London: Germany will finally pay off its final installment of World War I reparations, imposed on it by the Allies 92 years ago, by Sunday.
The final payment of about £ 60 million will officially end the reparations the country was made to pay after the war, which ended in 1918.
The £ 22 billion reparations were set at the Treaty of Versailles on June 28, 1919, by the Allied victors - mainly Britain, France and America - as compensation and punishment for the 1914-18 war, the 'Daily Mail' reported on Wednesday.
The German federal budget for 2010 shows the remaining portion of the debt that will be cleared on October 3, the report said.
It took Germany so long to pay off the debt in part because German dictator Adolf Hitler reneged on reparations during his reign.
Most of the money was intended to go to Belgium and France, whose land, towns and villages were devastated by the war, and to pay the Allies some of the costs of waging it, the report said.
Hatred of the settlement agreed at Versailles, France, which crippled Germany as it tried to shape itself into a democracy following defeat in the war, was of significant importance in propelling the Nazis to power.
The last bill is due on Sunday and the World War-I finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany, a local daily said.
With the signing of the Versailles accord Germany accepted blame for the war which cost almost ten million men their lives.
Article 231 of the peace treaty - the so-called 'war guilt' clause - declared Germany and Austria-Hungary responsible for all 'loss and damage' suffered by the Allies during the war and provided the basis for reparations.
priyarag is online.
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