The impact of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany

When the treaty was agreed by the German government Germany went into anarchy, the public were outraged and there was an immediate revolution, the Kapp Putsch. The revolution was stopped by a general strike which stopped vital services like power and transport. The public were angrier at their government and the disorder intensified.

The German government continued paying the reparations however in 1922 the German government could not afford the payment to the French. A year later the French and Belgium troops went into the Ruhr, an industrial region and started taking the reparations in the form of raw materials and goods which was completely legal according to the treaty. Doing this the French had damaged the German economy so they would not be able to pay the future instalments for the reparations.

Before the French could loot all the materials the German government started a strike in the Ruhr which slowed German trade to a stand-still.

The French attacked the protestors to try to stop the protests and excluded over 100,000 of the protestors from the Ruhr. They still took what was owed to them and took control of the Ruhr. This meant there was no trade which meant the whole of Germany was bankrupt.

In source 18 France is represented by a giant woman who is in the Ruhr and is controlling it. In the cartoon France is made out to be evil, intended to create a public hate of France in Germany. The text on the cartoon says “hands of the Ruhr”. This clearly shows that the German hatred of the treaty of Versailles was increasing by the day. There is a spilled bucket of coal on the floor of the picture which implies that the French having the raw materials is a waste and that Germany needs it to survive almost.

Germany had no trade and no money so they started printing new money to pay with. This caused hyper inflation and in one case “an Englishmen who before the war had lent £6000 in marks; when they were repaid, they were worth about 87p”. This shows how much inflation there was, most people traded goods for goods instead of using their money. In 1918 a loaf of bread in Germany cost 0.63 marks. By the start of 1923 the same bread cost 250 marks. By November 1923 a loaf of bread cost 201,000,000,000 marks.

The treaty of Versailles made Germany lose all her colonies which it had got raw materials from and helped trade. The Saar coal fields were lost which meant they could no longer sell coal. The loss of this trade instantly made Germany less powerful and poor. The events in 1923 made Germany completely broke with no chance at all of paying the reparations.

The Treaty of Versailles restricted the German army to 100,000 men and only 6 naval ships, no submarines or planes. This destroyed German pride because the German power and strength was its military. They were extremely scared of invasion because they had no way to protect themselves.

Even the government of Germany began to dislike The Treaty of Versailles because the League of Nations was setup without inviting Germany. This was very insulting to the German government and made them agree with the public, which meant the whole of Germany not just single people hated The Treaty of Versailles.

The Treaty of Versailles singularly blamed Germany for World War one which added to the anger in Germany. Everything that agreed to The Treaty of Versailles was hated.

The hatred in Germany quickly evolved into revenge and that prepared for another war.