BTW, back to more like the original discussion, what is the opinion by FReepers of the effect of the reparations that were demanded of Germany by the Allies after WW1? Did they help create an environment conducive to extremism in Germany?
Extremism had no hold on Germans until the Great Depression made millions desperate.
Even then Nazis never achieved a majority in free elections.
As for reparations, Germany only ever paid one year -- the first year -- in their own hard currency, gold, etc.
After that they tried to pay with inflated money and so ruined their economy.
So American financiers stepped in to loan Germany money to pay their reparations, a deal which worked well until... until... well, until roughly the summer of 1929.
Then, iirc, American financiers became p*ssed off at increased German military spending and refused to loan them more money to pay reparations.
The result was Germans stopped paying reparations to Britain & France, whose markets quickly collapsed causing what is known as "Black Friday" on Wall Street, October 24, 1929.
But the fact is that many Allied leaders understood on November 11, 1918 that Germany's request for armistice was just a 20 year cease-fire, after which they'd return for Round Two.
Reparations or no reparations didn't matter, nothing would stop Germans from another try at the Victory they came so close to in 1914.
That's the reason in 1942 President Roosevelt insisted the only acceptable outcome for the Second World War was Germanys Unconditional Surrender.
FDR wanted to make d*mn sure they'd never start a Third.