The War Guilt Clause

The War Guilt Clause [article 231] was the opening article of the reparations section of the Treaty of Versailles. The article stated one of the most controversial points as it specified:

The restrictions imposed by the Versailles treaty created a social and economic depression in Germany, with widespread bitterness among its people. The allies placed a huge burden on Germany to pay for the cost of World War I that had just occured. This act alone essentially spelled doom for the Wiemar Republic and a peaceful Germany. The people of Germany felt the Treaty was an insult to their honour, and that they were not the only guilty player in the war. Also, by their

Eventually, the Treaty of Versailles was signed to officially end the war. This peace treaty was negotiated with the intent of permanently crippling the German economy. The terms were extremely harsh for the Germans. The Allies made the following demands: Germany’s armed forces were to be severely restricted in terms of numbers and weapons, Germany was to lose all of its colonies to Britain and France, Germany had to admit that it was responsible for starting the war, and finally, the Germans had to reimburse the Allies for the enormous destruction that the war had caused. To make sure the Germans agreed with their terms, the Allies threatened to invade Germany, leaving them with no choice but to comply with the treaty.

In 1923, Belgium and France invaded the Ruhr due to Germany’s failure to repay the massive reparation payments. They entered industrialised areas of Germany resulting in workers striking which caused problems and had a devastating effect on the German economy. In order to help with the strike and reparations the government printed more money.

The Treaty of Versailles formed after World War I forced Germany to pay great amounts in reparation payments, which was severely damaging to their economy and to their collective national ego. In addition, they were forced to greatly weaken their army by demobilizing, abolishing universal compulsory military service, and by having their army be comprised by no more than seven divisions of infantry and three divisions of cavalry. Furthermore, the country was also forced to return lands which they had viewed as 'Germanic' and had laid claim to, as well as overseas colonies, back to various other countries.

The Treaty of Versailles blamed Germany for the losses France experienced in World War I. The treaty required Germany to pay for these losses. Germany was required to pay France 132 billion marks in reparations. This fine was excessive in order to show that Germany was weak and to further weaken the German government. This caused inflation. The German government inflated the amount of money so much that it became so worthless that people used

The Treaty of Versailles was a truly cruel document and expressed a large dislike for Germany. The document had a myriad of demands and if they weren 't met, then extortion was used to achieve goals. The treaty caused many hardships such as limiting the army down to almost nothing, stopped the building of large ships and took away submarines completely. Also, Great Britain and France collected money for all the damage the war had caused. To pay its war debts the country borrowed money from America, but soon after it stopped when the Great Depression began.2 In result, Germany had it 's very depression that was so severe the money ended up having almost little to no worth.

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

In the Treaty of Versailles, Article 232 states that Germany must make monetary payments to the allies as the result of the damage Germany created during the battle (Hooper). This article creates a biased point of view since it was originally a peace treaty. The allies made such ridiculous requests relating forcing Germany pay for all the damages when everyone was at fault. Germany’s economy spiraled down due to the reparations they had to pay; they lost all of their money because they gave it away to the allies due to the damages they made in the war. As their economy quickly fell apart, their currency lost its value. The downfall of the economy affected the people because millions of people lost their jobs due to lack of money. In addition to the downfall of the German economy, Adolf Hitler gained power due to the promises he made to the German people (Smith 2). He promised to stop the reparation payments, to give jobs and food to the people, which make them forget the humiliation they had post-WWI making them proud to be a part of Germany again. Hitler was able to get the necessary attention due to the promises he made, which got him the power he

The Treaty of Versailles ended the First World War between Germany and the allied powers. Because Germany had lost the war, the treaty was very harsh and unforgiving against Germany. Germany was forced to “accept the responsibility” of starting the war and had to pay the allies a whopping 6,600 million pounds, which at the time was a staggering amount of money.

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

Second, the reparations of the Versailles Treaty further stalled Germanys attempt at a Democracy by critically maiming its economy. Germany,

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.

The mandate of Article(s) 231 and 232 , (respectively titled “The War Guilt Clause” and “Reparations”) of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28th, 1919 served as unintentional catalysts for the arise of revisionism in post-war Germany, and its fall out of the international order following the Paris Peace Conference. These two articles politically, socially, and economically ravaged Germany, and created societal circumstances in which a totalitarian dictatorship (the National Socialist German Workers Party or “Nazi” party) gained popularity and was viewed as necessary in order for Germany to be restored to its former status as an economic and political world power. The national humiliation and economic burden that Articles 231 and 232 created injured German pride, strained its economy and triggered a resentful and hostile outlook to the “new peace” that the Allied leaders believed they had formulated. The German people viewed this as a “dictated peace” (Diktat) that had been enforced on them. It was seen by Germany as an unfair, un-justified and un-realistic punishment for losing the war, and instead of creating a long-term and prosperous peace on the European continent, the guilt and reparations of Articles 231 and 232 ignited a flame of vengeance in Germany that would evolve into an ultra-nationalist inferno and consume the world into a second and even more devastating and savage war.

An economic failure in the result to the treaty was hyperinflation. It occurred due to the given amount of reparation payments, which were up in the multiple millions. The war had left the German economy disastrous already, and inflation was rising quickly. The banks started to print more bank notes to solve the problem. The harsh effect, however, was that the money became worthless, as less goods were there to be sold, and so heavy inflation followed. Germany could only pay its first reparation with its industrial products (a prime source for employment, and exports, thus the stability of the economy.) so when Germany declared they couldn't pay the second instalment, the French invaded the Ruhr, the main source of industrial activity for Germany. The government's response was to encourage strikes; this only led two to things; less German produce, with workers still needing to be paid. In attempt to correct this, government printed even more bank notes. Heavy inflation soared to hyperinflation. The middle class saw their savings being brought to no value, right through to the workers not being able to buy a loaf of bread. This shows a chain of failures from the republic- it contributed to the commencement of hyperinflation, and therefore the invasion of the Ruhr- loss of industrial economy. Generally,