Gustav Stresemann

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Gustav Stresemann

(May 10, 1878 – October 3, 1929) was a German liberal politician and statesman who served as Chancellor

Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)

The head of government of the German Reich was called Reich Chancellor or short Chancellor from 1871 until 1945. This designation stems from the German chancellor tradition from the Middle Ages and the early modern era....
and Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
. He was co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize is one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. According to Nobel's will , the Peace Prize should be awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for :wikt:fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the h...
in 1926.

Stresemann's politics defy easy categorization. Today, he is generally considered one of the most important leaders of Germany and a staunch supporter of democracy in the fragile Weimar Republic. Further, he is noted as one of the first to envisage European economic integration.

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(May 10, 1878 – October 3, 1929) was a German liberal politician and statesman who served as Chancellor

Chancellor of Germany (German Reich)

Weimar Republic

Nobel Peace Prize

Aristide Briand

Aristide Briand was a France statesman who served several terms as Prime Minister of France and won the Nobel Peace Prize....
received the Peace Prize. On the other hand, he supported anti-Polish policies, and engineered a trade war between Germany and Poland.

Early years

Stresemann was born in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the Capital of Germany city and one of sixteen States of Germany of Germany. With a population of 3.4 million within its city limits, Berlin is the country's largest city....
. He came from middle class

Middle class

Middle class is the group of people in contemporary society who are between the working class and nobility. This socioeconomic class includes professionals, highly skilled workers, and lower and middle management....
origins, as the son of a Berlin innkeeper and beer distributor. However, he attended the Universities of Berlin and Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest University in Europeand currently the List_of_universities_in_Germany#Universities_by_age university in Germany....
, studied philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language....
and literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
and received a doctorate

Doctorate

A doctorate is an academic degree that in most countries represents the highest level of formal study or research in a given field. In some countries it also refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to practice in a specific profession ....
in economics

Economics

File:Ballard Farmers' Market - vegetables.jpgEconomics is the Social sciences that studies the Production theory basics, Distribution , and Consumption of Good and Service ....
. He also became a spokesman

Spokesman

A spokesman is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others.The term spokesperson, invented to replace the conventional spokesman, is a typical example of a Gender-neutral language in English neologism....
for his student association.

In 1902 he founded the Saxon

Kingdom of Saxony

The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through Germany....
Manufacturers' Association. In 1903 he married Käthe Kleefeld , daughter of a wealthy Jewish Berlin businessman. At that time he was also a member of Friedrich Naumann

Friedrich Naumann

Friedrich Naumann was a Germany politician and Protestant parish priest. In 1894 he founded the weekly magazine Die Hilfe to address the social question from a non-marxist middle class point of view....
's National-Social Association

National-Social Association

The National-Social Association was a German political party founded in 1896 by Friedrich Naumann in opposition to the Social Democratic Party of Germany....
. In 1906 he was elected to the Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Germany Federal Free state of Saxony. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon triangle metropolitan area....
town council. Though he had initially worked in trade associations, Stresemann soon became a leader of the National Liberal Party

National Liberal Party (Germany)

The National Liberal Party was a Germany political party which flourished between 1867 and 1918. It was formed by those Prussian liberals who put aside their differences with Otto von Bismarck over domestic policy due to their support for his highly successful foreign policy, which resulted in the unification of Germany....
in Saxony. In 1907, he was elected to the Reichstag

Reichstag (institution)

The Reichstag was the parliament of the Holy Roman Empire, the North German Confederation, and of Germany until 1945. The main chamber of the German parliament is now called Bundestag , but the building in which it meets is still called "Reichstag" ....
, where he soon became a close associate of party chairman Ernst Bassermann. However, he disagreed with the most conservative party members and lost his post in the party's executive committee in 1912. Later that year he lost both his Reichstag and town council seats. He returned to business and founded the German-American Economic Association. In 1914 he returned to the Reichstag. He was exempted from war service due to poor health.

The evolution of his political ideas appears somewhat erratic. Initially, in the German Empire

German Empire

The German Empire is the name commonly used in English to describe Germany from the unification of Germany and proclamation of William I, German Emperor as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became Weimar republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of William II, German Emperor ....
, Stresemann was associated with the left wing of the National Liberals. During World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
, he gradually moved to the right, expressing his support of the monarchy and Germany's expansionist goals. He was a vocal proponent of unrestricted submarine warfare

Unrestricted submarine warfare

Unrestricted submarine warfare is a type of naval warfare in which submarines sink merchant ships without warning, as opposed to attacks per Prize regulations....
.

