Receipt of Monies from France and Expenditures in Germany from the French War Indemnity (1870s) After victory in 1871, the Germans imposed the unheard-of sum of five billion francs as a war indemnity on defeated France. This table details both revenues and expenses as this enormous influx of capital was channeled to various projects and German states. Apart from causing French antipathy, the resulting cash surplus stimulated economic growth (including unhealthy speculation) in Germany after 1871, which ended abruptly only a few years later. The sum of 4 million thaler designated as “endowments” was to honor victorious generals. But Kaiser Wilhelm’s generosity prompted fierce debate. To some Germans, this monetary windfall for a small group of senior officers seemed badly out of proportion with the suffering or death of those who actually did the fighting. To other observers it smacked of élitism and absolutism: only in a bygone age, not in the new German Empire, would a supreme warlord distribute war booty to his praetorians. War Minister Albrecht von Roon did not help the government’s cause when he declared in the Reichstag that ordinary foot-soldiers who had lost limbs in the war had already increased their honor. But in the end the generals got their money.
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page 1 of 1 War indemnity 5,000,000,000 Fr.   Interest 301,191,959 Fr.     5,303,191,959 Fr. = 1,413,651,189 thalers       Paris contribution   53,505,865 thalers Surplus of taxes and local contributions collected in France   17,600,000 thalers   Total sum 1,484,757,054 thalers Minus value of railway in Alsace-Lorraine   86,666,666 thalers   Net  1,398,090,388 thalers Expenditures:     1. Reich Invalid Fund   187,000,000 thalers 2. War invalid pensions before Reich Invalid Fund   16,196,674 thalers 3. Compensation for war damages and contributions   38,800,000 thalers 4. Indemnification of German Shipping Company   5,600,000 thalers 5. Restructuring and equipping German fortresses   72,000,000 thalers 6. Restructuring and equipping fortresses in Alsace-Lorraine   43,280,950 thalers 7. Expansion of railways in Alsace-Lorraine   57,205,887 thalers 8. Reich War Treasury   40,000,000 thalers 9. Compensation for Reich expenditures for warfare, indemnification for railway administrations, restoration of war maps, war memorial coins   43,120,793 thalers 10. Occupation costs   21,815,000 thalers 11. Surplus costs of occupying army in Alsace-Lorraine   4,581,938 thalers 12. Expansion of the navy   31,949,890 thalers 13. Firing range of artillery testing commission   1,618,267 thalers 14. Amount towards operating fund of the Reich Treasury and towards firm advances for the Army Administration   8,270,000 thalers 15. Assumption of tariff and tax credits granted by German states   19,792,719 thalers 16. Construction of Reichstag building   8,000,000 thalers 17. Assistance for the Germans expelled from France   2,000,000 thalers 18. Endowments   4,000,000 thalers 19. Purchase of the Radziwill-Palace in Wilhelmstraße   2,011,328 thalers   Total 607,243,446 thalers       Remaining   790,846,942 thalers With interest approx.   793,000,000 thalers Bavarian share   90,200,411 thalers Remaining for the other German states   702,799,589 thalers For their common account, towards paying off the Reich debt for coastal fortifications, extension of office buildings, etc.     6,119,000 thalers Württemberg receives   28,500,870 thalers Remaining for North German Confederation, Baden, and South Hesse   668,179,719 thalers For the common account:     Operating fund of the postal administration 1,750,000 thalers   Restoration of the army 106,846,810 thalers 108,596,810 thalers Remaining for distribution among   559,582,609 thalers North German Confederation 530,116,053 thalers   Baden 20,133,182 thalers   South Hesse 9,333,674 thalers 559,582,909 thalers Source: F. Hirsch, ed., Gebhardts Handbuch der Deutschen Geschichte [Gebhardt's Handbook to German History], 6th ed. Stuttgart, 1923, vol. 3, pp. 740-41. Original German data reprinted in Johannes Hohlfeld, Deutsche Reichsgeschichte in Dokumenten 1849-1934 [The History of the German Reich in Documents 1849-1934]. Berlin, 1927, pp. 85-86. Translation: Erwin Fink
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