In late-1922 the German government were forced to ask the Allies for a moratorium on reparations payments; this was refused, and she then defaulted on shipments of both coal and timber to France. By January of the following year, French and Belgian troops had entered and occupied the Ruhr. The German people, perhaps for the first time since 1914, united behind their government, and passive resistance to the occupying troops was ordered. A government-funded strike began as thousands of workers marched out of their factories and steel works. The German economy, already under massive pressure, gave way. The huge cost...
Brest-Litovsk and her treaty with France in 1871. Karl Helfferich, Reich Secretary to the Treasury, had said in a wartime speech to the Reichstag: 'After the war we shall n ot forego our claim that our enemies shall make restitution for all the material damage they have caused by the irresponsible launching of this war against us.' However, because of the inflationary means by which the imperial government had financed the war, the German mark in 1919 was worth less than 20 per cent of its pre-war value. After the formation of the Republic in 1919that can be made.