"What must we lose!"

German reparations after World War I were the core point of the negotiations in the Paris Peace Conference, and the focus of the power struggle between France and Germany. While the peace conference following "the war to end all wars" (in the words of British commentator H.G. Wells) was supposed to establish perpetual peace in Europe, the reparations imposed to Germany were aimed at destroying and humiliate the enemy. The most important economist of the 20^th Century, John Maynard Keynes, quit his role as delegate of the British Treasury, and called the treaty a Carthaginian peace that would economically destroy Germany.

This poster shows the reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles: Germany must lose 20% of its production areas, 10% of the population, 1/3 of coal production, ¼ of several agricultural products, 4/5 of its iron ore production, and the entirety of colonies and merchant fleet.

The full memorandum is available on Archives Portal Europe here, and the map is available here

These documents are part of a virtual gallery in the Weimar Portal dedicated to Peace negotiations and reparations, available here

Plakat zu den Bedingungen dm Versailler Vertrages, Hrsg. unbekannt. Mai 1919 Quelle: BArch, PLAK 002-008-015 / Oppenheim, Louis

These are the first two pages of the "Memorandum of the German delegation to the peace conditions" from May 1919, one month before the signing of the Versailles Treaty.

The most controversial clause of the Treaty, required "Germany [to] accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage" during the war – the article that became known as the "War Guilt clause", which required Germany to disarm, make ample territorial concessions, and pay reparations for a total cost of 132 billion marks, the equivalent of 351 billion euros in 2019. While economists such as Keynes predicted that the reparations figure was excessive and counter-productive, prominent figures on the Allied side, such as French General Marshal Ferdinand Foch, criticized the treaty for treating Germany too leniently, as it would not be permanently weakened. These conflicting views between a conciliatory peace and the destruction of the enemy cause the Versailles Treaty to leave many open spots.

Reference number: BArch, R 43-I/3

The full memorandum is available on Archives Portal Europe here, and the map is available here

These documents are part of a virtual gallery in the Weimar Portal dedicated to Peace negotiations and reparations, available here

The Memorandum was accompanied by a brief summary of the key points from the memorandum.

Reference number: BArch, R 43-I/3

The full memorandum is available on Archives Portal Europe here, and the map is available here

These documents are part of a virtual gallery in the Weimar Portal dedicated to Peace negotiations and reparations, available here

This map shows the German voting areas according to the Treaty of Versailles

The full memorandum is available on Archives Portal Europe here, and the map is available here

These documents are part of a virtual gallery in the Weimar Portal dedicated to Peace negotiations and reparations, available here

Plakat zu den Abstimmungsgebieten gemäß Versailles Vertrag BArch, KART 756/16 002-007-DOS /o.Ang.