Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
GESCHICHTE auf Englisch
Jgst. 8
The Treaty of Versailles
L 4.1
Mass demonstration in front of the Reichstag against the Treaty of Versailles ("the
brutal peace")
Possible questions:
1. Describe what you can see on this postcard.
Mass demonstration in front of the Reichstag against the Treaty of Versailles ("the brutal peace")
•
Reichstag in Berlin
•
Demonstration or rally
•
Many participants or demonstrators
2. Try to decipher what it says on it in German and translate it into English.
Text: Massendemonstration gegen den Gewaltfrieden im Mai 1919 vor dem Reichstagsgebäude
Engl.: Mass demonstration in front of the Reichstag against the “brutal peace”/ the dictated peace/
the Treaty of Versailles, May 1919
3. Find reasons why people demonstrated against the Treaty.
•
Treaty forced upon Germany
•
humiliation of Germany
•
territorial losses
•
demilitarization of Germany
•
reparations
•
general dissatisfaction with the outcome of the Versailles Conference
Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
GESCHICHTE auf Englisch
Jgst. 8
The Treaty of Versailles
L 4.2
John Maynard Keynes
The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1920)
[…] The Council of Four paid no attention to these issues, being preoccupied with others, Clemenceau to crush the economic life of his enemy, Lloyd George to do a deal and bring home
something which would pass muster for a week, the President to do nothing that was not just and
right. It is an extraordinary fact that the fundamental economic problems of a Europe starving and
disintegrating before their eyes, was the one question in which it was impossible to arouse the interest
of the Four. Reparation was their main excursion into the economic field, and they settled it as a
problem of theology, of politics, of electoral chicane, from every point of view except that of the
economic future of the States whose destiny they were handling […].
Annotation :
John Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes (1883 – 1946):
-
British economist
Keynesian economics: interventionist government policy taking fiscal and monetary
measures to control the effects of economic recessions, depressions and booms
adviser to the British finance department from 1915 – 1919
their representative at the Versailles peace conference
The Economic Consequences of the Peace in 1919: Keynes argued that the German reparation
payments were too high and would cause the ruin of the German economy and further conflict
1. Mark what he says about the “ Big Four”
(see text)
2. Do you agree with Keynes?
(open question)
3. Summarize Brockdorff-Rantzau's arguments concerning the effects of the Treaty of
Versailles.
-
Transformation of Germany into an industrial state
Therefore importation of foodstuff necessary to feed its population
Foreign trade vital to Germany
Because of the clauses of the treaty adequate importation impossible
Decrease in foreign trade
Resulting in hunger and unemployment of the German population
4. Find out how he tries to convince the Peace Conference to change the conditions of Peace.
“Those who sign this Treaty will sign the death sentence of many millions of German men, women and
children."
Argumentation (see above), depicting the drastic consequences, arousing sympathy
Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
GESCHICHTE auf Englisch
The Treaty of Versailles
M 4.3 Folie
„Auch Sie haben noch ein Selbstbestimmungsrecht: Wünschen Sie,
dass Ihnen die Taschen vor oder nach dem Tode ausgeleert werden?“
Karikatur von Th. Heine aus dem Simplicissimus vom 3.6.1919
Jgst. 8
Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
GESCHICHTE auf Englisch
Jgst. 8
The Treaty of Versailles
L 4.3
Wilson
Clemenceau
Lloyd George
„Auch Sie haben noch ein Selbstbestimmungsrecht: Wünschen Sie,
dass Ihnen die Taschen vor oder nach dem Tode ausgeleert werden?“
Karikatur von Th. Heine aus dem Simplicissimus vom 3.6.1919
Materialien für den bilingualen Sachfachunterricht
GESCHICHTE auf Englisch
Jgst. 8
The Treaty of Versailles
Annotations:
Simplicissimus:
a satirical German weekly magazine (1896-1967)
contributors were e.g. Jakob Wassermann, Frank Wedekind, Alfred Kubin, Heinrich Zille, Heinrich
Mann, Erich Kästner and artists like George Grosz, Käthe Kollwitz and John Heartfield.
Thomas Theodor Heine (1867–1948):
German painter and illustrator
Criticized social orders and the monarchy in particular (six-month prison sentence in 1898)
had to leave Germany in 1933, first to Prague, then to Oslo
lived in Stockholm since 1948
Translate the subtitle into English:
„Auch Sie haben noch ein Selbstbestimmungsrecht: Wünschen Sie,
dass Ihnen die Taschen vor oder nach dem Tode ausgeleert werden?“
Karikatur von Th. Heine aus dem Simplicissimus vom 3.6.1919
You too have the right to self-determination. Would you like your pockets to be emptied before or after
death?
Try to identify the persons on the picture.
See above
Explain what the artist wanted to express with this caricature.
•
The “Big Three” are going to kill Germany showing no pity.
•
Guillotine (Terreur)
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They will take everything he has.
•
They maintain that they are noble (right to self-determination; Fourteen Points)
•
Germany has no say.