The Confiscation of German Property Between Economic Nationalism and National Security (1918–1930)

Abstract

This article explores the confiscation of private property owned by German nationals in the Allied countries after the end of World War I, focusing on the relationship between expropriation, economic nationalism and national security in the postwar decades. Along with the desire for revenge, economic nationalism became the major driver behind the Allied policies, leading to transfers of property on an unprecedented scale. Through confiscation, policymakers of the ‘victorious powers’ not only intended to punish German civilians but also seized the opportunity to intervene in the economic and financial spheres in order to achieve economic security. Drawing on a broad body of expropriation laws, which concerned assets belonging to about one and a half million civilians, this article retraces how the Allies implemented the right to confiscation afforded by the Treaty of Versailles, providing an overview of policies, diplomatic controversies and figures related to confiscated property worldwide. Furthermore, the social and economic consequences of protracted economic warfare in peacetime are explored with an emphasis on the decline of the German presence in the Allied countries and the ensuing economic transformations. This article also highlights the limits of economic nationalism in reshaping the international economy. While some countries gradually lifted persecutory measures, especially after the mid-1920s, German companies and private citizens responded to economic warfare by devising a wide range of strategies to avoid the loss of property.