how much did germany pay in reparations

Marks writes that historians who say reparations caused hyperinflation have overlooked "that the inflation long predated reparations" and the way "inflation mushroomed" between mid-1921 and the end of 1922 "when Germany was actually paying very little in reparations" and have failed to explain why "the period of least inflation coincided with the period of largest reparation paymentsor why Germans claimed after 1930 that reparations were causing deflation". [70] However, German long-term goals remained the same despite the apparent reconciliation: the revision of the Treaty of Versailles to end reparations. [1] [47], To pay towards this sum, Germany could pay in kind or in cash. By 1929, German coal mining had risen by 30 per cent on the 1913 figures because of her increased labor efficiency methods. By 1920, German was exporting 15 million tons of coal a year and reached 35million tons by 1926. ", As Martin Farr, a senior lecturer in British history at Newcastle University, says: "The lesson was learned eventually.". However, he says, "reparations kept the passions of war alive". [77] Despite the reduction, there was increasing German hostility to the plan. The Associated Press is an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting. [73] According to Martel, Robert Boyce said reparations were "a heavy burden on Germany, both as a financial chargeand as a charge on Germany's balance of payments". Instead, much of the value transferred consisted of German industrial assets as well as forced labour to the Allies. Hitler was committed to not just not paying, but to overturning the whole treaty, historian Felix Schulz told the BBCs Olivia Lang. The Lausanne Conference annulled the Young Plan and required Germany to pay a final, single installment of 3billion marks, saving France from political humiliation and ending Germany's obligation to pay reparations. Justice Department officials said that it was the Claims Conference itself that brought the fraud to the attention of the FBI, in 2009. Phil Murphy following its approval by the state Legislature. [78][79][80], In March 1930, the German Government collapsed and was replaced by a new coalition led by Chancellor Heinrich Brning. Pressured by Israeli leaders David Ben-Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer agreed to pay 3 billion German marks in reparations to Israel between 1953 and 1967. [105] Detlev Peukert argued the financial problems that arose in the early 1920s, were a result of post-war loans and the way Germany funded her war effort, and not the result of reparations. Founded in 1846, AP today remains the most trusted source of fast, accurate, unbiased news in all formats and the essential provider of the technology and services vital to the news business. [129] Keynes identified reparations as the "main excursion into the economic field" by the Treaty of Versailles, but said that the treaty excluded provisions for rehabilitating Europe's economies, for improving relations between the Allies and the defeated Central Powers, for stabilizing Europe's new nations, for "reclaim[ing] Russia", or for promoting economic solidarity between the Allies. Britain was the lone dissenting voice to both measures. The original caption written in . [51][54] Turkish reparations had been "sharply limited in view of the magnitude of Turkish territorial losses". This would not be credited towards the reparation figure. He also says, "the reparations demanded at Versailles were not far out of proportion to German economic potential" and that in terms of national income it was similar to what the Germans demanded of France following the Franco-Prussian War. (The Treaties of Saint-Germain and Neuilly provided the Allied terms for peace with Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria, respectively.) But the Weimar Republic still struggled to pay its debts, so another plan was hashed out in 1928. [137] Keynes said Europe's overall output of iron would decrease; Mantoux said the opposite occurred. [64], The occupation proved marginally profitable; the occupying powers received 900 million gold marks, and much of this merely covered the military costs of occupation. Mantoux says that the 1925 German national savings figure was estimated at 6.4billion marks, rising to 7.6billion marks by 1927. Norman Davies writes that the treaty forced Germany to "pay astronomic reparations",[147] while Tim McNeese states, "France and Britain had placed war damages on Germany to the tune of billions of gold marks, which the defeated Germans could not begin to pay in earnest". For example, the Law against the Enslavement of the German People, or Freedom Law, was proposed by the nationalist politician Alfred Hugenberg. [29], The Treaty of Versailles stated that a Reparation Commission would be established in 1921. In his posthumously published book, The Carthaginian Peace, or the Economic Consequences of Mr. Keynes, Mantoux said that Keynes "had been wrong on various counts, especially with respect to his predictions about Germany's coal, iron and steel productionand its level of national saving". By the time country was reunified, in 1990, the world had changed dramatically since the days of Versailles, and policymakers decided to write off most of the original sum. Afterwards, as the value of the mark rose, inflation became a problem. Furthermore, in 1918 during the German retreat, German troops devastated France's