Peace Treaty of Versailles

On 28 June 1919, Foreign Minister Hermann Müller (SPD) and Minister of Transport Johannes Bell (Centrist Party) – with approval by the majority of members of the national assembly – sign the Peace Treaty of Versailles.

© Jürs Signatures on the Versailles Treaty - left side: Müller, Bell; right side: Wilson, Clemenceau Lloyd George

In this document the victorious powers of the First World War dictate to Germany comprehensive cessions of territory and extensive disarmament. The obligation to exorbitant reparation payments is justified by the alleged sole responsibility of Germany for the outbreak of war. A storm of outrage and indignation seizes the country. The SPD politician Philipp Scheidemann expresses the attitude of many Germans in the statement: „How could any hand that put itself and us into such fetters not simply wither away?“ The „infamous dictate of Versailles“ will become a formidable burden in the coming years for the young German democracy. Political agitation against the peace treaty will become, at one and the same time, an instrument in the struggle against the Weimar Republic.