Stresemann briefly joined the German Democratic Party

German Democratic Party

The German Democratic Party, or Deutsche Demokratische Partei , was founded by leaders of the former Progressive People's Party and the left wing of the National Liberal Party in the early days of the Weimar Republic....
after the war, but was expelled for his association with the right wing and his grudging support of the Weimar Republic. He then gathered most of the right wing of the old National Liberal Party into the German People's Party

German People's Party

The German People's Party was a Liberalism-nationalist party in Germany.It was essentially the right wing of the old National Liberal Party , and was formed in the early days of the Weimar Republic, led by Gustav Stresemann....
(DVP), with himself as chairman. Most of its support came from middle class and upper class Protestants. The DVP platform promoted Christian family values, secular education, lower tariffs, opposition to welfare spending and agrarian subsides and hostility to "Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is the political philosophy and practice derived from the work of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Marxism holds at its core a Marxist analysis of Critique of capitalism and a theory of social change....
" (that is, the Communists

Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
, and also the Social Democrats).

The DVP was initially seen, along with the German National People's Party

German National People's Party

The German National People's Party was a national conservatism party in Germany during the time of the Weimar Republic. The party was formed in 1918 by a merger of the German Conservative Party, the Free Conservative Party and a section of the National Liberal Party of the old monarchic German Empire....
, as part of the "national opposition" to the Weimar Republic, particularly for its ambivalent attitude towards the Freikorps

Freikorps

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1983-0012, Kapp-Putsch, Marienbrigade Erhardt in Berlin.jpgThe designation of Freikorps was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of 18th century onwards....
and the Kapp Putsch

Kapp Putsch

The Kapp Putsch ? or more accurately the Kapp-L?ttwitz Putsch ? was a 1920 coup d'?tat during the German revolution aimed at overthrowing the Weimar Republic....
in 1920. However, Stresemann gradually moved to cooperation with the parties of the left and center — possibly in reaction to political murders like that of Walther Rathenau

Walther Rathenau

Walther Rathenau was a Germany industrialist, politician, writer, and statesman who served as Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic....
. However, he was a monarchist at heart.

In the Weimar Republic

On August 13, 1923, in the midst of the Ruhr Crisis, he was appointed Chancellor and Foreign Minister of a grand coalition government. As Chancellor, Stresemann went a long way towards resolving the crisis, but some of his moves - like his refusal to deal firmly with culprits of the Beer Hall Putsch

Beer Hall Putsch

The Beer Hall Putsch was a failed attempt at revolution that occurred between the evening of Thursday, November 8 and the early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923, when the National Socialist German Workers Party's leader Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders of the Kampfbund, unsuccessfully...
- alienated the Social Democrats. They left the coalition and arguably caused its collapse on November 23, 1923. Stresemann remained as Foreign Minister in the government of his successor, Centrist Wilhelm Marx

Wilhelm Marx

Wilhelm Marx was a Germany Lawyer, Catholic politician and a member of the Catholic Centre Party....
. He remained foreign minister for the rest of his life in eight successive governments ranging from the centre-right to the centre-left.

In the so-called year of crises

1923 in Germany

See also:1921 in Germany,1922 in Germany,1923,1924 in Germany and theTimeline of German history.----...
(1923) he showed strength by calling-off the popular passive resistance at the Ruhr. Since Germany was no longer able to pay the striking workers, more and more money was printed, which finally led to hyperinflation. Stresemann ended this disastrous process by introducing a new currency, the Rentenmark, which reassured the people that the democratic system was willing and able to solve urgent problems.

(The Year of Crises in 1923 included the invasion of the Ruhr by the French, hyperinflation, communist uprisings in Thuringia and Saxony and the Munich Putsch started by Hitler.)

