Williams--Weimar Republic is a No-Go

No one is happy about the Treaty of Versailles. First of all, it signifies our loss in WWI. When we were so close to the end of it all, when we might have won, the Weimar Republic pulled us out of the fight. We could have restored honor to our country and won the war had they not signed the Armistice. And now, the Treaty of Versailles brings further damage and humiliation our nation. Our once strong and powerful army has now been reduced to merely 100,000 men. How can I sleep at night knowing my family and I have no protection? And what about the War Guilt Clause?? Germany is not the only country responsible for the war! Not only does this part of the Treaty of Versailles force German citizens to face humiliation we don’t deserve, but we also have to foot the bill. The war has devastated every country involved. How can the Weimar Government and the Allies possibly expect us citizens to come us with $33 billion? I understand that Germany would have been invaded had the treaty not been signed, but there must have been another—easier—way for the Weimar Republic to satisfy the Allies.
The Treaty of Versailles has also taken our land from us. We lost most of our rich agricultural and industrial land to our enemies. Now we are struggling to come up with ways to pay for the war—we no longer have land to grow food to sell, nor land to produce goods to sell. This means jobs and even more money lost for German families. And especially now that our agricultural land is gone, my family struggles to find enough food to survive. What little food we find we cannot afford; inflation is so high these days, since the Weimar Republic printed more money in attempt to solve our problems of war debt and starvation. I feel that giving land back to the countries from which they were taken (like giving Alsace-Lorraine back to France) is the right thing to do. However, if Germany still had its valuable agricultural and industrial land, all of us would have an easier time getting by nowadays and saving money to pay off our war debt.
I don’t like the way the Weimar Republic worked together with the Allies to pay our war debt. The Dawes Plan worked well at first—unemployment decreased and for five years our country was able to work productively to pay off that God-awful debt. But the U.S.’s Great Depression messed everything up. The Americans said they couldn’t make any more loans to us to help us pay off the balance. Then, the Young Plan was put into place. It definitely did not work wonders. Even though the plan reduced our war debt by ¾, unemployment in our country rose again. I always knew we couldn’t trust those Americans! Why would Germany want to work with the enemy, and why would the enemy willingly help us?
Overall, I am not satisfied with the performance of the Weimar Republic. I believe they put their will to prevent further conflict before the will of the German people. They did not act according to our wants and needs. Signing the Armistice and the Treaty of Versailles upset virtually all Germans, as we wanted the war to continue (so we could prove our strength and world-power) and these clearly brought many struggles to German citizens (including loss of valuable land and a $33 billion dollar bill to foot). Then, the Weimar Republic tried to help us out by working with Americans to create the Dawes and Young Plans. The Dawes Plan was okay, but America’s Great Depression caused further problems for us, as they could no longer loan us money. The Young Plan raised unemployment in Germany yet again, and in the end, we were forced to suspend our payments of all war reparations. Their plans clearly did not work to Germany’s benefit in the end. The Weimar Republic thought they knew what was best for Germany’s people, but in reality, they didn’t know the first thing about what we needed or wanted.