, River Music Experience, Putnam Museum, the RiverCenter/Adler Theater, Modern Woodmen Park which is home of the Quad City River Bandits baseball team and the Centennial Bridge. The former Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Freight House, now known as The Freight House, is home to several small businesses featuring locally grown items, such as a deli, a grocery hub, and a tap room for a local brewery.

Davenport's cultural and educational institutions include the Figge Art Museum, which houses The National Center for Midwest Art and Design, and was founded in 1925 as the Davenport Municipal Art Gallery. The Putnam Museum, which was founded in 1867 and was one of the first museums west of the Mississippi River. The Quad City Symphony Orchestra, headquartered in downtown Davenport, was founded in 1915. The Davenport Public Library was opened in 1839. The German American Heritage Center is located at the foot of the Centennial Bridge.

Uptown features a few historic landmarks such as the Iowa Soldiers' Orphans' Home which took in homeless children from all of Iowa's ninety-nine counties following the Civil War and Ambrose Hall which was the original building of St. Ambrose University. Aside from landmarks, uptown contains some entertainment venues too, such as the Great Mississippi Valley Fairgrounds, which hosts fairs, stock car racing, and many other events. NorthPark Mall is the city's main shopping mall and has 160 stores. Its companion, SouthPark Mall, is located in Moline. Brady Street Stadium is home to Davenport high school and Saint Ambrose University football games. Davenport has a number of parks, including Credit Island park which has a bike path, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and fishing along the Mississippi River. Vander Veer Botanical Park has a small botanical garden and also features a walking path, a lagoon, and a large fountain. The Stampe Lilac Garden is located in Duck Creek Park, on Locust St.

Events and festivals
Bix Fest is a three-day music festival with many traditional jazz bands held in tribute to internationally renowned jazz cornetist, pianist, composer, and Davenport native Bix Beiderbecke. The festival was started in August 1971 and the Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Society was founded one year later to organize and sponsor it. 2009 was the 39th consecutive festival. In addition to the Bix Fest, the Wells Fargo Street Fest features live music, food, and vendors.

The annual Bix 7 is a 7 mi road race held in late July in Davenport. The race was founded in 1975 by John A. Hudetz a resident of Bettendorf, Iowa, who wanted to bring to the Quad Cities some of the excitement he felt when he ran his first Boston Marathon. The first race had 84 participants, but today 12,000 to 18,000 runners take part. In late July or early August the six-day Great Mississippi Valley Fair features major grandstand concerts, carnival rides, attractions, and food vendors. Sturgis on the River is a large annual gathering of motorcycles which includes bands and food vendors. Other local expositions include River Roots Live, Beaux Arts Fair and many others.

Livability Award
Davenport (along with neighboring Rock Island, Illinois), won the 2007 City Livability Award in the small-city category from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Tom Cochran, executive director of the Conference, stated that the award "gives the Conference a chance to highlight mayoral leadership in making urban areas safer, cleaner and more livable." The award acknowledges achievements from the RiverVision plan of Davenport and Rock Island.

Sports
Davenport and the Quad Cities are home to many sports teams. The Quad Cities River Bandits baseball team play games at Downtown Davenport's Modern Woodmen Park. The TaxSlayer Center in Moline is home the Quad City Steamwheelers indoor football team and the Quad City Storm hockey team. Davenport high schools are in the Mississippi Athletic Conference for sports.

Parks and recreation

Davenport has over fifty parks or recreational trails. Major parks include Credit Island, which is a 450 acre park in southwest Davenport located alongside the Mississippi River. Fejervary Park contains a pool and has had approximately 20,000 visitors each year since 1996. Junge Park is situated along the Duck Creek Parkway and includes baseball and softball fields, sand volleyball, and basketball courts. LeClaire Park is located right on the banks of the Mississippi River next to Modern Woodmen Park and hosts many summer events including River Roots Live and Ribfest. Bands for the Bix Fest play in the park each July. Vander Veer Botanical Park welcomes approximately 25,000 visitors to continuous floral shows.

The city features two recreational trails for biking or walking. Duck Creek Parkway extends from Emeis Park in west Davenport 8.26 mi east to Bettendorf along Duck Creek. Riverfront Parkway extends 4.75 mi along the Mississippi waterfront from Credit Island to Bettendorf. Both these trails continue into Bettendorf. Plans are being discussed to connect the two trails in Riverdale. Three public golf courses are offered in the city. For river-related activities, The Channel Cat boat offers rides across the river and has two stops in Iowa and three stops in Illinois and connects the bike paths that each state has on its river front.

