v11_2251 - ALLEMAGNE - RÉPUBLIQUE DE WEIMAR 5 Marks 1931 Karlsruhe

GERMANY - WEIMAR REPUBLIC

(1918-1933)

Germany had lost the great war. At the Treaty of Versailles (June 28, 1919), she had to sign the promise to pay reparations. To guarantee these reparations, the administration of the Saar was entrusted to France. In 1923 France further occupied the Rhineland ("Germany will pay!") but in 1931 French troops evacuated the area. Thanks to the Young plan and the Briand-Streseman friendship, France abandoned part of its claims to the payment of war reparations. Germany should have paid 226 billion gold marks in reparations, notably to France and Belgium. Germany was badly shaken by the crisis of 1929. The number of unemployed exploded from two million to more than six million, preparing the ground for Nazism and the rise to power of Adolf Hitler.