Editing Treaty of Versailles (section)

===Reparations===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0922-500, Wien, Heldenplatz, Rede Adolf Hitler.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|[[Adolf Hitler]] announcing the ''[[Anschluss|Anschluß]]'' in violation of Art. 80 on the [[Heldenplatz]], Vienna, 15 March 1938]]

In June 1921 Germany made the first cash payment of 1 billion gold marks due under the London Schedule of Payments. However, this was the only full payment of cash made under the unamended schedule, and from then until the Dawes plan began operation in late 1924 only small cash payments were made. Whilst in-kind payments of goods such as coal and timber were made throughout 1922, these were never paid in full, and in December 1922 Germany was declared in default of timber deliveries by a 3-to-1 vote of the Reparations Commission, the British representative casting the sole opposing vote. On 9 January of the following year, after Germany had defaulted either partially or wholly on coal deliveries for the thirty-fourth time in thirty-six months, the Reparations Commission also declared Germany in default of coal reparations and authorised the occupation of [[Ruhr|the Ruhr]] coalfields in order to secure the deliveries, again with the British representative casting the sole opposing vote and all other votes being in favour.{{sfn|Marks|1978}}

In a move that was condemned by the British, French, Belgian, and Italian engineers supported by French and Belgian forces occupied the [[Ruhr|Ruhr area]] on 11 January 1923. The German government answered with "[[Nonviolent resistance|passive resistance]]", which meant that coal miners and railway workers refused to obey any instructions by the occupation forces. Production and transportation came to a standstill, but the financial consequences, including the payment in paper currency of striking workers by the German government, contributed to [[Hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic|German hyperinflation]] in the period from late 1921 to 1924. Consequently, passive resistance was called off in late 1923. The end of passive resistance in the Ruhr allowed Germany to undertake a currency reform and to negotiate the [[Dawes Plan]], which led to the withdrawal of French and Belgian troops from the Ruhr Area in 1925. The agreement of the Dawes plan in late 1924 also led to a resumption of reparations payments in hard cash and gold. Total receipts from the Ruhr occupation summed to 900 million gold marks.{{sfn|EB: Ruhr occupation}}{{sfn|Marks|1978}}

From the agreement of the Dawes Plan in late 1924 until July 1931 when payment was suspended under a proposal by [[Herbert Hoover]] as a result of the [[Great Depression]], reparations payments were made regularly and on time both in cash and in-kind, though always slightly less than was required under the plan. The one year suspension of payments under the [[Hoover Moratorium]] was to be converted into a permanent moratorium according to a proposal created at the [[Lausanne Conference of 1932]], however the agreement was never ratified.{{sfn|Marks|1978}} The government of Adolf Hitler declared all further payments cancelled in 1933, and no further reparations payments were made until after the defeat of Nazi Germany in the Second World War. Germany finally paid off its debts under the Versailles treaty, which had been reduced by 50% at the 1953 London Debt Conference, in 2010.{{sfn|Blakemore|2019}}