Unit 1 - Treaty of Versailles & Weimar Republic QUOTES

Sir Eric Geddes, a governor minister, Dec 1918

"...Germany is going to pay...every bit of [German-owned] property...should be surrendered by the Germans."

Lloyd George, spoken before the Paris Peace Conference (1)

"We want a peace [that] will be just, but not vindictive"

Lloyd George, spoken before the Paris Peace Conference (2)

"We want a stern peace...but the severity must be...for justice (not vengeance)"

Lloyd George, spoken before the Paris Peace Conference (3)

"We want to protect the future against a repetition of the horrors of this war."

Winston Churchill, government member and serving officer, 1919 (1)

"...a fair judgment...a simple explanation of how [the war] arose" (regarding Treaty)

Winston Churchill, government member and serving officer, 1919 (2)

"To an overwhelming extent the wishes of various populations prevailed."

Georges Clemenceau, 1919

"At last I am no longer anxious. I have obtained almost everything I wanted."

W. Carr, British historian, 1972

"Severe as the Treaty seemed to many Germans, it should be remembered that Germany might have fared much worse...if Clemenceau had had his way."

Ferdinand Foch, French Marshall, 1919

"This is not peace, this is an armistice for 20 years."

from Deutsche Zeitung (German News), on the day the Treaty was signed

"Today...the disgraceful Treaty is being signed...The German people will... reconquer the place among the nations to which it is entitled."

a German woman from Vernon Bartlet, Nazi Germany Explained, 1923 (1)

"Money that lost half its value in 12 hours...the middle class was wiped out in a matter of weeks."

a German woman from Vernon Bartlet, Nazi Germany Explained, 1923 (2)

"A woman I knew saved year by year...Her capital would have bought enough furniture for a decent house. Three months later it would not pay her tram fare."

Harold Nicolson, British diplomat, 1919

"...we were very stupid men...the treaties imposed upon our enemies were neither just nor wise."

Princess Bleucher, married into Germany royal family, writing in 1920

"Over and over I hear the same refrain, 'We will hate out conquerors with a hatred that will only cease when the day of our revenge comes.' "

Lloyd George, 1918

We shall have to fight another war again in 25 years time."

Adolf Hitler, 1924

"The State itself has become the biggest swindler (ppl who con others for money)...Horrified people notice that they can starve on millions...we will no longer submit...we want a dictatorship!"

E. Dobert, Convert to Freedom, 1941

"Billion mark notes were quickly handed on as though they burned one's fingers, for tomorrow one would no longer pay in notes but in bundles of notes."

Adolf Hitler at his trial, 1924

"I alone bear responsibility but I am not a criminal because...there is no such thing as high treason against the traitors of 1918...I feel myself best of the Germans who wanted the best for the German people."

Finlay McKichan, British historian, 1992

"...the causes of hyperinflation were varied and complex, but the Germans...blamed reparations and the Weimar Republic...Many middle-class Germans never forgave the republic for the blow they believed had dealt to them."

Jutta Rudiger, a German women living in the Ruhr during the French occupation

"There was widespread hunger, squalor (filth, muck), and poverty...humiliation."