Stay ConnectedWDF examines how wars broke out, how they were concluded, and their consequences. Expect juicy diplomacy, sneaky intrigue, fascinating characters, and incredible drama. By Dr Zack Twamley, qualified history nerd.
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On This Day in history a century ago! What else, other than that infamous scene. After more than eight months, we reach that scene. What exactly was the Hall of Mirrors like to sit in? We have the answers. What did the Germans look like? Again, we have it covered. What were the consequences, of these signatures of the century? Again, we have it covered in Episode 82 of this whopper project. We've been on quite a journey over the last few months, and I couldn't have done without you all. So thanksss so much - sit back, relax and mark this regretful anniversary the only way we can, by listening and wondering what might have been, or how it should have ended.
See you on the other side of Versailles....
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If you thought we'd simply fast forward to the infamous scene where the Germans signed on the dotted line, then you haven't been paying attention! Between the 24 and 27 June, there was a great deal going down, even if many of the peacemakers had mentally checked out, knowing that the signing was only a few days away. As the allies blamed the Germans for Scapa Flow, and Clemenceau imagined a new scheme involving the occupation of the city of Essen, the Germans worked to find someone, anyone, who would sign.
The German Colonial Minister would request his title be changed, so that he wouldn't be known as the German colonial minister who signed away Germany's colonies, and this individual, Johan Bell, made his way with Herman Mueller, the German Foreign Minister, to Versailles. The ground was being prepared for the scene, but there seemed like an overall feeling of 'meh' had crept in. Was it not a bit of anticlimax, after all they'd worked on together, that the end result was just some unhappy Germans? Perhaps, but that couldn't be allowed to stand in the way of the gravity of the moment. The 28th loomed, and peacemakers pushed relentlessly on...
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The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!
->Visit the homeland for this new project!
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With a German Treaty tantalisingly close to completion, it remained to do the rounds, and find out exactly what was bothering or motivating the various delegates. Some last minute agreements, goals, and even strategic alliances were possible, as these peacemakers imagined life after the Treaty of Buckingham...
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My agora friends and others are going to be in New York for a special conference on 29th June - meet Mike Duncan, Kevin Stroud, David Crowther and more! Search Intelligent Speech Conference now! Use the code WDF to get 5% off your ticket!
On This Day a century ago, the Germans finally accepted the unacceptable. They finally arrived at the point where they determined that enough was enough. Or, to be more accurate, they exhausted their appeals, and realised that the choice between war or shame was not much of a choice at all. They would pick shame, with several caveats. They had tried everything else - their final appeal was one requesting another 48 hours delay, which the allies refused, likely because of the events at Scapa Flow 48 hours before.
Now there was truly no going back. They would have to accept the peace treaty, warts and all, the same peace which Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau had so spurned on 7th May. This treaty was virtually unchanged, as was the allied determination to press home their considerable advantages if it proved necessary. No, the new Chancellor and his President said, they could not risk the fate of Germans by a refusal. So it was that the German assembly voted explicitly to outlaw the use of this moment for political gains in the future - a seriously significant moment which was later subsumed under Nazi propaganda. It could not be denied that the German statesmen, from virtually all parties, had assented.
The Ayes to the right were legion, and nobody could be quite sure what would happen next. First things first though, they needed to find some Germans wiling to journey to Paris and sign - this proved to be the next trying phase of the peace conference, but back in Paris, the celebrations were beginning early. After so many months of work, it was finally time to revel in the fact that it was over, and soon they would be going home...
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The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!
->Visit the homeland for this new project!
->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!
->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month!
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My agora friends and others are going to be in New York for a special conference on 29th June - meet Mike Duncan, Kevin Stroud, David Crowther and more! Search Intelligent Speech Conference now! Use the code WDF to get 5% off your ticket!
