Yesterday I mentioned the odd fact that Japan still sends China around $1.2 billion in aid every year to make ammends for the damage done during World War II, but it's not the only country still paying for its (long) past wars. This Sunday, Germany will finally put the 1919 Versailles Treaty behind it:
Oct. 3, the 20th anniversary of German unification, will also mark the
completion of the final chapter of World War I with the end of
reparations payments 92 years after the country's defeat.
The German government will pay the last instalment of interest
on foreign bonds it issued in 1924 and 1930 to raise cash to fulfil the
enormous reparations demands the victorious Allies made after World War
I.
The reparations bankrupted Germany in the 1920s and the
fledgling Nazi party seized on the resulting public resentment against
the terms of the Versailles Treaty.[...]
The debt payments were halted during the Great Depression and the Nazi era, then resumed in 1953. The final installment comes to €69.9 million.
No comments:
Post a Comment