Treaty Of Versailles

Question 1

What Germans expected after the war

Answer 1

Assumed that the Allies would want to help them and give their new government a good chance to establish itself

Most Germans felt that all ountries should bear equal blame for the First World War

Question 2

What was it that Germany got after WWI?

Answer 2

War Guilt
Reparations
Military Restrictions
Territorial Losses

Question 3

What was the War Guilt?

Answer 3

Article 231 of the Treaty said that Germany was to blame for causing the war.

Question 4

What were the Reparations?

Answer 4

Allies claimed reparations for damages.

Special commissin fixed a sum of 6.6 billion pounts (132 gold marks) (today $400 billion) to be paid in annual instalments.

Treaty took away 10% of Germany’s instalments + 15% of its agricultural land

Lost oversea colonies

Question 5

What were the Miltary Restrictions?

Answer 5

Air force was to be disbanded
Army was limited to 100,000 soldiers
Navy was limited to 15,000 sailers, only 6 battleships and no submarines
Rhineland would be occupied by the Allies for fifteen years and no German troops were allowed in the area.

Question 6

What were the territorial Losses?

Answer 6

Germany lost 13% of its land, containing about 6 million.

West Prussia and Posen were lost to Poland

Question 7

What were the areas lost and to who?

Answer 7

Eupen and Lamedy to Belgium
Northern Schleswig to Denmark
Part of Upper Silesia to Poland
Danzig was taken over by the League of Nations as a free city
Memel was taken over by the League but eventually taken by Lithuania in 1923.
The Saarland was taken over by the League of nations for fifteen years

Question 8

How does Germany react?

Answer 8

New Government had refused to sign the Treaty at first
- Believed it was unfair

Powerful myth developed ‘Dolchstosslegende’ - ‘Stab in the back’
- Believed that the army had been stabbed in the back by weak politicians

Treaty became a symbol of Germany’s humiliation and defeat.

Many Germans resented the Treaty
- This resentment posed a great threat to the stability of the Weimar Republic.

Many of the demobbed soldiers joined the Freikorps

• March 1920, Freikorps units were led by Wolfgang Kapp who marched into Berlin and declared a new national government.
• The strike was successful, as Ebert’s government had returned to Berlin