Dazzleman, I would rather say that the problem with Versailles was that it imposed harsh penalties that angered the Germans but that it wasn't sufficiently backed up. In other words, they weren't ready to uphold the conditions of the treaty, which meant that the negative effect of penalizing was there, but not the actual effect of hindering German revanschism. Had the clause prohibiting Germany from having an air force or an army of more than 100 000 men been upheld WWII couldn't have broken out.
But I think we're probably meaning roughly the same thing?
Pretty much.
I don't happen to think that restrictions against military force are all that harsh. They don't necessarily negatively affect the lives of the average person, especially if nobody is going to attack you.
The reparations were a problem in the early post-war period, but they quickly faded after they were renegotiated, and the German economy boomed in the latter part of the 1920s.
Aside from the psychological humiliation of defeat, which hit the Germans hard, they really were not suffering during that period.Are you kidding? Germany's economy was in dire straits throughout the 20s, and when it did recover towards the end of the decade the Great Depression caused unemployment and inflation to soar through the roof once more.