Our latest episode contains the following theme, expressed by the Germans, to the effect that Germany would not accept the so-called 'war guilt clause'. The 22nd of June was a day of intense anxiety for the Germans and big three alike, because of this theme of defiance, and also, in a sense, delusion. The news of Scapa Flow hardly helped, as any sense of sympathy had been torpedoed, pun intended, and the Germans were faced with another brick wall. One particularly defiant message was sent in the late afternoon of 22nd June by Gustav Bauer, the German Chancellor, who clung to the notion that the most offensive articles could be deleted from the final version of the peace treaty, and it read:
Germany further lays the greatest emphasis on the declaration that she cannot accept article 231 of the Treaty of Peace which requires Germany to admit herself to be the sole and only author of the war, and does not cover this article by her signature. It consequently follows without further argument that Germany must also decline to recognise that the burdens should be placed upon her on the score of the responsibility for the war which has unjustly been laid at her door.
And that wasn't all - as it became evident that Germany would soon either tumble into an unwinnable war, or face the ultimate shame, statesmen across Europe were already planning for what would happen next. Yet, it was outside of Europe, in the court of the newest world power, that these decisions would prove most biting of all. What would the American President do with that undeniable tide of isolationism threatening to subsume American politics? And what would Europe do if, contrary to his public pronouncements, he was in fact submerged?
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The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!
->Visit the homeland for this new project!
->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!
->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month!
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
My agora friends and others are going to be in New York for a special conference on 29th June - meet Mike Duncan, Kevin Stroud, David Crowther and more! Search Intelligent Speech Conference now! Use the code WDF to get 5% off your ticket!
Within this episode we tell the incredible story of Scapa Flow, that infamous event in the twilight of the peace conference, where the German admiral von Reuter determined that he had no choice other than to scuttle his ships. As we will learn here though, the decision which the German admiral took was not a straightforward case of a German doing bold things, and debate rages on to this day over whether or not the act was a result of misunderstanding, or deliberate sabotage.
We also provide some background to the situation at Scapa Flow. How long had von Reuter's 74 ships been at this harbour, and why were they interned, rather than simply handed over as a surrender? What did the allies plan to do with his ships, and how did they plan to overcome thier disagreements? Could anyone really afford to add these 74 ships to their naval arsenal, or should they be used instead as a beacon of hope, by handing them to the League of Nations? Maybe they should just be destroyed in a grand ceremony, the symbol of the Anglo-German naval race sinking beneath the waves. As we will learn, the scuttling didn't merely embarrass the British, it also saved any potential antagonism between the British and Americans. Perhaps, in some respects, the act was even a blessing in disguise?
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The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!
->Visit the homeland for this new project!
->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!
->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month!
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My agora friends and others are going to be in New York for a special conference on 29th June - meet Mike Duncan, Kevin Stroud, David Crowther and more! Search Intelligent Speech Conference now! Use the code WDF to get 5% off your ticket!
While the allied rejection of the Counterproposals seemed to signify that there was no going back for Germany, certain individuals within the German delegation in Paris, and the German government back in Weimar, were keen to try a few final desperate things. At the top of the list of these desperate men was Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau, the German Foreign Minister and recipient of the allied terms on 7th May. BR was, incredibly enough, not just planning to reject these terms, he was also preparing for war with the allies. What was more, this German and many of his peers in the German delegation had become convinced that this was the only way to avoid the humiliation of defeat, whatever the cost may be.
So we examine here the forgotten story of Germany's planned resistance to the peace treaty, which the allies had made plain, could not be negotiated. To BR though, the apocalyptic vision of what would follow German rejection of the terms, complete with an allied invasion of German lands, soldiers in Berlin and maybe even the dissolution of the German Empire into individual German states, all this was worth it if it provided Germans with an opportunity amidst the carnage. As we will learn in this episode, BR was banking on noting less than an allied collapse in the midst of this invasion, which would enable Germans to bring the divided allies back to the negotiating table, and get a better peace. As we will also learn though, BR had it all wrong. So very wrong in fact, and the allies knew that at this point, it would have been the ultimate crime to hold back after coming this far...
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The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!
->Visit the homeland for this new project!
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Operation Redeemer - that plan to relieve the besieged forces commanded by General David McCay in Kiev, spearheaded by a force commanded by Paul von Lettow Vorbeck, composed of Freikorps soldiers and other German volunteers. It was a story almost too incredible to be true - and yet, onwards the redeemed marched. Back in London, the peacemakers chaired the Arbitration Committee, and imagined life after the conference. It seemed that the pieces were coming together, but would everyone be standing by the end?
