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The French indemnity was $342B in 2011 dollars, according to Wikipedia. The Versailles reparations were formally $389B in 2011 dollars, but apparently the way t

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.

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.