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Germany end World War One reparations after 92 years with £59m final payment
Daily Mail ^ | September 28, 2010 | Allan Hall

Posted on 09/28/2010 6:49:01 AM PDT by C19fan

World War One finally ends for Germany on Sunday - 92 years after the guns fell silent and nearly nine million men lay dead - as it pays off the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies. A final payment of 69.9 million euros, or £59.3 million, writes off the crippling debt which was the price for one world war - and laid the foundations for another.

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: germany; godsgravesglyphs; reparations; war
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To: darkangel82

They weren’t guilty of starting WWI either. The United States should have made things clear regarding neutrality and stuck to it ~


21 posted on 09/28/2010 7:15:22 AM PDT by muawiyah ("GIT OUT THE WAY" The Republicans are coming)
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To: wideawake

I’d never heard this aspect and very interesting to read. Thank you. I wish real economics were taught when I was in school, class of 89. I had a wacko socialist economics teacher that despised RR and supply side economics. Never mind just about everyone in my little town was doing better than they were a few years ealier.


22 posted on 09/28/2010 7:18:06 AM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: OB1kNOb; C19fan
I have some great looking German Notgeld in my own collection. The designs, colors and compositions are really fascinating.

I always wondered if a Freeper ping list for coin / currency note collectors would work here. I suspect there must be plenty of us around.

Not to hijack the thread but I could not resist when I saw the mention of currency notes!

23 posted on 09/28/2010 7:19:25 AM PDT by warsaw44
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To: warsaw44

I have some Notegeld from Germay and Austria. As you mention really interesting designs.


24 posted on 09/28/2010 7:20:48 AM PDT by C19fan
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To: dfwgator
What Germany was guilty of was allowing Lenin to return to Russia. 100 million paid for that.

Additionally, German behavior as the occupiers of Belgium and France was pretty bad. If they'd been better, history might remember them differently.
25 posted on 09/28/2010 7:24:25 AM PDT by BikerJoe
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To: BikerJoe

I won’t say the Germans were saints, but I believe the stories of their atrocities during WWI were grossly exaggerated.


26 posted on 09/28/2010 7:25:45 AM PDT by dfwgator (Texas Rangers - AL West Champions)
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To: Peter from Rutland
Germany should have been a restraining force on Austria, but several governments can be faulted for what they did or did not do. The Serbian government should have given a clearer warning to the Austrian government of the plot against the Archduke, etc.

Germany made France pay reparations after the Franco-Prussian War, so this was payback.

Only the Germans who were 21 or older in 1914 really have any responsibility, and even they really had no say in the decisions made in the inner circles of the government. I doubt there are any Germans who were that old in 1914 who are still alive.

27 posted on 09/28/2010 7:27:25 AM PDT by Verginius Rufus
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To: Verginius Rufus

The bottom line was that Europe was a tinderbox that was going to flame up eventually, the old world was dying, and these were the birth pangs of the new reality.


28 posted on 09/28/2010 7:28:54 AM PDT by dfwgator (Texas Rangers - AL West Champions)
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To: DesertRhino
They didn't have to be villainous or belligerent to be responsible for paying the costs of the war; they just had to be the vanquished.

Germans were not expected to “like” it.

The vanquished has traditionally been expected to bear the brunt of the expense the victor went through in kicking the vanquished’s buttocks. But as Churchill pointed out, long term payment plans have a way of making another war inevitable: he recommended a one time rip off of all mobile property - and call it a day.

29 posted on 09/28/2010 7:30:57 AM PDT by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: darkangel82

“The WWI Imperial Germans were not Nazis, but they weren’t angels either.”

In my opinion, the only decent nation in WWI was the USA. We were duped, but we were trying to do right, and sought no national gains or revenge.

Oh that’s very true, however, the war is always cast as making the “world safe for democracy”, stopping the “German Empire”, and we are told of endless German atrocities in WWI.

But at the same time, Germans had universal male suffrage by 1871 in federal elections,,, most British Soldiers could not vote due to age and not owning property. And for the British, Belgian, and French Empires to whine about the German empire borders on the silly,,, both in size and violence visited on the occupied colonial possessions. And British and French atrocities are utterly equal if not worse.
The British had invented concentration camps 20 years earler,,, the Belgians mass murdered millions at about the same time.

