In Focus - Reparations Conferences 1920-1922

In the "In Focus" section, we present special highlights from archives that are represented in Archivportal-D. These selected archival items provide insight into the holdings and offer research suggestions for a possible search in Archivportal-D or in the thematic portal "Weimar Republic". This month we are pleased to present a contribution by the Federal Archives. In the information on further research options below, we refer to our object gallery on the main page of online collection, where we present further sources on this complex of topics.

For the young Weimar Republic, the conditions and fulfillment of the Treaty of Versailles were a dominant issue in both foreign and domestic politics. The question of war guilt and the reparations based on it were particularly polarizing.

The first Reichstag elections on June 6, 1920, ended in a minority government with Reich Chancellor Constantin Fehrenbach (Zentrum). The Weimar coalition of SPD, Zentrum and DDP was replaced by a shift to the right and left wings.

With the signing of the peace treaty on June 28, 1919, in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, Article 231 attributed sole war guilt and resulting damages to Germany. The article served as justification for the reparation claims against Germany. In the Treaty of Versailles, Germany committed to compensate for war damages worth 20 billion gold marks, yet the total amount and duration of reparations were not specified. A reparations commission with representatives of the Entente was to decide on the amount, type and distribution of reparations in several conferences, initially excluding Germany.

A conference attended for the first time by German representatives was held in Spa, Belgium, from July 5 to 16, 1920. Contrary to expectations, the reparations issue was relegated to the background. The provisions for disarming the German Reich and for German coal deliveries to the Allies were negotiated first. The resulting "Coal Agreement" was the first post-World War I treaty to be reached through negotiations between the Allies and Germany.

The final sum of the reparation payments was not agreed upon in Spa, but the percentage distribution among the individual countries was. In addition, a conference of experts was to discuss the reparation arrangements. In January 1921, after a meeting in Paris, the Allied War Council then presented for the first time a payment plan with a final sum: 226 billion gold marks, distributed over 42 years with increasing annual installments as well as 12% deduction of the annual export value. The demands triggered widespread indignation in Germany.

On this basis for negotiation, the German Foreign Minister Walter Simons made a counter-proposal at another conference in London in March 1921: The reparations payments were to be reduced by the Allies to 50 billion marks (minus the 20 billion already paid). This was rejected by the Allies, and the London conference was initially broken off. After the Allies threatened sanctions if the Paris notes were not accepted, Simons submitted a final mediation proposal, which was refused. A partial occupation of the Ruhr followed on March 8. Subsequent attempts by the Vatican to mediate failed. An offer by Germany to the U.S. to assume its debts to the Allies and an immediate reparations payment of 500 billion gold marks, or alternatively an annual installment payment of up to 200 billion gold marks, was turned down by the Allies on May 3.

For in the meantime, the Allied Reparations Commission had developed its own draft: The "London Payment Plan" of April 27, 1921, reduced the total amount of the Paris decision to 132 billion marks. Even before its official transmission, parts of the payment plan had become public and caused a government crisis in Germany: The coalition could not come to an agreement on the acceptance of the London payment plan. Even before the official note arrived, which took the form of an ultimatum to Germany on May 5, the Cabinet of Fehrenbach resigned on May 4, 1921. The "London Ultimatum" provided for an immediate and complete military occupation of the Ruhr in the event of non-acceptance within 6 days. The newly formed government under Reich Chancellor Joseph Wirth accepted the ultimatum on May 10, 1921.

Germany quite quickly declared itself unable to settle the demanded payments. At the subsequently convened Cannes Conference of January 6-13, 1922, Germany asked the victorious powers for a deferral of payments, which was granted alongside the convening of a world economic conference to restore the international financial and economic system in Genoa.

The right-wing defamed the Wirth cabinet's strategy following the London ultimatum, the effort to supposedly fulfill the Treaty of Versailles, as a so-called "fulfillment policy" and used it for propaganda purposes. Matthias Erzberger, signatory of the armistice agreement, and Foreign Minister Walter Rathenau were subsequently assassinated by right-wing extremist assassins.

The text is taken from the online collection on the Weimar Republic of the Federal Archives. We sincerely thank the Bundesarchiv for making it available.

Links to the sources in the online collection

Die deutsche Delegation auf der Fahrt zur Konferenz von Spa [05.07. - 16.07.1920]

Annahme und Umsetzung des Londoner Ultimatums der Alliierten Regierungen zur Zahlung von Reparationsleistungen vom 5. Mai 1921: Bd. 1

Reichstagsrede von Joseph Wirth zu den Reparationszahlungen Deutschlands

Research options

If you are interested in further sources on reparations, use the A-Z Index to select Reparationen and combine this thematic keyword with Geografikum Deutsches Reich.

In the object gallery on the bottom of the main page of the online collection you can find more sources related to the keywords„Konferenz von Spa“, „Londoner Konferenz“ and „Reparationen“.