Did stresemann resolve the problems faced by the weimar republic?

Authors Avatar

Did Stresemann succeed in solving the problems faced by the Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was set up in the aftermath of Germany's defeat in World War 1. It was burdened with the blame for the much resented Treaty of Versailles. Germany had rejected it but was forced to sign in 1919. The Weimar government was unable to restore pre-war conditions.

In august 1923 Stresemann became Chancellor of Germany and foreign minster. He was a part of the German people’s party.  Stresemann went along way in resolving the crisis that was left after World War 1. But did Stresemann succeed in solving these problems? Or did he just paper up the cracks?

During 1923-1929 the republic seemed to overcome its difficulties. There are many ways in which Stresemann had succeeded in finding solutions that had positive outcomes. He made policies to solve the problems.

In 1923 the Deustch mark lost its value, hyper-inflation had rapidly increased in Germany. Stresemann had come up with a solution of introducing a new currency called the Rentenmark. One Rentenmark replaced one thousand billion DM. This had lead to a positive result as the new currency was quickly accepted by the Germans and inflation was brought under control.

Another problem that was faced was the French occupation of the Ruhr, in 1925 Stresemann called of passive resistance, because it had not forced the French to withdraw from the Ruhr and it had created serious economic problems so he promised reparations to France. As a result he made peace with France in the Locarno treaty guaranteeing that each country was safe from invasion the other and the French left the Ruhr; which shows that his solution had succeeded.

Join now!

Another problem was the fact that Germany was not trusted by other countries, so Stresemann decided to co-operate with the other countries in Europe, a positive outcome of this was in 1925 when Stresemann signed the Locarno pact with Britain, France and Belgium. They promised not to invade each other. This took Germany to the League of Nations in 1926 which had given them great power, which meant that they had a say in major decisions. This shows that Stresemann had succeeded in finding a way of countries trusting Germany again.

However Germany was facing massive reparations, Stresemann promised ...

This is a preview of the whole essay