Government
Davenport uses a mayor–council form of local government. , city government consists of mayor Mike Matson and a ten-person council. One person is elected from each of the eight wards and two at-large aldermen are elected to represent the whole city. Nonpartisan elections are held in odd-numbered years. The mayor is the top elected individual for the city and presides over city council meetings, voting in case of a tie. The mayor appoints city board members. The city council's job is to make laws and set the city budget. The city administrator, currently Corrin Spiegel, is appointed by the mayor with confirmation by two-thirds of the council. Citywide goals through 2012 include having a financially responsible government, having a growing economy, revitalizing neighborhoods, and upgrading city infrastructure and public facilities. The establishment of Davenport as a political and government unit came in 1839, three years after the city was settled. The city was incorporated as a result of a resolution by Iowa Representative Jonathan W. Parker by special charter in the Iowa Territory on January 25, 1839. Parker was a resident of Davenport and one of six trustees elected to govern the city with Rodolphus Bennet being the first mayor. Activity for the first four months was minimal as the council failed to meet. In 1842, the city charter was amended for the first time. Changes include having six alderman replace the five trustees, dividing the city into three wards, and appointing a city clerk position to replace the recorder. The charter was amended again in 1851 to expand the city area, provide greater detail of the duties of the mayor, city council, and other officials. During the last half of the 19th century, government assumed expanding responsibilities for public welfare and public works improvements.

The city expanded police protection, even temporarily having volunteer police officers to assist the three paid officers. Fire protection was expanded in 1882, with the city's first 13 paid firefighters. Former mayor Henry Vollmer accomplished several public works achievements, including large street paving and new sub-divisions being plotted. A large city budget surplus brought the creation of the Davenport City Hall. After 1900, each mayor brought new agendas for city improvement. Waldo Becker encouraged new railroads for the city. He also promised a more business-like government, in terms of financial responsibility and to depoliticize the police department. In the mid-1920s the city established the first zoning ordinances, electrical traffic signals and street lighting. The city also expanded with the incorporation of the city of Rockingham and the establishment of the Davenport Municipal Airport.

The 2010 fiscal year budget was $199.2 million, an increase of $35 million from 2009. The city's general fund receives the largest amount of funds from property taxes, followed by service fees such as solid waste collection and swimming pool or golf course admission and 80% of its expenses go to personnel costs. The city has given a few surveys for citizens to rate the quality of life and city services. The largest department in the city is the public works department with a budget of $36.7 million. The police department is second with a budget of $22.4 million, while the fire department has a budget of $15 million. The parks department has $6.1 million, and the Davenport Public Library has a $3.8 million budget.

At the federal level, Davenport is in Iowa's 2nd congressional district. It is represented by Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks. The two Senators are Republicans Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst. At the state level, Davenport is represented by the 45th, 46th, and 47th Iowa Senate districts and in the Iowa House of Representatives by the 89th, 90th, 92nd, 93rd, and 94th districts.

, the 41st senate district covers the eastern third of the city and all of Bettendorf, Riverdale, and Panorama Park. It is more conservative then other Davenport districts being represented by a Republican since the 1970s. The district is slightly moving more liberal with an increase of 3,000 Democrats between 2006 and 2010. The district is represented by Republican Senator Roby Smith. The 42nd district covers the western third of the city along with all of Scott County that is not in Davenport, Bettendorf, Riverdale, or Panorama Park as well as western and southern rural Clinton County and is represented by Republican Senator Shawn Hamerlinck. The 43rd senate district covers the central third of the city and is represented by Democrat Joe Seng.

The 81st house district covers the eastern third of the city along with small western portion of Bettendorf. The district shares the same western boundaries as the forty-first senate district. The district is represented by Democrat Phyllis Thede. The 84th district covers the western third of the city, and has the same eastern boundary as Senate district forty-two and is represented by Republican Ross Paustian. The 85th and 86th districts are made up of the same area as the forty-third senate district. The 85th district covers the north and west-central area while the 86th district covers southern and eastern part of the senate district. Both are represented by Democrats with Jim Lykam representing the 85th and Cindy Winckler representing the 86th.

Davenport has a Federal Court House for the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.

