2) Recovery Of Weimar

Question 1

Which individual was German economic recovery largely due to?

Answer 1

Gustav Stesemann

Question 2

When was the Dawes Plan introduced?

Answer 2

1924

Question 3

What was the Dawes Plan?

Answer 3

Stresemann persuaded the French, British and Americans to change the reparation payment terms in August 1924.

Question 4

What did the Dawes Plan entail?

Answer 4

• Reparation payments were reduced to more sensible and manageable payments and were based upon Germany’s capacity to pay.
• The Ruhr area was to be evacuated by Allied occupation troops (occurred in 1925).
• The US would give loans to Germany $3,000 million over 6 years.

Question 5

What were the negatives of the Dawes plan?

Answer 5

Germany was dependent on the US doing well and they still had to pay reparations.

Question 6

What was the Rentenmark?

Answer 6

Stresemann introduced a temporary currency called the Rentenmark. This was issued in limited amounts based on property values. In 1924 it was converted to the Reichsmark, a currency backed by gold reserves.

Question 7

When was the Rentenmark introduced?

Answer 7

1923

Question 8

What were the positives of the Rentenmark?

Answer 8

Restored Germany’s faith in currency, later converted into the Reichsmark

Question 9

What were the negatives of the Rentenmark?

Answer 9

Value not as much as dutschmark, attached to property rather than gold reserves.

Question 10

What were the outcomes of the Young Plan?

Answer 10

Reparation figure was reduced from £6600 million to £1850 million and the length of time to pay reparations was extended to 59 years.

Question 11

Why was Stresemann criticised for the Young Plan?

Answer 11

He was severely criticised by right wing politicians who objected to any further payment of reparations.

Question 12

When was the Young Plan?

Answer 12

1929

Question 13

How did Germany prosper with American money?

Answer 13

• Public works provides new stadiums, apartment blocks and opera houses.
• Big business had paid many of its debts and benefited from a period of industrial growth.
• There were fewer strikes between 1924 and 1929.
• Unemployment fell from 9 million (in 1926) to 6 million.

Question 14

Why did Weimar not recover fully from hyperinflation?

Answer 14

• Weimar was still over dependent on American loans.
• Factory workers’ hours stayed the same whilst their wages rose, but not as fast as living costs
• The lower middle class did not fully recover from the savings they lost in 1923
• Farmers still experiences problems like worldwide agricultural depression, lack of modernisation, Farmers went into debts and product was still only 74% of pre-war levels.

Question 15

What was the Locarno Pact?

Answer 15

Germany signed this treaty with Britain, France and Belgium.

Question 16

What were Stresemann’s aims through the Locarno pact?

Answer 16

• Improve relations with France and Britain
• Restore Germany’s international prestige
• Gain France and Britain’s cooperation in reducing the worst parts of the Treaty

Question 17

When was the Locarno Pact?

Answer 17

1925

Question 18

When was Germany given a permanent seat on the council of the League of Nations?

Answer 18

1926

Question 19

Why was Germany given a permanent seat on the council of the League of Nations?

Answer 19

To try and maintain peace.

Question 20

What were the results of Germany’s part in the League of Nations?

Answer 20

It confirmed Germany’s return to great power status and brought incredible prestige for Stresemann.

Question 21

Why was joining the League of Nations a bold move for Stresemann?

Answer 21

As many Germans regarded the League of Nations as the guardian of the hated Treaty of Versailles.

Question 22

When did Germany along with 64 other nations sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

Answer 22

1928

Question 23

Why did Germany and the other nations sign the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

Answer 23

In agreement to keep their armies for self defence and solve all international disputes by ‘peaceful means’.

Question 24

What did the Kellogg-Briand Pact show?

Answer 24

Further improvement in relations between the USA and leading European Nations, and fully confirmed that Germany was, once again, one of these leading nations.

Question 25

Between 1924 and 1929 which parties saw greater support?

Answer 25

Parties like the social democrats who supported the Weimar Republic and less for the extremist parties like the Nazis because of the economic recovery and success abroad.

Question 26

Which political leaders brought about political stability from 1924-1929?

Answer 26

Hindenburg and Stresemann.
Stresemann’s successes abroad made him one of the most political leaders of the Weimar Republic.
Hindenburg, one of Germany’s war leaders, was elected in 1925, which showed that the old conservative order now accepted the Republic.

Question 27

What was art/architecture like in Germany before the war?

Answer 27

It had been detached from everyday life.

Question 28

What was art like after the war?

Answer 28

Most Weimar artists tried to show everyday life, given the name ‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ ‘new objectivity’.

‘Grey-day’ painting by George Grosz, man wearing a Republican badge, showed that people still disapproved of the Weimar Republic.

Question 29

What was architecture like after the war?

Answer 29

Architecture flourished especially the ‘Bauhaus’ which mean ‘School of Building’ - their approach was very different from the elaborate and decorative style of pre-war Germany.

Question 30

How did cinema (especially the film ‘Metropolis’) reflect post-war Germany?

Answer 30

Metropolis was the most advanced film of its time, about a futuristic city where a cultured utopia exists above a bleak underworld of mistreated people, reflects people’s opinions of Germany: from the outside it seems to thrive, but beneath this there is still a fire and unjust system.

Question 31

What was literature like after the war?

Answer 31

There was literature from both left and right wings.

Question 32

What was right wing literature like?

Answer 32

Arthur Moller, Ozwald Spengler (right wing authors)- glorified WW1, criticised democracy, believed in ‘stabbed in the back myth’, nationalism.

Question 33

What was left wing literature like?

Answer 33

Erich Remarque (left wing author)- very anti-war, wrote moving novel ‘all quiet on the Western Front’, looked towards the future, did not dwell on the past.

Question 34

What was moved after war?

Answer 34

Strict pre-war censorship.

Question 35

What was life like for women before the war?

Answer 35

No vote, no equality in education

Question 36

What was life like for women after the war?

Answer 36

• Over 20s given vote (1919).
• Equality in education, civil service appointments, equal pay in the professions.
• Growing numbers of women in new areas of employment.
• By 1933 100,000 women teachers and 3000 female doctors
• Women enjoyed more freedom socially, went out unescorted, drank and smoked in public.

Question 37

What happened to wages during 1924-1929?

Answer 37

They increased by over 10%

Question 38

What happened to unemployment during the 1920s?

Answer 38

It generally fell.

Question 39

How did the government encourage building during 1920s?

Answer 39

Government employed architects and planners to build housing, they also gave tax breaks and loans to encourage building.

Question 40

What was the unemployment insurance law (1927)?

Answer 40

It required workers and employees to make contributions to a nationals scheme for unemployment welfare.

Question 41

How many homes were built and renovated between 1924 and 1933?

Answer 41

2 million homes built and 200,000 renovated.

Question 42

By the early 1930s what happened to homelessness?

Answer 42

Was reduced by 60%

Question 43

What else did the government introduce to help people during 1920s?

Answer 43

Reforms to help provide support for veterans, wives and children of war dead, single mothers and the disabled.