Treaty Of Versailles Flashcards
What Germans expected after the war
Assumed that the Allies would want to help them and give their new government a good chance to establish itself
Most Germans felt that all ountries should bear equal blame for the First World War
What was it that Germany got after WWI?
War Guilt
Reparations
Military Restrictions
Territorial Losses
What was the War Guilt?
Article 231 of the Treaty said that Germany was to blame for causing the war.
What were the Reparations?
Allies claimed reparations for damages.
Special commissin fixed a sum of 6.6 billion pounts (132 gold marks) (today $400 billion) to be paid in annual instalments.
Treaty took away 10% of Germany’s instalments + 15% of its agricultural land
Lost oversea colonies
What were the Miltary Restrictions?
Air force was to be disbanded
Army was limited to 100,000 soldiers
Navy was limited to 15,000 sailers, only 6 battleships and no submarines
Rhineland would be occupied by the Allies for fifteen years and no German troops were allowed in the area.
What were the territorial Losses?
Germany lost 13% of its land, containing about 6 million.
West Prussia and Posen were lost to Poland
What were the areas lost and to who?
Eupen and Lamedy to Belgium
Northern Schleswig to Denmark
Part of Upper Silesia to Poland
Danzig was taken over by the League of Nations as a free city
Memel was taken over by the League but eventually taken by Lithuania in 1923.
The Saarland was taken over by the League of nations for fifteen years
How does Germany react?
New Government had refused to sign the Treaty at first
- Believed it was unfair
Powerful myth developed ‘Dolchstosslegende’ - ‘Stab in the back’
- Believed that the army had been stabbed in the back by weak politicians
Treaty became a symbol of Germany’s humiliation and defeat.
Many Germans resented the Treaty
- This resentment posed a great threat to the stability of the Weimar Republic.
Many of the demobbed soldiers joined the Freikorps
- March 1920, Freikorps units were led by Wolfgang Kapp who marched into Berlin and declared a new national government.
- The strike was successful, as Ebert’s government had returned to Berlin
