A Perfidious Distortion of History: the Versailles Peace Treaty and the success of the NazisControversially challenges the conventional wisdom that the Versailles Peace Treaty sowed the seeds for World War II. The Versailles Peace Treaty, the pact between Germany and the Allies that ended World War I, has not enjoyed a positive reputation since its signing in June 1919. Conventional wisdom has it that the treatys requirements for massive reparation payments crippled the economy of the Weimar Republic and destabilized its political life.