History Of The Weimar War

The Weimar years were marked by extraordinary and unrivaled economic, political, and social struggles and crises. Its beginning was marked as being especially difficult in that Germany was wiped out and devastated after four years of the unprecedented warfare of World War I. By 1918 the world had been shocked with over 8.5 million killed on both Allies and Axis sides and many more severely mangled and scarred – body, mind and spirit. This is seen as German Soldier, Ernst Simmel, writes, “when I speak about the war as an event, as the cause of illness, I anticipate something has revealed...namely that it is not only the bloody war which leaves such devastating traces in those who took part in it. Rather, it is also the difficult conflict in which the individual finds himself in his fight against a world transformed by war. Either in the trenches or at home can befall a single organ, or it may encompass the entire person” (Simmel, 1918). For Ernst, and millions of other participants, the war had turned forever changed their world.
An armistice was finally signed on November 11, 1918 and Allied nations didn’t hesitate to swing the arm of justice into motion for Germany. By January 1919, hundreds of Allied leaders and their staff assembled in Paris, forming committees to which every aspect of the war would be overlooked. The mass gathering of worldwide leadership entered the history books as the Paris Peace Conference, from which, the Treaty of Versailles was created. These meeting were unusual in nature; being the first for such vast and numerous collections of world leaders gathered to discuss and with hopes, produce a treaty that would prevent forthcoming war, along with addressing the pressing and long standing future economic ...

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... as seen throughout the 20’s. Theo Balderston, economic historian, describes reparations as “a tax collected from German citizens by the German government acting as the Allies’ “fiscal agent.” However, this tax lacked the “moral legitimation” that normally accompanies tax collection. The German government and the society thought the allied assertions to be one-sided and unfair. . It became a double edged sword, not only being an economic issue, but had much to do with lowering of German morale and sparking anger. Balderston goes on to point out that reparations were like a levy received from Germans by their government assisting as the Allies “fiscal agent” (Feldman, 1997).
As tax collector and in order to pay the reparation agreements, the German government needed to create an economic environment that would have excess exports in comparison to imports. Although