GOLDEN YEARS Flashcards
Who was established as chancellor in 1923?
Stresemann
What was positive about the golden years generally?
- Economic recovery
- New currency (Rentenmark)
- Foreign Loans
- Culture
- Decline in support for extreme parties
What were the three main negatives about the golden years generally?
- Many ruined by inflation
- Continued resentment of TOV
- Farmers: falling prices
When was the new currency introduced? What was it called?
November 1923.
Rentenmark.
Why was the compensation given for savings destroyed by inflation not sufficient?
Levels were so low. Caused resentment from the professional classes.
How much had industrial production recovered?
Certainly better. However, only reached 1913 levels by 1927.
What issues did the stabilisation of the currency lead to?
An increase in cost of exports.
Unemployment reached 2 million in January 1928.
Why was the Dawes plan devised?
In order to stimulate trade and investment.
Who devised the Dawes plan? What year?
Charles Dawes, US banker.
1924.
How much did the Dawes Plan raise? What did it finance?
800 million marks in loans.
Financed an expansion in German government spending both at national and local levels.
Why was the Young Plan created? What year?
Reduce reparations and extend the period over which they were paid.
1929.
What negatives did the Young Plan cause?
Resentment among national groups in Germany who felt reparations should be cancelled entirely.
What were the negatives generally of foreign investment?
Germany was very dependant on foreign loans.
If they were withdrawn, Germany would face serious problems.
What did industry witness an increase of during these years? Why?
Strikes.
When profits rose there were clashes about whether these should be reinvested into industry or paid to workers as increased wages.
Why did agriculture not benefit from the ‘golden’ period?
Global over-production resulted in a considerable fall in prices and by 1929 nearly half of all German farms were failing to make profit.
Give an example of an area that experienced large-scale peasant revolt. Why did they revolt? And what was the result?
Schleswig-Holstein.
People believed the government favoured towns at the expense of the countryside.
Increased in support for NSDAP.
What were the two major political parties in Weimar? Why did they find it difficult to co-operate?
SPD and DVP.
Disagreed over social and economic policies.
Which of Stresemann’s foreign policy tactics did the DNVP dislike?
Policy of rapprochement with France and Britain.
Who lost support in the 1928 election? Who gained support?
DVP lost support.
Special interest parties gained support.
What was arguably the greatest sign of weakness in the fledgling democracy in 1925?
The appointment of Hindenburg as president.
What was Hindenburg’s aim as president?
Exclude the SPD from government and bring in the right-wing DNVP.
How were working conditions improved in the republic?
Wages for unionised workers rose and working hours were reduced to an eight-hour day.
How was the living standard improved?
Provision of welfare benefits and pensions.
What was the downside to the provision of welfare benefits and pensions?
System was costly and attracted a number of critics, particularly from employers.
What did the tolerant atmosphere of the republic allow to flourish?
New art forms, on a far greater scale than previously seen.
Significant developments in architecture, painting, cinema and theatre.
Which group caused architecture to flourish?
The Bauhaus Group.
Who was angered by the liberal attitudes? Why?
Nationalists, because new films depicted wartime military, and especially officers, in a bad light.
What was Germany allowed to join under the foreign policy of Stresemann in 1926?
The League of Nations.
How did Germany improve relations with France?
Through the 1925 Locarno Treaties, which guaranteed Germany’s frontiers with France and Belgium.
Which commission withdrew from Germany in January 1927?
The Allied Disarmament Commission.
First allied troops were withdrawn from garrisons in the Rhineland, in that same year.
What else did nationalists criticise, besides rapprochement in Stresemann’s foreign policy?
The Young Plan, the NSPDAP and DNVP accused him of high treason, and held a referendum, which the government comfortably won.
Why did the Weimar Republic collapse in the Great Depression?
Lacked the support it needed to face the challenges of the 1930s.
Followed by the death of Stresemann in 1929, robbed the republic of one of its key politicians.
