Russian war reparations from Germany post WW2
Upvote:-1
No, there were no reparations because the Allies assumed control of the government in Germany by the Berlin Declaration, therefore there was noone to pay the reparations.
The Soviets considered looting to be "reparations", however, there were no "negotiations" over the looting.
There was a "negotiation" in the sense that the victors decided how to divide up the spoils, but Germany was not party to these negotiations, so I guess it depends how you define "reparations". It was certainly not reparations in the WWI sense of the word. The Potsdam agreement between the allies has a "reparations" clause as follows:
Reparation claims of the U. S. S. R. shall be met by removals from the zone of Germany occupied by the U. S. S. R., and from appropriate German external assets.
The U. S. S. R. undertakes to settle the reparation claims of Poland from its own share of reparations.
The reparation claims of the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries entitled to reparations shall be met from the Western Zones and from appropriate German external assets.
In addition to the reparations to be taken by the U. S. S. R. from its own zone of occupation, the U. S. S. R. shall receive additionally from the Western Zones:
(a) 15 per cent of such usable and complete industrial capital equipment, in the first place from the metallurgical, chemical and machine manufacturing industries as is unnecessary for the German peace economy and should be removed from the Western Zones of Germany, in exchange for an equivalent value of food, coal, potash, zinc, timber, clay products, petroleum products, and such other commodities as may be agreed upon.
(b) 10 per cent of such industrial capital equipment as is unnecessary for the German peace economy and should be removed from the Western Zones, to be transferred to the Soviet Government on reparations account without payment or exchange of any kind in return.
Removals of equipment as provided in (a) and (b) above shall be made simultaneously.
The amount of equipment to be removed from the Western Zones on account of reparations must be determined within six months from now at the latest.
Removals of industrial capital equipment shall begin as soon as possible and shall be completed within two years from the determination specified in paragraph 5. The delivery of products covered by 4 (a) above shall begin as soon as possible and shall be made by the U. S. S. R. in agreed installments within five years of the date hereof. The determination of the amount and character of the industrial capital equipment unnecessary for the German peace economy and therefore available for reparation shall be made by the Control Council under policies fixed by the Allied Commission on Reparations, with the participation of France, subject to the final approval of the Zone Commander in the Zone from which the equipment is to be removed.
Prior to the fixing of the total amount of equipment subject to removal, advance deliveries shall be made in respect to such equipment as will be determined to he eligible for delivery in accordance with the procedure set forth in the last sentence of paragraph 6.
The Soviet Government renounces all claims in respect of reparations to shares of German enterprises which are located in the Western Zones of Germany as well as to German foreign assets in all countries except those specified in paragraph 9 below.
The Governments of the U. K. and U. S. A. renounce all claims in respect of reparations to shares of German enterprises which are located in the Eastern Zone of occupation in Germany, as well as to German foreign assets in Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, Rumania and Eastern Austria.
The Soviet Government makes no claims to gold captured by the Allied troops in Germany.
Upvote:4
Contrary to Tyler Durdens Answer there were reparations after WW2. There were several agreements that covered this, the one relevant to your question is the Potsdamer Agreement.
As per Wikipedias breakdown if the protocol:
- Reparations from Germany. This section covered reparation claims of the USSR from the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. The section also agreed that 10% of the industrial capacity of the western zones unnecessary for the German peace economy should be transferred to the Soviet Union within two years
However transfer from the western zones to the Soviet zone was suspended quickly. The German Democratic Republic paid the major part of the reparations, mostly in the way that their industrial facilities where disassembled and rebuild in the Soviet Union.
Again, per Wikipedia
Each occupation power assumed authority in their respective zones by June 1945. The Allied powers originally pursued a common German policy, focused on denazification and demilitarization in preparation for the restoration of a democratic German nation-state. Over time, however, the western zones and the Soviet zone drifted apart economically, not least because of the Soviets' much greater use of disassembly of German industry under its control as a form of reparations. Military industries and those owned by the state, by Nazi party members, and by war criminals were confiscated. These industries amounted to approximately 60% of total industrial production in the Soviet zone. Most heavy industry (constituting 20% of total production) was claimed by the Soviet Union as reparations, and Soviet joint stock companies (German: Sowjetische Aktiengesellschaften -SAG-) were formed. The remaining confiscated industrial property was nationalized, leaving 40% of total industrial production to private enterprise. The reparations seriously hindered the ability of East Germany to compete with West Germany economically. The estimated 100 billion worth of reparations taken from the East, had it been invested in the East German Economy, with East Germany's average 18% rate of return on investments, would have compounded to give East Germans a per-capita income 15 times the level of West Germans.
This is speculation, but since Germany's unification was strongly driven by the economic inequality between the two German states the dynamics of unification might have been very much different if the GDR had retained their industrial capacity (especially since presumably not so many educated people would have fled to the west, so the Berlin Wall and the death strip at the border might have not been considered necessary by the Zentralkomitee etc.). Insofar I dare say yes, reparations have shaped post-war Europe, but I don't think anyone can say to what extent (the GDR government infringed on the rights of their people in several other ways and it's hard to say what part of that was a consequence of economic pressure).
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