Responsabilité et réparations. Contexte historique de la rédaction du Traité de Versailles et opinion allemande sous la République de Weimar

This article begins with a discussion of the evolution of the settlement of war costs and reparations since the early nineteenth century. The idea of "compensation" for the victor by the vanquished was included in peace treaties towards the end of the nineteenth century. The Hague Convention of 1907 even amplified this idea by including losses suffered by civilians in the victorious country. During the Great War, the situation changed significantly. The belligerent countries, concerned with enormous military expenses of all kinds, demanded, as early as 1914, that the vanquished should pay "everything", and the category of moral responsibility was introduced to convince the people of the justness of their own cause. This was one of the reasons why the war lasted as long as it did, as it was known that defeat would also mean ruin. The Treaty of Versailles was the result of this development of opinion and of economic and moral categories. And this was also the main reason why the vanquished ? Germany in this case ? protested so strongly, as financial and moral issues were intrinsically mixed. As a result, the issue of reparations was and remained envenomed by the paradigm of "responsibility?. The best example of this was the nationalist campaign against the Young Plan of 1929, which German right-wingers took advantage of in order to finally consolidate a rallying point that served the Hitler movement above all. In the end, Hitler was acclaimed, even by his adversaries, when in 1934 he withdrew Germany?s signature from Article 231 of the Treaty, the "article of shame".