Education

Davenport public schools serve nearly 14,500 students in the communities of Davenport, Blue Grass, Buffalo, and Walcott. The Davenport Community School District is the fourth-largest school district in Iowa. Davenport has four public high schools: Central, West, Mid City and North and one private high school: Assumption. There are six public intermediate schools and 23 public elementary schools. Sudlow, one of the intermediate schools, was named after Phebe Sudlow, the first female public school superintendent in the United States. She was superintendent for Davenport schools from 1874 to 1878. The high schools are part of the Mississippi Athletic Conference for sports.

The city has four colleges and universities: Saint Ambrose University, established in 1882, is the oldest; Kaplan University, Palmer Chiropractic College, and Hamilton Technical College. Palmer College is the first chiropractic school and the site of the first chiropractic adjustment in the world.

Marycrest International University was a university in Davenport from 1939 to 2002, when it closed. The campus was renovated and adapted to senior citizen housing.

Media

There are two major daily newspapers in Davenport. The Quad-City Times is based out of Davenport and The Dispatch/Rock Island Argus is based out of Moline. An alternative free newspaper, the River Cities' Reader, is published in Davenport. All four major television networks have stations in the area, including KWQC (NBC) and KLJB (Fox) in Davenport. WHBF (CBS) is located in Rock Island and WQAD (ABC) is in Moline.

The Quad Cities ranks as the 97th largest market for television and the 147th largest market for radio. Radio station WOC made its local broadcasting debut on February 18, 1922. It was the second licensed station on the air. In 1933 WOC hired future president Ronald Reagan as a staff announcer.

Transportation
Three interstate highways serve Davenport: Interstate 80, Interstate 280, and Interstate 74. Interstate 88 serves the Illinois Quad Cities and runs east to Chicago. U.S. Route 6, U.S. Route 61, and U.S. Route 67 also go through Davenport; U.S. 67 crosses over to Illinois via the Rock Island Centennial Bridge. Davenport is connected to the Illinois side of the Quad Cities by a total of three bridges across the Mississippi River. The Government Bridge and the Centennial Bridge connect Downtown Davenport with the Rock Island Arsenal and downtown Rock Island, respectively. The I-280 Bridge connects the western edge of Davenport with the western edge of Rock Island. Other highways include Iowa Highway 22, which is on the city's southwest side, and Iowa Highway 130, which runs along Northwest Boulevard on Davenport's north edge. For air travel, Davenport Municipal Airport – located adjacent to the city's northern city limits – serves smaller aircraft, and is the home of the annual Quad City Airshow. The Quad City International Airport across the river in Moline, Illinois, is the closest commercial airport. Major railroads include the Iowa Interstate Railroad and the Iowa, Chicago and Eastern. Two national U.S. recreation trails intersect in Davenport: the Mississippi River Trail and the American Discovery Trail.

Amtrak currently does not serve Davenport or the Quad Cities. The closest station currently is about 50 mi away in Galesburg, Illinois. In 2008, United States Senators Tom Harkin, Chuck Grassley, Dick Durbin, and Barack Obama sent a letter to Amtrak asking them to begin plans to bring rail service to the Quad Cities. In October 2010, a $230 million federal fund was announced that will bring Amtrak service to the Quad Cities, with a new line running from Moline to Chicago. They had hoped to have the line completed in 2015, and offer two round trips daily to Chicago. Currently the Moline station does not have any Amtrak service. Greyhound Lines/Burlington Trailways bus service has a station in Davenport. The building is shared with the local Davenport Citibus. Davenport does not have any river ports.

Davenport has an infamous "truck-eating bridge". The bridge, or rather three bridges, is a set of railroad bridges that cross over north and southbound U.S. Route 61 and another street. Every year an average of 12 semi trucks hit the bridge, usually causing massive damage to the trucks. The bridges, made out of iron, steel, and concrete, are rarely damaged.

Davenport Citibus
Public transit appeared in Davenport in 1969 when the city created a City Transit Authority. The authority at first provided monetary support to Davenport City Lines Bus Company, which was a privately owned company. After a few years the city purchased the Davenport City Lines and placed the operation of public transportation under the jurisdiction of the city's Department of Municipal Transportation. Today, CitiBus is a division of the Department of Public Works. CitiBus has a total of 20 vehicles and covers approximately 30 sqmi of the city. CitiBus connects with both Bettendorf Transit and the Illinois Quad Cities mass transit system, MetroLINK. In 2007 Citibus saw a ridership of 1,022,815 customers. Ridership as of September 2008 had grown to 1,045,000 due in part to high gas prices.

