A equivalent of the Morgenthau Plan is forced upon Germany after WWI

When World War II was near it's end, US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr put forward a proposal that was essentially intended to defang Germany and punish it for all time.

The plan called for the complete destruction of the German armaments industry, the disarming of the German Army, the partitioning of Germany into a South German state comprising Bavaria, Württemberg, Baden and some smaller areas and a North German state comprising a large part of the old state of Prussia, Saxony, Thuringia and several smaller states.

The plan also called for the eternal elimination of the Ruhr as an area of industrial capability and the occupation of said area as a international zone of the United Nations.

Essentially, Germany was to become a country forced to rely totally on agriculture.

This plan did not go far since the Allies decided that they wanted a stable and productive Germany with it's industries intact.

However, what if this plan (or a equivalent of it) was forced upon Germany twenty-six years before at Versailles at the end of World War I, with several modifications to fit the time period?



Henry_Morgenthau%27s_Proposal_for_Post-War_German_Boundaries.png

Morgenthau's proposed borders of post-WWII Germany from his own book, Germany Is Our Problem
 
How? They never fully defeated germany and now you give more ammunition to the commies and Hitler in the future
 
any German government that accepts will be killed shortly afterwards for treason. In order to comply with these treaties, the Entente will be forced to conquer practically the whole country with a population that will use even wombs as children in its army.
 

NoMommsen

Donor
Oh, there were in 1918/19 several such plans existent :

War goal Belgium.jpg L'Europe_de_demain.jpg plan francaise.jpg

Better question would be :
Why weren't they - or something similar - employed IOTL ?

Oner of he most reasonable reason you've named yourself already.
...
This plan did not go far since the Allies decided that they wanted a stable and productive Germany with it's industries intact.
...
You can't squeeze much of reparations of such a diminished assemblage of agrarian small-states.

Maybe - as the soviets did after 1945 - a one-time robbery of whatever assests are dismantable.
But that would never ever cover the costs of their debts in the US, which - btw - WAS actually a massive agrarian exporter at that time.
You would create for your home agrarian industry (esp. France, but also the "new" allies on the balkan, Italy and - as said - the US of A) a/some strong competitors . ... and the agrarian populace in all of these countries was a LARGE voters force.

And please don't forget, that in 1918/19 the Ententes ... "eastern partner" didn't looked that strong against the bolshevik menace, while in 1945 this bolshevik "threat" WAS the Ententes eastern partner.
 

longsword14

Banned
Oh, there were in 1918/19 several such plans existent :

View attachment 360558 View attachment 360559 View attachment 360557

Better question would be :
Why weren't they - or something similar - employed IOTL ?

Oner of he most reasonable reason you've named yourself already.
You can't squeeze much of reparations of such a diminished assemblage of agrarian small-states.
Division, yes, but taking away industry? I do not believe that wa ever on the cards.
 
When World War II was near it's end, US Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr put forward a proposal that was essentially intended to defang Germany and punish it for all time.
You forgot the millions of dead people his "pastoral" Germany would have meant. Thats why the American Generals & public didnt go through with it, it would have been a genocide.
 
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