The Treaty of Versailles was more significant for its political than its economical impact. Dicuss

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The Treaty of Versailles was more significant for its political than its economical impact. Dicuss

On the 28th of June 1919 Germany reluctantly signed the Treaty of Versailles, an action condemned by nearly the whole of Germany. The Allies drew up the treaty based on the 'war guilt' clause, article 231, which stated that Germany was responsible for the outbreak of war. This meant the Allies could impose reparations, reduce Germany's armed forces and take resourceful territory, calling it a punishment. The reason Germany was so opposed to this treaty was because the government had told them that they were fighting a defensive war against encirclement by Russia, Britain and France. Also during the talks in November preceding the signing of the armistice, Woodrow Wilson the American President drew up fourteen 'fair' points on which the treaty would be based, in reality few of these points were applied so Germany felt cheated. However the new Weimar government were forced to sign the Diktat (dictated peace) as they named it, because they could not afford to go back to war. Sheidemann and the SPD coalition government did consider restarting the war instead of accepting the terms but Germany was too weak. The treaty had huge political and economic effects on Germany, in order to establish where the greater impact was felt it is necessary to examine both the political and economic situation following the signing of the treaty.

The signing of the Armistice in November 1918 came as a great shock to the German people. From this the popular theory arose that Germany had been 'stabbed in the back' by Erzberger who signed the treaty and Ebert the head of the new Weimar government, a theory presented by Generals like Ludendorff who was predominantly right-wing. It was the right wing who were the most angered by the treaty as it had been signed by left-wing politicians of the democratic Weimar government, Ebert was a former saddler, a worker. The treaty only allowed Germany to have an army of 100,000 men and there were on average seven applicants for each place, showing the patriotism they still possessed. Elias Canetti, an historian, described the impact of the limitations on the army like a crime against religion, "Prohibitation of the army was like prohibitation of religion, of specific and sacrosanct practices without which life could not be imagined..." so being in the army was more than being patriotic. It was a traditional view that a man's education was not complete without serving in the army. This caused demobilised soldiers home return home full of contempt for the Weimar government, and so opposed to the left-wing politicians, became right-wing Freikorps who were similar to lynch mobs, taking the law into their own hands with the weapons they still possessed. The short term impact of the army reductions were disastrous, however in the long term this aspect back fired on the Allies as such a small army meant they could be trained to be an elite force, and it pushed people towards unofficial armies such as the Nazis. When Hitler re-introduced conscription, it portrayed him as a patriotic hero giving the people the chance to fight for their country and to seek revenge for the humiliation caused by the Treaty of Versailles, there was a huge wave of support, contradicting the treaty and the Weimar Republic.
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The right wing made several attempts to seek vengeance on the Weimar government; the Kapp Putsch in 1920 was an attempted overthrow of the Weimar Republic. The Putsch was o direct protest against the Treaty of Versailles. The Freikorps were ordered to disband, one particular unit called the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt run by General Luttwitz refused to do so giving Ebert an ultimatum, either stop the downsizing of the troops or they would march on Berlin. Ebert was adamant so Luttwitz together with Wolfgang Kapp and their soldiers occupied the capital. The German army was summoned to defend the ...

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