Stresemann and the Golden Years of Weimar Germany

Seite 1

Stresemann

He persuaded the French to leave the Ruhr and even got the rest of the world to allow Germany to join the League of Nations in 1926.

Dawes and Stresemann ended the hyperinflation. Dawes also arranged the Dawes Plan with Stresemann, which gave Germany longer to pay reparations. Most importantly, Dawes agreed to America lending Germany 800 million gold marks, which kick-started the German economy.

Gustav Stresemann was born in 1878 and died in 1929. Stresemann took Weimar Germany out of its darkest hour – hyperinflation – to the so-called ‘Golden years of Weimar’. He died just before the event that was to have a terminal impact on the Weimar Republic – the Wall Street Crash of 1929

Stresemann was appointed Chancellor of Weimar on the death of Ebert and served in this position between August 1923 to November 1923. After this date, he was to remain as Weimar’s Foreign Minister until his death.

His greatest achievement was to get Germany accepted back into the European community. His philosophy of abiding by the Versailles Treaty won him allies in western Europe and it was France that sponsored Germany’s entry into the League Of Nations in 1926.

In 1926, Stresemann and Aristide Briand were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the work done by both in re-building relations between both countries just 8 years after the end of World War One. Such a situation would have been unthinkable four years earlier in the aftermath of hyperinflation caused by the French/Belgium invasion of the Ruhr.

The Locarno Treaties were meant to improve this tense post-war situation by reaching compromises in order to help prevent future wars

Stresemann was the major force in negotiating and guiding the Young Plan.

Stresemann was responsible for the Locarno treaty.

The Locarno treaty was seven agreements negotiated at Switzerland in October 1925 and formally signed in London on 1 December.

New Page