191928 June 1919 · Versailles

Treaty of Versailles

Delegates gathered in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles for the signing of the treaty in 1919 — Archival image: Helen Johns Kirtland (1890-1979) and Lucian Swift Kirtland (died 1965). Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Five years to the day after the Sarajevo assassination, German delegates signed the peace treaty in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, the room where the German Empire had been proclaimed in 1871. It took German territory and colonies, limited its army and demanded reparations. Resentment of the treaty fed Nazi propaganda, and the League of Nations it set up failed to keep the peace.