The War Guilt Clause And Reparations

This essay analyses the origins of the Second World War by briefly summarizing the events from 1919-1939. However, most emphasis is put on the amount of responsibility the Treaty of Versailles deserves for the outbreak of war. Other than analysing the Treaty of Versailles on its own, it also analyses the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash on the world, the rise of Fascism and Nazism, as well as the rise of Adolf Hitler, the failure of the League of Nations and the appeasement of the Fascist and Nazi regimes by Britain and France throughout the 1930s. Hence the Treaty of Versailles plays a

Known as the War Guilt Clause, this article of the treaty was purely meant to humiliate the country for being the last to surrender as the Allies, the United States, Great Britain, France, and Russia, along with the countries allied with Germany had played just as big of a part in starting WWI as Germany had. German citizens recognized and abhorred the unjust clause and wanted to gain their respect back. Thus, when Hitler and the Nazi party came to power the German citizens supported him because he had begun to restore the country’s lost

In addition to the damaging consequences of the First World War with the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles, certain features of Germany caused the state to be susceptible to the influence of this dangerous ideology. Along with the damage to the national ego as a result of the First World War, Germany had co-existing and conflicting highly modern strands of development forced to integrate with powerful remnants of archaic values and social structures, and had a deeply fractured parliamentary political system, and the weaknesses of this system reflected the social and political differences within the population. This shame and failure after World War I was superimposed onto a modern country which once had an advanced economy, a sophisticated state

The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28th 1919 by the Germans in order to obtain world peace. However, this agreement seemed to only provoke the nation. According to the clauses of the document, Germany would have to pay for all damages caused by the war and they even had to claim full responsibility for initiating the war, often referred to as the War Guilt Clause. The German population also felt resentment with the government for giving away so much land to the various countries that had won the war. Around the time of the treaty, Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party was getting much attention because of his promising ideas to reduce unemployment which was a crisis that was caused by the depression of

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

Following the destruction of World War I, Adolf Hitler despised the Treaty of Versailles force on Germany, thus promising German citizens that if he were to be in power, he would overturn the Treaty of Versailles to give back germany ‘her pride’. The end of World War I occurred with a selection of German individuals, flying to Paris and signing the treaty of Versailles which stated that germany was at fault for the war, and needed to sacrifice land and 6000 million in reparations paid in installments. Before in power, hitler was mortified, believing that germany were suffering for things which they did not deserve, Hitler directed his hatred for the Treat into his power-striven promises to the public. It was promised that if the Nazi’s were to be in power, that the treaty of Versailles would be ‘abolished’ , with the aim to decrease the inflation caused by the taxes used to pay for the reparations. This appealed greatly to the German working class,, with mass unemployment and hunger swiftly increasing. According to Hitler, germany had lost ‘he her

What if your world changed in a moment, a quick yet tedious second in which you knew nothing would be the same? Realizing that your world was falling apart crumbling at the edges, the cascading pieces taking away those you love and your will to survive. This is what many felt like after the treaty of Versailles was signed by the November criminals, but many German natives suffered the treaty’s repercussions decades after the treaty was signed. This formal agreement was significant in Germany from 1919 to 1939 because it led to Hitler’s rise to power, distrust among German citizens, and a newfound opposition to all those who created the treaty.

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 brought an end to democracy in Germany as it was harsh on the government and the people. The War Guilt Clause in the treaty made Germany solely responsible for the cause of the war and its damages. Germany had to pay huge war reparations and give up land to surrounding nations. Furthermore, the War-Guilt Clause creates anger among civilians as many sailors sink their fleets rather than handing them over to Britain. Also Germans felt humiliated from the War-Guilt Clause due to believing they were wining. Moreover, Germany could not afford the large reparation payments; hence the government began printing extreme amounts of money. The French and Belgium troops seized Ruhr, an industrial heart of Germany. Slowly the value

The signing of the Treaty of Versailles on the twenty second of June in 1919, would forever psychologically be associated with the long term bitterness and humiliation of the German public towards the German democracy. The civilian government who agreed to the terms of the treaty, which saw German suffer a deduction in their army, forced to pay high reparations, deduction of land and population were after known as the “November Criminals. However factors such as nationalism, the democratic Constitution, lack of democratic tradition within Germany society, pushes from the extreme left, the army and pushes from the extreme right saw the German

On the 18th of November 1918, the guns fell silent, the Great War was ended as an Armistice was signed with Germany. Two months later in January 1919, delegates from all over the world came to Paris to conclude the peace settlement that would end the war. Six months of intense discussions and debates ended up on the signing of Treaty of Versailles. Three major figures dominated the peace making, with the less noticeable presence of a forth one, that are namely: the American president Wilson, the French Prime Minister Clemenceau, and the British Prime Minister Lloyd Georges and the passive Italy personified by the Prime Minister Orlando. Those peacemakers are seen by many (scholars, historians, politics…) as injudicious and dogmatic. They were also perceived as vindictive with respect to the fate they have reserved to Germany. But on the other hand many historians and scholars revisited the series of events that took place at Paris in 1919 and challenge the view that this peace was a truncated one. These authors argue that the Peace conference was a real attempt to reshape the international system with an innovative concept breaking with the old balance of power that presided over Europe’s destiny for over a century. The peacemakers faced dilemmas that still hold a grip on the world today (the ethnic-nationalism issue). Albeit the Peace of Versailles showed many flaws and imprecision regarding the actions to take within the framework of the collective security, it

In order to fully understand the role the Treaty of Versailles played in the initial upcoming of Adolf Hitler, we must first delve into the reasoning behind German involvement in World War One. Since the late 1800s, Germany was intent on expanding its borders, by any means necessary. Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of Germany, was obsessed with his desire to “create a German Empire out of the group of smaller German states” mainly under Austria-Hungary’s authority (Schmidt, 2006). In order to expel Austria as the primary influence over these smaller German states, war was inevitable. Subsequently following the war, also known as the Seven Weeks War, Bismarck extorted the small German states of “Schleswig, Holstein, Hanover, Hesse, Nassau, and Frankfurt, which created the North German Federation” (Schmidt, 2006). Even more importantly, Austria was successfully displaced as the major influence over those small German states. Bismarck’s next calculated move was to achieve the same unification in the southern parts of Germany.

Therefore, the humiliating Treaty came as a rude shock to the German people who, correspondingly, blamed the politicians for betraying the soldiers in signing the armistice and saw them as compounding their treason by accepting the peace settlement. They spoke of the ‘November criminals’ and protested “A nation of seventy million suffers, but does not die.” These factors propagated in the promotion of anti republican feeling, the conclusions of which were clearly reflected in the results of the election of June 1920.

(4) Using these sources and your own knowledge, analyze the reasons for German resentment of the Treaty of Versailles of 1919. [8 marks]