From the archive portal: "In Focus - Reparations Conferences 1920-1922"

In the section "Im Blickpunkt" ("In Focus") we present special highlights from archives represented in the Archive portal-D. These selected archival documents provide an insight into the holdings and offer research suggestions for a possible search in Archive Portal-D or the "Weimarer Republik“ (Weimar Republic) topic portal. This month, we are pleased to present a contribution from the Federal Archives on the subject of reparations payments.

For the young Weimar Republic, the conditions and fulfilment of the Treaty of Versailles were a dominant issue in both foreign and domestic politics. The question of war guilt and the reparations based on it were particularly polarising.

The first Reichstag elections on 6 June 1920 ended in a minority government with Reich Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach (Centre). The Weimar coalition of SPD, Centre and DDP was replaced by a shift to the right and left wings.

With the signing of the peace treaty on 28 June 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, Article 231 attributed sole war guilt and the resulting damage to Germany. The article served as a justification for the reparation claims against Germany. In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany undertook to compensate for war damage worth 20 billion gold marks, yet the total amount and duration of reparations were not specified. A reparations commission with representatives of the Entente was to decide on the amount, type, and distribution of reparations in several conferences, initially excluding Germany.

A conference attended for the first time by German representatives was held in Spa, Belgium, from 5 to 16 July 1920. Contrary to expectations, the reparations issue was pushed into the background. The provisions on the disarmament of the German Reich and on German coal deliveries to the Allies were negotiated first. The resulting "Coal Agreement" was the first treaty after the First World War to come about through negotiations between the Allies and Germany.

The final sum of the reparation payments was not agreed upon in Spa, but the percentage distribution among the individual countries was. In addition, a conference of experts was to discuss the reparations arrangements. In January 1921, after a meeting in Paris, the Allied War Council then presented for the first time a payment plan with a final sum: 226 billion gold marks, spread over 42 years with increasing annual rates as well as 12% deduction of the annual export value. The demands triggered widespread outrage in Germany.

On this basis for negotiation, the German Foreign Minister Walter Simons made a counter-proposal at another conference in London in March 1921: the reparations were to be reduced by the Allies to 50 billion marks (minus the 20 billion already paid). This was rejected by the Allies, and the London Conference was initially cancelled. After the Allies threatened sanctions if the Paris notes were not accepted, Simons presented a final mediation proposal, but it was rejected. A partial occupation of the Ruhr followed on 8 March. Attempts by the Vatican to mediate failed. An offer by Germany to the USA to assume its debts to the Allies and an immediate reparations payment of 500 billion gold marks, or alternatively an annual rate payment of up to 200 billion gold marks, was rejected by the Allies on 3 May.