Germany not only celebrates 20 years since reunification this weekend, it will also pay off the last of its World War I debts, 92 years after the 1914-18 conflict ended.

These "reparations" were intended partly by the Allies, particularly France, to keep Germany weak.

But historians say the ultimate effect was the opposite, playing a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power and World War II.

Interest on loans taken out to pay will finally be redeemed this Sunday.

In 1919, as the loser of the "War To End All Wars", in which more than nine million people were killed and countless more maimed and traumatised by the horrors of trench warfare, Germany was held to be responsible.