How far do you agree that the treaty of Versailles was very unjust to Germany?

In June 1919, the treaty of Versailles was signed, and at the time most of Western Europe, with the exception of Germany, felt that it was justified. However, in the 1920s, after the hyperinflation in Germany, and in the 1930s, there was a growing view that the treaty had been too harsh on Germany. There are several arguments to support this view. First of all, Article 231, also known as the War Guilt Clause, blamed Germany and her allies solely for the war. This was very unfair, as everyone who took part in the war, apart from possibly America, should share the responsibility for the war. This point in the treaty was particularly important as it formed the main justification for the terms of the treaty. Lloyd George himself said, German responsibility for the war is the basis upon which the structure of the Treaty has been erected. Also, many people feel that the reparations figure (6.6 billion) was too high and was an unrealistic and unfair burden on the debt-ridden Weimar Republic, particularly as the previous government went to war, not them. There was a strong public opinion that the overly punitive reparations led directly to the hyperinflation in 1923. The Treaty also made it very difficult for the Weimar Republic to survive. There were several coup attempts in the 1920s, which were made possible by the association of the republic with the humiliation of Germany. There is also the theory that the treaty led to the rise of the Nazi Party and the Second World War. This is because the treaty led to an unstable government, which the Nazis were able to dominate, and a huge desire in Germany for vengeance for their humiliation after their surrender in the First World War. The final argument for the Treaty of Versailles being unjust is that the terms were unconditional and the Germans were not able to negotiate or reject any of them. However, there are many other reasons for why the Treaty was not unjust. For a start, none of the terms in the Treaty were really unreasonable. The War Guilt Clause, while being a little unfair because the victorious powers took no blame, was at least accurate in that the Germans, in particular, were the most to blame. They were the aggressors in the conflict and they were the only nation to have a specific set of war aims with the September Program. The territorial terms, while seeming to be harsh, only reallocates lands that the Germans seized by force to their original rulers, apart from the colonies. Alsace Lorraine had been taken from the French in a very harsh treaty in 1873 to end the Franco-Prussian War. North Schleswig had been taken from Denmark by force a few years before that and the people chose through a plebiscite to rejoin Denmark. Likewise, all the land that had been taken from Russia in the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was returned or given to the newly created Baltic States and the Treaty was declared invalid and land taken from the Poles in the 18th century was given to a reformed Poland. France had also been invaded by the Germans and occupied for the second time in 50 years by the Germans. This, understandably, led to a feeling of resentment throughout the whole of France against Germany and pushed Clemenceau to propose very harsh terms (e.g. the original proposed reparations figure of 44 billion). Finally, the Germans had forced extremely harsh treaties on France in the Franco-Prussian War and on Russia on the Eastern Front. The Treaty of Frankfurt required France to pay Germany 5 billion franks and give them Alsace Lorrain, while the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk seized almost a quarter of all of the Russian Empire for the Central Powers. This shows that when the Germans won, they imposed much more unjust treaties than the Treaty of Versailles. The Treaty of Versailles was not a very unjust treaty. At the time, many people, particularly in France, had wanted harsher terms, such as a balkanized Germany. However what was important about it was that the Germans believed it to be very unreasonable. James Crompton