"By the beginning of 1929, the survival prospects of the Weimar Republic looked good." Discuss the extent to which this statement can be agreed with.

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5/8/2007 Isabel Marden

“By the beginning of 1929, the survival prospects of the Weimar Republic looked good.”

Discuss the extent to which this statement can be agreed with.

The statement that by the beginning of 1929 the survival prospects of the Weimar republic looked good brings many different political, economic and social views of the events and attitudes of that year and the 4 years (from 1924) leading up to it to a head. This essay will argue that while the statement can be evidenced by several improvements in different sectors, these improvements were only on the surface. If the fundamental flaws of the republic (exhibited in destabilizing factors to be discussed) are looked at accurately, its failures were inevitable. The great depression merely accelerated this inevitability.

        One argument that that supports the idea that survival prospects of Weimar looked good by 1929 is economic. The terror that the German people felt when faced with reparations was to be allayed by foreign minister Gustav Stressemans orchestration of the introduction of the Dawes plan in1924 (tailored to his policy of fulfillment of the Versailles treaty). The newly establish Rentenmark currency was stabilized by this influx of almost 25.5 billion marks worth of foreign capital. It also set the stage for the Young plan, established in 1928. This plan “parceled” reparations payments into easily payable chunks, another move of Stressemans that seemed a viable step towards encouraging the motivation of the German people to get the states economic house in order. These factors were obvious opportunities for Germany to grow and prosper. Indeed, it can be seen why noted historian M. Fullbrook could say that “under Stressemans’ guidance, it might appear that a considerable amount had been achieved,” and also why it can be argued that without the advent of the 1931 depression such positive economic progress could have been sustained.

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        The implementation of these economic changes had corresponding benefits to international relations, the improvement of which evidence the idea that Weimar’s prospects for survival looked good by 1929. Because the nature of the policy of fulfillment that Stresseman followed in making these economic reforms was perceived as conciliatory by the foreign powers, this encouraged in turn a more conciliatory tone to be taken by them in their dealings in Germany. The Locarno pact of 1927, where Germany’s western borders were settled, allowed Franco-German relations to improve and lessened the prospect of another “invasion of the Ruhr” (something that reflected badly ...

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