Another German objection over the Treaty of Versailles was on the general harshness of the treaty. The treaty demanded that Germany lose a significant amount of territory; she lost all colonial possessions, she lost Alsace-Lorraine to France, a large amount of land to Poland as well as land to Belgium and Denmark. Also the Rhineland was to be a demilitarised zone. The German army was restricted to only 100 000 men, and they were only allowed a restricted navy, no air force no tanks and no conscription. The treaty also said the Germans would have to pay reparations and although the amount was not specified, the Germans knew it would be big. These terms were very harsh, especially since Germany was one of the five major powers and was having to recover after the war, just like every other country involved. The harshness of the treaty is another good reason for the German unhappiness with the treaty and helps to justify their objections to it.
One of the main objections by the German government was over Clause 231, the War Guilt clause. They did not like this treaty as they thought that it was not fair to blame the entire war on Germany because in their opinion the allies were also partly responsible. They also did not want to pay the huge reparations that would be justified by the War Guilt clause. Their reason for this objection was that the Germans had to pay reparations then the German people as a whle would be paying for the actions of the previous government, who were no longer in power. They also said that Germans who were not even born yet would be suffering in the future because of the reparations. These seem to be reasonable points and do seem to justify the German objection to the reparations.
The Germans expected a treaty based on the fourteen points, and as part of the Reichstag Resolution in 1917 they said they would work towards a "peace of understanding ...... based on the fourteen points". The Treaty of Versailles was also drawn up by the American President Wilson who was the person who came up with the fourteen points. However, there are parts of the treaty that do not agree with the fourteen points such as point 4, the reduction of armaments to the lowest point consistent with domestic security. You could argue that 100 000 men was not consistent with domestic security. Therefore the fact that the treaty was not based on the fourteen points means that it is hypocritical and so justifies the German objections to it.
However, there are a couple of points that seem to make the German objections sound unreasonable and unjustified. The first point is the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that the Germans negotiated with the Bolsheviks earlier in March 1918. This treaty was incrediably harsh on the Russians, they lost about a third of European Russia, some of the most fertile land controlled by the Russians. She lost 45 million of her population and the Bolsheviks were ordered to pay three billion roubles - more than they could possibly afford. Russia also lost a lot of its manufacturing capacity, almost a fifth of its total industrial output. The sheer harshness of this treaty shows that it was very hypocritical of Germany to complain about the harshness of Versailles, when they had just dictated an even harsher treaty with the Bolsheviks when they wanted to leave the war.
There is also the potential of what the treaty would have been like if Germany had won the war; the evidence seems to point towards it being as harsh, if not harsher than the treay of Versailles. The first point is the treaty of Brest-Litovsk, a very harsh treaty dictated by Germany and supported by the majority of the Reichstag despite the Reichstag Resolution published a year before, asking for a "peace of understanding". This seems to point towards a potentially harsh treaty from the Germans if they had won. Germany was also relying heavily on foriegn loans, loans that were only taken with the idea that they would pay them back from the losing opponents reparations. This suggests that they would also have demanded reparations from the loser.
These points seem to give an idea of the holes in the Germans objections to Versailles. However, from all these points I think that the overall harshness and hypocracy behind the treaty outweigh these holes, and I think that the German objections were justified. The fact that the treaty was a 'Diktat' treaty shows that it was not fair on Germany. I also think that the winning allies would have been much better off if they had given Germany a less harsh treaty and not tried to destroy Germany, as the French Prime Minister would have wanted.
