THE SETTLEMENT:

THE VERSAILLES TREATY CONCERNING GERMANY:  June 1919

Acknowledgements

The Big Three: sideplayers.com The Hall of Mirrors: en.versailles-tourisme.com Map of Germany: tutor2u,net Cartoon (Reparations): ww1.melinadruga.com Cartoon (Military Limitations): sutori.com The Kaiser: theroyalforums.com

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    Leaders of 32 states attended the opening meeting (representing about 75% of the world’s population), but the defeated nations – Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria – were not invited. As one would expect, the negotiations were dominated by the three Allied powers which had been mainly responsible for the defeat of the Central Powers: France (represented by Georges Clemenceau); Great Britain (represented by David Lloyd George); and the United States (represented by Woodrow Wilson). These leaders faced a formidable task, because each came to the conference table with their own agenda. Clemenceau had but one word in mind: “revenge” for Germany’s brutal five-year occupation of northern France, and the immense suffering and cost this had caused to the French people. Never again were the Germans to be in a position to invade France. Lloyd George was in favour of imposing substantial reparations upon Germany to meet, in some measure at least, the cost borne by Britain and its empire, but he was anxious that, given time, Germany would be able take its place in the world as an important trading nation, committed to peace. At the same time, bearing in mind Wilson’s fourteen points, he was strongly opposed to any hint of legislation that might undermine the British Empire. Given these varied motives – and particularly the sizeable demands for retribution – Woodrow Wilson saw little if any possibility of creating a world organisation which was able to ensure global peace, as envisaged in his Fourteen Points. The League of Nations was created, but, in fact, his own people rejected the idea in favour of isolationism, not wishing to become embroiled in distant conflicts overseas – like the one just completed. As a consequence, the United States did not ratify the treaty; did not become a member of the League; and made its own peace with Germany and Austria in 1921.

    Incidentally, the Paris Peace Conference was opened in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles on the 18th January 1919, the very same place where the German Empire was proclaimed exactly 48 years earlier (following the Franco-Prussian War)! And the Versailles Treaty and Protocol was signed on the 28th June 1919, exactly five years after Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, was assassinated at Sarajevo!

THE MAJOR TERMS FOR GERMANY

THE WAR GUILT CLAUSE

By accepting responsibility for causing the war, Germany laid itself open to the loss of territory; the imposition of reparations, and a drastic reduction in the country’s military capability.

LOSS OF TERRITORY

The territory of Alsace-Lorraine, which Germany had seized during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, was returned to France. German Upper Silesia was given to the newly-independent state of Poland; a Polish Corridor was provided to give Poland access to the Baltic Sea; and Danzig was proclaimed a free city. Smaller but significant concessions were also made to Czechoslovakia (Hultschiner-Ländchen), Lithuania (Memel), Belgium (Malmedy-Eupen), and Denmark (North Schleswig). By these changes, Germany was stripped of some 25,000 square miles, and lost close on seven million people.

THE SAAR AND THE RHINELAND

Germany was compelled to turn over to France its coal mines in the Saar Basin, and in order to preclude a future invasion of France, the Rhineland was to be demilitarized and occupied for the next fifteen years. (In 1925, 90% of the residents voted to be part of Germany).

REPARATIONS

Clemenceau demanded the sum of £44 billion; Lloyd George claimed £25 billion at a rate of £1.2 billion a year, whilst Wilson argued that Germany could not afford more than £6 billion. In the event, the Reparation Commission fixed Germany’s liability at £6.6 billion. This was a modest sum compared with the demands made by France and Britain, but it was to lead to a rapid fall in the German mark, the beginning of soaring inflation, and the formation of the German Workers Party (the precursor of Hitler’s Nazi Party). Early on, there was the fear that Germany might throw in its lot with Bolshevism, ever bent on conquering the world based on a communist ideology.

     Incidentally, in the 1920s, to meet the cost of the reparations, the German scientist Fritz Haber – known for his development of poisonous gases – searched for a method to extract gold from sea water. After years of research, he concluded that the idea was uneconomical!