As Foreign Minister, Stresemann had numerous achievements. His first notable achievement was the Dawes Plan

Dawes Plan

The Dawes Plan was an attempt following World War I for the Allies to collect war reparations debt from Germany. When after five years the plan proved to be unsuccessful, the Young Plan was adopted in 1929 to replace it....
of 1924, which reduced Germany's overall reparations commitment and reorganized the Reichsbank

Reichsbank

The Reichsbank was the central bank of Germany from 1876 until 1945. It was founded on 1 January 1876 . The Reichsbank was a privately owned central bank of Prussia, under close control by the Reich government....
.

His second success was the Rhineland Pact

Locarno Treaties

The Locarno Treaties were seven agreements negotiated at Locarno, Switzerland on 5 October – 16 October 1925 and formally signed in London on December 1, in which the World War I Western European Allied powers and the new states of central Europe and Eastern Europe sought to secure the post-war territorial settlement, in return normali...
with Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium, signed in October 1925 at Locarno. Germany officially recognized the post World War I

World War I

World War I, or the First World War , was a global military conflict which involved the Great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War I and the Central Powers....
western border for the first time, and was guaranteed peace with France, and promised admission to the League of Nations and evacuation of the last Allied occupation troops from the Rhineland. Germany's eastern borders were guaranteed to Poland only by France, not by a general agreement.

After this reconciliation with the Versailles powers, Stresemann moved to allay the growing suspicion of the Soviet Union. The Treaty of Berlin

Treaty of Berlin, 1926

The Treaty of Berlin is often used for the agreement of April 24, 1926 under which Germany and the Soviet Union each pledged neutrality in the event of an attack on the other by a third party for the next five years....
signed in April 1926 reaffirmed and strengthened the Rapallo Treaty

Treaty of Rapallo, 1922

The Treaty of Rapallo was an agreement made in the Italian town of Rapallo on April 16, 1922 between Weimar Republic and Russian SFSR under which each renounced all territorial and financial claims against the other following the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and World War I....
of 1922. In September 1926, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations

League of Nations

The League of Nations was an inter-governmental organization founded as a result of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919?1920. At its greatest extent from 28 September 1934 to 23 February 1935, it had 58 members....
as permanent member of the Security Council. This was a sign that Germany was quickly becoming a "normal" state and assured the Soviet Union of Germany's sincerity in the Treaty of Berlin.

Stresemann was co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize

Nobel Peace Prize

Kellogg-Briand Pact

The Kellogg-Briand Pact, also known as the Pact of Paris or Paris Peace Pact., after the city where it was signed on August 27, 1928, was an international treaty "providing for the renunciation of war as an instrument of national policy." It failed in its purpose but was significant for later developments in international law....
in August 1928. It renounced the use of violence to resolve international conflicts. Although Stresemann did not propose the pact, Germany's adherence convinced many people that Weimar Germany was a Germany that could be reasoned with. This new insight was instrumental in the Young Plan

Young Plan

The Young Plan was a program for settlement of Germany World War I reparations debts after World War I written in 1929 and formally adopted in 1930....
of February 1929 which led to more reductions in German reparations payment.

Gustav Stresemann's success owed much to his friendly personal character and his willingness to be pragmatic. He was close personal friends with many influential foreigners. The most noted was Briand, with whom he shared the Peace Prize.

Stresemann was not, however, in any sense pro-French. His main preoccupation was how to free Germany from the burden of reparations

World War I reparations

World War I reparations refers to the payments and transfers of property and equipment that Germany was forced to make under the Treaty of Versailles following its defeat during World War I....
payments to Britain and France, imposed by the Treaty of Versailles. His strategy for this was to forge an economic alliance with the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
. The U.S. was Germany's main source of food and raw materials, and one of the Germany's largest export markets for manufactured goods. Germany's economic recovery was thus in the interests of the U.S., and gave the U.S. an incentive to help Germany escape from the reparations burden. The Dawes and Young plans were the result of this strategy. Stresemann had a close relationship with Herbert Hoover

Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover was the List of Presidents of the United States President of the United States . Besides his political career, Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author....
, who was Secretary of Commerce

United States Secretary of Commerce

The United States Secretary of Commerce is the head of the United States Department of Commerce concerned with business and industry; the Department states its mission to be "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce." Until 1913 there was one United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor, uniting this department with...
in 1921-28 and President from 1929. This strategy worked remarkably well until it was derailed by the Great Depression

Great Depression

File:International depression.pngThe Great Depression was a worldwide economic Recession starting in most places in 1929 and ending at different times in the 1930s or early 1940s for different countries....
after Stresemann's death.

