The Effects Of The War Guilt Clause On Germany

On June 28th 1919, in the Versailles Palace of France, the treaty of Versailles officially ended World war one. The signers of this treaty implemented certain restrictions on Germany that were to guarantee Germany would never start another world war. This begs the question, “what did the end of one war have to do with the start of World War Two?”. The evidence shows that it was this treaty’s influence on Adolf Hitler that led to the Versailles Treaty’s ultimate failure and provoked the start of the next world war. Because of this treaty Adolf Hitler’s economic plan, proposed while he was seeking political election, was focused on rebuilding and reclaiming Germany. This went hand in hand with the nationalist ideas of the Nazi party.

Some of these colonies included, Tanzania, Rwanda, Cameroon, Namibia, and Botswana. Germany hit a major loss in their economy by losing 60 million tons of coal. After the industrial land was given away, Germany only had access to 78 million tons of coal per year (Doc A). Adolf Hitler recognized the need for German territory, In his book “Mein Kampf’ He states the need for German expansion or the “Jewish Peril”.

The Treaty of Versailles said that the “war [was] imposed upon [the Allies] by the aggression of Germany and her allies,” (Doc D), which left no room for question on who the world blamed for the war. War is a very violent, vicious, maleficent thing, taking the lives of millions of people and injuring millions more; being told that they were in fault of all of this, Germans were not only bitter but they felt humiliated (Doc D). All of this guilt was burdened on the population of Germany, and they were robbed of yet another part of their beings: their sense of worth. Living day to day in a society in which they were drowned by the debt of their country to the countries they had been engaged in war with only reminded them daily of what they were in blame for. The people would undoubtedly hunger for a change, thirst for revenge, and live in the hope that they could be made into the great nation they had once been. Soon, Germany would be overtaken by enthusiastic feelings of a “restored sense of pride” brought by Hitler (Doc D). Under his guiding hands, Germany would be molded out of defeat into a country ravenous in the pursuit of rebuilding themselves into something significant to the

Leah Griffin 3/6/15 HIST 121 Document Analysis Paper World War I played a key role in Adolf Hitler’s rise to power. After the devastating war, Germany was viewed as the main instigator and the European Allied Powers decided to impose strict treaty obligations upon Germany. This treaty, also known as the Treaty of Versailles, was signed by Germany and went into effect in June 1919 (“Treaty of Versailles, 1919” 1). The treaty forced Germany to give up the land it seized from multiple countries during the war and also forced Germany to recognize the independence of several others (“The Treaty of Versailles – 1919” 37-43). The treaty also forced Germany to agree to many other humiliating terms that did not rest easy with the German public

After the war, Germany had several of its territories stripped from its sovereignty (Document A). It would lose what was the Polish Corridor in order to create the now country of Poland, (Document A). The Polish Corridor was very important, as Danzig was a port city that allowed the Baltic Sea to be open to the Germans for various trading routes, but also the Corridor was home to rich coals deposits that crucial to Germany’s economy at the time. Germany also lost territories to the west in which was called the “Demilitarized zone.” (Document A). This area of land included the Rhine River Valley, a historic and very industrial area that was also very critical in Germany’s economic decline, as it being lost would strip Germany of two industrialized areas that would produce goods for them to use and sell. However, the depression that would hit Germany did not end there as the Treaty of Versailles not only took key land from them but also forced them to pay the war debt or Reparations (Document C). According to The Economic Consequences of the Peace, Germany had to pay 367 billion US dollars over the course of 30 years starting in 1921, (Document B). They were furious of this, sparking the malice that would later form as a result of this document. They steadily paid this until 1933

After the war, all the countries signed a treaty called Treaty of Versailles which was a peace treaty between the countries in war. When Treaty of Versailles was signed Germany was asked to pay for all the reparations it costs for other countries. In article 232 in Treaty of Versailles it says “Germany has to compensate for their damage to the people. By land, sea, air…” (Treaty of Versailles). Germany lost all of it’s economy in paying off.

Germany had to give up all of their territories including the Polish corridor, Lorraine, Alsace, Denmark, and Danzig. This is seen in Document A, showing a map of all of the territories Germany lost. Underneath that map, it says that those territories were also coal-producing areas which made up forty percent of Germany’s coal production.