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My agora friends and others are going to be in New York for a special conference on 29th June - meet Mike Duncan, Kevin Stroud, David Crowther and more! Search Intelligent Speech Conference now! Use the code WDF to get 5% off your ticket!
On This Day in history a century ago, a significant milestone in the history of the Paris Peace Conference was reached, and like so many others we have come across, its significance is largely lost in the narrative. This allied response, examined in this episode, represented a solid defence of their peace treaty, and a rebuke of Germany’s pretences to be standing for the Fourteen Points. The allied response was devastating and formidable, in that it was effectively the answer to Germany's claims to any moral high ground. Germany could claim no such high ground, said the allies, for their past behaviour disqualified them from any such claims.
The historian George Creel wrote on the allied response: "It is to be wished that the two documents – the German of May 29th and the Allied reply of June 16th – could be printed in every language and placed in every school and library, for they furnish in themselves a complete and dramatic exposition of the whole Peace Treaty, permitting the formation of an intelligent and independent opinion with respect to the confused question of justice or injustice."
The significance of the communications could never be in doubt. What was in doubt was what might happen next. The allied language was certainly arranged to leave no doubt: "It is only justice that restitution should be made and that these wronged peoples should be safeguarded for a time from the competition of a nation whose industries are intact and have even been fortified by machinery stolen from occupied territories. If these things are hardships for Germany, they are hardships which Germany has brought upon herself. Somebody must suffer for the consequences of the war. Is it to be Germany, or only the peoples she has wronged?" There could be no doubt according to the big three - the Germans had to admit their wrongdoing, and what was more, this was the end of the debate. "In conclusion", their reply said, "the Allied and Associated Powers must make it clear that this letter and the memorandum attached constitute their last word."
Failing the successful adherence by the Germans to these terms, "The said Armistice will then terminate, and the Allied and Associated Powers will take such steps as they think needful to enforce their Terms." It was, in short, do or die for the German government, and On This Day the scales finally fell from the German eyes...or did they? Listen to this fascinating examination of this forgotten moment to find out...
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The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!
->Visit the homeland for this new project!
->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!
->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month!
->Follow WDF on... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
My agora friends and others are going to be in New York for a special conference on 29th June - meet Mike Duncan, Kevin Stroud, David Crowther and more! Search Intelligent Speech Conference now! Use the code WDF to get 5% off your ticket!
Between 5 to 10 June 1919, one could be forgiven for imagining that the allies would be far too buys discussing the German counterproposals and their intended reply to do anything else. In fact, what we see on the morning of 5th June is a significant exchange between Paderewski and the big three, as Poland was placed on trial for its recent actions. It was almost as though the big three had nothing else to do, as their attentions were well and truly occupied with this largely unrelated issue.
Or...was it so unrelated? After all, unless the border with Germany and Poland was finalised, and the question of Upper Silesia affirmed, there could be no clarity on the German Treaty as a whole. Furthermore, it was entirely possible that if the Poles were unclear about where they would have to stop in thier claims to nationhood, a conflict could erupt as soon as the peace was signed. As it happened, this conflict did erupt, but between Poles and Soviets rather than Poles and Germans. Solving the borders between the two states was just another divisive mission which the big three would have to accomplish, and it was plain that each individual had a different stake in the debate.
Was it possible that while en route to the resolution of the peace treaty, the big three could get so tied up in other questions equally in need of resolution that they might never make it to the end? Possibly; at the very least, these destructive divisions which always remained under the surface, and which moved the French, Americans and British to grow their own positions on the different aspects of the peace refused to go away. Until compromise could be reached, a final settlement would thus be out of reach altogether.
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The Versailles Anniversary Project is possible because of your support and interest - make sure to spread the word, engage with the debate, and look at the different ways you can help this project succeed!
->Visit the homeland for this new project!
->Become a delegate and play the Delegation Game for just $6 a month!
->Support the podcast financially and access ad free episodes with transcripts from just $2 a month!
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