PDF file: History - Advanced Higher - Germany - Education Scotland

Source D
A Foreign Office Official comments on the new found relationship between Germany
and Russia. (The Treaty of Rapallo was signed on 16 April 1922).
Just three years have passed since the German Foreign Minister, Wather Rathenau,
and the Russian People’s Commissar, Chicherin, concluded at Rapallo the now
famous treaty which purified the atmosphere … Between Germany and Russia and
agreed on co-operation between the two peoples in the laborious business of political
and economic reconstruction. Just three years – and the ‘Rapallo-line’ is now surely
a basic component of the political creed of both countries. No German political party
could - in spite of criticism of and reservations about individual details - determine
upon any other policy.
(Herbert von Dirksen, May 1925, found in Hitorisches Lesebuch 1914 –1933, 1968)
Source E
In September 1922 von Seeckt comments on Germany’s borders in the east.
Poland’s existence is intolerable, incompatible with the survival of Germany. It must
disappear, and it will disappear through its own internal weakness and through
Russia - with our assistance … With Poland falls one of the strongest pillars of the
Treaty of Versailles, the preponderance of France … The re-establishment of the
broad common frontier between Russia and Germany is the precondition for the
regaining of strength of both countries … In all these enterprises, which to a large
extent are only beginning, the participation and even the official knowledge of the
German government must be entirely excluded. The details of the negotiations must
remain in the hands of the military authorities.
Source F
Declaration of the Reparations Commission, 26 December 1922.
On 20 October 1922, the French Delegation requested the Commission to declare
Germany in default as regards her obligation to furnish timber to France during
1922. Under the above order all sawn timber should have been delivered to France
before 30 September, and the 200,000 telegraph poles before 30 November 1922. On
the latter date, the deliveries were still considerably in arrears.
Source G
From a letter by General J. H. Morgan, British Military representative on the
Inter-Allied Council, 20 February, 1925.
Everything that an ingenious brain could devise and a subtle intellect invent, down
even to giving companies of infantry of the new army the numbers and badges of the
old, has been done to ensure that, at the touch of a button, the new army shall expand
to the full stature of its predecessor. The proofs in my possession are overwhelming.
Your government tells us repeatedly that our work is done and that there is nothing
left for us to find out. They tell us the Treaty of Versailles has been loyally executed.
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 57