Germany still paying off £50million in reparations following World War One - more than 90 years on

Daily Mail ^ | December 2, 2009 | Alan Hall

[C19fan]

Germany is still paying off £50 million in 'reparations' demanded from it after the end of World War One over 90 years ago. The German Finance Agency, the country’s authority on debt management, said tens of millions of euros are still being transferred to private individuals holding debenture bonds as agreed under the treaty of Versailles signed on June 28 1919. Those bonds were issued at the time to investors hoping to make money out of Germany’s financial quagmire.

[C19fan]

Interesting bit of history although the article is unfortunately full of historical errors, especially the timeline around when Weimar Germany expericed hyperinflation.

[UCANSEE2]

The math part seems hard to accept as well.

Paying tens of millions since 1919 to pay off 50 million?

[hoosierham]

interest probably accrued during 1939-1945.

[ClearCase_guy]

I could be wrong, but I think the terminology is poor. If Germany is sending money to England and France, then that is what I consider "reparations". If, as seems to be the case, the German government is honoring government bonds, then I'm not sure that is exactly "reparations".

It's an interesting story, but it seems more quirky than anything else.

[C19fan]

Germany suspended payments with the onset of the Great Depression. A post-World War II commission said Germany should pay off the remainder, itself a greatly reduced amount after the Hoover era Young Plan, once it reunified. I guess West Germany decided to pay so I suppose the remainder is the former East Germany’s share.

[dfwgator]

What did Austria have to pay?

[Pecos]

‘The still-open contract for interest and amortisation payments is around €56 million,’ said spokesman Boris Knapp.

So, it may be that the bonds were still accruing interest all those years, except for the period starting in 1953, as stated in the story. Compound interest is a real bear when you’re on the wrong side of a debt.

[C19fan]

This is a bit of conjecture on my part but I bet the bonds were related to the various 1920s plans Germany and the WWI Allied powers agreed when Germany could not pay the reparations. Germany issued new bonds to refinance the reparations.

[ClearCase_guy]

I bet that's true, so there is (I imagine) a solid connection between the bonds and the reparations, but there is also a separation.

This seems to me (somewhat) like the telephone tax which we all pay and which was put in place after the Spanish-American war. We still pay the tax, but we're not paying for the war anymore. The Germans are honoring bonds, but they aren't (in my opinion) paying reparations.

[nkycincinnatikid]

Well there was the Tyrol, the Sudentenland,the Banat, Bohemia, Moravia, Gallicia, Slovenia, Croatia, Transylvania, Triest, and the Karlsbader Oblaten

[Frantzie]

In retrospect - the allies squeezed them too hard and helped create Hitler. Most of the royalty was all related to each other.