5.

GERMANY AND THE TREATY  

[memory word: U GARTLAR]

Note: This section is vital to your understanding of the Depth Study topic:
Germany 1918-1939.

May the hand wither that signs this treaty.

Frederick Scheidemann, the German Chancellor (June 1919) then he resigned

rather than agree to the Treat

When the Germans heard about the Treaty of Versailles, they felt ‘pain and
anger’. They felt it was Unfair. They had not been allowed to take part in the
talks – they had just been told to sign.
   
At first they refused to sign the Treaty. Some Germans wanted to start the war
again.
 
The Germans were angry at Clause 231; they said they were Guilty and could
not to be blamed for the war. The soldier sent to sign the Treaty refused to sign
it – ‘To say such a thing would be a lie,’ he said.

The Germans were angry about their small Army. They said they were helpless
against other countries.  At first they refused to reduce the army, and the sailors
sank the fleet (sunk at Scapa Flow), rather than hand it over.  
The Germans were angry about Reparations; they said France and Britain were
trying to starve their children to death. At first they refused to pay, and only
started paying after France and Britain invaded Germany (January 1921).
  
The Germans also thought the loss of Territory was unfair. Germany lost a tenth
of its land. Other nations were given self-determination – but the Treaty forced
Germans to live in other countries.  

League of Nations – Germany was not allowed to join the Leage. This was an
insult to them.

Anschluss - Germans were also angry that they could not unite with the Austrian
Germans. This was against the principle of self-determination.
Results – Germany lost 10% land, all colonies, 12% population, 16% of its
coalfields, 50% iron and steel industry; Scapa Flow = sinking ships so Allies
wouldn’t have them. Riots in Berlin/the Deutsche Zeitung attacked ‘the
disgraceful treaty’/Kapp Putsch (1920) to try to overturn the Treaty.

Read
Spidergram – What did the treaty of Versailles do to Germany?
Notes given – Official German Reaction to the Treaty
Germany's Reaction - Sources
  
The harshness of the Versailles Treaties created outrage and anger in Germany:

Please read and understand ALL these Sources

Source 1  
The disgraceful Treaty is being signed today.  
Don’t forget it!      
We will never stop until we win back what we deserve.  
From Deutsche Zeitung, a German newspaper, 28 June 1919.

Source 2  
Those who sign this treaty, will sign the death sentence of many millions of German men,
women and children.  
Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, leader of the German delegation to Versailles (15 May 1919).

Source 3
Destined for Repudiation
Though the Germans accepted the treaty in the formal sense of agreeing to sign it, none took
the signature seriously. The treaty seemed to them to be wicked, unfair, dictation, a slave
treaty. All Germans intended to repudiate it at some time in the future, if it did not fall to
pieces of its own absurdity.
AJP Taylor, The History of the First World War (1963)

Source 4
Article 231 – The Lie
The deeper we penetrated into the spirit of this Treaty, the more we became convinced of its
impracticability. The demands raised go beyond the power of the German Nation....   We know
the impact of the hate we are encountering here, and we have heard the passionate demand of
the victors, who require us, the defeated, to pay the bill and plan to punish us as the guilty
party.   We are asked to confess ourselves the sole culprits; in my view, such a confession
would be a lie ....   We emphatically deny that the people of Germany, who were convinced that
they were waging a war of defence, should be burdened with the sole guilt of that war.
Count Brockdorff-Rantzau, foreign secretary and leader of the delegation, speaking to the Allies
(May 1919)

Source 5
The Surprise of Defeat
We must understand the fundamental reason for Germany's reaction...   What hit Germans the
hardest was the surprise of defeat.  
On November 11, 1918, no foreign armies threatened Germany with invasion.   For four years
the imperial armies, in Europe at least, had rushed from victory to victory - and now, out of
nowhere, appeared a balance sheet which showed the agents of this succession of victories to
be the defeated.  
It made no sense, and no treaty confirming such an incomprehensible verdict could expect
German acceptance.   Nothing shook the German's belief that their armies returned
undefeated from the field of battle.   Everything following the armistice was so out of tune
with these assumptions that it produced not just disaffection, but collective paranoia and
disorientation.
Dr. Hans A Schmitt, Treaty of Versailles - Mirror of Europe's Postwar Agony (1989)

Source 6
Only by Blood
It should scarcely seem questionable to anyone that ever the restoration of the frontiers of
1914 could be achieved only by blood.   Only childish and naive minds can lull themselves in
the idea that they can bring about a correction of Versailles by wheedling and begging....   No
nation can remove this hand from its throat except by the sword.   Only the assembled and
concentrated might of a national passion rearing up in its strength can defy the international
enslavement of peoples..
Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (1924)

Important
The Treaty of Versailles helped Adolf Hitler's rise to power.   Many Germans
supported him because he promised to destroy the Treaty.

Read
The Germany Reply – Notes Given (Brockdorff-Rantzau memorandum)
Textbook: Pg. 88-89 – German reactions to the Treaty of Versailles
Textbook: Pg. 88 – Source 12
Textbook: Pg. 89 – Source 14, 15, 16
Textbook: Pg. 90 – The impact of the Treaty on Germany
Textbook: Pg. 90 – Source 17 & 18.