Quote Originally Posted by KrooK View Post
Anyway I knew about problems with remaining amunition but I was sure Germany is paying for it.
Germany has not paid reparations since 1931. (And barely anything before that)

The little pocket change that is the subject of this thread, is not a reparations payment. It is a repayment of a loan Germany received to pay reparations. However, Germany used it to pay neither the reparations, nor did it repay the loans. Germany did, however, happily use the money to prepare, even re-arm, itself to plunge the world into war again.

The allies of WWI had come to accept that they themselves have paid for all of the damages of WWI. However, after 1990, it was requested that Germany at least refund some of the substantial profit Germany made from reparations. This Germany has now done.



All of which would be fine. Were it not, that this repayment is presented all over the web as 'Germany finally done paying reparations!'. 'How chivalrous of them that they paid it all!'. 'How evil of the allies to suck Germany dry for ninety years!'.
All three of which are, as is customary for the reparations issue, factually incorrect, and/or, as is even more common, based on fundamentally erroneous notions.



My favourite author:
'Reparations reconsiderd: a reminder'. http://www.jstor.org/pss/4545548