Utilities
Electricity to Davenport, and the rest of the Iowa Quad Cities, is provided by MidAmerican Energy Company. Water is provided by the Mississippi River and is treated by the Iowa American Water Company. The water treatment facility is located in southeast Davenport.

Health care
Davenport is served by two hospitals: Genesis Medical Center East – Rusholme Street and Genesis Medical Center – West Central Park Avenue part of the Genesis Health System. Together the facilities, along with two other facilities outside Davenport have 665 beds. The hospitals employ more than 600 physicians and 5,000 staff members. The American Nurses Credentialing Center, awarded Genesis Medical Center the Magnet designation for excellence in nursing services. Fewer than three percent of hospitals receive this honor.

Notable people
Notable Davenporters include jazz musician Bix Beiderbecke, after whom the Bix 7 road race and jazz festival are named. The artist Isabel Bloom was raised in Davenport; she is the creator of decorative concrete figurines that bear her name.

Guitarist and vocalist John Kadlecik, who founded The Dark Star Orchestra and toured with the members of The Grateful Dead in the band Furthur, also grew up in Davenport.

Sports figures born in Davenport include NFL running back Roger Craig, NFL offensive lineman Julian Vandervelde, former NBA guard Ricky Davis, former NBA G-League guard Marlon Stewart, former middleweight boxing champion Michael Nunn, UFC welterweight champion Robbie Lawler, NFL wide receiver Kenny Shedd and professional wrestler Seth Rollins.

Other natives include the aviation pioneer Samuel Cody, actors Stuart Margolin, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sue Lyon, Linnea Quigley,  and Greg Stolze. Otto Frederick Rohwedder, the inventor of mass-produced sliced bread, and actor Jock Mahoney, grew up in Davenport.

The former mayor of St. Louis, Lyda Krewson, was born in Davenport.

Film, theater, and literary references

 * Bix Beiderbecke recorded a song in 1925 called "Davenport Blues".
 * In the bed department scene of the Marx Brothers 1941 movie "The Big Store" Groucho tells a man to "Just press that button over by the davenport.". The man replies "Where is the davenport?" and Groucho replies "It's in Iowa."''.
 * The 1958 Johnny Cash song, "Big River", also later recorded by Bill Monroe and other artists, mentions "cavortin' in Davenport."
 * Davenport is one of eight cities listed in the song "Iowa Stubborn" from the 1957 musical The Music Man.
 * In the film Tommy Boy, Richard Hayden attempts to get directions to a business appointment in Davenport from a service station 22 miles away on the Illinois side of the river, but the employee tells him to get a new map despite being in the Quad Cities metro area.

Sister cities
Davenport's sister cities are:
 * 🇩🇪 Kaiserslautern, Germany (1960)
 * 🇧🇷 Ilhéus, Brazil (2005)
 * 🇮🇪 County Carlow, Ireland (2006)

Friendship cities
Davenport has friendly relations with:
 * 🇨🇳 Langfang, China (2018)
 * 🇲🇽 Colón, Mexico

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Davenport, Iowa


text:
Talk:Stab-in-the-back myth

Added section on military situation, plus claim that German frontier was not crossed
I've added a section on various assessments of the actual military situation in November 1918. I think it is important to provide context to claims made by e.g., Ludendorff as to what the situation actually was. Please review and amend it as appropriate.

In a number of articles we have on this period the claim that the German frontier had not been crossed by Allied forces is made. This is clearly incorrect based on the map of the western front produced by West Point (who presumably are a reliable source for this) showing that the German frontier of 1914 had been crossed in at least 3 places by 11 November. If what is meant is that the frontier of 1869 had not been crossed, well, the relevance of this is not clear - Alsace Lorraine was the German frontier in 1914 and is surely the relevant reference point. I've struck this claim out - the German frontier was crossed, albeit only in a few places and in relatively shallow penetrations. FOARP (talk) 13:56, 29 February 2024 (UTC)
 * Does it really matter whether the frontier was crossed? See this section on the German economy during World War I. Food shortages throughout the war, widespread severe malnutrition, widespread typhus, shortages of coal, imports cut off by the British blockade, shortages in civilian clothing, shortages of soap, shortages of hot water, reduction of public transportation and street lighting, overcrowded housing in the industrial cities, and little or no recreation due to the closing down of theaters and cabarets. The deterioration of living conditions would result in further deaths and further discontent, regardless of what happened on the battlefield. Dimadick (talk) 02:51, 1 March 2024 (UTC)
 * "Does it really matter whether the frontier was crossed?" - It matters if the claim is being made, in the voice of Wikipedia, that this was the case, when it was in fact not the case. But more specifically I think the idea is that Germany did not "lose" because of this "fact". Otherwise I largely agree with what you've written - reviewing the lead section we possibly under-play the degree to which historians, whilst agreeing that the stab-in-the-back is a myth, do agree that the economic collapse and collapse in morale on the home front was a cause of the German defeat. FOARP (talk) 08:46, 1 March 2024 (UTC)