most industrialized region in the north-east (Nord-Pas de Calais Mining Basin). [103] Highlighting the rearmament under Hitler, Mantoux said Germany "had been in a stronger position to pay reparations than Keynes had made out". [164] Martin Kitchen also says the impression that Germany was crippled by the reparations is a myth. [167] Marks says a "substantial degree of scholarly consensus now suggests that payingwas within Germany's financial capacity". HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images [93] Niall Ferguson provides a slightly lower figure. Keynes believed that this European trend would also affect German iron and steel production. Russians agreed to pay reparations to the Central Powers when Russia exited the war in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (which was repudiated by the Bolshevik government eight months later). Janet Mills to either relocate hundreds of unhoused asylum seekers to college dormitories or to activate the National Guard and to open an emergency shelter. Because of the financial situation in Austria, Hungary, and Turkey after the war, few to no reparations were paid and the requirements for reparations were cancelled. Aware that Germany would probably not be able to pay such a towering debt, Clemenceau and the French nevertheless greatly feared rapid German recovery and a new war against France. [107] A.J.P. Taylor writes that in 1919 "many people believed that the payment of reparations would reduce Germany to a state of Asiatic poverty", and that Keynes "held this view, as did all Germans; and probably many Frenchmen". Between 1919 and 1932, Germany paid less than 21billion marks in reparations. In 1952, the agreement regulated reparations between Germany on the one hand and the State of Israel and the Jewish Claims Conference on the other. The German Government was to issue bonds at five per cent interest and set up a sinking fund of one per cent to support the payment of reparations. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! He pledged at the ceremony Friday to tackle Californias housing and homelessness crises, improve public services and address climate change. "The survivors receiving these [hardship] payments largely include Jews from the former Soviet Union who were not in camps or ghettos and are not eligible for pension programs," according to the Claims Conference. Keynes predicted that German coal extraction would also decrease and that Germany would not be able to export coal immediately after the war. [110] Max Winkler wrote that from 1924 onward, German officials were "virtually flooded with loan offers by foreigners". The Treaty of Versailles didnt just blame Germany for the warit demanded financial restitution for the whole thing, to the tune of 132 billion gold marks, or more than $500 billion today. [67][68], The adoption of the plan was followed by the Locarno Treaties. Harcourt says that despite it discussing Keynes' errors "in great detail", Mantoux's work "has not led us to revise our general judgment of Keynes", yet "it does make us question the soundness of theoretical and empirical aspects" of his arguments. Mr Schulz says it was, essentially, a return to the conditions in the 1932 Lausanne agreement, and a reduced amount of payments was reactivated. "These survivors fled the Einsatzgruppen Nazi mobile killing units charged with murdering entire Jewish communities. German resentment The final version of the Treaty of Versailles was presented to a German delegation on May 7, 1919, and signed, after their remonstrances, on June 28. The German people saw reparations as a national humiliation; the German Government worked to undermine the validity of the Treaty of Versailles and the requirement to pay. The payment of reparations was also reorganized. He later resigned "when it became evident that hope could no longer be entertained of substantial modifications in the draft Terms of Peace" due to the "policy of the Conference towards the economic problems of Europe". [107] Ferguson argued that these problems were aggravated by a trade deficit and a weak exchange rate for the mark during 1920. [94][95][96] According to Gerhard Weinberg, reparations were paid, towns were rebuilt, orchards replanted, mines reopened and pensions paid. In the interim, Germany was required to pay an equivalent of 20 billion gold marks (US$5 billion) in gold, commodities, ships, securities, or other forms. So in June 1929, a new plan was enacted, floating more U.S.-backed bonds and reducing Germany's payments to $28 billion paid out over 59 years. Articles 81-86 compelled Germany to renounce territorial claims and recognize the independence of Czechoslovakia, a new nation formed from several provinces of former German ally Austria-Hungary,. (Carsten Koall/dpa via AP), FILE - Nahum Goldman, President of the Jewish Claims Comission, center, signs agreements between Germany and Israel in a ceremony in Luxembourg on September 10, 1952. [162] Marks states that the delay in establishing a final total until 1921, "was actually in Germany's interest" because the figures discussed at the peace conference were "astronomic". Locarno Treaties Possible cause of World War II International Opium Convention Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye Treaty of Neuilly-sur-Seine Treaty of Trianon Treaty of Svres Others v t e Mantoux also counters these arguments. [131], Campbell writes that the "apparent majority did not regard the