2nd Conference in The Hague

© time In 1930 Owen D. Young, chief of the expert committee in The Hague, is chosen Man of the Year in Time Magazine - like Willy Brandt will be in 1971

The dominant foreign policy issue of the Weimar Republic is freeing Germany from the reparation payments imposed by the 1919 Versailles Peace Treaty. On 3 January 1930 a commission of experts chaired by Owen Young meets for the second time in The Hague. The task at hand is to negotiate a revision of payments with a German delegation led by Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht. The conference participants set future annuities at ca. 2 billion Reich marks. The Reich is obliged to pay a total of 112 billion Reich marks until 1988 and, in return, Berlin regains complete financial autonomy. Furthermore it receives assurances for an early withdrawal of the allied troops which have occupied the Rhineland since 1920.