How far did the Weimar Republic recover? 1919-1929
FASS
Freikorps
Against the Communists, the SPD Defence Minister, Gustav Noske, used
bands of Freikorps. They were right-wing and enjoyed putting down the
Communist revolts of 1919–1920.
Army
The Army, led by von Seeckt, was also
right-wing, and enjoyed putting down the
Communist revolts of 1923.
strikes
The Kapp Putsch was right-wing, so the
Freikorps and Army refused to help the
government. However, Ebert appealed to the
workers of Berlin (who were left-wing), who went
on strike. Berlin came to a standstill and the
Putsch collapsed.
Gustav Stresemann. 1924 led the government
(he became Chancellor in August 1923).
His achievements
Dawes Plan!! 1923 Ruhr strike and started to pay
reparations again – but the American
Dawes Plan gave Germany longer to
make the payments (and the Young Plan
of 1929 reduced the payments).
Inflation controlled, November 1923
Stresemann called in all the old,
worthless marks and burned them. He
replaced them with a new Rentenmark
(worth 3,000 million old marks).
Foreign Affairs In 1925, Stresemann signed the
Locarno Treaty, agreeing to the loss of
Alsace-Lorraine. In 1926, Germany was allowed to
join the League of Nations. Germany had become a
world power again.
Strength at the Centre. He arranged a 'Great Coalition' of the moderate
pro-democracy parties (based around the SDP, the Centre party and
Stresemann's own 'German people's Party', the DVP). United together,
they were able to resist the criticism from smaller extremist parties, and in
this way, he overcame the effects of proportional representation - the
government had enough members of the Reichstag supporting it to pass
the laws it needed.
Culture Flourish
The 1920s became in Germany a
time of real cultural creativity, with
developments in Architecture, Art,
Books, Films and Cabaret. Famous
names of this period include: • the
Bauhaus school of architecture,
founded by Walter Gropius.• the singer
and film star Marlene Dietrich • the
artist Otto Dix (famous for his harsh
paintings of World War One trenches).
Weakeness
Germany depended on economic success and prosperity, and this in turn was wholly based on
American loans. If anything happened to undermine the American economy, the Weimar Republic
would be in great danger.
Wall Street Crash on 1929
Extremist politicians were not won over by the
good times. Right-wing nationalists still hated
the Republic as the 'November criminals' -
they just waited for a situation to arise which
would give them the opportunity to attack the
Weimar government.