Initially, Germany was unwilling to break the Treaty of Versailles. This attitude changed however in 1923, when French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr area after Germany defaulted on reparations payments . In light of the events of the "Ruhrkampf", the German Army ordered 100 new aircraft from Fokker in the Netherlands, among them 50 newly developed Fokker D.XIIIs. Additionally, the German Navy had also ordered a small number of planes.