treaty as perfect". [157], Sally Marks writes, "There are thosewho claim reparations were unpayable. The European nation was not expecting to lose the war, let alone anticipate being burdened with payments that would reach into the next century. No one possibly imagined that 70 years later there would still be elderly Holocaust survivors who were so impoverished, who were so needy, who were still suffering the dire consequences, Schneider said, adding that that was the reason why the funding for next year includes a 130 million-euro increase in the amount designated for home care. Germany was still on the hook for its war debt. [69][70] In late 1927, the Agent-General for Reparations "called for a more permanent scheme" for payments and in 1928 the Germans followed suit. [160] Marks says that while Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles "established an unlimited theoretical liability", Article 232 limited German responsibility to pay only for civilian damages. [159] Marks says that in 1921, Germany met her requirements in full because custom posts were occupied by Allied troops. [165], Keylor says that literature on reparations has "long suffered from gross misrepresentation, exaggeration, and outright falsification" and that it "should finally succumb to the archive-based discoveries of scholars". Nearly $890 million will go toward home care services an increasingly vital aspect of the reparation effort, as the Nazis' victims advance in age, nearly 80 years after the Holocaust ended. He canceled all payments in 1933. Hyperinflation soon rocked Germany. 7 . . Soon, West Germany, bolstered by Marshall Plan aid and relieved of most of its reparations burden, was Europes fastest-growing economy. Stephen Schuker, in his comprehensive econometric study, concedes that Germany transferred 16.8billion marks over the whole period, but points out that this sum was vastly offset by the devaluation of Allied paper-mark deposits up to 1923, and by loans that Germany subsequently repudiated after 1924. The Allies exacted reparations for World War II, too. [108] According to Ferguson, even without reparations total public spending in Germany between 1920 and 1923 was 33 per cent of total net national product. The money for 2024 includes $535 million in direct payments to survivors, ranging from monthly pensions to a one-time annual payment of 1,250 euros ($1,365) per person. [119] British and French experts believed that the Mark was being sabotaged to avoid budgetary and currency reform and to evade reparations. The announcement came 70 years after the signing of the compensation agreement that made it possible for Holocaust survivors to receive a measure of justice the so-called Luxembourg Agreements. By 1929, European iron output had increased by ten per cent from that of 1913. The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis said Thursday, Sept. 8, 2022, that Germany had agreed to pay approximately $1.2 billion (1.18 billion euros) for homecare and compensation for Holocaust survivors living around the world in 2023, bringing the overall amount of compensation Germany has paid to more than 80 billion euros. Even the reduced payments of the Dawes Plan were mainly financed through a large volume of international loans. '"[151] Feldman also says the prospect that the 'C' bonds would be evoked hung over the German Government like a "Damocles Sword". [97] Hans Mommsen wrote "Germany financed its reparation payments to Western creditor nations with American loans", which the British and French then used to "cover their long-term interest obligations and to retire their wartime debts with the United States. hide caption. [155] William R. Keylor agrees with Boyce, and says, "an increase in taxation and reduction in consumption in the Weimar Republic would have yielded the requisite export surplus to generate the foreign exchange needed to service the reparation debt". Brning, now under considerable political pressure from the far-right and President Paul von Hindenburg, was unable to make any concessions or reverse policy. Germany marks 70 years of compensating Holocaust survivors. This figure would rise to 2.5 billion marks per year by the fifth year of the plan. "C" Bonds, comprising the remainder of the reparation figure, "were deliberately designed to be chimerical. They have only called for the rest for domestic political reasons. "They could have [paid] more than they said they would.". "[93] Marks also says, "much ink has been wasted on the fact that civilian damages were stretched to cover war widows' pensions and allowances for military dependents". The treaty took complex negotiation and was undoubtedly controversial; economist John Maynard Keynes was one of its most vocal critics, arguing that it would not be effective in achieving its goals. BERLIN (AP) The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis said Thursday that Germany agreed to pay approximately $1.2 billion (euros) to Holocaust survivors living around the world in 2023, bringing its total compensation to more than 80 billion euros. Despite this, Germany continued to default on her obligations. What non-cash reparations did the task force propose? [33][34][35] In addition, Bulgaria was required to hand over thousands of livestock to Greece, Romania, and the Serb-Croat-Slovene State "in restitution for animals taken away by Bulgaria during the war". As reparations were based on what Germany could pay, Marks says