Gee, thanks France.
In all fairness to France it really wasn’t the treaty that wrecked the German economy and it wasn’t entirely the wrecking of the German economy that led to fascism (though it played a big role). Most of the debt was never paid back by Germany in the first place and the economic depression was practically global if you exclude the USSR. It was the combination of this depression, the humiliation of the treaty, and the fact that the German people never actually felt like they lost the war because they weren’t directly occupied as was the norm which created the specific ideological opportunity for Nazism.
What I mean to say is, despite my disposition towards Pétain and his ilk, the French desire for crushing the German economy as revenge and insurance wasn’t necessarily responsible for fascism in Germany. It’s definitely arguable that it played a role but there were larger roles played.
I agree, there were a lot of different factors to create that scenario. From what I’ve read though, the treaty played a big role in Hitlers motivation for what he believed sold be Germanys revenge. As a WWI vet, he was frustrated by the severity of the treaty’s impact on things like military. So it may not be the only factor, but it grew a burning passion inside the man who would try to take it all back and more.
Fs it affected him as an individual as it affected many within the Nazi party as an ideological justification. It was both useful propaganda and a genuine source of German humiliation. My point was mainly that hurt nationalist egos (which is the most significant result of the treaty as it largely failed to follow through with its material demands) aren’t enough to build fascism, there is more too it.
There is also the fact that the growing strength of German left motivated German capitalists to support Nazis to get rid of leftists.
I tried to find a way to include that but found it difficult to smoothly transition into that argument without distracting from my original. I wanted to note how German fascism was broadly supported by the Western powers as a bulwark against Boleshevism and it’s nascent form as the Freikorps for it’s crushing of German communism.
