- Locarno Pact 1925
- Allowed to join League of Nations
WEIMAR ECONOMIC RECOVERY 1923-1929:
- September 1923: GS called off passive resistance
and promised to resume reparations.
- Deposits in German Banks increased by 500%
(1924-26)
- Schacht appointed : introduced Rentenmark and
then Reichsmark in August 1924.
- DAWES PLAN: April 1924: loan of 800 million gold
marks + reparations calculated according to
Germany’s ability to pay.
- Production levels had reached those of 1913 by
1928.
- German exports rose by 40% b/w 1925-1929.
- Hourly wage rates every year from 1924-1930.
- Gov. engaged in social benefit schemes i.e.
benefits for widows and pensions for those
wounded during WW1. = Attempt to create a
welfare state:
o Improved working conditions for
industrial workers : State arbitration law
1924 allowed them to complain and
bargain for higher wages in front of
usually sympathetic judges.
o Unemployment insurance law covered
17M workers , offered benefits @75% of
pay for ¾ a year- largest scheme in the
world.
o Over 2M houses-built b/w 1924-31 =
homelessness by 60% .
- Large American co-operations i.e. FORD and
GENERAL MOTORS invested in and set up
factories in Germany.
- Young Plan 1929: reduced sum of reparations to
1850M pounds.
1926.
- Treaty of Berlin (avec Russia) 1926.
- Kellogg-Brian pact 1928.
- Stresemann : ‘’We are dancing on the edge of a  International recognition and
volcano’’. better relations.
- Welfare state = Tax rise for industrialists = ☹ =
look towards a right-wing government. CULTURE: More liberal society with
- Farmers: GDP per head = 44% national average . toleration and reduced censorship.
½ of all German farms failed to make profit in
1929. = ☹ = 1/3 of population , felt Artists: George Grosz , Otto Dix. –
discontented with government as felt policies = paintings and caricatures with strong
aimed at and benefitted urban workers = political and social messages.
contributed to early Nazi success. Architecture and design- Bauhaus design
- Policy of rationalization = cut production costs
Theatre & Film : German film industry
and thus workers + mechanization of industry = became the most advanced in Europe.
2M unemployed. This figure never fell below
Marlene Dietrich and Fritz Lang.
1.3M in the period.
- Trade deficit as imports always exceeded Weimar society = becoming increasingly
exports. polarized b/w liberals and conservatives.
- Class divisions and tensions: Arbitration in 76,000 - Changes seen by some as DEGENERATE.
disputes b/w 1924&1932. Cabaret: 500 in Berlin alone.
POLITICAL : Parties sympathetic to the republic maintained and grew their seats in the Reichstag.
1928: SPD = 153 seats.
1924: Nazis = 32 seats, 1928: 12 seats.
Mullers Grand Coalition 1928.
Coalitions = instability as = divisions and conflict of interest , longest one lasted 21 months. Arguments
created over minor issues: - What flag should be used
- 1926: creation of Religious Schools.
Hindenburg: Not sympathetic to the republic or its values + = old. A.J Nicholls : ‘’He refused to betray
the republic, but he did not rally the people to its banner’’