Finally!

[jackshoegazer]

The First World War will officially end on Sunday, 92 years after the guns fell silent, when Germany makes the final payment of £59.5 million, the last chunk of reparations imposed on it by the Allies in the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

Comments

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

I thought this was paid on October 3- the anniversary of Reunification.

It's generally a Really Big Deal (to us Germans). :)

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Oops, I may have read the date wrong and it was Sunday the 3rd.

So, is Germany still paying reparations for WWII as well?

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

WWII reparations were a bit more complicated, since there was not a clear agreement on payment and Germany split in half as part of ending the war.

Most of the reparations from WWII came in the form of Germany agreeing to dismantle factories and stop producing the sorts of things that we used in war. All of that was finished in 1950. We did pay fiscal reparations to Israel and the World Jewish Congress - I believe it ended a few years ago.

Israel recently demanded that Germany pay brand-new reparations to cover costs that weren't forseen back in the 1950s. (Germany refused) I'm guessing this will come up a few more times.

Most of the Germans I know - I especially those of us under the age of 40 who really had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with any of this or the immediate aftermath - are wondering how long we're going to have to pay for the mistakes of our grandparents. It feels kind of ridiculous. But I guess I have no idea how it feels to be in the shoes of the other side, so who knows...

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

And it's not quite like it's like slavery reparations - it's not like you benefited from the actions of your grandparents. Whereas even abolitionists, it could be argued, benefited from the exploitation of slave labor. (For instance, they may not have owned slaves, but I highly doubt they did not purchase textiles made of cotton harvested from southern plantations.)

I am constantly reminded of that Faulkner quote: The past is not dead, it is not even past.

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

Exactly. It is in fact fairly easy to argue that the actions of the Holocaust hurt us rather than gave us any benefit -- We lost a LOT of very productive members of society, especially those that fled to the US and then worked against us. There really wasn't anything that made a positive impact from it, so today we have no benefits that could have possibly been reaped.

However, argue this with one of the groups that lost so many people in the Holocaust and they jump up to remind you about how many terrible things were done to the people who died. Which is frustrating to me.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I suppose that's a downside to nations. They live longer than their constituent elements. By being a member of said nation, you inherit the karmic weight of its past decisions, regardless of your own feelings, beliefs, or participation.

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

Excellently put.

[un-crayon-rouge.livejournal.com]

*nods emphatically* This.

[kiwikat.livejournal.com]

It's really interesting to get your viewpoint on this. Thank you for explaining!

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

This is a topic I like, especially with people who have a totally different perspective on it :)

[hagstrom]

Gee...finally!