German War Reparations

This semester is my final semester. I took some time away from college and now decided it was time to finish my degree. I had 3 class left to take. One in which was senior seminar. I had to write a 23 page paper on Germany's World War 1 reparations.  So here's the long and the short:

Germany had to pay reparations after it lost WW1. The Treaty of Versailles was held by the Victorious Allies. They decided how to deal with Germany after the defeat. They made Germany pay reparations for the war damages Europe experienced. Germany had to pay 160,000,000,000 marks to the Allies. The number amount changed soon after, 50,000,000,000. Why the change? The Alies didn't believe Germany could pay the original amount, so they adjusted what would be paid. Germany was supposed to make annual installments over a 30 year period. For 13 years, 1919-1932 the German government would try to dodge payments and they did. The total amount paid is somewhere between 8-25 billion. Germany Stopped paying during the great depression and the German banking crisis. They officially put the payments on hold. The Allies agreed to allow this course of action. Once Hitler took power in 1933 he cancelled all Allied loan payments. In 1953,  Germany would agree to make WWI reparations once it was reunified. In 1995, the country started repayment and in October of 2010 Germany made it's final reparations..

The topic is quite complex.  It was a point of contention for Germany and France. Germany viewed the payment as a national humiliation. To say it wasn't popular with the public or the government would be an understatement. The French were desperate for the financial support the reparations would bring. After all, the German army destroyed industry in France, crippling their internal infrastructure. The two countries would fight over payment, while the U.S. and Britain reluctantly backed France on a number of occasions. National pride fueled the reparations saga. The reparations were symbolic for the French and Germans, but in polar opposite ways.

At this point, a concensus of of scholarly opinions agree that Germany had the capacity to pay, but did not have the will. In retrospect the reparations saga was pretty much a disaster.

That's all I got for now. I enjoyed the project and thought it would be nice to summarize. 

Until next time.