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歷史作業  10.03

How successful was the Weimar Republic from 1924 to 1929 under Stresemann?

Chen Huai-Yu

    Politically, Stresemann had certain success dealing with those extreme political parties. Under his ruling, there were no more attempts to overthrow the Weimar Republic. The Social Democratic which was left wing formed a coalition supporting the Weimar Republic and, there were no more political assassinations ceases any more. These all made the society more stable, peopled no longer had to live with fear of those uprisings’ rebellions and, the Weimar Republic didn’t have to pay so much attention on solving the rebellions as well. Because of this, after 1923, people who supported extreme political parties declined. The extremists couldn’t get much support so they were unable to overthrow the Republic. The society slowly returned to a stable condition. However, those extremists from both ends still existed and hated the Weimar Republic; some parties didn’t even want to join the coalition government. Besides, the powerful extreme right wing members, elites and leadership of Hindenburg were anti-Republic. This could be a big opposition and threat to undermine the Weimar Republic.

    On foreign policies, Stresemann did very well negotiating with other countries. The Dawes Plan and Young Plan successfully reduced the reparations. Locarno Pact and Kellogg-Briand Pact reassured other countries that Germany was no longer aggressive. And they could trust in Germany that she would never use war to solve problems. The most important thing was that Germany was accepted to League of Nations. This was a very big improvement because this meant that other countries no longer isolated Germany and Germany could slowly recover her pool after-war conditions with other countries helps. However, this was just a short-term policy; Germany couldn’t rely on this policy for long if they wanted a truly recovered society. People still hated the Treaty of Versailles, the Weimar Republic, and the huge reparations. All that Stresemann did just made Germany a country with better prestige. Officially, it was a success, but actually, inside Germany herself, people were absolutely not that agree with what Stresemann did. 

   Economically, the Locarno Pact made France evacuate the Ruhr successfully, so Germany’s economy slowly to growing back. Her industrial products increased, and more and more countries were willing to invest in Germany. This made Germany had more money to recover from the War and the hyper-inflation brought by the War. And Germany could also use the money to rebuild her industry. More new jobs were created, but there was still unemployment on the youth due to the pre-war baby boom which made the unemployment never fall over 1.3 million. Although it was the first time after the War Germany to return her industry to pre-war levels, Germany relied too much on foreign loans, especially the USA. Loans meant that Germany had to pay back, and it wasn’t a small number! This was linked to the 1929-1933 world economic crisis. Furthermore, Hitler would not rise if the Weimar Republic still stood strong through the depression!

    Socially, because of Stresemann’s successful change of currency to Rentenmark, the inflation was no longer so serious. People’s living condition improved, 3 million of new houses were built, and the social welfare improved as well. The working hours decreased, the wages rose. These lead to less workers’ strikes and improved the social condition of the Weimar Republic. However, there were still problems that hadn’t been solved. The unemployment among those youth had a great effect when the world economic depression spread from the USA. The youth had lost confidence on Stresemann; as a result, they turned to support the extreme parties, which was one of the reasons why Hitler could rise with such powerful support that overthrew the Republic in further years and became Chancellor in 1933.

    On culture, the Weimar Republic developed her own unique culture. It was hard to define it good or bad, though. There were new thoughts on arts and architectures, the rising of surrealism showed that German people would only feel better when they were not in the “real” world. The arts always reflect the Zeitgeist, people wanted more freedom and democracy. The quote of “Live for today!” showed the effect by the inflation. More entertainment and advanced technology, and better film industry. These all brought hope and optimism to the German people. But German people did it over. They had already broken the traditional standards; they promoted drugs, drinks, and sex. The rising of Jazz music was another change. The nightclubs in Berlin could easily show everything about the Weimar Republic’s culture. All these things were backlashed by Nationalists, such as Hitler. They thought that the German people were degenerate and unpatriotic, forgetting the misery and having pleasure. From this view, it was easy to see why Hitler could gain support from certain groups and rose during the world economic depression.

    Under Stresemann’s rule, Germany had changed a lot. We can’t say that it become a very strong country again, but compare to the Weimar Republic in early years, Stresemann’s Weimar Republic was much better than before. Germany was benefited from the foreign loans and was able to rebuild her economy and industry again. The inflation was not that serious anymore, the unemployment fell, and people could live in a better condition. Overall, I think that these years can be classed as Golden Years. Although there were still some problems and the foreign loans could lead to the crash of the Republic during the world economic depression, German people had led their best lives during this period. No fear for wars, revolts, and strikes, no worrying about hyper-inflation and high unemployment (compare to the former Weimar Republic), and just simply enjoy lives doing whatever they want.

    Without Stresemann, the Weimar Republic would have been overthrown by those extremists much earlier than she really was. Most important of all, if the world economic depression didn’t occur in the USA and spread to Germany, Hitler would never have chance to rise his revolution and overthrow the Republic in 1933, then there might not be the Second World War. There would be totally different pages in this long and complicated history and, who knows if the Weimar Republic could still exist now?

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懷玉寫這篇心得前列的大綱：

Strengths:

Constitution

Treaty of Versailles

Rebellions

Gustav Stresemann’s Policy

Weaknesses:

Constitution

Treaty of Versailles

Rebellions

Occupation of Ruhr

Hyperinflation

Impacts of World War One 

Conclusion:

More weaknesses than strengths

Little support from both ends

Associated with defeat

Poverty

People turned to extremism

Unstable society

Coalition government

November Criminal

Not successful