As previously mentioned in this article, some historians argue that Article 231 was implemented to justify the reparations Britain and France (the allies) enforced on Germany. At first the sum decided upon by the allies was £6,600 million, which, by the standards of the early twentieth century was an exceedingly large amount. Many in the Weimar Republic thought this sum to large, as did many outside of it. Germany’s government was forced to borrow from banks in the USA in order to pay these reparations, which was ludicrous since the main reason that the allies needed the reparations was to repay loans given during the war years from US banks. Germany soon began to default on payments because its own economic situation was poor and getting poorer. It would eventually recover during the Streseman years but that did not affect the short term where the value of the German mark sunk like a stone, and soon became next to worthless; indeed people soon used bank notes to light fires and children used stacks of money as toys. During times of extreme economic hardship the people will obviously lose support for their government, more than this they begin to look towards extremist groups as would be proven during the later Wall Street Crash. Extremist left wing groups such as the KPD became popular with the working classes who were receiving no pay due to the economic climate. One of the other fast-growing political group was Hitler’s National Socialists, this group was fast becoming popular because they stood up against the Treaty of Versailles but now also promising Germans prosperity, full employment and national unity, through ridding Germany of its ‘impurities’; such as the Jews. Many people in the German middle classes soon began to believe the Nazi propaganda and many soon became very impressed by it. Therefore, it can be seen that the reparations clauses of the Versailles Treaty were damaging both in the long term, through encouraging support for extremists within Germany, and the short term through causing the massive devaluation of the mark.
There were military stipulations in the Treaty of Versailles with the aim of safeguarding France’s borders from another German attack, this in the long run, of course, failed. These clauses said that Germany’s military should be significantly reduced in terms of size and striking power. More significantly, Germany’s army was to be no larger than 100,000 men, conscription was outlawed, tanks and armoured cars were not allowed either. Military aircraft and submarines were not permitted, and Germany’s surface navy was to be limited to six battleships as a maximum. The weakened army meant that internal strife was difficult to deal with, indeed the government had to enlist the support of the Freikorps, who were ex-soldiers that took a course similar to that of a mercenary. The evident weakness in the army may have been one of the factors that encouraged the use of violent revolt in an attempt to gain power. In 1919 a Spartacist rising occurred, led by communists, particularly Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemborg, during which almost every major city in Germany was overrun, the Freikorps came to the government’s rescue, in the event over a thousand casualties were sustained including the two leaders, who were clubbed to death. A similar uprising led by the right-wing Wolfgang Kapp was successful and led to a short change in the hands of power, this was quickly changed back when Kapp failed to gain widespread support. The French also took advantage of Weimar’s weakness by occupying the Ruhr when reparations payments faltered. The Weimar Republic was born out of the Versailles Treaty with an inherent weakness that was exploited both inside and out of Germany, and hence endangering the future of the republic.
Germany lost a lot of land thanks to the Versailles Treaty particularly to the east where the new country Poland was created. Many Germans were now under the control of foreign governments. This inspired much anger and resent within the German nation, it also inspired imperial hopes in extremists such as the Nazis, who made a promise to unite all German speaking people, many in Germany supported this point of view. Once again the people, in supporting extremists were undermining the Weimar government.
The main damage caused by the Treaty of Versailles was to the pride and on the minds of the average German. Many Germans rightly claimed that it was a dictated peace or (Diktat) rather than a fair one. The differences between the allied leaders in terms of what they wanted as an outcome of the Treaty meant that it was neither too harsh nor too lenient, and so sat in the middle rather uselessly. The combination of it being so harsh as to strongly damage the Germans pride in what Hugo Preuss described as ‘a shameless blow in the face’ yet so lenient that it could rise again and cause the damage it did in World War 2 is proof of its ineffectiveness. The Weimar Republic was with a huge disability through the Versailles Treaty;
‘That it did not collapse immediately under the strain is striking proof of the intrinsic vitality of its basic principles; but its implementation and evolution were inevitably fatefully restricted and lamed thereby.’
The different stipulations of the Versailles Treaty meant that there would need to be significant change in Germany before it could become a major power once more, an idea thoroughly popular with the majority of Germans. This meant that the Weimar Republic and its government was effectively doomed from the outset. It was perhaps unfortunate that the treaty was not harsh enough that Germany was permanently weakened as George Clemenceau wanted, extremist views such as those of Hitler may then have been dismissed as delusional, and hence, Europe and the World may have been saved from the evils of Nazism.