Interesting topic, jay. One thing puzzles me, why didn't things play out like they did after WWII? The communist threat must have been on everyone's minds at the time, so instead of shoring up Germany, which in fact is the natural enemy of the Russians, the bulwark against the Reds, it was dismembered and crushed by reparations.

 

Why didn't the great powers force Germany to enter a defensive pact with Poland against the Russians/Communism, allying their fortunes with Germany instead of foolishly severing them and leaving a vacuum at the heart of free Europe?

 

In terms of revenge, it must have satisfied the public, but it left Europe open in the East. Luckily, the Poles were more than a match for a Russian invasion in the 20s, but with the preoccupation with the 'red menace', I'm surprised the west didn't act as votaries for a forced integration of Germany into an anti-communist military pact, a sort of pre-NATO.

 

 

 

 

Everyone else has pretty much covered it and I completely agree with their sentiments.  

 

1)  Eliminate ALL war reparations.  As is being discussed in a different thread had the Germans fortified the frontier France would probably have attacked.  With the French being the aggressor who then becomes "the bad guy?"  World War I was not a war between good and evil, it was between rival nation-states.  Blaming it on "Evil" Germany was arrogant, stupid, and just plan inaccurate anyway regardless of the horrible consequences that resulted from the reparations in the first place. 

 

2)  Institute rebuilding and aid programs in the areas that were demolished.  France, Belgium, and Germany all needed to be rebuilt to different extents and they all should get a good amount of assistance to do so. 

 

Those are the two main things.  As Herald said if you eliminate the thoughtless and stupid desire for revenge from the Allied nations you spare Germany from its disastrous depression and thus Hitler never comes to power.  No World War II.

The title of the book written by Fritz Fischer is : Germany's Aims in the First World War

Not sure that USSR was a threat in 1919. The country was in civil war. So according to me, your idea doesn't fit with the time.

The idea of communism was a major threat in the minds of the European public. The idea that a European capital had fallen and the proletariat had taken over caused, i'm sure, fears of a communist takeover. Remember too that Lenin advocated revolutionary communist, an internationalist movement. However, on a military level, you're quite right that the USSR was not on the map at all.

The influence of the communist was very low during the first WW and during the years right after. Remember, the internationalist mouvement di not prevent the war and became flaw. Communists and socialists of each country even support their proper governement during the war. So at the end of WW1, the reds were not a threat. It becomes different some years after.

I would disagree about the "Red" threat...Bela Kun in Hungary and Luxemberg (sp) and Liebknecht in Germany all established Bolshevik Republics, the German one being in Munich.  True both republics failed, but the KPD was a very strong force in Germany right up until the NASDAP took over.

 

Herald is wrong, and once again personalizes history....the problem was not that "moron/cretin" Wilson...mind you I'm no fan of Wilson...,but the problem was Lloyd George and Clemenceau, and the Italians.  The German government offered an armistice, on the basis of Wilson's 14 Points.  The Allies accepted the offer but did not make the peace on that basis.

 

The Fourteen Points were a better basis for a lasting peace than Versailles was, so I'd excuse Wilson, at the macro scale, and fault him for an inability to get the other Allies to agree and to get his own Senate to join the League of nations. 

 

The only way for Versailles to work was for the Allies to remain united and strong, in support of keeping Germany down.  By 1923 Keynes (The Economic Consequences of the Peace), the British and the United States had all withdrawn from the desire to "Keep Germany Down."  Leaving only Belgium and France to confront Germany, and a Germany that was embittered and impoverished by Versailles, pretty much the worst of both worlds.  Finally add in the Great Depression and you have the recipe for Hitler and the NASDAP.