If you are old enough, you remember Buddy Poppies, and you remember when November 11th – Veteran’s Day – was called Armistice Day. We grew up thinking that World War I ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month back in 1918.
Apparently, that wasn’t entirely true, but sing Hallelujah, ring the bells and kiss the closest Soldier, the war to end all wars ends today!
Just in case you hadn’t heard – here’s the story from yesterday’s Telegraph:
The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies.
By Allan Hall, Berlin
Published: 1:37PM BST 28 Sep 2010
The armistice between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in Compiègne Forest on 11 November 1918
The final payment of £59.5 million, writes off the crippling debt that was the price for one world war and laid the foundations for another.
Germany was forced to pay the reparations at the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 as compensation to the war-ravaged nations of Belgium and France and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging what was then the bloodiest conflict in history, leaving nearly ten million soldiers dead.
The initial sum agreed upon for war damages in 1919 was 226 billion Reichsmarks, a sum later reduced to 132 billion, £22 billion at the time.
The bill would have been settled much earlier had Adolf Hitler not reneged on reparations during his reign.
Hatred of the settlement agreed at Versailles, which crippled Germany as it tried to shape itself into a democracy following armistice, was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power.
"On Sunday the last bill is due and the First World War finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany," said Bild, the country's biggest selling newspaper.
(Here’sthe original story from Bild – If you use an internet translation application like I did, you may find the translation need translation)
Most of the money goes to private individuals, pension funds and corporations holding debenture bonds as agreed under the Treaty of Versailles, where Germany was made to sign the 'war guilt' clause, accepting blame for the war.
France, which had been ravaged by the war, pushed hardest for the steepest possible fiscal punishment for Germany.
The principal representative of the British Treasury at the Paris Peace Conference, John Maynard Keynes, resigned in June 1919 in protest at the scale of the demands.
"Germany will not be able to formulate correct policy if it cannot finance itself,' he warned.
When the Wall Street Crash came in 1929, the Weimar Republic spiraled into debt. Four years later, Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany.
October 3 is also the anniversary of the day in 1990 when Germany was reunited after 41 years. If that had happened earlier, the war debt might have been paid sooner – East Germany wasn’t big on paying debts owed to other countries, particularly those outside the Warsaw Pact.
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