Why was the Treaty of Versailles unpopular with the German people?

Treaty of Versailles was unpopular with the German people because it brought many confusions to German society with its huge appalling result in economy. The overall reactions to the treaty was horror and outrage.

After the Treaty of Versailles, Germany lost 10% of its land such as The Rhineland, Saarland, Alsace Lorraine, West Prussia and Posen etc. Their oversea’s empires were taken away by Britain and France. The Germans felt it was unfair losing their lands, territories or their colonies. It made Germans to lose their pride and to its economy. Germans no longer had a belief towards their country and felt unconfident. The industrial cities such as Saar and Upper Silesia were taken away and this caused a damage to the economy in Germany. Meanwhile, the Britain and France were increasing their empires by taking control of German territories. In addition, supporters of the Weimar government felt betrayed by their government as they were not represented at the talks and so they were being forced to sign the treaty. It was seen as wasted effort.

Secondly, German army was limited to 100,000 men which was not enough to protect the country and they were not allowed to armoured vehicles, submarines or aircraft. They could only build 6 battleships. Conscription was also banned. This was unpopular among Germans as they lost their pride in its armed forces and claimed that an army of 100,000 wasn’t enough to defend theirselves. They felt weak and vulnerable. Additionally, it possibly made lots of unemployment of soldiers as they cut down the army into 100,000 soldiers which means the unemployed soldiers had to suffer from starvation and caused great anger towards the treaty. Also, Germany had to pay 6000 million pounds of reparation to the Allies for the damage caused by the war. Because of this, the German economy was made worse and people had little food. The citizens were also feared that the paymants would affect worse on them badly. They believed that they didn’t deserve to pay for all the damage done because they thought the Allies deserve to pay as well. There was no consultation towards the reparations.

Lastly, the war guilt was particularly hated by Germans. This is because they were strongly forced to admit that they are to blame for the war whereas insisting that they were fighting a war of defence. Also, the new Weimar republic had to be blamed on what the previous Kaiser had done. The fact that it was the previous Kaiser's fault was dismissed. It was humiliation and unjustifiable. Germans’ reaction was full of anger and felt like they were mistreated.

Teacher's comment:

5/8, There were lots of contextual knowledge, and clear links to the question. However, stick to two factors well explained and link between the two factors.