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Germany was required to respect the independence of the newly formed Austria and the new nation state of Czechoslovakia (formed from several provinces of the former Austria-Hungary Empire). An alliance/union with Austria was forbidden, and Germany was forced to relinquish all its gains from the Brest-Litvosk treaty following the Russian surrender.

MILITARY LIMITATIONS

The German army, which at one time during the war had numbered 1.9 million troops, was reduced to just 100,000 (with the officer corps limited to 4,000), and its role was to be confined to the maintenance of order within its own boundaries and the control of frontiers. Strict limits were also imposed upon the number of infantry, artillery and engineers in service, together with the number of weapons and the amount of ammunition held. In addition, no poison gas was to be kept or obtained. As a result, the Germans had to turn over a vast amount of equipment and munitions, including tanks and heavy artillery. The navy was also drastically reduced. The submarine fleet – not surprisingly – was eliminated, and surface war ships were limited to six battleships, six light cruisers, and twelve destroyers and torpedo boats. Given time, the German High Seas Fleet was to be distributed amongst the Allied nations. In the air, Germany was prohibited from having any aircraft save for 100 seaplanes for minesweeping operations, and airships – those which still existed – were grounded.

COLONIES

By Article 22, all German colonies were transformed into mandates of the League of Nations. In Africa, the United Kingdom and France shared Kamerun and Togoland; Belgium gained Ruanda-Urundi; Portugal the Kionga Triangle from German East Africa; and the British obtained the bulk of this colony (thereby completing their chain of possessions from South Africa to Egypt.) German South-West Africa was taken over by the Union of South Africa. In terms of population (put at around 12.5 million), 42% were transferred to Britain and its dominions, 33% to France, and 25% to Belgium. In the Pacific, Japan gained the islands north of the equator and Kiautschou in China (later disputed); New Zealand gained German Samoa; and German New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago, and Nauru were assigned to Australia.

WAR CRIMES

The Allies were authorized to conduct war crime trials, and a tribunal of five judges was set up for that purpose. It called for the trial of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II for offences against “international morality and the sanctity of treaties”, but he refused to leave Holland, and the Dutch government would not extradite him on the grounds that Holland was a “land of refuge”, and the former Kaiser was regarded as a “refugee”. (He was also connected to the Dutch royal family!)

     Incidentally, whilst, as one would expect, the German government and public complained bitterly about the harshness of these terms, the settlement was a most generous one compared with the conditions placed on Russia via the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. As we have seen, the Russians lost something like a quarter of their territory and a third of their population. In addition, the compensation payment imposed put the country on the verge of total economic collapse. ……

    …… As things turned out, the Allied nations gained nothing from the German High Seas Fleet! Following the armistice, the 74 ships that made up this fleet were interned in the large natural harbour of Scapa Flow in the Orkneys. Amongst this number were nine powerful battleships, five battle cruisers, and close on fifty destroyers. Unarmed, they were held in captivity, waiting for the Allies to decide about their future, but the Germans (or one at least!) had other ideas. On the morning of the 19th June 1919 – when the British fleet was out on an exercise – it all happened. By a pre-arranged signal from the then commander of the fleet, Vice Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, no less than 52 of the vessels were scuttled. In a strange but perhaps understandable way, it was seen by the Germans as a kind of belated victory. The Allies had won the war, but at sea, at least, they had been denied the spoils of victory. It restored a strange sense of pride during a period of national humiliation.

Over the 1920s and 1930s the ships were salvaged for scrap, but seven wrecks were left at the bottom of Scapa Flow and they have been registered as “Ancient Monuments”! Some Allied powers, notably France, were angered at not receiving a share of the ships on offer, but others, particularly Britain, were pleased to be spared the task of deciding who had what! ……

     …… The joint convoy of 191 Allied and 70 German vessels that sailed into the Firth of Fourth – on its way to Scapa Flow – on the 21st November 1918, was the largest fleet of warships ever assembled.

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