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Old 04-25-2014, 08:50 PM
 
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Germany was stripped of the Rhineland
Of an army
Forced to pay for the entire WW1
Forced to print Deutsch marks to pay for the war
And forced to endure hyperinflation and depression and shame
With workers in the streets with barrels of currency worth less than the cost of burning them

And who started this Great War anyway,
In fact the Great War to end all wars started with a Serb who assassinated the Austria-Hungarian emperor and Germany had an alliance with Austria-Hungary.... This was ancestral Germany outside of Germany and just like the British would defend their overseas territories, Germany was loyal to its kin...not any different.

How on earth then was Germany to be held soly responsible for World War 1??? To be punished by French leader Clemenseau?

This was outrageous. Apalling.

Beyond this, you had a complacent inefficient Weimar Govt that was not focussed on the suffering of its own people. And from the East was the rise of Communism/Bolshevism further crushing the German way of life.

and when the depression fell, this nation was hurting extremely. There was little concern for Germany to the east, hatred of the nation to the west, some international bankers whose business activities sunk the people into deep debt.....

And then came a shrieking voice of fierce determination. A voice of totalitarian extremism to find the ultimate scape goat, mandate action and resettle and expand this national people mercilessly ....the result was something more nightmarish than what caused the whole thing

It then makes one think "what exactly did this Treaty do other than instigate a catastrophee waiting in the wings?"

The reality is this Treaty punished people whom it was most convenient to punish. And people who were stereotyped as all being the same. People accused of treason based on religious stereotypes , or not being true citizens????? They fought in WW1 and served Germany!!!! They lived in the country for almost a millennium! No they were scapegoats of anguish from a Treaty that had nothing to do with anything they ever did.

So of course the reactionary sequel to the anguish was ten billion times more horrific but the Treaty of Versailles was a kick off to a lot of awful dark history

Last edited by EricS39; 04-25-2014 at 09:04 PM..
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Old 04-25-2014, 08:57 PM
 
Location: SoCal
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One might be able to make a case that Germany was mostly responsible for starting World War I due to the blank check that it gave Serbia in 1914. As far as I know, some prominent German politicians and/or military leaders (Bethmann-Hollweg (sp?), Moltke the Younger, et cetera) actually wanted a large-scale European war to occur in 1914 because they felt that it would be better for Germany to fight Russia sooner rather than later (specifically after Russia's Great Military Program was scheduled for completion in 1916 or 1917).

As for the reparations, I honestly don't know enough information and details to have solid opinions in regards to whether or not they were too high for Germany to pay.

As for Germany's territorial losses after World War I, I actually think that this part was relatively fair. After all, most of the territories which Germany lost shortly after World War I did not have an ethnic German majority. Of course, it might have been unfair not to let Germany annex Austria shortly after World War I.
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Old 04-25-2014, 08:59 PM
 
Location: SoCal
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Here is a map of Germany's territorial losses shortly after World War I. This map is in German, but it should be clear enough even if you don't speak German:

Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Reich_1900.png

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Old 04-25-2014, 09:00 PM
 
Location: SoCal
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Also, as for Versailles leading to the rise of Hitler, I am tempted to disagree with this due to the fact that the Nazis were a relatively minor political party in Germany until the Great Depression (which was when their meteoric rise occurred).
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Old 04-25-2014, 09:12 PM
 
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I think the Treaty of Versailles was upsetting to the people but until their personal day to day lives took the ultimate toll, which was during the Great Depression, they were not cringing at the voting booths. Once their bread and water was at stake, then they outright went for any extreme.

In fact, the communist party also got an increased share of the reichstag the same time the National socialists came on board. The burning of the reichstag and emergency enabling act made this a weak footnote in history because the communist party was banned by that national socialist
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Old 04-25-2014, 11:43 PM
 
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Way too drastic for a country that didn't exactly lose. No foreign troops on soil.
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Old 04-26-2014, 12:21 AM
 
Location: SoCal
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Red_Devil View Post
Way too drastic for a country that didn't exactly lose. No foreign troops on soil.
Well, to be fair, foreign troops would have probably eventually been on German soil had World War I lasted even longer than it actually did.

Germany might not have technically fully lost World War I, but it was on track to lose World War I.
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Old 04-26-2014, 12:49 AM
 
Location: Peterborough, England
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Red_Devil View Post
Way too drastic for a country that didn't exactly lose. No foreign troops on soil.

More to the point, way too drastic for victors who were far to war-weary to do much in the way of enforcing once they'd gone back to peacetime pursuits.
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Old 04-26-2014, 01:12 AM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mikestone8 View Post
More to the point, way too drastic for victors who were far to war-weary to do much in the way of enforcing once they'd gone back to peacetime pursuits.
Great point.
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Old 04-26-2014, 06:43 AM
 
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So then what about the political faction in 1920s Germany that said those who signed this treaty were communist sympathizers and traitors to German workers and countrymen?

And then angrily mobilized what was called the Beer Hall Putsche.... Was that a nutcase minority faction or was that the majority sentiment during the period of hyperinflation?

Or was a lot of this a marketing ploy to win influence over Germans to unite under the organizer under unquestionable authority in the name of unemployment?
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