Reparations

Already during the war the Allies demanded that Germany restore Belgium and the occupied parts of France, distinguishing this from an old-style war indemnity. In the Lansing Note of 5 November 1918, which accepted the Fourteen Points as the basis of peace, they stipulated that Germany would make compensation for all damage done to the civilian population and its property "by land, by sea and from the air". The armistice did not fix a sum. In Article 231 the Treaty of Versailles held Germany and its allies responsible for the losses, and the amount was left to the Reparation Commission.

In May 1921 the commission set the liability at 132 billion gold marks, of which 50 billion were payable unconditionally. Payment disputes led to the occupation of the Ruhr in 1923, then to the Dawes (1924) and Young (1929) plans, and the Lausanne conference of 1932 effectively ended them. Estimates of what Germany actually paid vary: from about 17 to 20 billion marks according to historians and the commission to almost 68 billion according to the German government. Reparations were also imposed on Bulgaria, Austria and Hungary, but they paid little.