The signing of the Treaty of Versailles in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28 June 1919

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The Treaty of Versailles ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919 in the Palace of Versailles, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which had directly led to the war. The other Central Powers on the German side signed separate treaties. Although the armistice, signed on 11 November 1918, ended the actual fighting, it took six months of Allied negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. The treaty was registered by the Secretariat of the League of Nations on 21 October 1919.

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Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required "Germany to accept the responsibility of Germany and her allies for causing all the loss and damage" during the war (the other members of the Central Powers signed treaties containing similar articles). The treaty required Germany to disarm, make ample territorial concessions, and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers. In 1921 the total cost of these reparations was assessed at 132 billion gold marks (then $31.4 billion or £6.6 billion, roughly equivalent to US$442 billion or UK£284 billion in 2021).

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Photo: Press photo / Wikipedia • Believed to be in the Public Domain

Armistice of 11 November 1918

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The Armistice was signed in a train carriage at Le Francport near Compiègne and ended the fighting on land, sea and air in World War I between the Allies and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous armistices had been agreed with Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Also known as the Armistice of Compiègne from the place where it was signed at 5:45 a.m. by the Allied Supreme Commander, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, it came into force at 11:00 a.m. Paris time on 11 November 1918 and marked a victory for the Allies and a defeat for Germany, although not formally a surrender.

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Before the 1918 signing in the Forest of Compiègne, the train carriage served as the personal carriage of Ferdinand Foch and was later displayed in French museums.

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After the successful invasion of France, Adolf Hitler had the wagon moved back to the exact site of the 1918 signing for the 1940 signing due to its symbolic role. It was later taken to Berlin and was destroyed near the end of World War II, most likely by the SS or by allied bombing.

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Source: Wikipedia