Weimar Republic Golden Years

• • 1923-1929 - Gustave Stresmann was a leading member of every government
  • more skillful than Ebert - studied politics
  • had support of middle class cause he grew up middle class
  • 1923 - chancellor
  • 1924 - foreign minister
  • 1929 - death
  • most people distrusted the new democracy and leaders - a lot of extremists disliked Stresemann as he was more centrist
• 1920s - the rest of Europe was coming out of post-war depression

  • helped Stresemann
• • 4 achievements & problems
  • economy
  • politics
  • culture
  • foreign policy
• Achievement 1 - Economy (know at least 1 point) (1):

  • Dawes plan - an agreement that allowed the reparations payments to be spread over a longer period
  • 800 million marks in loans from the USA went into German industry
  • some went into German businesses - helped replace old equipment with latest technology
  • some went into public works e.g. swimming pools, sports stadia and apartment blocks
  • provided facilities and projects created jobs
  • 1927 - German industry recovered very well
  • invested money in public works programmes to build schools, hospitals and roads - encouraged pride
• Achievement 1 - Economy (know at least 1 point) (2):

  • Called off strike in Ruhr
  • 1927 - German industry recovered very well
  • 1928 - Germany achieved the same levels of production as before the war and regained its place as the world’s second greatest industrial power (behind USA)
  • Wages for industrial workers rose
  • Higher standards of living
  • Reparations were being paid & exports increased
  • Governmnet was able to increase welfare benefits and wages for state employees
  • Burned old currency and replaced it with the Retenmark but couldn't replace savings
• Achievement 2 - Politics (1)

  • Politics became more stable
  • After 1923 - no more attempted revolutions
  • One politician who were leading opponent of Ebert in 1923 said that the ‘Republic is beginning to settle and the German people are becoming reconciled to the way things are’
  • Parties that supported the Weimar democracy did well in these years
• Achievement 2 - Politics (2)

  • 1928 - the moderate parties had 136 more seats in the Reichstag than radical parties
  • 1928 election - Hitler’s Nazis gained less than 3% of the vote becuase there were less issues in Germany for Hitler to exploit
  • Some of the parties who cooperated in the revolutions of 1918 began to cooperate again
• Achievement 3 - Culture (know at least 1 achievement) (1)

  • Cultural revival in Germany
  • Weimar constitution allowed free expression unlike when the Kaiser ruled where there was strict censorhip
  • Writers & poets flourished, especially in Berlin
  • Artists in Weimar Germany tried to represent the reality of everyday life even if the reality was harsh and shocking e.g. George Grosz who made the ‘Pillars of Society’ criticising politicians, businesses, church and army leaders
• • Achievement 3 - Culture (know at least 1 achievement) (2)
  • Bauhaus style of design and architecture developed, rejecting traditional styles to create new and exciting buildings and objects, producing designs for things from chairs and desk lamps to art galleries and factories - exhibition attracting 15,000 visitors
  • 1920s - a golden age for German cinema
  • produces international stars and direction
  • 1927 - 900 dance bands in Berlin alone and clubs were a major pasttime
  • cabaret artists performed songs criticising political leaders - free speech
• Achiement 4 - Foreign Policy

  • Created good relations with USA, France and Britain - good trade, more secure and happy
  • 1926 - Germany accepted into League of Nations, back into driving seat of international politics and Streseman won a Nobel peace prize in 1929
  • Stresemann worked on reversing terms of the Treaty of Versailles such as the reparations and Germany’s eastern frontiers
  • 1929 - Streseman had died but he negotiated the Young Plan which lightened reparations burden and led to the removal of British, French and Belgian troops from Rhineland
• Problem 1 - The Economy (know one group of winners and losers, and explain why they were winners/losers) (1) :