During his period in the foreign ministry, Stresemann came more and more to accept the Republic, which he had at first rejected. By the mid-1920s, having contributed much to a (temporary) consolidation of the feeble democratic order, Stresemann was regarded as a Vernunftrepublikaner (republican by reason) - someone who accepted the Republic as the least of all evils, but was in their heart still loyal to the monarchy. The conservative opposition criticized him for his supporting the republic and fulfilling too willingly the demands of the Western powers. Along with Matthias Erzberger

Matthias Erzberger

Matthias Erzberger was a Germany political figure. Prominent in the Centre Party , he spoke out against the First World War and eventually signed the Armistice for the German Empire....
and others, he was attacked as a Erfüllungspolitiker ("fulfillment politician").

Stresemann is remembered for his role in consolidating liberal democracy in Germany and concluding peace with his western neighbors. On the other hand, his position on the Polish-German border was as uncompromising as any German politician's of that time, except for the Communists.

In 1925, when he first proposed an agreement with France, he made it clear that in doing so he intended to "gain a free hand to secure a peaceful change of the borders in the East and [...] concentrate on a later incorporation of German territories in the East". In the same year, while Poland was in a state of political and economic crisis, Stresemann began a trade war

Trade war

A trade war refers to two or more nations raising or creating tariffs or other trade barriers on each other in retaliation for other trade barriers....
against the country. Stresemann hoped for an escalation of the Polish crisis, which would enable Germany to regain territories ceded to Poland after World War I, and he wanted Germany to gain a larger market for its products there. So Stresemann refused to engage in any international cooperation that would have "prematurely" restabilized the Polish economy. In response to a British proposal, Stresemann wrote to the German ambassador in London: "[A] final and lasting recapitalization of Poland must be delayed until the country is ripe for a settlement of the border according to our wishes and until our own position is sufficiently strong". According to Stresemann's letter, there should be no settlement "until [Poland's] economic and financial distress has reached an extreme stage and reduced the entire Polish body politic to a state of powerlessness".

Gustav Stresemann died of a stroke

Stroke

A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to a disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. According to the National Stroke Association, a "stroke" occurs when a blood clot blocks and artery or a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain....
in October 1929 at the age of 51. His massive gravesite is situated on the Luisenstadt Cemetery at Südstern in Berlin Kreuzberg, and includes work by the German sculptor Hugo Lederer

Hugo Lederer

Professor Hugo Lederer was a Moravian-born Germany sculptor.Lederer studied in Dresden under sculptor John Schilling from 1890, then briefly under Christian Behrens....
. Stresemann's sudden and premature death, as well as the death of his "pragmatic moderate" French counterpart Aristide Briand

Aristide Briand

Aristide Briand was a France statesman who served several terms as Prime Minister of France and won the Nobel Peace Prize....
in 1932, and the assassination of Briand's successor Louis Barthou

Louis Barthou

Jean Louis Barthou was a France politician of the French Third Republic....
in 1934, left a vacuum in European statesmanship that further tilted the slippery slope towards World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
.

Gustav and Käthe had two sons, Wolfgang

Wolfgang Stresemann

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-06530, Wolfgang Streseman.jpgWolfgang Stresemann was a German jurist, orchestra leader, conductor and composer. He was the intendant of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 1959 to 1978 and again from 1984 to 1986, a time when Herbert von Karajan served as music director....
and Joachim Stresemann.

Long Hanborough in Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire

Oxfordshire is a county in the South East England region, bordering on Northamptonshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Warwickshire....
, England

England

First Cabinet, August - October 1923

Gustav Stresemann (DVP
German People's Party

The German People's Party was a Liberalism-nationalist party in Germany.It was essentially the right wing of the old National Liberal Party , and was formed in the early days of the Weimar Republic, led by Gustav Stresemann....
) - Chancellor and Foreign Minister
Robert Schmidt (SPD) - Vice Chancellor and Reconstruction Minister
Wilhelm Sollmann
Wilhelm Sollmann

Friedrich Wilhelm Sollmann was a Germany journalist, politician, and interior minister of the Weimar Republic. In 1919 he was a member of the German delegation to the Treaty of Versailles....
(SPD) - Interior Minister
Rudolf Hilferding
Rudolf Hilferding

