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Why was the Treaty of Versailles signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles?
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Georges Clemenceau
Georges Clemenceau.
The Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on June 28, 1919, primarily due to the insistence of French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau.123
Clemenceau, who was driven by a desire for poetic justice, chose this specific location because it was the same room where, in 1871, William I had been proclaimed German emperor following France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. By signing the treaty in the Hall of Mirrors, France symbolically reclaimed its national honor and reversed the humiliation of that earlier event.3