fixing the lede and more
This lede is written very poorly. Accordingly, the idea several paragraphs down, that historians "unanimously reject", is false. Let's have a closer look:

 * It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I

First of all, this is nonsense because the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I. The Central Powers or German Empire did. Now maybe the Imperial German Army lost the war "for" those parties, and is the reason for the aforementioned losing, but that is never clarified. And no historian on record for saying the "stab in the back myth is false" is actually saying that the Imperial German Army is the reason the aforementioned lost.

 * It maintained that the Imperial German Army did not lose World War I on the battlefield

Second, for that specific army to lose a battle "on the battlefield" means it was beaten in the war (everyone died) or everyone ran away specifically as a result of whatever was done "on the battlefield". . The idea that this describes Germany in 1918 is something no historian states. So, the premise being argued is false. Even Russia in 1916/1917 was not defeated "on the battlefield". The troops rioting and the home front falling apart even to the point of mass retreat rather than battle is not an "on the battlefield" defeat. No historian suggests it was.

Coming forth to offer a surrender when none of that has happened to this specific army is by default not losing "on the battlefield", either.

For Germany to lose a war "on the battlefield" means, then, that the war ended because of what happened "on the battlefield" - there, specifically. To allege that this is what happened and not assess what was happening at the time - the mutiny in port, the riots back home, the declarations of socialist republics, the abdication, the collapse of Austria-Hungary, the advances in the Balkans (all of which happened and has nothing to do with the Imperial German Army being defeated in battle) is something no historian "unanimously" states.

 * was instead betrayed by certain citizens on the home front

Whether or not the German Army was "betrayed" is an opinion of what the actions that occurred were. The way the lede is written suggests that all historians agree that there was no action that constitutes betrayal on the home front. Which is patently false. I think for this sentence to make sense, it would have to say "lost the war because of certain citizens on the home front".

 * especially Jews, revolutionary socialists who fomented strikes and labour unrest,[1] and republican politicians who had overthrown the House of Hohenzollern in the German Revolution of 1918–1919.

Jew-led revolutionary socialists like Clara Zetkin, Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, and Jew anarchists like Kurt Eisner, as well as Jews like Gustav Landauer, Ernst Toller, Eugen Leviné and Erich Mühsam were at the forefront of the movement and Eisner literally just got out of jail for fomenting strikes and labor unrest only shortly before declaring his short lived state we know as the Bavarian Socialist Republic.

I would suggest keeping the changes I've made to the lede, which are a synthesis of what the article evaluates: a) the condition of Germany's army b) who was blamed for the loss of the war:

 * It maintains that the German Imperial Army was not in bad shape at the end of World War I and that the war was lost because of certain citizens on the home front – especially Jews, revolutionary socialists who fomented strikes and labour unrest,[1]

More:

 * The antisemitic instincts of the German Army were revealed well before the stab-in-the-back myth became the military's excuse for losing the war.

"instincts?" What army has instincts? This is POV pushing to suggest that an army has instincts. Military's excuse for losing the war? So the military - nay, the GERMAN military - is the reason the war was lost? If you're just going to revert my edits, at least have the decency not to prevent other people from seeing why this lede and the part I mentioned are fallacious.

Lolyouvegottobekiddingme (talk) 04:41, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

 * the idea several paragraphs down, that historians "unanimously reject", is false Historians unanimously reject a false statement. That makes sense. What is the problem then?
 * The Central Powers or German Empire did This is nitpicking. It is perfectly alright to say "Ensign Jones lost the whole war by doing the wrong thing" although other people were involved.
 * it was beaten in the war (everyone died) or everyone ran away Those are the only possiblities why a country loses a war? Either everybody dies or everybody runs away?
 * Your reasoning does not make sense. But it does not matter because the article is not supposed to be based on your reasoning anyway. --Hob Gadling (talk) 07:05, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

 * Historians unanimously reject a false statement. That makes sense. What is the problem then?

