Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles marked the end of World War I in 1919 and began what could be considered the worst time period of Germany. The Treaty of Versailles, which was imposed by Allied forces, created a time of turmoil and economic distress for the Germans. It forced demilitarization, demanded steep reparations that were impossible to repay, and created political instability throughout the country.

            After the Treaty of Versailles, the entire mood of the Germans was in the doldrums. The sense of nationalism was basically zero. “The government experienced sixteen different governments, on the average a new one every eight and a half months (p. 207, Hagan).” With the lack of political stability that Germany faced during this time, there is not wonder that a radical leader, like Hitler, came to power. The political stability faced by Germans made it extremely difficult for any sort of economic policies to come into act. With the exuberate amount reparations needed to be paid, it was crucial that well thought out, intelligent policies were put into act during this time. France began to figure out that Germany could not and would not pay back these reparations, and decided to take it forcibly. France based troops at the largest coalmine in Germany but this plan backfired when the Germans formed a labor strike. This labor strike ended up being more of a burden on the Germans than the French because now coal had to be imported to Germany. The expensive taxes on the imported coal eventually lead to an “enormous deficit that could only be made up by printing more money (p. 210, Hagan.)”  As a result, hyperinflation eventually began, sending the country and its economy into a downward spiral. With hyperinflation happening, the worth of money was essentially zero if you did not trade it in for goods. Germany basically regressed into the barter system. The distrust in the government was at an all time high. The worth of their currency was abysmal, there hasn’t been a powerful political party in act in fourteen years, and there has been no government-backed military was in power for over a decade. 

Finally the Dawes Act of 1923, lessened the reparations and other sanctions of the Treaty of Versailles, and a time of peace occurred in Germany for ten years. After basically nothing was done about the government during that decade, the people felt like a change was needed. The Germans who read Hitler’s Mein Kampf became extremely optimistic of the future because of his political views. Hitler’s radical ideologies about an authoritarian government, strong military views, and an economy based on the production of war vehicle and weapons were exactly what many Germans were looking for after such as long period of a weak democratic government.

The Treaty of Versailles, obviously unknown at this point in history, perfectly set up Hitler and his Nazi regime. This being said, I believe that the Treaty of Versailles is one of the major documents in German history that radically shifted and changed the thoughts of Germans at this time. Without the large reparations and demilitarization that came from this Treaty, there would have never been the period of political confusion instability and that eventually created this distaste in democracy that the Germans had at this time period. Although the Nazi regime was a terrible time for Germany during this time period, it is undoubtedly one of the most important and influential times in not only German history but also World history. The Treaty of Versailles was initially created to prevent another World War from occurring, but eventually caused WWII. This is why the Treaty of Versailles is the most interesting and influential topic in these chapters.