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after losing World War I Germany was saddled with heavy reparations it wasn't long before Germany's economy was in the toilet its people were suffering massively decreased living standards and its politicians feared societal collapse so given how bad things were in Germany this raises the question why didn't its leaders just default on its War payments and try to start over so to begin it won't shock you to know that these payments were not seen as negotiable by the Victorious onon Powers the Treaty of asai wasn't a contract between equal Nations but a dictat by The Victors and most of the nation simply didn't care how it would be paid so long as it was it took several years for the onon
powers to come up with a figure because bickering France and Italy wanted to crush Germany's economy forever and bury it indefinitely whereas Britain wanted a smaller figure in the hopes that Germany could then be rehabilitated and become a trading partner in the end they compromised and Germany was liable for 132 billion marks but it was only really expected to pay back 50 billion which could be paid in cash or in kind mostly coal steel Timber and most importantly handheld signs now this might seem like the question has been answered I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons James Bizet Sky Chappelle K just kidding for the new German president Friedrich Ebert and the governments that
served under him their primary objective was to get these payments reduced or eliminated the first plan was to deliver slightly less than asked in order to demonstrate the impossibility of repayments to Garner some sympathy didn't happen and in 1920 the Anon and Germany held a conference to try and work things out and the conference came to one conclusion Germany would pay it back or else with this in mind you'd think that the German government would have done everything in their power to get the reparations delivered but fun fact no over the next 2 years delivery of goods were delayed smaller than expected and in some cases non-existent part of this was down to some of these
deliveries being impossible but in some cases it was willful the idea was that if Germany could use these resources to build its own economy it would be better positioned in the future to pay its reparations this was something that Britain agreed with but France Belgium and Italy refused seeing it as letting Germany off too easily by 1922 end Germany had been declared in default four times and in January 1923 Germany defaulted again but this time it was in terms of coal delivery which the French desperately needed as such France and Belgium invaded and occupied the ru one of Germany's main coal producing regions losing a part of its industrial Heartland was not good for Germany and
when the German Chancellor called for nonviolent resistance its output ground to a halt the government didn't want regular Germans who were now out of work to suffer and so those who remained had their wages paid for by the government this required lot of money and so the options were one increase taxes on everybody else two take the money from another part of the budget or secret option number three just print more this in combination with a large increase in spending led to what the viar Republic is best known for the discovery of renum or hyperinflation as you'll know hyperinflation obliterated the German economy at the end of 1923 the government called for an enter passive resistance issued a brand new currency
in the onon looked into changing the terms of Germany's reparations to smooth things over in the end the doors plan was adopted and this opened up Germany to Foreign Credit an investment which helped the country pay what it owed this was reformed again in 1929 and 1932 at which point the onon agreed to forgive 90% of the remaining reparations and after the next set of Elections the next guy wasn't very interested in paying back anything at all in the end Germany paid back roughly 20 billion of the 50/32 billion that the onon demanded meaning that whilst Germany was unable to default it was able to negotiate its way to paying only a fraction of what was demanded from it I hope you enjoyed
this episode with a special thanks to my patrons James Bizet Sky Chappelle kka Udan Wang wyan hockey Anthony beckets blue cardinal Alex Schwin afir fly Spencer Lightfoot Captain pyg the mcer the flying Dand Gustav Swan Robert C Perkins shenin Michael hbert Castle Bravo Marvin CAU Winston kwood rod D Martin spinning three plates Andy McGee kimun Yun Danny atanasio murza Ahmed copper tone Maggie Paskowski H from stav hav Arthur hosy Jr kitro Remco hoyman Jim strumberg bet OT Charles I and Lord beak
