Treaty of Versailles | peace treaty

Author: Leandro Alegsa Creation date: November 13, 2022

The Treaty of Versailles (French: Traité de Versailles) was a peace treaty between the nations of Japan, the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom in 1919, after World War I. Germany, Austria and Hungary did not participate in writing the treaty. Germany had the choice of signing it or facing its occupation by Allied troops.

Germany had to reduce its armed forces from 6 million to 100,000 men and to get rid of its submarines and military aircraft and most of its artillery. It was allowed to keep only navy battleships.

Germany also had to give back the French territories that it had occupied. It also had to give up large territories to Poland and other neighbours and all of its colonies. It also had to pay huge reparations for the damage that had been done to Allied countries, especially France, during the war by German troops. The sum would be very large but was not yet fixed. Many gold marks had to be paid only as the first part of the German debt.

The treaty set up the League of Nations, which was intended to make decisions and to keep the peace after the treaty had been signed. The League solved some international disputes without war but could not stop World War II.

The treaty can be seen as a one-sided peace, which was dictated to Germany. The British economist John Maynard Keynes thought that it was a great mistake to force such harsh measures on the German people, but his advice was ignored.

Germany set up the democratic Weimar Republic, but it suffered an economic collapse that went with huge inflation of its currency, the Reichsmark.

Adolf Hitler became the German chancellor and got rid of the treaty. His actions would eventually lead to World War II.

William Orpen: The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors. Signing of the treaty in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in 1919.

"Law on the Conclusion of Peace between Germany and the Allied and Associated Powers". Published in the German Reich Law Gazette of 12 August 1919 with the complete, trilingual treaty text.

Play media file The Signing of the Peace Treaty of Versailles

Origin and ratification

The treaty was the result of the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, which met in the Palace of Versailles from 18 January 1919 to 21 January 1920. The location and opening date had not been chosen by chance: in 1871, German dignitaries had made the imperial proclamation in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles during the siege of Paris. This (among many other factors, for example France's high reparations to Germany) reinforced Franco-German hereditary enmity and French revanchism ("Toujours y penser, jamais en parler"). France's head of government, Georges Clemenceau, hoped that the choice of location would heal a national trauma.

This had been preceded on 8 January 1918 by the 14-point programme of US President Woodrow Wilson, which from the German point of view was the basis for the Compiègne Armistice on 11 November 1918, which was initially limited to 36 days.

Beforehand, a select committee of Congress met, the so-called Council of Four, which included US President Woodrow Wilson, French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau, British Prime Minister David Lloyd George and Italian Minister Vittorio Emanuele Orlando. The Council laid down the main points of the treaty. Only the victorious powers participated in the oral negotiations; only memoranda were exchanged with the German delegation. The result of the negotiations was finally presented to the German delegation as a draft treaty on 7 May 1919 - not coincidentally on the anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Lusitania. The German delegation - which included Professors Max Weber, Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Walther Schücking and Hans Delbrück, as well as General Max Graf Montgelas - refused to sign and pressed for the provisions to be softened, although the German delegation was not admitted to the oral negotiations; notes were exchanged instead. Among the few subsequent improvements in the mantle note presented by the Allies on June 16 was the plebiscite in Upper Silesia. The victorious powers would not allow any further touch-ups and demanded the ultimate signature. Otherwise they would allow their troops to enter Germany. For this purpose the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces, Marshal Ferdinand Foch, had worked out a plan: From the already occupied Rhineland, the Entente troops were to advance eastward along the Main River to reach the Czech border by the shortest route, thus separating northern and southern Germany. In circles around the Chief President of East Prussia, Adolf von Batocki, the Social Democrat August Winnig and General Otto von Below, plans were developed to reject the peace terms outright and to abandon West Germany to the invading troops of the victorious powers without a fight. In the Prussian eastern provinces, where the Reichswehr was still relatively strong, an eastern state was then to be founded as a centre of resistance against the Entente. On June 20, 1919, Prime Minister Philipp Scheidemann resigned. Already on May 12, 1919, he had expressed his position in the Weimar National Assembly with the question that had become a common phrase:

"What hand would not wither that put itself and us in such bonds?"

Under pressure from the threat of invasion and the British naval blockade, which continued despite the armistice and led to fears of a dramatic worsening of the food situation, the National Assembly voted to accept the treaty on June 22, 1919, by 237 votes to 138. Scheidemann's party colleague and successor Gustav Bauer exclaimed in the session:

"We stand here out of a sense of duty, in the knowledge that it is our damned duty to try to save what can be saved [...]. If the Government [...] signs with reservation, it emphasizes that it is giving way to violence in the determination to spare the unspeakably suffering German people a new war, the rending of its national unity by further occupation of German territory, appalling famine for women and children, and merciless prolonged restraint of prisoners of war."

Foreign Minister Hermann Müller (SPD) and Transport Minister Johannes Bell (Centre) therefore signed the treaty - under protest - on 28 June 1919.

Although the representatives of the USA, the most important signatory power alongside Great Britain and France, were the first to sign the treaty after the two German delegates, the American Congress did not ratify the treaty. On November 19, 1919, and again on March 19, 1920, the treaty and the accession of the United States to the League of Nations were rejected. The USA therefore concluded the Berlin Treaty of 25 August 1921 with Germany.

American cartoon on the military threat against Germany: Because Wilson's 14-point plan is allegedly not being adhered to, Marshal Foch adds his saber point as the 15th point

The Accuser . Caricature of the American cartoonist Rollin Kirby from 1920: Mankind accuses the Senate of the United States for murdering the Treaty of Versailles.

Initial conditions

Two of the most important powers from the beginning of the war no longer existed:

As a result of the October Revolution, made possible by the infiltration of Lenin by the German Reich, Soviet Russia had now emerged on the soil of the Russian Empire. The capitalist states now feared that the Soviet state, committed to world revolution, would threaten the domestic stability of all other states.
The Austro-Hungarian Danube Monarchy had disintegrated at the Armistice.

Both warring parties had taken advantage of nationality problems in opposing states: the Central Powers had founded Regency Poland on the territory of the Tsarist Empire and had benevolently tolerated the founding of Lithuania. The Allies and the Slavic minorities of the Danube Monarchy had supported each other and were now beholden to each other.

Thus a general return to the pre-war borders was impossible and the reorganization was burdened with those problems that the drawing of borders between nation states inevitably entails.

By far the most severe war damage to civilian infrastructure was suffered by France and Belgium, which was invaded by Germany.

German peace negotiators before leaving for the Hotel Trianon. From left: Leinert, Melchior, Giesberts, Brockdorff-Rantzau, Landsberg, Schücking

Questions and Answers

Q: Who signed the Treaty of Versailles?

A: The nations of Japan, the United States, France, Germany and the United Kingdom all signed the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Q: Which countries were not involved in writing the treaty?

A: Germany, Austria and Hungary did not participate in writing the Treaty of Versailles.

Q: What military limitations was Germany required to accept?

A: Germany had to reduce its armed forces from 6 million to 100,000 men and had to get rid of its submarines and military aircraft as well as most of its artillery. It was allowed to keep only navy battleships.

Q: What territories did Germany have to give up?

A: Germany had to give back French territories that it had occupied as well as large territories to Poland and other neighbours and all of its colonies under the terms outlined in the treaty.

Q: What reparations were demanded from Germany by Allied countries?

A: As payment for damage done by German troops during World War I, huge reparations were demanded from Germany by Allied countries, particularly France; though an exact sum was not specified at first, many gold marks would be paid just as a part of what was owed by German debtors according to treaty stipulations.