How far do you think that the Treaty of Versailles was unfair on Germany?

The one clause that angered the Germans the most in the Treaty of Versailles was the ‘War Guilt Clause’. This entailed that Germany had to admit that it was their fault that the war started and was responsible for all the deaths in the war. This was then used to justify the reparations. This was unfair as Germany were not the only country to blame for the war (although modern day historians agree that it was mostly Germany’s fault).

The Treaty was also unfair as the allies demanded reparations but through The League of Nations (which Germany was excluded from and the US didn’t even join) taking away their industrial land, they inhibited Germany’s ability to pay them.

When Wilson published his 14 points in 1918, Germany ignored them. This shows that even the most lenient punishment of Germany, which would practically get off ‘scot free’, was not acceptable and hints to the fact that even if Germany had been let off and helped to rebuild that a Hitler figure would have always arose wanting more, not boding well for the future. Germany then in November 1918 wanted peace talks based around the 14 points because they thought that this way they would get a better deal. It was not because they believed in the ideas. However this was not accepted by the allies as they had previously rejected them, and were instead made to pay reparations.

Clemenceau wanted the Treaty to be much harsher than it was. He wanted Germany to be broken into smaller states. Wilson stopped this happening but in fact the Treaty dealt a half blow to Germany as it damaged her enough to cause resentment but not enough so that she wasn’t strong enough to seek revenge which wasn’t wise.

Germany was forced to pay £6600 million as reparations which was deemed fair as France had been ravaged by the fighting and in order to rebuild needed a large amount of money and seeing as Germany had not been affected by the war, it seemed prudent to make them pay for it, especially seeing as ‘France hadn’t invaded anyone, it was the country that had been invaded’. Also the reparation payments cost Germany only 2% of its annual production. This shows that it wasn’t that harsh as economist John Keynes made it out to be.

Germany’s main economic problem was its war debt. Germany’s plan was to pay her debts by winning the war and making other states pay large reparations. This shows the treaty was fair as it set in place to Germany what she herself would have done to the Big Three if she had won. An example of this is found in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In late 1917 Russia had pulled out of the First World War and the Germans forced them to sign this harsh treaty. This took away 34% of their population and 50% of industry, because they lost lots of land. They also were made to pay 300 million gold roubles in reparations. This shows the treaty to be fair on Germany as they did exactly the same to Russia.

The Treaty could have justifiably been a lot harsher; Germany was still economically the most powerful nation in Europe. It was much less harsh on Germany than public opinion in the winning countries and historians feel the peacemakers were restrained.

In my opinion the Treaty of Versailles was fair on Germany, as they caused havoc on an economical and physical level: most of France needed rebuilding and Britain has only recently paid back her debt to America from the War. However the problem was the dangerous place they left Germany in. We left them wanting revenge and the tools to do it. In order to have prevented WW2 I think that something on the lines of Clemenceau’s ideas would have been needed; breaking Germany up so that it was never powerful enough to cause another war.