Germany end World War One reparations after 92 years with final payment


This is an incredible story. I had thought that German reparations for the First World War had been shelved, but according to both the
Daily Mail Online and SPIEGEL ONLINE, they had not. There were a number of reasons why they had stopped, and why they started again, but now it is finally complete.

It is interesting to read the Daily Mail’s version of events. They make the Treaty of Versailles sound like someone everyone agreed to, when in fact it was something the Germans bitterly felt they were forced to sign. It’s also interesting to see them associate ‘quantitative easing’ with Germany’s hyperinflation. That’s ridiculous, since in it’s current use, quantitative easing is being used or considered because the central banks are up against the zero bound and inflation is too low. The central banks are considering it to deal with deflation, not hyperinflation.

(Treaty of Versailles image from Wikipedia).

2 thoughts on “Germany end World War One reparations after 92 years with final payment”

  1. Interesting to see how history is always interpreted. I remember learning in school (french history course) that the treaty of Versailles was so humiliating for Germany that it led, among other things, to 2ndworld war.

    1. Yes, the right in Germany after World War I definitely used it as something to drum up support. Hitler especially banged on and on about it.

      In “Paris, 1919”, the historian Margaret MacMillan details the trouble that the victors had coming up with what to do about reparitations. There was alot done at Versailles besides dealing with Germany. Indeed, much of the world was revamped, especially those parts having associated with the collapsed German, Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empires. But that part was especially difficult, and I think it can be considered a failure.

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