Germany marks the end of an era this Sunday when, 92 years after the end of hostilities, it will make the last of its First World War reparations payments that once provoked a wave of resentment strong enough to sweep Adolf Hitler to power.
The payment date, which coincides with the 20th anniversary of Germany's peaceful reunification, will quietly close the last chapter of a conflict that arguably did more than any other to shape the nation's future.
Germany's debt derives from the massively unpopular 1919 Versailles Treaty.
This Sunday, Berlin will pay the last interest instalment on foreign bonds issued in 1924 and 1930 to cover the huge reparations demands made by the victorious First World War Allies.
The event will take place without ceremony and, despite its historical significance, has received only scant public attention, largely because it is a reminder of a terrible period that most Germans would rather forget.
Gerd Krumeich, a Great War historian, said that Germans' sense of injustice was stirred by the despised article 231 of the Versailles Treaty, which gave Germany sole blame for the outbreak of the war and forced it to make massive reparation payments. That sense of injustice, he said, was quickly seized upon by Hitler.
"The central factor behind Hitler's rise to power was his promise: 'I'll win this war in the end, I will undo this injustice, tear up this treaty and restore Germany to its old greatness," he told Der Spiegel magazine. "The reparations payments compounded everything. Not only was Germany morally to blame, it was also to pay an outlandish sum most people had never even heard of."
The sheer scale of the reparations, plus galloping inflation, was enough to bankrupt the unsteady Weimar Republic of the 1920s. Germany's reparations bill was set at the then mind-boggling figure of 269 billion gold marks before it was reduced to 112 billion gold marks, payable over 59 years, during the 1920s.
Germany suspended payments during the Great Depression and Hitler refused to continue them when he came to power in 1933. But, in 1953, West Germany agreed to honour its Great War reparation obligations. Communist East Germany, however, declined.
It was agreed that Germany should be allowed to wait until it was reunited before paying some 125 million euros in outstanding interest on foreign debt accrued after 1945. The fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 followed by Germany's reunification less than a year later fulfilled the conditions of the agreement.
- THE INDEPENDENT
I had no idea the war reparations from WW1 were still being paid off.
It seems like a stunningly significant event that has gone all but unnoticed in the media.
Talk about saddling your great-grand children with debt. How are you Yanks going with the cost of that kerfuffle in Iraq?
They aren't. IIRC what's being paid off here is the interest on the loans given to the Weimar Republic to pay for WWI reparations. The reparations themselves were stopped after WWII.
And, in any case, I fail to see how this has anything to do with the US and Iraq?
Only a tangential reference; War + large debt = Maybe your grandkids will pay it off in 90 years.
So, not literally war reparations then. The impression I got from the article was that it took 90 years for Germany to pay off the debts it incurred re: WW1. Maybe not directly and yes with ups and downs and two semi-defaults, but shit, still paying for the after effects of a war 90 years on. I was a little boggled by that.
I guess people do that with unexploded munitions anyway, so its only like an economic version of an existing reality of war...
Okay, so, stupid question.... will this make any German deficits smaller and improve economic statistics in a way that the EU economy might gain some steam, even if only a little? Or is it more symbolic? It seems that Germany is paying a debt in Euros to countries it owed that are also in Euros, and in an integrated economy, so in a way it is... paying itself, just laundering the money through its neighbors.
Is "Michael" confused, in his little nightgown and cap?
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
Eh, it's no big thing. It doesn't get a big mention in most german news, it's at best a historical footnote. It won't change anyones financial situation by much, so most people around here don't actually care.
SoS:NBAGALE Force "Destiny and fate are for those too weak to forge their own futures. Where we are 'supposed' to be is irrelevent." - Sir Nitram
"The world owes you nothing but painful lessons" - CaptainChewbacca
"The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of a mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one." - Wilhelm Stekel
"In 1969 it was easier to send a man to the Moon than to have the public accept a homosexual" - Broomstick Divine Administration - of Gods and Bureaucracy (Worm/Exalted)
It was 125 MILLION Euro - that's less than their annual budget for paperclips, I suppose...
A minute's thought suggests that the very idea of this is stupid. A more detailed examination raises the possibility that it might be an answer to the question "how could the Germans win the war after the US gets involved?" - Captain Seafort, in a thread proposing a 1942 'D-Day' in Quiberon Bay
According to the official budget, its only just shy of 70 million euro. Also, Germany didn't pay for 90 years, as some seem tp assume. In 1953 the western allies and West Germany agreed that the payments would be resumed after the eventual reunification. Thus Germany started paying in 1991.
This is pre-WWII. You can sort of tell from the sketch style, from thee way it refers to Japan (Japan in the 1950s was still rebuilding from WWII), the spelling of Tokyo, lots of details. Nothing obvious... except that the upper right hand corner of the page reads "November 1931." --- Simon_Jester
It might be one chapter of the first world war coming to an end but I wonder how long until the iron harvest finishes, especially the iron harvest containing chemical weapons.
All people are equal but some people are more equal than others.
