Reparations Commission
The Reparations Commission , the contract text redress committee called, was one of the First World War with representatives of the Entente occupied five-member committee, which among other things the German reparations firmly set. The powers of the Commission were far-reaching: it was in charge of overseeing and interpreting the provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty . The Commission's legal basis was Articles 233 and 234 of the Versailles Treaty.
First of all, the commission decided on the total amount of the reparation and set up a payment plan that was effective from May 1, 1921. It then monitored the solvency of the Weimar Republic and decided, if necessary, to postpone reparation payments.
Claims against Germany initially amounted to 20 billion gold marks , while Bulgaria was asked for 2.25 billion gold francs.
Because of the increasing economic problems of the German Reich, the Allies also demanded contributions in kind ( steel , wood , coal ). On December 26, 1922, the Reparations Commission unanimously determined that Germany was behind with the reparations deliveries. On January 9, 1923, the Reparations Commission claimed that the Weimar Republic was deliberately holding back deliveries. Among other things, in 1922 only 11.7 million tons of coal were delivered instead of the 13.8 million tons demanded and only 65,000 instead of 200,000 telegraph poles . France took this as an opportunity to invade the Ruhr area (see Ruhr occupation ).
With the entry into force of the Young Plan on May 17, 1930, the Reparations Commission ceased its activities. The Bank for International Settlements (then: Bank for International Settlements ) took over their agendas (as well as those of the reparations agent previously deployed ).
In accordance with Article 179 of the Treaty of Saint-Germain , the Reparations Commission was also responsible for determining Austria's reparations after the First World War.
The Commission was chaired by the respective representative of France ; Great Britain , Italy and the USA were also permanently represented. The last seat was taken by Japan on questions of maritime damage , Yugoslavia on Balkan questions , otherwise Belgium .
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Gordon Martel (Ed.): A Companion to Europe 1900–1945 . Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4443-3840-9 .
- ↑ Eugen Mayer: Sketches from the life of the Weimar Republic. Berlin 1962, p. 87 ( books.google.at ).
- ^ Reparations Commission . In: The Great Brockhaus . Handbook of knowledge in twenty volumes. FA Brockhaus, Leipzig 1928 ff.