the inclusion of such items did not affect German liability but altered distribution of reparations; the "inclusion of pensions and allowances increased the British share of the pie but did not enlarge the pie. [152] In addition to Feldman and Ferguson's opposition, Peter Kruger, Barry Eichengreen, and Steven Webb agree that "the initial German effort to pay reparations" was substantial and "produced an immense strain" on the German economy. At the latter conference, the US informed the British and French that they would not be allowed to default on their war debts. ", London Agreement on German External Debts, scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, agreement was reached on this existing debt, The Making of the Reparation and Economic Sections of the Treaty, Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany, Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, articles 178-9, Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Annex IVV, "Hitler and the origins of the war, 19191939", "The imposed gift of Versailles: the fiscal effects of restricting the size of Germany's armed forces, 1924-9", "Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1921 Volume II", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_War_I_reparations&oldid=1162041396, A and B Bonds, of the above payment scheme, This page was last edited on 26 June 2023, at 17:04. [30] Ferguson writes that the policy of the Economics Minister Robert Schmidt led Germany to avoid economic collapse from 1919 to 1920, but that reparations accounted for most of Germany's deficit in 1921 and 1922 and that reparations were the cause of the hyperinflation. Likewise, France attempted to secure trade deals with Germany. He estimates that Germany paid no more than 19 billion gold marks. [43], The London Schedule of Payments of 5 May 1921 established "the full liability of all the Central Powers combined, not just Germany alone," at 132 billion gold marks. "[44] They were "a political bargaining chip" that served the domestic policies of France and the United Kingdom. The compensation payment slated for 2024 eclipses the more than $1.2 billion Germany agreed to pay in 2023. . Blame - Germany was forced to accept the blame for starting the war under article 231 of the treaty, known as the War Guilt Clause. Before the implementation of the Dawes Plan, Germany transferred between eight and 13billion gold marks, which amounted to "between 4 and 7 percent of total national income". In June, Hoover publicly proposed a one-year moratorium to reparation and war debts. For example, if a worker's This economic miracle helped stabilize the economy, and the new plan used the potential of reparations payments to encourage countries to trade with West Germany. [94] However, several historians agree with Warburg. [24] This resulted in a prevailing belief of humiliation among Germans; the article was seen as an injustice and there was a view that Germany had signed "away her honor". Answer (1 of 12): Since the Nazies took power in 1933, and especially during WWII (1939-1945), Jewish money, assets and propery was stolen, robbed, vandalised or govermentially confiscated; in this process not only random antisemic people took part, but official bodies like the Deutsche Bank, Vol. When the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, Turkish reparations were "eliminated altogether". [81] During 1931, a financial crisis began in Germany. This was recognized by at least some German politicians, one of whom optimistically argued that 'the entente will only demand the 50billion marks, not the rest. Likewise, Keynes said Austria would now be consigned to "industrial ruin" as "nearly all the coalfields of the former Empire lie outside of what is now German-Austria". Her book, The Heroine's Bookshelf (Harper), won the Colorado Book Award for nonfiction. [6][7][8], Most of the war's major battles occurred in France and the French countryside was heavily scarred in the fighting. [55] By late 1922, the German defaults on payments had grown so serious and regular that a crisis engulfed the Reparations Commission. [92] The Reparation Commission and the Bank for International Settlements state that 20.598 billion gold marks was paid by Germany in reparations, of which 7.595 billion was paid before the implementation of the London Schedule of Payments. Read about our approach to external linking. The Claims Conference has been pursuing reparations from the German government since . As visionary as those original negotiators were, they could not have possibly imagined the long-term and deep consequences of the Holocaust on survivors, Greg Schneider, executive vice president of the Claims Conference, told The Associated Press. Germany agrees to pay $822 million to Holocaust survivors in what is called the German Jewish Settlement. Since the second half of last century, countries like Germany, Austria, France, South Africa, and Canada have amended past wrongs by paying reparations to their victims . "[140], Geoff Harcourt writes that Keynes' arguments that reparations would lead to German economic collapse have been adopted "by historians of almost all political persuasions" and have influenced the way historians and the public "see the unfolding events in Germany and the decades between Versailles and the outbreak of the Second World War". A final installment of US$94 million was made on 3 October 2010, settling German loan debts in regard to