Germany paid the last interest on its 1920s reparation loans on 3 October 2010, 92 years after the First World War ended

The 1919 Treaty of Versailles held Germany responsible for the war and required reparations. In 1921 the total was set at 132 billion marks. The Dawes Plan of 1924 and the Young Plan of 1929 raised loans to help Germany pay: banks sold German bonds, mostly to private investors in the United States. The Young Plan spread payments over 59 years. When the Nazi Party took power in 1933, Germany cancelled reparations and stopped paying, and the bonds became worthless. In 1953 Chancellor Konrad Adenauer agreed in London that the new West German state would take on the pre-war debt. He argued that interest for 1949 to 1952 should be paid by the whole country, so that part waited for reunification. West Germany repaid the principal by about 1980. Reunified Germany took up the remaining debt in 1995. On 3 October 2010, the 20th anniversary of reunification, it paid the last installment, about 70 million euros, the 20th and final payment of interest on the foreign bonds. Bild wrote that the war "finally, financially at least, terminates for Germany." The Christian Science Monitor reported that a group of American investors had sued, arguing that they were still owed money on the bonds.