 * because historians reject the stab-in-the-back myth, not the things you are suggesting the stab-in-the-back myth are. You are stating the myth incorrectly. In order for the myth to be stated correctly, as written, the following would have to be true:
 * a) the German Imperial Army lost WWI on the battlefield
 * AND
 * b) nobody betrayed the German Imperial Army.

 * That's your first sign that you have stated the myth incorrectly. The second is that the myth is simply that the German army was not in bad shape and the collapse of the home front caused Germany to lose the war.

 * This is nitpicking. It is perfectly alright to say "Ensign Jones lost the whole war by doing the wrong thing" although other people were involved.

 * even if your suggestion is that "Ensign Jones lost the whole war by doing the wrong thing even though other people are involved", the equivalent, as it pertains to Germany, is also neither true nor what the stab-in-the-back legend refutes. And I established that. Please reread: "Now maybe the Imperial German Army lost the war "for" those parties, and is the reason for the aforementioned losing, but that is never clarified. And no historian on record for saying the "stab in the back myth is false" is actually saying that the Imperial German Army is the reason the aforementioned lost" So, basically, you are misrepresenting my representation of an error in the article.

 * Those are the only possiblities why a country loses a war? Either everybody dies or everybody runs away?

 * Again you skirt the issue - this time, focusing on something I wrote in quotes as an example. You again misrepresent what I have pointed out that is false about the lede.

 * Your reasoning does not make sense. But it does not matter because the article is not supposed to be based on your reasoning anyway.

 * You sound a little smug, don't you think? You really think focusing on something I wrote in parenthesis, misrepresenting what I am pointing out as false and ignoring everything else warrants such? I notice you had nothing to say about the part that is so obviously a violation of Wikipedia policy and basic writing standards. This isn't a literature class. Lolyouvegottobekiddingme (talk) 07:30, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Sigh. You don't listen to the most relevant parts, so I will just repeat them:
 * Read WP:RS and WP:OR. --Hob Gadling (talk) 10:30, 15 May 2024 (UTC)

 * Sigh, no, how about you read that and you tell me where this garbage pile of unsourced text falls within those parameters:

 * The antisemitic instincts of the German Army were revealed well before the stab-in-the-back myth became the military's excuse for losing the war. In October 1916, in the middle of the war, the army ordered a Jewish census of the troops, with the intent to show that Jews were under-represented in the Heer (army), and that they were over-represented in non-fighting positions. Instead, the census showed just the opposite, that Jews were over-represented both in the army as a whole and in fighting positions at the front.

 * on RS and OR: thank you HobGadling, thank you Mathglot, for telling me calling out this garbage text and rewriting it so it doesn't violate RS or OR and is encyclopedic is inserting my "opinion"; do you even read your own links or do you just send them to other people?

 * more on RS and OR: I want a reliable source stating that the "unanimously rejected" part was that the German army was betrayed by certain citizens. I also want a reliable source stating that the other part of the myth is not that Germany was undefeated on the battlefield, which the text says and is cited, but the "German army lost the war on the battlefield". These are not the same things. Every time I have taken the idea actually presented in the text and changed the lede to reflect this. Mathglot, you still aren't making an appearance after reverting my work now and it's been nearly 24 hours. Both of your conduct towards me is so hostile and unappreciative, I hope I never make the mistake of opening up a Wiki page, looking for info and thinking "oh someone should fix that". There is no behavioral standard, no legitimate review process, no consideration for RS, or OR, which is your repeated justification for content that clearly violates both. I have completely had it with this site. Lolyouvegottobekiddingme (talk) 18:16, 15 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Please undo your last change or explain why you are changing sourced content without adding citations that overturn the sourced content already present. When I have the time, I will add further citations supporting the sourced content already there (well, that was there), but you cannot simply change the account or the analysis of what happened based on your own theories or knowledge of events of the period. Please understand that you could be the distinguished professor of German history at the university of Heidelberg with more than one published book on the aftermath of WWI and you still would not be able to add this information to the article without citations, and it would be reverted if they did; it’s not personal. So nobody is unappreciative and nobody is hostile; this is just the way Wikipedia works and all content must be WP:Verifiable and all content that is challenged requires citations from reliable sources. Not personal in your case either, and your content will be removed again if you do not provide them, but it would be a better look if you removed your last edit yourself while you are looking for citations to support it. Mathglot (talk) 09:45, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Stab-in-the-back myth