A Speech by German Public presenting a German

View on the Treaty of Versailles

We are NOT a defeated country! WE are the saviours of countless
Allied lives! By signing this disgraceful treaty we are the ones saving
the Allies from certain doom! How is it possible that we are signing a
ceasefire YET we are the ones to be guilty and at your knees?!?!
Once again the Allies have revealed their true colours and now us
civilians will all die paying off this ridiculously large debt that they
are going to put upon us. Already we are starving and ruined as it is,
but now we will be crippled by the reparation payments. What will it
be??? One hundred thousand marks, one million marks, or one
billion marks?! Whatever the amount, we WILL rise after paying it off
and we WILL conquer Europe! We WILL reacquire our lost lands! We
WILL make the Allies pay more than 4 times what they are making
us pay!
The treaty is fully unfair to us Germans! We did not surrender
to the Allies- we are signing an Armistice based on the 14 points,
however we are being given neither self-determination nor a place
in the League of Nations. What is worse is that our government was
not even allowed to send delegates to the conference! How are we
to know what else they are going to do with us, and how are we
meant to sign this treaty if we werent even present when it was
planned and decided? The Treaty of Versailles is DIKTAT- an
imposed settlement! This treaty is totally unfair and biased against
us!
Also, the German government tells us that we must accept
blame for starting the war and we have to accept the war guilt
clause. This is a lie- we are not to be blamed for the cause of the
war! Russia caused the war and we were only forced to go to war
once they had mobilised. The Allies are just ashamed that they were
the ones who had started and encouraged war. They just need
someone to push the blame on to and we are their victims.
Thirdly, how is it that we pay of the massive debt that they are
yet to decide on? The Allies are determined to weaken our economy
and starve our children so that they can march in and take over our
country. They have realised that we as a country are too strong for
them and now that we are at their mercy they are able to force
their way through in the most demeaning way possible- by crippling
us and starving us through debts.
They are also destroying our economy by giving away 10% of
our land! This is 72,500 km2 of land. Also, the other nations of
Europe are getting delf-determination but we are finding 12% of our
nation being ruled by Poles, Danes, French, Czechs, Belgians or
Italians! Now I am not even able to meet my cousins in North
Schleswig or West Prussia.
Finally, the Allies are only leaving us with an army of 100,000
men, and no navy at all! Such a small army leaves us at the mercy
of- not only countries like France- but also countries such as Poland

and Czechoslovakia. We cannot defend our large country and all its
borders with such an army. If we were part of the League of Nations
it would have been easier to accept this, as other strong countries
such as France and Britain would protect us, but we are not and this
is damaging our pride.