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 102-06069, Rudolf Hilferding mit Gattin.jpgRudolf Hilferding was an Austrian-born Marxism economist, leading socialist theorist, politician and chief theoretician for the Social Democratic Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic, almost universally recognized as the SPD's foremost theoretician of his century, and...
(SPD) - Finance Minister
Hans von Raumer (DVP) - Economics Minister
Heinrich Brauns (Z
Centre Party (Germany)

The German Centre Party was a Catholic political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The party dissolved itself on 5 July, 1933 as a condition of the conclusion of Reichskonkordat between the Holy See and Germany....
) - Labour Minister
Gustav Radbruch
Gustav Radbruch

Gustav Radbruch was a Germany law professor and political figure....
(SPD) - Justice Minister
Otto Gessler
Otto Gessler

File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1968-100-04A,_Otto_Karl_Ge?ler.jpgOtto Karl Gessler was a Germany politician during the Weimar Republic. From 1910 until 1914, he was mayor of Regensburg and from 1913 to 1919 mayor of Nuremberg....
(DDP
German Democratic Party

The German Democratic Party, or Deutsche Demokratische Partei , was founded by leaders of the former Progressive People's Party and the left wing of the National Liberal Party in the early days of the Weimar Republic....
) - Defence Minister
Anton Höfle (Z) - Postal Minister
Rudolf Oeser (DDP) - Transport Minister
Hans Luther
Hans Luther

Hans Luther was a Germany politician and Chancellor of Germany .Born in Berlin, Luther started in politics in 1907 by becoming the town councillor in Magdeburg....
- Food Minister
Johannes Fuchs (Z) - Occupied Areas Minister

Second Cabinet, October - November 1923

Gustav Stresemann (DVP) - Chancellor and Foreign Minister
Wilhelm Sollmann
Wilhelm Sollmann

Friedrich Wilhelm Sollmann was a Germany journalist, politician, and interior minister of the Weimar Republic. In 1919 he was a member of the German delegation to the Treaty of Versailles....
(SPD) - Interior Minister
Hans Luther
Hans Luther

Hans Luther was a Germany politician and Chancellor of Germany .Born in Berlin, Luther started in politics in 1907 by becoming the town councillor in Magdeburg....
- Finance Minister
Joseph Koeth - Economics Minister
Heinrich Brauns (Z) - Employment Minister
Gustav Radbruch
Gustav Radbruch

Gustav Radbruch was a Germany law professor and political figure....
(SPD) - Justice Minister
Otto Gessler
Otto Gessler

File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_146-1968-100-04A,_Otto_Karl_Ge?ler.jpgOtto Karl Gessler was a Germany politician during the Weimar Republic. From 1910 until 1914, he was mayor of Regensburg and from 1913 to 1919 mayor of Nuremberg....
(DDP) - Defence Minister
Anton Höfle (Z) - Postal Minister
Rudolf Oeser (DDP) - Transport Minister
Gerhard Graf von Kanitz - Food Minister
Robert Schmidt
Robert Schmidt

Robert Schmidt was a Germany politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.Schmidt, born in Berlin, learned the profession of piano manufacturer....
(SPD) - Reconstruction Minister
Johannes Fuchs (Z) - Occupied Areas Minister

Changes

November 3, 1923 - The Social Democratic Ministers Sollmann, Radbruch and Schmidt resigned. Sollmann was succeeded as Interior Minister by Karl Jarres
Karl Jarres

Karl Jarres was a politician of the German People's Party during the Weimar Republic. Jarres was born in the city of Remscheid. Rhenish Prussia, and after legal studies in University of Bonn as a young adult, pursued an administrative career....
(DVP). The others were not replaced before the ministry fell.

Quotes

Footnotes

Books

Turner, Henry Ashby
Henry Ashby Turner

Henry Ashby Turner, Jr. was an American historian of Germany who was a professor at Yale University for over forty years. He is best known for his book German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler in which he challenged the common theory that industrialists in Germany were the Nazi Party?s most influential supporters....
Stresemann and the politics of the Weimar Republic, Princeton, N. J. : Princeton University Press, 1963.
Wright, Jonathan Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman (2002).
Enssle, Manfred J. Stresemann's Territorial Revisionism (1980).

External links

by Edgar Feuchtwanger