Treaty of Versailles

Ruhr Germany was where France invaded in Germany to get coal.

Bread rose in price

The Mark soon was worth almost nothing

I find it very interesting that the German people placed more hope in their military than they did the Reichstag (194). I also find it interesting that the German army did have the capability to organize a country to make it able to conduct a total war, which requires total mobilization (195). To my understanding the closest thing that could happen like this in the United States is if Congress were to declare a war without the president’s consent. This happened during World War II and has yet to happen since. Hence when the Allies announced their condition on May 7, 1919 to diminish the army to more of something that resembled a police force there was uproar of disapproval (203). The people of Germany did not want the one thing that they respect and follow to be broken down and become weak and unable to defend them. Germany refused to diminish their army and this just put them and their allies in disagreements going back and forth which finally got resolved by the National Assembly declaring their willingness to sign the Versailles treaty. The National Assembly signed the treaty to help Germany to keep hostile activity out of there and to lift the blockade of food supplies (203). With this treaty Germany had to deprive their military power (204). Had I been a citizen of Germany at this time I would have been frantic. To know that the one thing that people respected and listen to would be have their powers be diminished and the army would shrink was a huge concern. If I were in Germany at this time I would also agree with the people of Germany and be unable to accept the form of democracy. They tried to create it during the Great War and it did not help them since they ended up losing and signing the Treaty of Versailles. I would also be concerned when Germany had to reduce the strength of their armed forces (205). Having had followed them previously and then watch them fall apart would have been hard enough but since many people followed them more so than the Reichstag. Since this was a fragile moment in Germany’s history I understand that the people of Germany were unsure about what different government to follow and start to doubt it as soon as it showed signs of weakness (207). I would have done the same especially in such a moment of vulnerability of the mind. I would have constantly been unsure about who to vote for and had to make sure of people’s views constantly. Especially with the changing of powers and different government succeeding the German people would have to constantly keep track of who is still available to vote for. There was a span of 11 years (136 months) when there was a constant decline of one government every 8 ½ month (207). To add to the stress of finding a stable government that would not drop out Ruhr was being taken by the French. While neither Germany nor France gained anything from this it hurt Germany way more than the French (210). It got to the point where German currency would not buy anything so more money had to be printed. This caused the cost of everything to rise. One example in the book was the price of a 2 lb loaf of bread. In December 1919 it cost 2.80 marks. This price skyrocketed in December 1923, 4 years later, to 399,000,000,000 marks (212). If I were part of the German population this would be uneasy to accept. Not only did the German Government print so much money but then they also had to get it out of circulation at a certain point to allow the price of a 2 lb of bread to go back down to 30 mark in January of 1924, just a month later after it cost 399,000,000,000  marks