To most Germans, the treatment of Germany was not in keeping with Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points. For example, while self-rule was given to countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, German-speaking people were being divided by the terms forbidding anschuluss (the speaking of German) with Austrians.
Some were also forced to go to new countries (like Czechoslovakia) to be ruled by non-Germans. Germany felt more insulted by not being invited to join the League of Nations.
The term ‘war guilt’ was hated a lot by the German public. Germans had felt that at the very least the blame should be shared. What had made matters even worse, however, was that because Germany was forced to accept blame for the war, it was also expected to pay for all the damage caused by it during the war.
The German economy was already in a bad shape. People had very little food.
They feared reparations payments would cripple them and also might produce a famine.
Allies demanding 6 billion pounds from Germany straight away seems a little farfetched because even in today’s money this is an astonishingly large amount. Still to this day the large sum of money has not been paid.
The disarmament terms upset Germans. An army of 100,000 was very small for a country of its size and the army was a symbol of German pride. Despite Wilson’s Fourteen Points calling for disarmament, none of the Allies disarmed to the extent that Germany had done in the 1920’s. For instance they were only allowed 6 battle or naval ships, which for a country bigger than England seem to be a very small amount.
Germany had indeed lost a lot of territory. This was a major brake down to German pride and its economy. Both the Saar and Upper Silesia were important industrial areas that were lost.
Meanwhile, as Germany was losing land, the British and French were increasing their empire by taking control of German and Turkish territories and settlements in Africa and the Middle East.
On balance I think that the treaty on Germany was by no means fair in the series of terms pressed on them, but we should always remember that it could have been worse. If Clemenceau would have gotten his way Germany might have ceased to exist.
