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Unlock This CourseIn 1923 Germany stood alone. It had been shut out of the League of Nations when the League was set up in 1920. French soldiers were in the Ruhr, and the Allies did not trust Germany to keep its word. As foreign minister from 1923 to 1929, Gustav Stresemann set out to change this.
His aim was to win back trust by co-operating with Britain and France. He did not like the Treaty of Versailles any more than other Germans did. But he believed Germany was too weak to tear it up, so the only way to improve its terms was step by step, through agreement.
Key terms:
In October 1925 Stresemann met the French foreign minister, Aristide Briand, and the British foreign secretary, Austen Chamberlain, in the Swiss town of Locarno. The treaties they agreed were signed in London on 1 December 1925.
Notice what was missing. Germany did not accept its eastern borders as final. Stresemann still hoped to win back land lost to Poland one day, by peaceful means.
Locarno mattered for three reasons. First, Germany had been treated as an equal: unlike Versailles, these terms were discussed with Germany and signed freely. Second, France felt safer, so another invasion like the Ruhr became very unlikely. Third, it opened the way to more gains. In early 1926 Allied soldiers left the Cologne zone, the first part of the occupied Rhineland to be handed back. People spoke of a new 'spirit of Locarno', and in 1926 Stresemann and Briand shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
At Locarno it was agreed that Germany should join the League. In September 1926 Germany became a member. It was also given a permanent seat on the League's Council, the small group of leading countries that took the big decisions. The other permanent members were Britain, France, Italy and Japan.
This was a real change in status. Seven years after Versailles, Germany was officially a great power again, sitting as an equal beside the countries that had defeated it. It could now speak in the League on matters it cared about, such as the treatment of Germans living in other countries. Membership also made Germany look stable, which gave foreign banks more confidence to keep lending.
In August 1928 Stresemann travelled to Paris to sign a pact named after the American Secretary of State, Frank Kellogg, and Briand. Fifteen countries signed that day, and in the end more than 60 joined. They promised not to use war as a way of settling disputes.
The pact showed that Germany was now one of the world's leading peaceful nations, standing alongside the USA, which was not a member of the League. But it was only a promise. Nothing in it said what would happen to a country that broke it.
Germany went from outcast to equal partner in five years. Relations with France improved, the western border was secure and Allied soldiers began to leave German soil. A permanent Council seat gave Germany a say in world affairs. Greater trust also helped Stresemann to win better terms on reparations, and it made the Republic look more successful to moderate Germans.
The hated terms of Versailles were still in place: the lost land, the small army and reparations. Nationalists said that Stresemann had accepted Versailles all over again by agreeing to the western borders. The nationalist DNVP party left the government in protest at Locarno in 1925. The eastern borders stayed unsettled. And it all rested on goodwill, and on Stresemann himself, who died in October 1929.
So Germany's position was restored a long way, but not completely. It had regained respect and equality. It had not regained what it lost in 1919.
Don't say that Locarno fixed all of Germany's borders. It covered only the western borders with France and Belgium. Don't say the Kellogg-Briand Pact was a League of Nations agreement: it was separate, and it included the USA. And keep the order straight: Locarno in 1925, the League in 1926, the pact in 1928.
(c) 'The main reason for the recovery of Germany in the years 1924-29 was the Dawes Plan.'
How far do you agree? Explain your answer.
You may use the following in your answer:
You must also use information of your own. [16 marks]
I agree to a large extent. The Dawes Plan drove the economic recovery, but Germany's recovery abroad came from Stresemann's treaties, and both needed a stable currency to build on.
The Dawes Plan was vital because it made reparations affordable. Yearly payments were lowered, starting at 1 billion marks, and Germany received a loan of 800 million marks. France agreed to leave the Ruhr, and its last soldiers left in 1925. This made Germany look safe to invest in, so about 25 billion marks were borrowed between 1924 and 1930, mostly from the USA. The money built new factories, and by 1928 industrial production was above its pre-war level. The plan therefore led directly to economic recovery.
However, recovery was not only about money. The Locarno Treaties of 1925 restored Germany's position abroad. Germany freely accepted its western borders, and France and Belgium promised not to attack, so there could be no repeat of the Ruhr occupation. Locarno led to Germany joining the League of Nations in 1926 with a permanent seat on the Council, as an equal great power. The Dawes Plan could not do this, because it dealt only with payments. Yet Locarno was possible partly because the Dawes Plan had already eased the quarrel with France over reparations.
A third reason was the Rentenmark. In November 1923 this new currency replaced the worthless mark, with one Rentenmark for one trillion old marks. Because the number of notes was limited, prices steadied and hyperinflation ended. Without money that people trusted, no American bank would have lent to Germany, so the Dawes Plan depended on it. But the Rentenmark only stopped the crisis. It did not bring growth.
Overall, the best test is which factor did most to turn a country in crisis into one that was growing and respected. The Rentenmark only ended the emergency, and Locarno brought respect but no growth. The Dawes Plan brought the loans that rebuilt industry, removed French soldiers from the Ruhr and opened the way to agreement with France. It was therefore the main reason, although the recovery it produced relied on American loans and so was never fully secure.
What lifts this to the top level: it covers three aspects (one not in the bullets), links them to each other, and reaches a judgement using a stated test instead of just giving an opinion.
An answer that uses only the Dawes Plan and Locarno cannot reach the top level, so always plan a third factor of your own, such as the Rentenmark or joining the League, before you start writing. In your conclusion, name the test you are using to decide what counts as the 'main' reason.