starter activity

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? starter activity
How would a Nazi supporter describe Stresemanns
achievements?
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How far did Germany recover under Stresemann?

• The Weimar Republic, 1923-29

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Presentation overview

• Role of Gustav Stresemann
• Aims
• Strategies
• Successes
• Failures
• Key developments in reparations
• Different interpretations of his motives

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Role of Stresemann

• Experienced politician - Chancellor, Foreign
  Minister
• Gifted orator
• Popular leader

Do Stresemanns skills remind you of other
leaders we have studied?
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Aims

• Restore German power prosperity
• Rejected military expansion endorsed by Gen Seekt
  and others
• Solve reparations problem
• End occupation of Ruhr passive resistance
• Revise Germanys eastern borders

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Strategies

• Rapprochment
• Conciliation
• Mild pressure
• Pragmatism
• Exploited Western reliance on a healthy German
  economy (Germ. purchased European commodities,
  provided coal to Fr., investment opportunity for
  US)

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Strategies

• Erfüllungspolitik (fulfilment)
• Compliance with Tr. of Versailles to improve
  relations with GB Fr. and effect changes to the
  terms in the future
• Ending Germanys diplomatic isolation
• Using Germanys economic potential as a lever
• Encouraging US aid and investment
• Building links with USSR
• Satisfying French demands for security

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Successes

• Renegotiated reparations through Dawes Plan
  (1924) Young Plan (1929)
• Locarno Pact (1925) Germ. Accepted western
  borders renounced use of force except in
  self-defence
• Germ admitted to League of Nations, with power to
  veto
• Tr. of Berlin (1926) similar to Rapallo Pact,
  1922 improve relations with USSR
• Ending of allied occupation of Ruhr Rhineland
• Kellogg-Briand Pact (1928) renouncing use of
  force with 70 other nations, whilst secretly
  rearming
• Nobel Peace Prize (1926)

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• Rentenmark
• 1924, Dawes Plan US lent 800 million marks
• 1925, French ended occupation of Ruhr
• 1929, Young Plan, reduced reparations 60
• 1928, industrial production topped pre-war levels
• Construction infrastructure, 3 million new homes

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Successes - political stability

• Stable govt. Social Democrats formed a
  coalition supporting Weimar Republic
• Decline in support for extremists (NAZIs won 12
  seats in 1928 Reichstag elections)

Why do you think there was less support for
extremist parties at this time (1923-9)?
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Failures

• Anti-Young Plan alliance referendum, 5.8
  million Germans rejected plan Hitlers fierce
  condemnation of Young Plan led to upturn in
  support for Nazis
• Locarno Pact only benefited French, e.g. conceded
  Alsace-Lorraine Germ. Should not negotiate with
  League of Nations, the enforcer of the Tr. of
  Versailles
• No formal agreement on demilitarisation

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Key developments in reparations

• Dawes sum of 132,000 million marks fixed in
  1921
• Young total sum reduced to 37,000 million
  marks, to be made over 58 years
• Germ. Paid 1/8th of original sum
• Following Dawes Germ received more in loans than
  paying in reparations
• Responses in Germany to his actions
• All payments suspended in 1932

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Different interpretations of his motives

• Either
• European diplomat (in the model of Bismarck)
• Or
• Put German interests above other nations
• Similarities with Hitlers foreign policy
• Stresemann diaries stress importance of rels.
  with USSR

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Failures

• American loans
• Depression in agriculture
• Extremism (NAZIs / Communists)
• 1925, Hindenburg elected President opponent of
  Republic
• 1929, death of Stresemann
• 1929, Wall St. Crash

Why do you think Hindenburg opposed the Weimar
Republic?
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Plenary

• Write an obituary describing Stresemanns
  achievements from a Nazi perspective. Think about
  his achievement in domestic and foreign policy.