Greeks and Reparations

 It's a page two story and won't be openly discussed much in Germany.

A Greek parliamentary commission has wrapped up a project concerning Germany and WW II damage.  They say....the Germans need to pay up 289 billion Euro, for pain and suffering.

Focus did a decent article over this and is worth the effort.  

Back in the summer of 2019....this topic was dragged up (probably the 10th time in thirty years)...with the PM of Greece hinting that Germany wasn't completely finished on reparations.

The basis of the pay-up deal?  It leads to two themes: actual war damage, and the 'little' loan that was arranged via the Greek National Bank to the Deutsche Reichsbank.  

To sum up the 1940 story over the 'loan'....this was in the fall of 1940, as the German Army arrives in Greece.  The Germans 'ask' the Greek National Bank for a 'loan'.  This was not a looting or grab deal....it was actually worked out on paper, and written as an actual loan.  Some will laugh over the paperwork nature of this, but it's history.

Who owned the Greek National Bank?  Since 1841....private ownership.  Yes, there is no government tie-in to the bank.  So this is a serious weak point to the reparations discussion.

Over two decades prior to 1941, it's safe to say that the Greek National Bank expanded in various ways, and probably was at some surprising success point for their achievements.

The German loan deal?  On the paperwork signed....zero-percent interest.  It didn't matter if the loan was paid back in two years, ten years or a hundred years....it'd still be zero-percent interest (both parties signed it that way).

Amount of the loan?  476,000,000 Reichsmarks.   That's the amount on the paperwork.

Relating this in history?  A Reichsmark was valued at 2.5 to $1 in 1940s finance chatter.  Relating Reichsmarks to 2021?  It's around one Reichsmarks equaling $7.44 dollars.  

If you injected 3-percent interest into this scenario....it's a ton of money that would come back.  But the paperwork says zero-interest.

Past history with this whole chat?  

Well....back at the end of the war, Germany agreed to pay Greece for 'damages' at the tune of what would be today around $2-billion.  The 'damages' meant roads, buildings and bridges.

Back in 2010, to save Greece from bankruptcy...a deal was cranked up by the EU involving loans....going up to around 274-billion Euro (Germany had a stake for around one-quarter of the amount).

The 1960 deal?  It rarely gets brought up....but the Greeks and Germans sat down and worked up a deal over money paid for deaths.  115-million DMs was the final sum for the 20,000 dead.  Did any of the money actually go to families?  That topic never gets discussed by the Greek news media.  I would have my doubts that any of the families were given much of anything.

Any of these past deals remembered by the Greeks today?  You don't get that impression.

So lets return to the bank loan deal.  Lets say that the loan still exists on paper, and the paperwork says zero-percent interest.  Then the payment would be easily figured, and you'd pay ONLY the Greek National Bank....NOT the government.  Does this scenario fit well with the government?  I would seriously doubt it.  

Lets add a little curve to the loan deal....do you pay back the stock holders of 1941, or the stock-holders of 2021?

But lets ask this question....if the loan was a legal document...at any point, the bank could have walked into Germany and presented the paperwork for repayment.  They seem to avoid that type of legal process....why?  Is there something else to this whole story that everyone seems to want to avoid discussing?  

All this success in the 1920s, 1930s and up to 1941....with the Greek National Bank...does it have anything to do with Jews or Jewish management of the bank?  To me, it's just weird....legal document standing there....that the Germans actually signed, and you would think....maybe after ten to twenty years (after WW II)...someone would walk in and claim status on the loan, wanting payment. 

So this reparations discussion to go anywhere?  No....I would doubt that it gets any real discussion started up.  We got Covid-19 to hype things up.