The Versailles Settlement

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The Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919 in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles.

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Source A criticises the territorial terms because it shows the lands Germany lost as black areas with broken chains, as if they have been cut off from Germany. The slogan 'Germans torn from the Fatherland' presents the losses as an injustice to German people. West Prussia and Posen had been given to Poland to create the Polish Corridor, which left many Germans living under Polish rule and cut East Prussia off from the rest of Germany. Germans argued that Wilson had promised self-determination, yet it was not applied to them, and union with Austria was forbidden.

The provenance supports this. The poster was made in 1920 by a nationalist organisation, soon after the Treaty came into force, to keep resentment alive and build support for winning the lands back. The weeping woman representing Germany and the words 'never forget them' show that its purpose was to make Germans feel the loss emotionally.

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Source B is useful because it shows the reaction of the German government to the peace terms. Scheidemann, the Chancellor, says the Treaty is unacceptable and asks 'What hand would not wither' that signs it, describing the terms as 'fetters' - chains placed on Germany. This helps explain the Diktat idea: Germany had been excluded from the Paris Peace Conference, and the terms were simply handed to its delegation on 7 May 1919 with replies allowed only in writing. The provenance makes it valuable, because Scheidemann was the head of the government, speaking only days after seeing the terms. However, it is a public speech to the National Assembly, designed to rally opinion and perhaps to pressure the Allies into changes, so its language is deliberately emotional. It also does not tell us how the Treaty was eventually imposed. His resignation on 20 June rather than sign suggests he meant what he said.

Source C is useful in a different way, because it comes from the Allies themselves. It shows their refusal to compromise: it insists that the war was Germany's 'greatest crime', rejects most German proposals, makes only small changes such as the Upper Silesia plebiscite, and gives Germany five days to decide. These are exactly the reasons Germans called the Treaty a Diktat. From my knowledge, the ultimatum was backed by the threat of an Allied advance into Germany, and the naval blockade was still causing food shortages. As an official Allied document approved by Clemenceau, it was written to justify the Treaty, not to explain German feelings, but this makes it strong evidence that there was no real negotiation.

Overall, both sources are useful. Source B shows how Germans felt about the terms, while Source C is perhaps more useful because it proves, from the Allies' own words, the features that made the Treaty a Diktat: blame imposed, objections rejected and a deadline backed by force. Neither, though, shows the reaction of ordinary Germans or the Allied refusal of Bauer's later offer to sign without the war guilt clause.

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There is a strong case that the territorial terms were the harshest part of the Treaty. Germany lost about 13% of its European territory and roughly a tenth of its population. Alsace-Lorraine, which provided much of Germany's iron ore, was returned to France, and the coal of the Saar was handed to France for 15 years while the League of Nations ran the region. In the east, Posen and West Prussia went to the new Poland, creating the Polish Corridor which cut East Prussia off from the rest of Germany, and Danzig, a German city, was made a Free City. After the 1921 plebiscite, eastern Upper Silesia, with most of the region's coal mines and industry, went to Poland too. Germany also lost all its colonies, and union with Austria was forbidden. These terms were harsh because they were permanent and because they placed Germans under foreign rule, even though Wilson had promised self-determination. They became the grievance that lasted longest: no Weimar government accepted the eastern border, and Hitler exploited it in the 1930s.

However, reparations could be seen as harsher in their immediate effects. The Treaty forced Germany to accept a bill whose size was not fixed until 1921, when it was set at 132 billion gold marks (£6,600 million). Paying it was a huge burden, and when Germany fell behind, France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr in 1923, leading to hyperinflation that destroyed savings and caused enormous hardship. Yet reparations turned out to be less harsh than they first seemed: the Dawes Plan (1924) and Young Plan (1929) reduced the burden, payments ended in 1932, and Germany paid only a fraction of the total.

The military terms were also severe. The army was cut to 100,000 men, conscription was banned, Germany could have no air force, tanks or submarines, and the Rhineland was demilitarised and occupied. Germany could not defend itself even against Poland. But these terms were difficult to enforce, Germany evaded them through secret training in the Soviet Union after 1922, and Hitler overturned them in 1935-36.

The war guilt clause, Article 231, did not take land or money directly, but many Germans saw it as the harshest term of all because it humiliated the nation and was the justification for reparations.

It is also important to see the limits of the territorial terms. Alsace-Lorraine had been French until 1871, some areas were decided by plebiscites (parts of East Prussia voted to stay German in 1920), the Saar returned to Germany in 1935, and Germany remained a united country with the Ruhr, its main industrial area, and the largest population in central Europe.

Overall, I agree with the statement to a large extent. Reparations caused more immediate hardship and war guilt more humiliation, but both were reduced or challenged within a few years. The territorial terms were the harshest because they permanently took land, resources and millions of people from Germany, and they caused the grievances over the Corridor and Danzig that led directly to war in 1939.