The Wall Street Journal:
Does Germany owe Greece war reparations?
10 February 2015
A: Were Germany to pay reparations for the whole of the destruction it caused during the war - the Nazis were estimated to have been responsible for the deaths of some 35 million people - it would be bankrupted many times over. Instead, what Greece is primarily looking for is restitution of credit Greeks were forced to give Germans during the war. Essentially this is payment for Greek goods that were ''bought'' with credit issued by the German central bank. Although the Syriza government has argued Germany owes Greece more than 150 billion euro ($169.5 billion), the actual figure is probably less than a tenth that - in the order of 11 billion euro to 13 billion euro based on guesstimates using GDP calculations - argues Albrecht Ritschl, an economic historian at the London School of Economics.
This article was published by The Wall Street Journal on February 10, 2015
Link to article here
Related publications
'Reparations, Deficits, and Debt Default: the Great Depression in Germany', Albrecht Ritschl, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1149, June 2012
Related links
Albrecht Ritschl webpage
Macro Programme webpage