germany had to pay reparations after wwii.
germany had to pay reparations after wwii.
what reparations did germany have to pay after wwii?
reparations
Na
Na
several historians take the middle ground between condemning reparations and supporting the argument that they were not a complete burden upon germany. detlev peukert states, "reparations did not, in fact, bleed the german economy" as had been feared, however the "psychological effects of reparations were extremely serious, as was the strain that the vicious circle of credits and reparations placed the international financial system". p.m.h. bell writes that while reparations were unwelcome in germany and caused a "strain on the german balance of payments", they could be paid and were "compatible with a general recovery in european commerce and industry". according to martel, robert boyce said reparations were "a heavy burden on germany, both as a financial charge ... and as a charge on germany's balance of payments". however, he says that while "germany claimed it could not afford to pay reparations" this was far from the truth, and that " ... germany had made little effort to pay reparations. it refused to levy the necessary taxes, and far from accumulating the foreign exchange required for their payment by collecting some of the overseas earnings of german exporters, it allowed them to leave their earnings abroad". william r. keylor agrees with boyce, and says, "an increase in taxation and reduction in consumption in the weimar republic would have yielded the requisite export surplus to generate the foreign exchange needed to service the reparation debt". however, charles feinstein writes that these kind of arguments overlook the extreme reluctance of the germans "to accept even a modest increase in taxation to meet what was universally regarded as an unjustified and oppressive imposition by hostile adversaries". feinstein says that "even if the economic aspects ... were not as crippling as had been assumed in the 1920s, the exaction of reparations was still of deep political and psychological significance for germany".
world war i reparations