KQ2 - The Stresemann Years

Question 1

When was the Dawes Plan created?

Answer 1

August 1924

Question 2

State the terms of the Dawes Plan

Answer 2

Loans to Germany.

Reparations made manageable.

Reichsbank reorganised under Allied supervision.

Ruhr to be evacuated (1925)

Question 3

Give the Stats for loans made under the Dawes Plan

Answer 3

Initial loan of 800 million marks. Over the next 6 years, Us banks and businesses have loans of nearly $3000 million

Question 4

When was the Rentenmark created?

Answer 4

November 1923

Question 5

When was the Young Plan

Answer 5

1929

Question 6

What were the terms of the Young Plan?

Answer 6

Reparations reduced from £6600 million to £1850 million. Repayment period extended to 59 years (1988)

Question 7

General positive of Economic Recovery

Answer 7

Public Works: new Stadiums, apartments and opera houses built

Question 8

How did Big Businesses benefit during this period

Answer 8

Benefited from hyperinflation of 1923 as they were able to pay debts.
Experienced period of industrial growth

Question 9

Benefits relating to workers during Stresemann Years

Answer 9

Wages increased whilst average working day remained at 8 hrs.

State Arbitration took middle lines in disputes from 1924 - fewer strikes + good relations.

Question 10

Unemployment figures during the golden years

Answer 10

Risen to 9 million by 1926, fell to

6 million mark over the following 2 years

Question 11

Groups that didn’t recover well

Answer 11

Industrial workers
Farmers
Lower Middle Class

Question 12

.

Why did industrial workers struggle?

Answer 12

Increasing wage was not much above rising cost of living

Question 13

Why did farmers struggle?

Answer 13

Experienced problems throughout 1920s (particularly after 1927)

Worldwide depression in agriculture created need to modernise but lack of profit and debt discouraged investment in new machinery.

1929, industrial production returned to pre-war levels but agriculture was still 74% of its pre-war levels

Question 14

How did the lower middle class struggle?

Answer 14

Did not fully recover from hyperinflation.

Felt their interests were being ignored by the Weimar Republic which seemed to favour big businesses.

Question 15

When was the Locarno Pact?

Answer 15

1925

Question 16

Who did the Locarno Pact include?

Answer 16

Germany, Britain, France and Italy

Question 17

What were the terms of the Locarno Pact?

Answer 17

Agreed to keep existing borders.

Question 18

What was the effect of the Locarno Pact?

Answer 18

Marked Germany’s return to the European international scene

Began a period of co-operation between these countries known as the ‘Locarno Honeymoon’

Question 19

When Germany allowed to rejoin the League of Nations?

Answer 19

September 1926

Question 20

When was the Kellog-Briand Pact?

Answer 20

1928

Question 21

Who signed the Kellog-Brian’s Pact?

Answer 21

Germany and 64 countries

Question 22

What were the terms of the Kellog-Briand Pact?

Answer 22

Armies to be for ‘self-defense’

Promised to solve international disputes by ‘peaceful means’

Question 23

How was the role of Stresemann?

Answer 23

He played leading roles in all the pacts/plans.

In 1927, Allied troops withdrew from the West Bank of the Rhine 5 years before the original schedule of 1933

Question 24

What were the Successes Abroad?

Answer 24

Locarno Pact (1925)
Entry into League of Nations
Kellog-Brian’s Pact (1928)
(Dawes and Young Plans)

Question 25

What were the political developments of this period?

Answer 25

Political Stability in Reichstag.

Political Figures (Stresemann and Hindenburg)

Question 26

Stats to show that parties supporting Weimar did well and extremists did bad

Answer 26

May 1924, Social Democrats is on 100 seats, rising to 153 in May 1928.

May 1924, Nazis won 32 seats falling to only 12 seats in May 1928

Question 27

What did Hindenburg becoming President show?

Answer 27

He was one of Germany’s war leaders 1914-18.

In 1925, he was elected president showing how the old conservative order now accepted the a Republic.

Question 28

What were the social developments?

Answer 28

Wages
Housing
Unemployment Insurance
The Position of Women

Question 29

Stat to show improvement in wages

Answer 29

By 1928, there had been an increase in real wage of over 10% making German workers some of the best paid in Europe

Question 30

Why did the lower middle class not benefit from the increase in wages?

Answer 30

Little benefit to middle class which had been bankrupted by hyperinflation

Question 31

Stats on housing

Answer 31

1924-31, more than 2 million houses built
By 1924, state was spending 33 times more on housing than 1913
By 1928, homelessness was reduced by more than 60%

Question 32

When was the Unemployment Insurance Law passed?

Answer 32

1927

Question 33

What was the Unemployment Insurance Law?

Answer 33

Required workers and employers to make contributions to a national scheme for unemployment welfare.

Question 34

The extent of recovery regarding Unemployment

Answer 34

While Unemployment generally fell, it remained high in professions of lawyers, civil servants and teachers.

April 1928, 184000 middle-class workers were seeking employment whilst half didn’t qualify for unemployment relief

Question 35

The position of women topic points.

Answer 35

Equality given by Constitution

Social life

Question 36

How were women given equality?

Answer 36

Equality in education.

Equal opportunity in civil service

Equal pay

Question 37

Stat to show women in jobs

Answer 37

By 1933, 100 000 women teachers and 3000 doctors

Question 38

What was the social life of women?

Answer 38

• unescorted
• smoked in public
• drank
• fashion conscious (short skirts and make-up)

Question 39

What were the Cultural Changes topics?

Answer 39

Art
Architecture
Film
Literature

Question 40

Cultural Changes in art

Answer 40

‘Neue Sachlichkeit’ (New objectivity) was a new approach where artists tried to portray society in an objective way.

Famous artists include George Gorsz and Otto Dix

Question 41

Cultural Changes in Architecture

Answer 41

Bauhaus or ‘School of Building’

Slogan was ‘Art and Technology - a new unity’

Their approach was very different from the decorative style of pre-war Germany

Question 42

Cultural Changes in Film

Answer 42

Director Fritz Lang produces Metropolis in 1927 which was acclaimed as the most technically advance film of the decade.

Question 43

Cultural Changes in Literature

Answer 43

Right-wing writers (such as, Arthur Möller and Oswald Spengler) we’re highly critical of German democracy and instead glorified experiences of WW1

On the opposite, others (such as Erich Remarque and Ludwig Renn) we’re very anti-war. Remarque wrote ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’