Thank God our soldiers were not simply fed into the British Army as replacements as the British all but demanded. They would have watefully used them even more freely than their own.

But WWI is an amazing topic. The whole European system was rotten,, and i believe America has always suffered from the European garbage wars. They dragged us in, and we had to become incredibly strong military to win, and to finally stop their crap and create peace for them.

And now a peaceful Europe, which was literally created by our strength, turns and criticizes our military strength.


30 posted on 09/28/2010 7:33:53 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: allmendream

I think “The Marshall Plan” worked out much better in the long-run than Versailles.


31 posted on 09/28/2010 7:36:57 AM PDT by dfwgator (Texas Rangers - AL West Champions)
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To: DesertRhino
“Thank God our soldiers were not simply fed into the British Army as replacements as the British all but demanded. They would have wastefully used them even more freely than their own.”

Yes, they would gladly have used us like they used the Australians. Ridden hard and put away wet, or ridden to death on the road. American soldiers should always serve under American command.

32 posted on 09/28/2010 7:38:07 AM PDT by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: dfwgator

“What Germany was guilty of was allowing Lenin to return to Russia.”

Exactly,,, That was Germany’s true WWI war crime. Their strategic move to remove Russia from the war haunts the world to this day. And a few decades later, the problem the created was standing in Berlin.

I almost think we really cannot understand how insane this century was. That historians 3 or 4 hundred years from now will be utterly stupified by this century. And im still 100% for it,, but they will look at nuking cities and shake their heads.


33 posted on 09/28/2010 7:39:36 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: allmendream
Yes, they would gladly have used us like they used the Australians. Ridden hard and put away wet, or ridden to death on the road.

Or shot after following their orders, like Breaker Morant.

34 posted on 09/28/2010 7:41:48 AM PDT by dfwgator (Texas Rangers - AL West Champions)
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To: dfwgator
Absolutely.

But at that point we knew that the (west)Germans were our allies against Russia. Easier to get the wolf to be friendly when the only alternative is the ravenous bear.

I think Americas long term success is that we WANT our vanquished foes back up on their feet, buying our goods at a fair market price, and developing their resources and/or producing goods for the market. We are not trying to make them “friends to Rome”, just a good trading partner.

Peace? Good times! We are the #1 seller of food. Wanna buy some?

War? Not so good times, but no reason to not make a profit. We are the #1 seller of arms. Wanna buy some?

35 posted on 09/28/2010 7:41:56 AM PDT by allmendream (Income is EARNED not distributed. So how could it be re-distributed?)
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To: DesertRhino
Im curious if the USA is paying anything equally ridiculous that we are generally unaware of?

Well remember that it is only in the last decade that we "stopped" paying a "soak the rich" telephone tax that was established to pay for the Spanish-American War.

36 posted on 09/28/2010 7:42:44 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Ask yourself,where does Saudi Arabia fit on a scale of "passive" to "moderate" to "extremist" Islam?)
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To: C19fan

“I use the joke I am a billionaire and whip out the note, hee hee.”

You know what? Whether i always agree with everyone here or not,, ive laughed till i had tears in my eyes at some of the humor in these FR posts. My adult daughter just looks over, shakes her head, mutters something about a bunch of old curmudeons ,,,,scattered all the nation,, linked together via computer.

And i tell her “yeah,, and we are about to take over”


37 posted on 09/28/2010 7:44:10 AM PDT by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office)
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To: DesertRhino
Exactly,,, That was Germany’s true WWI war crime. Their strategic move to remove Russia from the war haunts the world to this day. And a few decades later, the problem the created was standing in Berlin.

Regardless of what Germany did, had Kerensky pulled Russia out of the war, Lenin would have never been anything more than small agitator. Instead, Kerensky foolishly listened to Wilson and stayed in. Speaking of war crimes perhaps we should consider the British starvation blockade of Germany which continued even after the Armistice!

38 posted on 09/28/2010 7:45:51 AM PDT by Captain Kirk
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To: C19fan

There are three World War One veterans still alive - 2 British, 1 American.


39 posted on 09/28/2010 7:45:56 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: skeeter

Sorry. Serbia was responsible for supporting the Black Hand, and the Kaiser was responsible for giving Austria-Hungary a “blank check.”


40 posted on 09/28/2010 7:46:38 AM PDT by Little Ray (The Gods of the Copybook Headings with terror and slaughter return!)
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