Schuld und Schulden – Der Fall Griechenland „final geklärt”?
Guilt and Debts – The Greek Case „Finally Solved“?

Summary/Abstract: The new SYRIZA government in Athens revived the old debate about German wartime reparations. Such demands, “seventy years after the event”, have been ridiculed as a cheap sleight of hand on behalf of “bankrupt Greeks”, seeking to cover their debts by tricking its largest creditor. However, Greek authorities had articulated reparation claims ever since their country was liberated from Nazi Germany’s 3.5-year extremely bloody and destructive occupation. But all attempts for indemnification were brought to a standstill by diachronic collusion between (West) Germany and the major Allies (London Debts Agreement 1953 and the Two Plus Four Agreement in 1990). Since then, the Federal Republic has insisted that all issues of war debts are “legally and politically settled”. The article attempts to take a closer look at the validity of both German and Greek lines of argument, in particular dwelling on the special (i.e. no reparation) character of the Besatzungsanleihe (forced occupation loan).

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