reparations. Germany was forced to accept responsibility for World War I, Hitler refused to pay back the reparations after coming to power, Germany felt the end of the war was a humiliation, The Wall Street Crash plunged the world into recession, Designer can refuse gay couples, top US court says, Biden's $430bn student loan plan axed by top court, Rescuers amputate leg of woman stuck in travelator, Australia legalises psychedelics for mental health, Eight-year election ban for Brazil's Bolsonaro, China's new law tightens Xi's powers against the West, Two dead as man opens fire at Moldova airport, Unusual rise in child type 1 diabetes after Covid. Prohibitions thus incite the very acts that are prohibited. Far-right parties on the rise across Europe. While the "C" Bonds were omitted from the plan's framework, they were not formally rescinded. The German figure includedother than gold or goods in kindthe scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow, state property lost in lands ceded to other countries, and the loss of colonial territories. Following the ratification of article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of World War I, the Central Powers were made to give war reparations to the Allied Powers. By November 1923, 42 billion marks were worth the equivalent of one American cent. The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) and the 1921 London Schedule of Payments required Germany to pay 132billion gold marks (US$33 billion at the time) in reparations to cover civilian damage caused during the war. Germany is finally paying off World War I reparations, with the last 70 million euro (60m) payment drawing the debt to a close. Extensive looting took place as German forces removed whatever material they could use and destroyed the rest. (Carsten Koall/dpa via AP). The ensuing financial crisis meant that not only Germany, but many nations, could not keep up with their war debts; as a result, US President Herbert Hoover introduced a one-year moratorium. Authorities say they found two guns, 400 rounds of ammunition as well as a machete in the van of a man arrested near former President Barack Obamas Washington home on charges in the U.S. Assemblymember Robert Rivas has been sworn in as the next speaker of Californias state Assembly. "[161], Bernadotte Schmitt writes that if "pensions and separation allowancesnot been included, reparations would probably never have become the bogey that poisoned the post-war world for so many years. Due to the lack of reparation payments by Germany, France occupied the Ruhr in 1923 to enforce payments, causing an international crisis that resulted in the implementation of the Dawes Plan in 1924. In financial terms, that is untrueOf course Germans did not want to pay; nobody ever wants to pay, and Weimar was determined not to do soRaising taxes would have provided ample fundsWeimar could have borrowed from the citizenry, as France did after 1871 [to pay its indemnity to Germany]". Rather than a weakened Germany, he states the opposite was true. The agreements eventually reached were the first time a defeated power paid compensation to civilians for wartime losses and suffering. This commission would consider the resources available to Germany and her capacity to pay, provide the German Government with an opportunity to be heard on the subject, and decide on the final reparation figure that Germany would be required to pay. [62] By December 1922, Poincar was faced with Anglo-American-German hostility; coal supplies for French steel production were running low. While this was a political defeat for Hugenberg, it did result in significant national attention for Adolf Hitler and subsequently valuable right-wing financing. When the 1921 London conference to determine how much Germany should pay was called, the Allies calculated on the basis of what Germany could pay, not on their own needs. When Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, he cancelled all reparations. [94] Ferguson further estimates that this sum amounted to 2.4 per cent of Germany's national income between 1919 and 1932. The timber quota was based upon a German proposal and the default was massive. [111], While Germany initially had a trade deficit, British policy during the early 1920s was to reintegrate Germany into European trade as soon as possible. [166] Diane Kunz, summarizing the historiography on the subject, writes that historians have refuted the myth that reparations placed an intolerable burden on Germany. Commodities paid in kind included coal, timber, chemical dyes, pharmaceuticals, livestock, agricultural machines, construction materials, and factory machinery. Once that happened, Germany slowly chipped away at the last bit of debt. On 9 July, an agreement was reached and signed. September 29, 2010, 7:56 AM. Intense negotiation resulted in the Treaty of Versailles war guilt clause, which identified Germany as the sole responsible party for the war and forced it to pay reparations. But an unexpected ray of hope broke through when West Germanys president, Konrad Adenauer, struck a deal with a variety of western nations in 1953. [150], Hantke and Spoerer write that "reparation payments were indeed a severe economic burden for Germany" and that "the German economy was deprived of between one and 2.2billion Reichsmark (RM) annually, which amounted in the late 1920s to nearly 2.5 per cent of Germany's GDP".

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