Germany emerged from World War I with huge debts incurred to finance a costly war for almost five years. The treasury was empty, the currency was losing value, and Germany needed to pay its war debts and the huge reparations bill imposed on it by the Treaty of Versailles, which officially ended the war. The treaty also deprived Germany of territory, natural resources, and even ships, trains, and factory equipment. Germany’s population was undernourished and contained many widows, orphans, and disabled veterans living in poverty. The new German government struggled to deal with these crises, which had produced a serious hyperinflation.

After losing the WWI, Germany was forced to accept full responsibility for the war. Treaty of Versaille was signed in 1919 and it was leading by France, Britain and United States. The victorious western powers imposed the harsh treaties upon Germans without considering Germany’s capacity to pay it. The unfair blame and huge amount of reparations brought economic collapses and hyperinflation to this nation. While Germans were living in despair, it was an ideal situation for the Nazis and Hitler made the most of it. In this paper, I will argue how the ridiculously high reparation

The final product of the Versailles Treaty’s terms was the humiliation of Germany and more importantly, its individuals. Supportingly, Document D reports that, “The Allied and Associated Governments affirm and Germany accepts the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage to which the Allied and Associated Governments and their nationals have been subjected as a consequence of the war imposed upon them by the aggression of Germany and her allies.” (Document D) As the Treaty enforces blame, it singles out Germany. This attempt to prevent war only fueled the fire, creating bitterness that would be a massive contribution to World War II. In agreement, Document D continues the theme, relaying that, “What they knew of the treaty was etched

The Treaty of Versailles was penned during the Paris Peace Conference, mainly to decide upon Germany’s consequences for beginning World War One. When Germany signed the treaty, it lost a tenth of its land to surrounding countries. Not only did they lose part of their country, but they also lost their overseas territories, including Chinese ports, Pacific Islands, and African colonies. One of the actual causes of the war was that Germany wanted ‘a place in the sun’, and requested

Their military was downsized to the maximum of 100,000. All weapons that remained from World War I were to be scrapped in efforts of disarming Germany. Submarines and aircraft were banned completely in Germany and only 36 ships were allowed to serve as the German Navy (Goldstien, Dillion, p.124,1988). Under the conditions of the treaty, Germany was also responsible for an estimate of 6.6 million dollars-worth of war reparations (Goldstien, Dillion, p.130,1988). In result of the high war reparations, Germany suffered great economic depression. Due to depression, the high rates of unemployment and severe inflation caused the people of Germany to become resentful toward the Treaty of Versailles deeming it’s terms too harsh. During these times of economic difficulty and doubt all throughout Europe, people were hopeful for leaders that were capable of reversing the severity of the current conditions.

After World War One, Germany’s conditions were tragic since Germany had signed the Treaty of Versailles which stated if they were named cause of the war that they would have to pay reparations to countries affected by the war and take full responsibility for the war, the loss of important territory and colonies. The signing of the treaty stripped Germany of its power, which then led Germany to the Great Depression.

Although the loss of territory had impacted Germany physically, and became perhaps the driving force behind the Nazi imperialistic policies, it was perhaps the least damaging restriction to the economy from the treaty, especially since many of the areas were poor agricultural fringe areas who had a different ethnic culture to that of the Germans. Another implication of the Treaty of Versailles was the disarmament of the German forces, being cut down to a force of only one hundred thousand men, and crippling the German military industry. As well the Allies were to occupy the left bank of the Rhine River, a site of industry for the Germany military. Perhaps the most damaging to the German economy were the reparations which the Allies forced upon Germany. The Allies demanded that Germany repay most, if not all of the $150.5 billion that they calculated the war cost. There were other significant features of the treaty designed to make Germany unable to compete on the international market such as not being allowed to impose tariffs on the Allied goods until 1925, and the transfer of German patents to the Allied forces. After the war the Germany economy had been crippled, and was slow to recover. Essentially recovery came when the restrictions on Germany had been ignored.

Following the First World War, commonly referred to as the ‘War to end all wars’ due to its severity and the damage it had caused, a peace needed to be drawn between the nations involved to settle the punishments for the nations who lost and also a plan to ensure that something like this would never occur again. This peace conference is the center of much debate amongst historians with two dominant views, one being that the victory nations acted out of revenge towards the losing nations and laid the seeds for not only World War Two but future conflicts and the other view that the victory nations acted out of necessity