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YOUNG PLAN

YOUNG PLAN. Named for its chief architect and promoter, American business executive Owen D. Young, the Young Plan attempted to depoliticize and establish the final terms of Germany's World War I reparations to the Allied Powers, namely France, Great Britain, Italy, and Belgium. Implemented in September 1930, the complex international agreement reduced the amount of Germany's annual payments and set the total indemnity near $25 billion (approximately $267 billion in 2001 dollars). Interest was to accrue annually at 5.5 percent with installments payable through 1988. The Young Plan ended France's occupation of the Rhineland, terminated Allied economic control over Germany, and created the BANK FOR INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENTS (BIS). The onset of the Great Depression and a banking crisis in Central Europe made implementation of the Young Plan impractical. The Allies and Germany abandoned the agreement in June 1932.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Leffler, Melvyn P. The Elusive Quest: America's Pursuit of European Stability and French Security, 1919–1933. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 1979.

Jeffrey J. Matthews

See also World War I, U.S. Relief in; World War I War Debts.