How prosperous and stable was the Weimar republic in the years 1924-9?

One could argue that the Weimar Republic was very much a prosperous and stable country from the years 1924-9. After all, these were called Germany’s “Golden Years”. Heavy industry was back to the same production levels as it was before the Great War, which attracted lots of foreign investment. However, One could also argue that the Weimar Republic wasn’t as stable and prosperous as it seemed. Germany was still incredibly reliant on US loans and unemployment never fell below 1.3 million.
1923, Germany was in turmoil. Hyperinflation was at an all time high and economic disaster was looming. In August, Gustav Stresemann was to become Chancellor of Germany. By calling off passive resistance, which had occurred after the French, and Belgium armed forces invaded the Ruhr, showed that he was willing to improve relations with France. After all, this policy was bankrupting Germany. Stresemann set about stabilising the economy. He did a number of things in order to do so. Scrapping the old worthless money and replacing it with the Rentenmark- a temporary measure to add stability. Later would the Reichmark replace it. This has to be one of the most crucial things Stresemann did in order to put Germany on the right track. Therefore Germany was certainly becoming more stable but not prosperous just yet.
Stresemann took another step to be seen to improve relations and resume the payment of reparations. This led to the adoption of the Dawes Plan in April 1924. This entitled Germany to a huge loan in order to take some of the strain off the economy. This was also achieved by making the payments more manageable by breaking them down but extending the period of payments. In 1925, The Lacarno Pact was signed. This effectively meant that the Government accepted the Treaty of Versailles. This obviously led to increased hostility from the right wing. However, again this was another example of Stresemann trying to show Germany in a ‘new light’. This seemed to pay off as Germany was invited to join the League of Nations in 1926. This showed that the West was gaining confidence in Germany. In these ways, Stresemann’s reforms gave the Weimar Republic a degree more stability as the economic crisis of 1923 seemed to be resolved and relations with foreign powers were rebuilt. Yet, the loans just go to show how vulnerable Germany was as the economy depended hugely on them.
It seemed that German democracy was stable in that it had finally achieved solidarity. By 1928, the extreme end of the political spectrum was losing votes. For example, the Nazi party gained a mere 2% of the vote. In the 1928 election also led to the ‘Grand Coalition’, which was great for democracy as there were multiple parties in power with increased representation. With the increased stability and the optimistic situation the Germany economy was in, people were all in all satisfied and weren’t looking to the extreme parties. These factors therefore, contributed hugely to the stability of the Weimar Republic.
However, it would be wrong to overlook how the Weimar Republic wasn’t stable and prosperous in many ways. There were fundamental flaws within. Unemployment never fell below 1.3 million and economic growth in certain areas never saw any marked improvement. In fact, agriculture suffered greatly. One may also add that imports greatly exceeded exports. The fact that the German economy relied so heavily on the US loans meant that Germany certainly wasn’t stable, as it would take a recession in the US to bring Germany down. With the combination of the US loans and the reparations, Germany was slipping deeper and deeper into debt. These factors therefore would suggest that Germany was unstable and certainly showed no signs of prosperity.
Although that it was called the “Grand Coalition”, with the nature of the German electoral process (Proportional Representation) meant that it led to many unstable coalitions. All parties had different agendas and therefore were vulnerable to any uprising. The SPD was particularly irresponsible as they were reluctant to cooperate with the parties. Hindenburg was President of the Weimar Republic. Despite him being a distinguished War veteran, he was a traditionalist and was far too old for the job. Furthermore, the army still remained incredibly powerful. They were still dominated by the elites who were not at all committed to the new Weimar Republic. This therefore means with the combination of weak leadership and highly influential groups not fully committed behind the cause of the new Weimar Republic meant that one could easily say that it was an unstable time to say the least.
In conclusion to this answer, Weimar Germany was not a stable democracy. Although there were signs of improvements, for example: imports grew by 40% between 1925-9 and the average wage increased each year by 5-10% each year, Germany was gaining the confidence of the Western powers and joined the League of Nations. That is to say with Germany being so reliant on loans from the US and unstable times on the political side meant that there still were some fundamental underlying problems within Weimar Germany. The SPD despite being in coalition stated that it didn’t want to cooperate with any other parties. This therefore sums up that Germany was far from being prosperous.