1.6 What was the German reaction to the Treaty of Versailles

Question 1

How did Germans feel about the severity of the treaty?

Answer 1

• Stunned. They considered rejecting it outright but the government knew it had no choice to sign and were subsequently blamed by the nation.
• People had been convinced that they were winning the war until a few weeks before it ended so they believed the allies would be merciful and their peace would be based on the Fourteen Points that Wilson had created.
• The Kaiser had abdicated and been exiled and the new democratic government had been put in place so people expected that the allies would want this new government to flourish.

Question 2

How did the Treaty of Versailles further the ‘stab in the back’ myth?

Answer 2

As the treaty was so harsh it further angered the people against the new government. It furthered the idea that the people had been betrayed by a weak government, disloyal Jews and socialists.

Many were prepared to do anything that would stop the treaty.

Question 3

What were the German feelings of injustice?

Answer 3

They felt the treaty was unjust because:

• They did not feel they had caused the war but had been forced to sign the war guilt clause.
• Many felt that Germany hadn’t lost the war but had stopped fighting and had agreed to surrender yet they were being treated as the defeated side.
• It was dictated to them (DIKTAT) as they had not been allowed to the discussions at Versailles.

Question 4

Why were Germans angry that the treaty hadn’t been based on the Fourteen Points

Answer 4

• The Germans argued that they had been promised peace based on the Fourteen Points.
• Many of the terms of the treaty were not in accordance with the Fourteen Points.

(It had never been accepted as the official policy of the allies and the Germans themselves ignored the Points in Jan 1918 when they still thought they could genuinely win. They also did not pay attention to the Fourteen Points when Germany imposed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk against Russia.)

Question 5

How did the Germans feel about War Guilt?

Answer 5

• The Allies had to make Germany accept war guilt in order to impose the harsh terms of the treaty.
• The Germans were angry at this clause.
• At the very least, Germany thought that other nations should share the blame.

Question 6

How did Germans feel about disarmament?

Answer 6

• The disarmament terms angered Germans because 100,000 men was small for a country of Germany’s size.
• The German army was a point of national pride (like Britain’s navy) and having it reduced was humiliating.
• When the terms of the treaty were announced, in fear of having to give ships up to the Allies, the German navy sank its own ships in the British Naval base of Scapa Flow in the Orkneys
• Anger grew in the 1920s as other countries had not disarmed despite it being a League of Nations goal.