Vivienne Lee

European History AP
Period 0
1/3/07

Document-Based Question (DBQ) Project

Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying documents 1-9. Some of the
documents have been edited for the purpose of this exercise.

The question is designed to test your ability to work with historical documents.

• As you analyze the documents, take into account both the sources of the documents and
the author’s points of view.
• Make sure to write a complete essay with a thesis that integrates your analysis of the
documents.
• You may also refer to relevant historical facts and developments not mentioned in the
documents.
• Make sure not to simply just rephrase and summarize the documents individually in your
essay.

1. Analyze how the World War I and its effects leading after it made social and political
impacts on the country of Germany.

Historical Background: World War I or also known as The Great War started in
the year of 1914 and ended in 1918 with the League of Nations forming and the
Paris Peace Conferences resulting in the Treaty of Versailles among a few others.
The war took place between the Allied Powers which consisted of Russia,
France, Britain, Italy and later on the United States against the Central Powers of
Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Germany. With the end of the war,
the Great Depression soon followed after in the 1930s not only affecting the
United States but also greatly affecting many European countries which also
included Germany.

1
 Document 1

Source: Excerpt from the Peace Treaty of Versailles, 1919

ARTICLE 118.

In territory outside her European frontiers as fixed by the present Treaty, Germany
renounces all rights, titles and privileges whatever in or over territory which belonged to her
or to her allies, and all rights, titles and privileges whatever their origin which she held as
against the Allied and Associated Powers.

Germany hereby undertakes to recognize and to conform to the measures which may be
taken now or in the future by the Principal Allied and Associated Powers, in agreement
where necessary with third Powers, in order to carry the above stipulation into effect.

In particular Germany declares her acceptance of the following Articles relating to certain
special subjects.

ARTICLE 119.

Germany renounces in favour of the Principal Allied and Associated Powers all her rights
and titles over her oversea possessions.

ARTICLE 120.

All movable and immovable property in such territories belonging to the German Empire or
to any German State shall pass to the Government exercising authority over such territories,
on the terms laid down in Article 257 of Part IX (Financial Clauses) of the present Treaty.
The decision of the local courts in any dispute as to the nature of such property shall be
final.

ARTICLE 124.

Germany hereby undertakes to pay, in accordance with the estimate to be presented by the
French Government and approved by the Reparation Commission, reparation for damage
suffered by French nationals in the Cameroons or the frontier zone by reason of the acts of
the German civil and military authorities and of German private individuals during the
period from January 1, 1900, to August 1, 1914.

2
 Document Two

Source: Map of Shattered Empires and Territorial Changes After World War I 1926,
from A History of Western Society, John McKay, Bennett Hill, John Buckler, 2006

3
 Document Three
Source: Ernst Junger, from Storm of Steel, a personal account of the World War I from the
Western Front, 1920

"It started to drizzle. I managed to draw off some muddy water in my helmet. I had lost all
sense of direction and I couldn't work out exactly where the line of the front was. There
were strings of shell-holes everywhere, each one bigger than the last, and from the bottom of
these hollow ditches we could only see clay walls and grey sky. There was a storm brewing;
the thunder claps were drowned by the sound of a fresh burst of rolling fire. I flattened
myself against the side of the crater. A mound of clay hit me in the shoulder and some heavy
pieces of shrapnel flew over my head. I gradually lost all notion of time, I didn't know
whether it was morning or evening. "

Document Four
Source: Picture of destruction in Germany after the War. Photography by: Unknown, 1918

4
 Document Five

Source: Painting of Germany after the War, Otto Dix 1929-1932

5
 Document Six

Source: John Keynes, The Economic Consequences of Peace 2005

“The coal production of Europe as a whole is estimated to have fallen off by 30 per cent; and
upon coal the greater part of the industries of Europe and the whole of her transport system
depend. Whereas before the war Germany produced 85 per cent of the total food consumed
by her inhabitants, the productivity of the soil is now diminished by 40 per cent and the
effective quality of the live-stock by 55 per cent… Germany has become transformed from
an agricultural State to an industrial State. So long as she was an agricultural State, Germany
could feed forty million inhabitants. As an industrial State she could insure the means of
subsistence for a population of sixty-seven millions; and in 1913 the importation of
foodstuffs amounted, in round figures, to twelve million tons. Before the war a total of
fifteen million persons in Germany provided for their existence by foreign trade, navigation,
and the use, directly or indirectly, of foreign raw material." After rehearsing the main
relevant provisions of the Peace Treaty the report continues: "After this diminution of her
products, after the economic depression resulting from the loss of her colonies, her merchant
fleet and her foreign investments, Germany will not he in a position to import from abroad an
adequate quantity of raw material. An enormous part of German industry will, therefore, be
condemned inevitably to destruction. The need of importing foodstuffs will increase
considerably at the same time that the possibility of satisfying this demand is as greatly
diminished. In a very short time, therefore, Germany will not be in a position to give bread
and work to her numerous millions of inhabitants, who are prevented from earning their
livelihood by navigation and trade. These persons should emigrate, but this is a material
impossibility, all the more because many countries and the most important ones will oppose
any German immigration. To put the Peace conditions into execution would logically
involve, therefore, the loss of several millions of persons in Germany…”

6
 Document Seven

Source: Photograph of a woman burning German money due to low value because of inflation.
1923-1930s.

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 Document Eight

Source: William Orpen, Dead Germans in a Trench, 1918.

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 Document Nine

Source: Deutsche Parlamentsdebatten, Benjamin Sax and Dieter Kuntz, eds. and trans., The
Making of Modern Germany), 45-47.

“World War I (1914-1918) finally ground to a halt in the autumn of 1918. The armistice
went into effect on 11 November at 11:00 A.M.--"the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of
the eleventh month." Germany had already succumbed to revolution; William II (r. 1888-
1918) had abdicated and a republic had been declared. The new leadership, dominated by
social democrats, sued for peace on the basis of Woodrow Wilson's (1856-1924) Fourteen
Points, which promised a new era in international relations and a negotiated settlement
without indemnities. The final draft of the treaty, which Germany was forced to sign on 28
June 1919--the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (1863-
1914), which had plunged Europe into war--dismayed the Germans who called it a diktat,
not a peace treaty. But with Allied troops occupying western Germany and the Allied
blockade still causing shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials, there was little
choice; the Germans signed. The Versailles settlement with Germany included, in addition
to the war guilt clause (Article 231) by which Germany was forced to accept full
responsibility for the war, loss of territory (on the eastern, southeastern, northern, and
western borders), restrictions on the size of the army (100,000 men), loss of overseas
colonies (divided up among the Allies), the demilitarization of the Rhineland (the industrial
heartland of Germany), and a staggering reparations bill (ultimately set at 33 billion dollars,
a huge sum) payable in gold and various commodities (steel, railcars, telegraph cable, etc.).
In the German parliamentary debate on the ratification of the treaty, passions ran high, but
the inescapable reality of their lack of options forced the representatives to ratify the treaty.
Nevertheless, it left a bad taste in the mouth of many Germans.”