  • US loans could be called in at short notice - dangerous for Germany
  • Economic boom caused inequality
  • Winners in the economic boom:
  • big businesses (steel & chemicals industries) - controlled half of industrial productions
  • big landowners, especially if they owned land in towns as the value of land in Berlin increased by 700%
  • workers in big industries as the govt was improving pay and conditions for unions - unemployment concerns rised, 6% of the working population were unemployed
• Problem 1 - The Economy (2)

  • Pensioners couldn't afford food before - lost their homes and starved
  • Losers in the economic boom:
  • peasant farmers - increased production during the war and now was producing too much and they had loans to pay but the demand was too small for their large supply
  • sections of the middle class - small business owners became disillusioned as their businesses were threatened by large deparment stores (owned by mostly Jews → Hitler to come into power), a university lecturer in 1913 earns 10x as much as a coal miner but in the 1920s they only earns 2x as much
• 
  

  Problem 2 - Politics 1:

  • Nazis and Communists were building up their parties
  • there were still 4 different chancellors during the stable years
  • only the influence of party leaders held the coalitions together
  • around 30% of the vote regularly went to parties opposed to the Republic
  • the DNVP (right wing nationalist party) and the Nazis began collaborating and appearing more respectable
  • 1922 - French and Belgian troops invading the Ruhr area, taking raw materials and goods
  • 1925 - elected a new president who was opposed to democracy and even wrote the Kaiser for approval before become president
• Problem 3 - Culture:

  • To the villages and country towns, the culture of the cities represented moral decline which they believed was made worse by American immigrants and Jewish artists and musicians (good for Hitler)
  • Bauhaus design college located in Dessau as it was forced out of Weimar by hostile town officials
  • Wandervogel movement - opposed Weimar culture and asked for simple country values, wanted to see more help for the countryside and less decadence in towns and the Nazi’s used this ideology later on
• Problem 4 - Foreign policy

  • They were unable to join the LON for ages as a form of punishment which meant they weren’t a world power anymore and it was difficult to trade and further their economy
  • Nationalists attacked Stresemann for joining the LON and signing the Locarno Pact - meant Germany accepeted TOV
  • Communists attacked Locarno as they thought it was part of a plot against the communist govt in the USSR
• Problem 2 - Politics (2)

  • Public considered democracy to be weaker than the rule of the Kaiser and the slow progress of the Reichstag reinforced this
  • The Republic looked weak as they couldn't deal with the threat of the Kapp Putsch and asked for assistance and there was a Nazi Party attempt at a revolution in 1923
• Achievement 4 - Foreign Policy 2:

  • America invested in German businesses with loans and encouraged investment from American firms to boost employment - reduced political issues as ppl felt more secure
  • Used diplomacy with France and Belgium to promise to pay reparations when the industry is up and working again in the Ruhr, and convince them that there are no winners w/ a crippled industry as reparations will never be paid
  • 1925 - signed the Locarno treaties, guranteeing not to try to change Germany’s borders with France, Britain, Italy & Belgium
  • basically a pledge to not go to war again
• What did the Locarno Pact mean for Germany?

  Germany recognised their borders with France and the demilitarisation of the Rhineland
• What year did the Weimar Republic stop paying reparations and what happened after?

  In the year 1922, the Weimar Republic stopped paying their reparations (payments to the Allies) instalments. France and Belgium retaliated a year later by seizing the Ruhr (German region).
• What year did the Bauhaus school begin flourishing?

  The Bauhaus School of architecture began to flourish in Weimar Germany from the year 1919.
• How many political assassinations happened in the Weimar Republic between 1919 and 1923?

  376
• What were the conditions of the Dawes Plan

  The Dawes plan was setup in 1924 and it had the following conditions:

  • Banks in the US loaned 800 million Retenmarks to German industries
  • Reparation instalments (fixed regular payments) were temporarily made 50 million pounds a year
• Industrial production levels were higher by the year __ than in __

  1928, 1913
• Between 1925 and 1929,


  exports rose by 40%
• In 1927, 


  pension, health and unemployment schemes were created.
• When was the 'Rentenmark' created?

  November 1923