10

I read the Wikipedia article about the London treaty but it doesn't give me a bullet list with the exact concessions made and the terms.

Such a list would be perfect to understanding what exactly was agreed. I understand that probably between 40 and 50 billion Reichsmarks were pardoned and that the remaining debt would solely be paid from German surpluses?

Could anyone elaborate more? If possible I'd like the debt values translated to present-day euros adjusted to interest. I know this may be a point of contention due to various interpretations of interest and currency etc... so in that case a range of values would be ideal.

6
  • The german Wikipedia article has more details and here is the full text (in german). Jul 10, 2015 at 18:24
  • @MartinSchröder Thanks for the link to the treaty. I'm currently reading it (I'm probably a third through) but my german is a bit rusty and the treaty is sooo looong....
    – Jose Luis
    Jul 11, 2015 at 9:07
  • @Joze, if you use Google Chrome, it'll give you the option to translate all the text. The translation is pretty good, too. Jul 16, 2015 at 9:29
  • @PointlessSpike The text is pretty much indigestible, be it in german or english or even french. There is no list of the agreements. Probably 85% of the agreement is about legal stuff nobody cares lol. Can't understand almost nothing of it. Only a part about reparations given to Belgium.
    – Jose Luis
    Jul 22, 2015 at 9:42
  • 1
    @Bobson Yeah I considered that possibility but cross posting on stackexchange is rather frowned upon. If I don't get an answer here after the bounty I'll ask it there I think.
    – Jose Luis
    Nov 10, 2015 at 8:21

1 Answer 1

4
+50

I hope this fulfills your requirements.
After a string of Google searches I discovered this PDF after searching "London Conference in 1953":
http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/10137.pdf

Page 4, section 1.2 states that the conference incorporated a collective 29.7 billion Deutche Marks, that of pre- and post-war debts. I did not compensate for inflation in light of the aforementioned point of contention.

On page 5, section 1.4, the specifics of the agreement are stated. They are as follows:

  • Pre- and post-war debts were each reduced by about half
    • Pre-war debts were reduced from 13.5 billion to 7.3 billion Deutche Mark (or 46%)
    • "Post-war debts that had been negotiated prior to London were reduced from 16.2 billion to slightly less than 7 billion Deutche Mark" (or 51.5%)
  • A reduction of interest left 2.5 billion interest-free, whereas 5.5 billion had an interest rate of 2.5%. The remaining 6.3 billion had an interest rate of between 4.5% and 5%.
  • A five year grace period had been agreed upon and lasted from 1953 to 1957.
    • ".. annual amounts of 567.2 million Deutsche Mark had to be paid" during the grace period
    • Creditors had to decide whether to receive principle or interest throughout the grace period, but couldn't overstep the predetermined "fixed ceiling".
  • "From 1958, fixed repayment and interest rates of 765 million Deutsche Mark were to be made."
  • "Interest arrears were reduced by one-third and capitalised; current interest rates were reduced by one-quarter and were locked into the 4 per cent to 5 per cent range."

From what I can tell, the remainder of the document discusses how other countries fared when in similar situations, and how Germany managed such an economic feat. It also touches base (I think) on the current economic crisis currently inhibiting Greece.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .