Gustav Stresemann was appointed Chancellor of Germany in 1923 during the Weimar Republic period. As Chancellor and later as Foreign Minister, he implemented policies that helped stabilize Germany's economy and improve its international standing. This included establishing a new currency to end hyperinflation, crushing communist uprisings, and pursuing diplomatic agreements like the Locarno Pact to normalize Germany's relations with other European powers. However, the economic and political stability of the Weimar Republic remained fragile.

1. DEPTH STUDY
NAZI GERMANY
WEIMAR REPUBLIC
STRESEMANN ERA
1924-1929
07

2. THE
APPOINTMENT
Gustav Stresemann
was appointed
chancellor and his
policies would help to
transform the
fortunes of Weimar.
He had been a strong
supporter of
Germany’s
involvement in World
War I and advocated
unrestricted
submarine warfare as
the only means to
defeat Britain.

3. OWN PARTY
At first, Stresemann felt no loyalty
to the new Weimar Republic, and he
opposed the Treaty of Versailles.
He set up his own party the German
People’s Party (DVP).
His views developed and he
advocated a great coalition from the
SPD to the DVP to consolidate
democracy against the extremes of
left and right.

4. ACTIVITY AS CHANCELLOR
He became Chancellor in August 1923.
His government lasted a hundred days until November 1923
but he remained as foreign minister in successive coalitions
until his death in October 1929.
As Chancellor he took the crucial step of ceasing financial
support to the general strike in the Ruhr.
He introduced a new and stable currency (the Rentenmark)
that ended the hyper-inflation.
He also crushed a communist revolt in Saxony and faced
down the threat from Hitler in Bavaria.

5. POLICY OF FULFILMENT
During six years, as foreign minister he wanted to improve
Germany’s international position, cooperate with France and
Britain in order to secure a revision of some of the terms of
the Treaty of Versailles.
This policy became known as fulfilment.

6. THE PERIOD OF PROSPERITY
He achieved success.
Under Anglo-American pressure France withdrew from the
Ruhr.
Stresemann accepted the recommendations of the Dawes
committee for a settlement of the reparations issue.
A moderate scale of payments was fixed rising from £50
million to £125 million after 5 years and a 2-year moratorium
(suspension) on reparation payments was set.
A loan of $800 million was raised for Germany, mainly in
America.
For the next 5 years American loans poured into Germany
which greatly improved the economic position.

7. EVACUATING RHINELAND
As part of this policy of co-operation, the first of the three
Rhineland zones which had been placed under Allied military
occupation by the Treaty of Versailles were evacuated in 1926.
In 1927 the Inter-Allied Control Commission to supervise
German disarmament was withdrawn.

10. YOUNG PLAN
The Young Plan agreed in 1929 greatly
reduced German reparations to a figure
of £2 billion and Repayments were to be
made over a period of 59 years.
Stresemann also won complete allied
evacuation of the Rhineland by June
1930 (five years ahead of schedule).

11. DID WEIMAR ECONOMY REALLY
RECOVER?
The years 1924 to 1929 have been referred to as Weimar’s
‘Golden Years’, but historians disagree as to just how much the
German economy recovered from the effects of World War One
and hyperinflation.

13. FOCUS FOR HOPES
It is hardly surprising that when he died of a stroke in
October 1929 at the early age of fifty-one Stresemann’s
reputation stood very high.
He had also become a focus for hopes of European peace.
Hitler is reported to have remarked that in Stresemann’s
position “he could not have achieved more”.

14. CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE
ERA
The Weimar Republic, however weak its economy and its
political system, was one of the most fertile grounds for the
modern arts and sciences in history.
The republic also saw greater sexual freedom and tolerance.
Berlin became a center of many new art movements such as
expressionism.
Its status in the world of the arts resembled the place of New
York after 1945.

15. PAINTING
THE NEW
OBJECTIVITY
Before the war, most German art was
detached from everyday life.
In contract, most Weimar artists tried
to show everyday life; they wanted to
be understood by ordinary people, and
they believed that art should comment
on the society of the time.
This new approach was given the name
NEUE SACHLICHKEIT, because artists
tried to portray society in an objective
way.
New objectivity was associated with
painters such as George Grosz and Otto

16. ACTIVITY – Source 1
THIS PICTURE CONTAINS A NUMBER OF
SYMBOLIC CHARACTERS. WHO OR WHAT
DO YOU THINK EACH OF THEM
REPRESENTS?
Grey Day by George Grosz, 1921. Grosz had been wounded in
the war and often shows war disabled in his paintings, along
with robot- or doll-like figures who seem to have no control
over their lives. His characters are placed in hectic and
depressing cities. He joined the Communist Party in 1918 but
remained pessimistic about the chances of social
improvement. In the same year as he completed this painting,
he was taken to court on a charge of insulting the German
army. The man with the moustache is wearing a badge which
shows he supports the monarchy, not the Republic.

17. ACTIVITY – Source 2
WHAT IS DIX’S ATTITUDE TO THE URBAN MIDDLE CLASS? EXPLAIN YOUR
ANSWER WITH REFERENCE TO THE SOURCE.
Big City by Otto Dix, 1927-1928. Dix lived in the cities of Dresden, Dusseldorf and Berlin during the 1920’s. He
searched for personalities he could include in his paintings to show the uglier side of human nature. He said
that it was his wartime experiences which had made him aware of this. The central panel shows a nightclub
with a jazz band playing to fashionably dressed, middle-class urban people. The other two panels show the
revelers on their way home, confronted by the other side of city life.

18. ACTIVITY – QUESTION
WHAT DO SOURCES 1 AND 2 HAVE IN COMMON?

19. GERMAN
CINEMA AND
MUSIC
Great film companies made
German cinema one of the
most notable in the world
(never again achieved).
Fritz Lang’s work was
regarded as pioneering at
the time.
Leading composers of music
taught and heard their
works first performed in
Weimar Germany.
Cabaret was popular and the
singer Marlene Dietrich’s

20. METROPOLIS - BY FRITZ LANG
THE MOST TECHNICALLY ADVANCED FILM OF THE
20’S (SILENT MOVIE)
PRODUCED IN 1927, IS ONE OF THE FIRST SCIENCE
FICTION FILMS IN HISTORY
WIDELY REGARDED AS ONE OF THE GREATEST AND
INFLUENTIAL FILMS EVER MADE
AN ART DECO & GOTHIC MOVIE, INSPIRED BY THE
SKYSCRAPERS IN NEW YORK
EXPLORES THE THEMES OF INDUSTRIALISATION
AND MASS PRODUCTION, TWO DEVELOPMENTS
PLAYING A ROLE IN THE WAR
THEMES IN METROPOLIS INCLUDE THE WEIMAR
VIEW OF AMERICAN MODERNITY, FASCISM,
AND COMMUNISM.
SOURCE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdtZv3XROnc&ab_channel=Rott
enTomatoesClassicTrailers

22. THE BAUHAUS SCHOOL
The Bauhaus school near Weimar was well-known for its
architecture, and the theatres in Berlin and Frankfurt led the
way internationally.

23. LITERATURE AND PHILOSOPHY
Thomas and Heinrich Mann and Bertolt Brecht were world
famous writers. Philosophy also flourished.

24. ACADEMIC
WORLD
The Weimar Republic
"inherited" excellent
universities and science
centres from the
Wilhelmine period. German
was the international
language in physics and
chemistry.
Albert Einstein lived and
taught in Berlin.

25. THE WILHELMINE
PERIOD
FACT: The Wilhelmine Period
comprises the period of German
history between 1890 and 1918,
during the reign of Kaiser Wilhelm
II in the German Empire from the
resignation of Chancellor Otto von
Bismarck until the end of World
War I and Wilhelm's abdication
during the November Revolution.

26. CONSERVATIVE VIEW
Not everyone was happy with the new cultural freedom in
Weimar.
To the right, Weimar Culture confirmed the image of a
hedonistic, amoral, and degenerate society.
The fact that many leading artists associated with the
Communist Party (which was fashionable in intellectual
circles all over Europe) and the strong representation of Jews
in the new artistic movements increased this hostility.

27. WEIMAR CULTURE EMIGRATION
When the Nazis came to power most of the leading figures of
Weimar culture had to emigrate.
A mass exodus of academics, physicists, film directors, and
writers took place, and many went to the United States, which
inherited Weimar culture.
20 Nobel prize winners left and over 2000 people involved in
the arts.

28. INTERNATIONAL
RELATIONS
After losing World War One, being
forced to take the blame for the
conflict and the subsequent issues
surrounding payment of
reparations, Germany was an
international outcast.
Germans were still incredibly bitter
about their treatment in the Treaty
of Versailles, where they also lost
territory on all sides.
Stresemann oversaw a dramatic
improvement in Germany’s
relationship with the rest of Europe
between 1925 and 1928.
This is best illustrated by three

29. THE
LOCARNO
PACT
In 1925 he took the
initiative that led to the
Locarno Pact.
Under this agreement,
Germany recognised her
Western frontiers as final
and agreed to use peaceful
means to ensure revision
of her frontiers in the east.
Stresemann was a German
nationalist and was not
prepared to give up what
he saw as legitimate
demands for the return of
Danzig and the northern
half of the Polish Corridor.

30. THE TREATIES
Pact of Locarno was signed on December 1, 1925.
It consisted as a series of agreements in which Germany, France, Belgium,
Great Britain, and Italy mutually guaranteed peace in western Europe.
The treaties were initialed at Locarno, in Switzerland, on October 16 and
signed in London on December 1.

31. TERMS
The agreements consisted of
(1) a treaty of mutual guarantee between Germany, Belgium, France, Great
Britain, and Italy;
(2)arbitration treaties between Germany and Belgium and between
Germany and France;
(3)a note from the former Allies to Germany explaining the use of
sanctions against a covenant-breaking state as outlined in article 16 of
the League of Nations Covenant;
(4)arbitration treaties between Germany and Czechoslovakia and between
Germany and Poland; and
(5)treaties of guarantee between France and Poland and between France
and Czechoslovakia.

32. MUTUAL GUARANTEE
The treaty of mutual guarantee provided that the German-Belgian and
Franco-German frontiers as fixed by the Treaty of Versailles were
inviolable.
Also, provided provisions that Germany, Belgium, and France would never
attack each other except in “legitimate defense” or in consequence of a
League of Nations obligation.
All their disputes will be settled by pacific means; and that in case of an
alleged breach of these undertakings, the signatories would come to the
defense of the party adjudged by the League to be the party attacked and
also in case of a “flagrant violation.”
The treaties of guarantee between France and Poland or Czechoslovakia
provided for mutual support against unprovoked attack.
A further consequence of the pact was the evacuation of Allied troops
from the Rhineland in 1930, five years ahead of schedule.

33. ULTIMATE MEANING OF THE TREATIES
The clear meaning of Locarno was that Germany renounced the use of
force to change its western frontiers but agreed only to arbitration as
regards its eastern frontiers, and that Great Britain promised to defend
Belgium and France but not Poland and Czechoslovakia.
In March 1936 Germany sent troops into the Rhineland, which had been
demilitarized by the Treaty of Versailles, declaring that the situation
envisaged at Locarno had been changed by the Franco-Soviet alliance of
1935.
France regarded the German move as a “flagrant violation” of Locarno,
but Great Britain declined to do so, and no action was taken.
Germany made no effort to arbitrate its dispute with Czechoslovakia in
1938 or with Poland in 1939.

34. JOINING
THE LEAGUE
In September 1926 Germany
joined the League of
Nations with a permanent
seat on the Council in
recognition of her status as
a great power.
In October 1925 Germany,
France and Belgium agreed
to respect their post-
Versailles borders, whilst
Germany agreed with
Poland and Czechoslovakia
to settle any border
disputes peacefully.
Germany had previously

35. KELLOGG-
BRIAND PACT
1928
Germany was one of
62 countries that
signed up to this
agreement, which
committed its
signatories to
settling disputes
between them
peacefully.

36. KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT 1928
Kellogg-Briand Pact, also called Pact of Paris, was signed on August 27,
1928.
It was a multilateral agreement attempting to eliminate war as an
instrument of national policy.
It was the biggest of a series of peacekeeping efforts after World War I.
Hoping to bring the United States into a system of protective alliances
directed against a possible resurgence of German aggression, the French
foreign minister, Aristide Briand, first suggested a bilateral nonaggression
pact in the spring of 1927.
The U.S. secretary of state, Frank B. Kellogg, proposed that the pact be
converted into a general multilateral treaty, which the French accepted.

37. KELLOGG-BRIAND PACT 1928
As a result of Kellogg’s proposal, nearly all the nations of the world
eventually subscribed to the Kellogg-Briand Pact, agreeing to renounce war
as an instrument of national policy and to settle all international disputes by
peaceful means.
The treaty failed to establish a means of enforcement, so the agreement
was completely ineffective.

38. INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
These developments meant that Germany was accepted into
the emerging ‘international community’ that sought to work
together during the 1920s to avoid another destructive war.
It also helped Germany’s internal wounds to heal – the
government was seen to be taking decisive action to make
life better for people and right some of the wrongs that the
Treaty of Versailles had caused.
This led to greater political stability and less extremism.
This ethos of collaboration and peaceful cooperation only
lasted, however, until the onset of the Great Depression
following the Wall Street Crash of October 1929.

39. CHANGES IN SOCIETY 1924-1929
There is doubt from some historians as to whether the ‘Golden Age’
existed. There were improvements that helped ordinary working
Germans.
• Hourly wages rose in real terms (above inflation) every year from
1924 to 1930, with a rise of 10% in 1928 alone.
• Pensions and sickness benefits schemes were introduced.
• Compulsory unemployment insurance was introduced in 1927, which
covered 17 million workers.
• Government subsidies were provided for the building of local parks,
schools and sports facilities, and there was a massive programme of
council house construction.
Despite all of this, a large increase in the working age population
during the mid-20’s led to increasing unemployment, and farmers in

40. CHANGES IN THE POSITION OF
WOMEN
German women contributed a lot to the war effort during WW1.
After the war the government ordered women to return to their
pre-war roles, in low-skilled jobs or in the home, to allow
returning soldiers to take up work:
• Women were pressured to return to their ‘traditional’ role as
wives/mothers.
• Attitudes towards women changed according to how well the
economy did.
• During times of economic crisis, such as the hyperinflation of
1923 and during the Great Depression, women returning home
were seen as a solution to the problem of unemployment.

41. CHANGES IN THE POSITION OF
WOMEN 2
• During the recovery of the mid-1920s women were welcomed
into the workforce.
• The number of women in work was 1.7 million higher in 1925
than it had been in 1907.
• Women were increasingly taking on white collar jobs, though
these were mainly done by single women under 25.
• The percentage of women in work only rose by less than 1%
between 1907 and 1925.