Many Germans believed their government sold them out at Versailles.

[raccoon]

It occurred to me last night how that sounds
distressingly familiar.

The Weimar Government was associated with failure in World War One since it had signed the Treaty of Versailles that had ended the war. Many nationalists believed the government had sold Germany out to its enemies by ending the war too early.

The “November Criminals” and the legend of the “Stab in the Back” were phrases used in many of Hitler’s speeches.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zsrwjxs/revision/4

Sounds like “stop the steal, “doesn’t it?

[TreasonousBastard]

1. True. But, Germany was already a failing democracy and the communists could actually...

have taken over.

Reparations were the killer. Versailles was viewed as punishment for Germany starting the war, and in the midst of a worldwide Depression, they were starving.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Please confirm, clarify, and/or correct

I heard a theory that the Reparations were based on paying back Wall Street banks and other lenders who let France and England borrow to purchase weapons to persecute their end of the War. The Banks were the ones shouting for repayment and France and England just didn't have the capital after about five years of war and the money had to come from somewhere. Therefore Reparations was a device to pay back the Banks.

True, partially true, or false?

[raccoon]

3. I haven't heard that but it makes a lot of sense.

I have heard that the reason the United States got involved in World War I was because the American bankers had loaned the allies a great deal of money and they knew if Germany won they would never get the money back.

That would fit with what you posted.

[The Magistrate]

4. True Enough For Government Work, Ma'am

There were other factors. 'Reparations', the victor recouping costs from the vanquished, were hallowed practice still at the time.

France had two strong reasons for insisting on them. First, as vengeance for the huge sums in reparations Prussia had laid on France after the defeat in 1870, and second, to cripple any German attempt to reassert great power status for the foreseeable future.

But the great scale of credit extended from the United States to England and France during the Great War was certainly a factor. The 'war debt' owed by England and France as a live issue in U.S. politics for some time after the conflict.

[dalton99a]

5. +1. And Germany didn't finish paying for WWI until 2010

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-11442892
Why has Germany taken so long to pay off its WWI debt?
By Olivia Lang
2 October 2010

Germany is finally paying off World War I reparations, with the last 70 million euro (£60m) payment drawing the debt to a close.

Interest on loans taken out to the pay the debt will be settled on Sunday, the 20th anniversary of German reunification.

It is about time, some would say.

More than nine decades after the war, Germany - now a leading European Union state and the largest economy in Europe - has long cast off its post-WWI image of a defeated, beleaguered Weimar Republic.

[cinematicdiversions]

6. I am a little confused.

Is the article implying that the Treaty of Versailles wasn't a disaster for Germany? It certainly was from everything I have read. Stop the steal is a blatantly false narrative. The anti-Versailles treaty pitch wasn't false. It just was effectively used by evil. The argument itself was accurate to what was happening in the country.

[raccoon]

7. What I was focused on was how Adolf and the Dotard used

The threat of unscrupulous people in their own countries as a propaganda tool. In the case of “stop the steal”, I agree it was totally fictitious. But I believe there are plenty of American voters who totally believe it.

[rurallib]

8. You might enjoy Thom Hartmann's rant for today

https://hartmannreport.com/p/like-the-nazis-and-fascists-the-republican

where Thom compares how other countries now and at other times evolved into fascism and how the Republican Party is following the path set by others.

One of the stages is that of the Big Lie - which was used by Hitler and others to explain Germany's defeat in WWI:

excerpt:

And the fourth step that we see playing out today is based on the classic fascist strategy of the Big Lie.

Mussolini‘s Big Lie had to do with Italy’s “mutilated victory” that helped end World War I. He said for Italy to return to its glory days, it would have to establish an empire and he was the man to do it.

Hitler‘s Big Lie was that Germany had been “stabbed in the back” by Jewish and socialist negotiators at the end of World War I, and that they were actually on the verge of winning the war when these people sold Germany out.

Trumps Big Lie, beyond “American carnage,” was that he won the 2020 election but was denied his victory because of “voter fraud” perpetrated by Black people in majority-Black cities like Detroit, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. He continues to sell this lie, and has been joined by most of the institutional Republican Party in it.

[Wounded Bear]

9. Good read...nt

[raccoon]

10. I love Thom Hartmann! I'll be sure not to miss that one. Nt