stresseman exam questions

Question 1

To what extent did Gustav Stresemann’s policies bring stability to the Weimar Republic? / The years 1924-29 were successful for the Weimar republic.

Answer 1

surface-level success - portrayed image of stability but beneath the surface was a corrupt and poorly built institution that would inevitably fail after the collapse of foreign capital and investment
-‘weimar’s greatest stateman’-wright

Question 2

economy

Answer 2

1928 industry levels exceed 1913 + exports rose by 40%
HOWEVER - uneven economic growth w/ exports never exceeding imports
-unemployment never fell below 1.3 million
-Stresemann ‘Germany dancing on a volcano’

Question 3

politics

Answer 3

1928 election:
-extremist of left + right polled less than 30%
-60% reichstag support Müller’s centre right coalition
-conservative DNVP joins gov coalition in 1925
BUT
seven gov 1923-30 2 had majorities
-BUT 1928 DNVP vote feel 1/4 + extreme right take party w/ hugenburg leader
-coalition gov collapses in 1926 over the minor issue between national + imperial flag
stability = MIRAGE - growing contempt for party politics + no stable gov established incorporated all parties no hardly any putsches = hid the actual instability

Question 4

foreign policy

Answer 4

-successes ( but angered nationalists)
-reparations reduced to 1/4 suk in 1919 by young plan 1929
-1926 treaty berlin = russo german defense in heart of Europe + large commercial market
BUT
failed to achieve aims to revise Versailles fundamentally - dead-end 1929 no revision of polish frontier
-nationalist opposition to young plan mobilizing by Hitler + also DNVP

Question 5

Add culture FC

Answer 5

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