The last concrete vestiges of World War I officially ended in 2010, when Germany made the final payment on the debt imposed by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The German government paid the last installment of interest -- £60 million (about $78 million USD) -- on the foreign bonds it had issued in 1924 and 1930. At that time, Germany needed to raise cash in order to satisfy the stiff reparation demands made by the victorious Allies, namely Britain, France and the United States. The reparations were imposed as punishment for Germany's role in the Great War, which lasted from 1914 to 1918.
Better late than never:
- The first reparation demands were for 269 billion gold marks, the equivalent of roughly $63 billion USD then, and close to $768 billion USD today. The total amount was later reduced to $33 billion USD (about $402 billion USD today).
- France and Britain needed Germany's reparations to pay off their own debts. Both countries had borrowed vast sums from the United States during the war.
- Germany suspended annual payments in 1931 during the global financial crisis, and Adolf Hitler flatly refused to make any further payments when he assumed power in 1933.