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The Stresemann Era in Weimar Republic
Gustav Stresemann, a German politician and statesman who served as Chancellor in 1923 (for a brief period of 102 days) and Foreign Minister 1923–1929, during the Weimar Republic. He was co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926.
Stresemann was a Vernunftrepublikaner, that is, someone who
supported the Weimar Republic because it seemed the best course of action
rather than from a firm commitment to parliamentary democracy. During
the war, Stresemann had supported imperial aims and desired extensive
annexation of foreign territory. After the war, he remained a monarchist
and founded the DVP to oppose the republic. In early 1920, he wished for
the success of the Kapp Putsch. However, shocked by the assassinations
of several prominent politicians, he had gradually come to believe that
the effective functioning of the Weimar Republic was the best safeguard
against violent regimes of either the left or the right. He also became
convinced that Germany's economic problems and differences with other
countries could best be resolved through negotiated agreements.
Chancellor only from August to November 1923, Stresemann headed the "great
coalition," an alliance that included the SPD, the Center Party, the DDP,
and the DVP. In this brief period, he ended passive resistance in the
Ruhr area and introduced measures to bring the currency situation under
control. Because of the failure of several coup attempts--including one
by Adolf Hitler in Munich--and a general quieting of the atmosphere after
these problems had been solved, the Weimar Republic was granted a period
of relative tranquility that lasted until the end of the decade. Overriding
issues were by no means settled, but, for a few years, the republic functioned
more like an established democracy.
After his resignation from the chancellorship because of opposition from
the right and left, Stresemann served as German foreign minister until
his death in 1929. A brilliant negotiator and a shrewd diplomat, Stresemann
arranged a rapprochement with the Allies. Reparations payments were made
easier by the Reichstag's acceptance in mid-1924 of the Dawes Plan, which
had been devised by an American banker, Charles G. Dawes, to effect significant
reductions in payments until 1929. That year, only months before his death,
Stresemann negotiated a further reduction as part of the Young Plan, also
named for an American banker, Owen D. Young. The Dawes Plan had also provided
for the withdrawal of French and Belgian troops from the Ruhr district,
which was completed in 1925. In addition, beginning in the mid-1920s,
loans from the United States stimulated the German economy, instigating
a period of growth that lasted until 1930.
Gustav Stresemann, Chamberlain, Briand in Locarno, 1925 The Locarno treaties, signed in 1925 by Germany and the Allies, were
the centerpiece of Stresemann's attempt at rapprochement with the West.
A prerequisite to Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926,
the treaties formalized German acceptance of the demilitarization of the
Rhineland and guaranteed the western frontier as defined by the Treaty
of Versailles. Both Britain and Germany preferred to leave the question
of the eastern frontier open. In 1926 the German and Soviet governments
signed the Treaty of Berlin, which pledged Germany and the Soviet Union
to neutrality in the event of an attack on either country by foreign powers.
The Locarno treaties, the Treaty of Berlin, and Germany's membership
in the League of Nations were successes that earned Stresemann world renown.
Within Germany, however, these achievements were condemned by many on
the right who charged that these agreements implied German recognition
of the validity of the Treaty of Versailles. To them, Stresemann's diplomacy,
as able as Bismarck's in the opinion of some historians, was tantamount
to treachery because Germany was honor bound to take by force that which
the rightists felt was owed it. Because of these opinions and continued
dissatisfaction on the right with the political system established by
the Weimar Constitution, the Center Party and the parties to its right
became more right-wing during the latter 1920s, as did even Stresemann's
own party, the DVP.
- The Weimar Republic,
1918-1933
- Problems
of Parliamentary Politics
- The Stresemann Era
- Hitler and the
Rise of National Socialism
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