The Stresemann era

• Gustav Stresemann


  Chancellor in 1923 and Foreign Minister from 1923-29, helped the Republic overcome their difficulties
• Between 1924 and 1929, German citizens came to accept the Weimar Republic
• Stopping hyperinflation


  1. Stresemann called off passive (non-violent) resistance in the Ruhr

  2. Stresemann set up a new currency called the 'Rentenmark'

  3. Rentenmark was tied to the price of German gold and held real value

  4. In August 1924, this currency was renamed the Reichsmark and placed under the control of the Reichsbank

  5. With this new currency, hyperinflation was stopped
• Dawes Plan


  Helped Germany pay their reparations (payments to the victors)
• In 1924, Banks in the US loaned 800 million Reichsmarks to German industries
• Reparation instalments (fixed regular payments) were temporarily made £50 million a year
• Young Plan


  Proposed to reduce German reparations (payments to the victors)
• In 1929, the Young Plan planned to lower the total reparations from £6.6 billion to £2 billion
• The payments would continue until 1988
• The Wall St Crash abruptly stopped the Young Plan in 1929
• By 1928, industrial production levels were higher than they were in 1913
• Between 1925 and 1929, exports rose by 40%
• In 1927, the Weimar Republic set up a number of pension, health and unemployment schemes to help German society
• Economic recovery depended on American loans
• Unemployment was still a big problem for Germany
• Germany spent more money on imports than they received on exports, a 'budget deficit'
• Locarno Pact


  Agreement signed in 1925 between Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Belgium where Germany recognised their borders with France and the demilitarisation of the Rhineland
• League of Nations


  International peacekeeping body that Germany joined in 1926
• Kellogg-Briand Pact


  Agreement signed in 1928 between Germany and 62 other countries to disarm and not use war to resolve disagreements
• The German population still resented the Treaty of Versailles and the League of Nations
• The Communist and Nazi Parties still existed, although support for extreme left and right-wing parties had declined
• Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France.
• Germany lost territory to France, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania.
• The Treaty of Versailles was signed on June 28, 1919.