When Diplomacy Fails Podcast
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Versailles #80: OTD 23rd June 1919 - Ayes to the Right
🕑 Added 2019-06-23 19:35:03 +0000 UTC[PATRONS]
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On This Day a century ago, the Germans finally accepted the unacceptable. They finally arrived at the point where they determined that enough was enough. Or, to be more accurate, they exhausted their appeals, and realised that the choice between war or shame was not much of a choice at all. They would pick shame, with several caveats. They had tried everything else - their final appeal was one requesting another 48 hours delay, which the allies refused, likely because of the events at Scapa Flow 48 hours before.
Now there was truly no going back. They would have to accept the peace treaty, warts and all, the same peace which Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau had so spurned on 7th May. This treaty was virtually unchanged, as was the allied determination to press home their considerable advantages if it proved necessary. No, the new Chancellor and his President said, they could not risk the fate of Germans by a refusal. So it was that the German assembly voted explicitly to outlaw the use of this moment for political gains in the future - a seriously significant moment which was later subsumed under Nazi propaganda. It could not be denied that the German statesmen, from virtually all parties, had assented.
The Ayes to the right were legion, and nobody could be quite sure what would happen next. First things first though, they needed to find some Germans wiling to journey to Paris and sign - this proved to be the next trying phase of the peace conference, but back in Paris, the celebrations were beginning early. After so many months of work, it was finally time to revel in the fact that it was over, and soon they would be going home...
