Catalogue description Archives of Reparation Commission (1919)

Material has been arranged in the following sequence:-

• 1. Committee on Organisation of the Reparation Commission: Minutes, etc., 1919 to 1920
• 2. Reparation Commission: Minutes of Proceedings, 1920-1931
• 3. Reparation Commission: Annexes to Minutes of Proceedings, 1920-1930
• 4. Administrative Expenditure of the Commission, 1924-1929
• 5. Decisions of the Commission (meetings 465-561 only), 1925-1931
• 6. Minutes and Decisions of the Permanent Managing Committee of the Reparation Commission, 1925-1926
• 7. Report of the Committee of Experts on German Reparations with Annexes, 1929
• 8. Out-Letter books of the Reparation Commission, 1920-1929

The Treaty of Versailles in June 1919 did not directly settle the question of reparations in its financial aspects. It placed on Germany the moral responsibility for all damage done to the population of the Allied countries, and set up a Reparation Commission to assess the damage done and to lay down the method and times of payment, by May 1921.

Towards the end of 1923, the German economic position had so gravely deteriorated that an international committee of experts was set up to consider Germany's position, and to make proposals for stabilizing the currency and balancing the budget. The representatives of this committee were in form chosen by the Reparation Commission and appointed by them; there being two representatives from France, Belgium, Italy, Great Britain and the United States. The chairman was one of the representatives of the United States, General Charles G. Dawes, and the Committee became known as the Dawes Committee.

The introduction of the Dawes Scheme in 1924 put an end to the original reparation clauses.