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> The last payment of the indemnity was paid in early September 1873 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_in

> The last payment of the indemnity was paid in early September 1873 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity Not sure you're comparing apples with apples here.

microtherion 4y ago
The French indemnity was $342B in 2011 dollars, according to Wikipedia. The Versailles reparations were formally $389B in 2011 dollars, but apparently the way the treaty was structured, only $147B were actually expected to be paid. The difference was that the French paid promptly, and the Germans did not.
- Alupis 4y ago
  The Germans (if I remember my 8th grade history class correctly) printed money to be able to afford the reparations - which led to the hyperinflation and famous pictures of folks with literal wheel-barrows full of Marks going to buy basics like bread and newspaper. The inability to afford the reparations outright, and the "solution" which led to hyperinfaltion is part of the catalyst that allowed extreme resentment over handling of the treaty, and ultimately the rise of fascism.
  - microtherion 4y ago
    The reparations certainly did not help the balance of payments, but printing money as such did not really help the German government pay the reparations — they were not denominated in Reichsmark, after all, and could not be inflated away. Printing money was a domestic political decision, because the government could not agree to raise taxes (or cut social spending). Much of the seed of fascism was laid in the strength of parties who never believed in democracy in the first place (discussed in some detail by Daniel Ziblatt in _Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy_) and unchecked activity of political movements who never accepted the defeat in WW I. The latter started right at the end of WWI, when Ludendorff and Hindenburg, the German military (and for much of 1916-1918 de facto government) leaders, refused to take responsibility for the armistice and pretended that it was the politicians who had forced it on an "undefeated army". Arguably, the German military command was treated too leniently after WW I. Hanging those two (like their counterparts were after WW II) might have saved millions of lives.
shakow 4y ago
France paid in 1871 a sum in the same ballpark than Germany should have paid in 1918. The difference was that France paid in full and in advance (so much in full that the cash influx actually caused a crash in Germany – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity#Aftermath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity#Aftermath), whereas Germany tergiversed, delayed, and printed money like their was no tomorrow, sacrificing their econoomy on the altar of spiting their debtor – which eventually turned into their favor, as their reparations were shrinked to virtually nothing. Sources: Tooze, Wage of Destruction; Memories of a Magician, Schacht.
- dmichulke 4y ago
  The same amount of money can be a lot or little for the same country, depending on a lot of things. Length of war, manpower losses, economic contraction due to the war, revolutions, famine?
  - shakow 4y ago
    No: e.g. the USSR paid the Brest-Litovsk reparation while being in the middle of its revolutionary war, France paid Versailles (1871) in a few years while being in the middle of its own Commune. According to Versailles, Germany had actually to pay a third of the total sum in over a decade, all the while having the only intact industrial basis in Europe. It was absolutely doable, had they not adopted the most inane economical policies of the time, and scuttled their economy to spite the Entente.

microtherion 4y ago

The French indemnity was $342B in 2011 dollars, according to Wikipedia. The Versailles reparations were formally $389B in 2011 dollars, but apparently the way the treaty was structured, only $147B were actually expected to be paid. The difference was that the French paid promptly, and the Germans did not.

Alupis 4y ago
The Germans (if I remember my 8th grade history class correctly) printed money to be able to afford the reparations - which led to the hyperinflation and famous pictures of folks with literal wheel-barrows full of Marks going to buy basics like bread and newspaper. The inability to afford the reparations outright, and the "solution" which led to hyperinfaltion is part of the catalyst that allowed extreme resentment over handling of the treaty, and ultimately the rise of fascism.
- microtherion 4y ago
  The reparations certainly did not help the balance of payments, but printing money as such did not really help the German government pay the reparations — they were not denominated in Reichsmark, after all, and could not be inflated away. Printing money was a domestic political decision, because the government could not agree to raise taxes (or cut social spending). Much of the seed of fascism was laid in the strength of parties who never believed in democracy in the first place (discussed in some detail by Daniel Ziblatt in _Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy_) and unchecked activity of political movements who never accepted the defeat in WW I. The latter started right at the end of WWI, when Ludendorff and Hindenburg, the German military (and for much of 1916-1918 de facto government) leaders, refused to take responsibility for the armistice and pretended that it was the politicians who had forced it on an "undefeated army". Arguably, the German military command was treated too leniently after WW I. Hanging those two (like their counterparts were after WW II) might have saved millions of lives.

shakow 4y ago

France paid in 1871 a sum in the same ballpark than Germany should have paid in 1918. The difference was that France paid in full and in advance (so much in full that the cash influx actually caused a crash in Germany – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity#Aftermath https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_indemnity#Aftermath), whereas Germany tergiversed, delayed, and printed money like their was no tomorrow, sacrificing their econoomy on the altar of spiting their debtor – which eventually turned into their favor, as their reparations were shrinked to virtually nothing. Sources: Tooze, Wage of Destruction; Memories of a Magician, Schacht.

dmichulke 4y ago
The same amount of money can be a lot or little for the same country, depending on a lot of things. Length of war, manpower losses, economic contraction due to the war, revolutions, famine?
- shakow 4y ago
  No: e.g. the USSR paid the Brest-Litovsk reparation while being in the middle of its revolutionary war, France paid Versailles (1871) in a few years while being in the middle of its own Commune. According to Versailles, Germany had actually to pay a third of the total sum in over a decade, all the while having the only intact industrial basis in Europe. It was absolutely doable, had they not adopted the most inane economical policies of the time, and scuttled their economy to spite the Entente.