evaluation of stresemann aims/successfulness

Question 1

what aims did Stresemann highlight in a letter to the ex-crown Prince in 1926?

Answer 1

aims:
- Finding a solution to the reparations problem .
- The protection of German’s living outside the existing borders of Germany.
- The readjustment of Germany’s Eastern frontiers and union with Austria.

Question 2

what was stresemanns long term aim?

Answer 2

he was a ‘revisionist’. he was to revise the tov in Germany’s favour and to restore Germany’s position as a ‘Great Power’ once more.

Question 3

what was stresemanns strategy with had five elements?

Answer 3

1.accepted the current balance of power, but combined a policy of ‘fulfilment’ (i.e. doing what the treaty laid down with a policy of negotiating piecemeal revisions to the treaty).
2. winning American support, both the German economy and achieving foreign policy aims.
3. policy of ‘rapprochement’ with the West. In other words, he made concessions to Western countries (notably France) in the hope that they would make concessions to Germany.
4. prepared to fix the Western borders is still possibility of revision of the borders in the East.
5. balance between revisionism and rapprochement remained unclear. In other words, he was prepared to make some concessions to other states, but only if he calculated that such concessions would increase the likelihood of revisions to the treaty.

Question 4

how is Stresemann is described by Layton?

Answer 4

a ‘moderate revisionist’, and the strategy he adopted as, ‘fulfilment’:

Question 5

what was germanys position in 1929 after stresemanns death?

Answer 5

resistance abroad meant Stresemann’s policy of ‘fulfilment’ was coming to a dead end:
France was unlikely to agree to union with Austria. + Poland was unlikely to agree to frontier revision

Question 6

was Stresemann a success?

Answer 6

• rescheduling of reparation repayments and early evacuation of Allied troops from the Rhineland.
• Dawes plan brought USA to support the German economy
• Locarno pact ensured that the French would never again invade German territory.
• The position in the East was more flexible.
• League of Nations and the signing of the Kellogg-Briand pact improved Germany’s standing in the world.

Question 7

was Stresemann a failure?

Answer 7

• longer term, achieved very little.
• Evacuation was made conditional on Germany accepting the Young Plan.
• Rhineland remained demilitarised.
• ## Army was restricted and the ban on air force