2- The golden age of the Weimar Republic (1924-1928) -economic developments

Question 1

Steps taken by stresseman with regards to - passive resistance

Answer 1

• wanted to get hyperinflation under control / inflation in Germany as a whole under control
• called off passive resistance in the rhur against the Franco Belgian occupation of the rhur as this was increasing government spending as the government of ebert had increased worker’s wages and encouraged them to strike which meant that they were paying workers to not work whilst also reducing the economic output of the country
• passive resistance lasted from January 1923- september 1923 and was called off by the government of Gustav stresseman

Question 2

Issuing a new currency - what did stresseman do to issue a new currency in Germany ?

Answer 2

• introduced a new currency the rentenmark in November 1923 to replace the reichsmark which had become worthless
• Germany had a lack of gold reserves therefore the new rentenmark was initially backed by a loan on all industrial and agricultural land
• august 1924 the rentenmark became the riechsmark and was now backed by the German gold reserve
• good reserve was maintained at 30% of the value of all riechsmarks in circulation to ensure that inflation was kept under control

Question 3

How did gustav stressman balance the German government’s budget ?

Answer 3

• cut expenditure and increased taxes
• well managed German businesses which didn’t have a lot of debt did well but businesses which were poorly managed and had a lot of government debt failed
• companies going bankrupt in germany, 233 in 1924 to over 6000 in 1924
• over 300,000 civil servants lost their jobs

Question 4

Who was Charles Dawes and what did he do ?

Answer 4

An American banker who chaired the committee of financial experts which was set up by the allies in 1923 to help Germany with their repayments concerns

Question 5

When did stresseman ask the allies to form the committee of financial experts who oversaw Germany’s repayment concerns ?

Answer 5

November 1923 as he wanted Germany to receive further aid on how to repay the reparations laid out by the treaty of Versailles in 1919 without crashing the German economy again.

Question 6

The Dawes plan

Answer 6

• confirmed the original reparations figure ( £6.6b, 132,000 million gold marks) and made the repayments more manageable for Germany
  -reparations paid by Germany reduced until 1929-> when it would be reappraised
• 1st year 1000million marks and raised by 2500million marks a year over 5 years
  -Germany get a loan of 800 million marks from USA to help to rebuild german infatructure

Question 7

What did stresseman refer to the Dawes plan ( July 1924) as ?

Answer 7

An economic armistice and didn’t believe in the plan but felt that it was a good way of securing foreign loans and investment into Germany to help to kickstart the economy

Question 8

The young plan (1929)

Answer 8

• permenant way to deal with economic and reparations issues in Germany as the Dawes plan was only meant to be temporary
• Germany to pay reparations until 1988
  -total reparations decreased to £1.8billioj tater than £6.5 billion but the annual repayments figure increased
  -no foreign control over reparations repayment and control was central in the German government
• France and Britain remove all troops from Rhineland by June 1930