2 - Change in foreign and economic policy 1924-29

• What was the Weimar Economy like in 1920s

  • Industry, unsteady economic growth, falling behind internationally
  • Agriculture, fell into depression
  • American loans
  • Unemployment, stayed above 1 million
  • social welfare increase
  • Growing trade deficit
• Effects of the economy in the 1920s

  • Farmers & Junkers hostile to regime (nazis & authoritarianism)
  • Workers made limited gains
  • Dependent on USA loans
• Economic issues impacts on politics

  • resignation of Cuno due to Hyperinflation
  • replaced by Stresemann & the 'grand coalition' who fixed some economic issues (policy of fulfilment)
• What did Stresemann do to fix the economic issues

  • ended passive resistance in the ruhr (fixed root cause of hyperinflation but unpopular & lead to the Munich Putsch)
  • introduced the rentenmark (1 rentenmark = 1 trillion reichmarks)
  • cut wages of government employees & raised taxes (300,000 civil servants lost their jobs)
  • Companies reliant on credit collapsed
  • 233 bankruptcies in 1923 compared to 6000 in 1924
• What did the Dawes plan do

  D - demobilised allies from the Ruhr

  A - amended reparation payments (1 bill first year, increasing annually)

  W - weimar bank supervision

  E - economic support

  S - separate loans (to last 25 years)
• Who was Stresemann

  • Chancellor for only 103 days (Aug-Nov 1923)
  • Foreign Minister from 1924
  • right wing pragmatic monarchist but held a policy of fulfilment
  • created DVP (1918) & elected into reichstag (opposed marxists)
  • created the 'Grand Coalition', centre right ideas, included SPD
• To what extent did the industry (production) recover

  • payment of reparations through machines allowed mechanisation
  • coal output rose from 275 million - 1924 to 350 million tonnes - 1929
  • tariffs placed on foreign imports (protect german industries)
  • 3000 cartels by 1925 (90% coal & steel) e.g. IG Farben
• What does the acronym PLAN stand for

  Production

  Land

  Assistance (welfare)

  Negative impacts
• To what extent did Land (agriculture) recover

  • farmers struggled with prices, competition & mechanisation
  • struggles made them more open to extremist ideas (nazism)
  • government used tariffs & emphasised importance of agriculture
  • 'farmers revenge' 1928, riots against foreclosures & low prices
• To what extent did Welfare recover/improve

  • Article 163: germans to be given the chance top earn a wage through work & will be provided if not
  • Introduced 8 hr working days & tribunals
  • extended insurance scheme(1927) included 17million workers
  • Hospitals, schools, houses, roads etc built from foreign loans
  • BUT people hated the welfare taxes & had too high expectations (left view) & right hated the redistribution of wealth
• What were the Negative impacts of economic 'improvements'

  • farmers, attitudes of elite, higher taxes, tension between workers & employers
  • By end of 1925 unemployment - 1 million, March 1926 - 3 million
  • Government started lottery to see who could benefit from principle of compensation
  • Mittelstand rarely qualified so turned to extremism
  • Debts reassessed at 155th of their original value
• What were the Stresemann Archives

  • Published 1932 (2 years after death) - by his secretary (Stresemann = public hero)
  • General historians may not have used these but others would have 
  • Didn’t include eastern policies - Stresemann was more anxious about it than let on in the archives