Reparations

Reparations are the monetary punishment that is levied on a country after a war. In Germany’s case, the war reparations were established in the Versailles peace treaty and were set at £6.6billion.

The notion of reparations is that it pays for the war damage caused by the aggressor, in this case Germany. Most of these reparations were intended to go to the reconstruction of France who had seen most of the destruction due to the location of the Western Front.

Germany were to pay these reparations over time by sending money or goods in kind to the victors. During 1923, Germany stopped paying the reparations and the French and Belgians invaded the Ruhr to ensure that Germany would continue paying. During the Nazi era of German history, the Nazis just stopped the payments to the allies.