The Golden Years of Weimar Germany: Stresemann's Time in Power from 1923-1929

“Stresemann’s time in power 1923-1929 were definitely the ‘Golden years’ of Weimar Germany”
Between the years 1923 and 1929 Stresemann was in power, these years were known as the golden years. After the turmoil of 1918-23, liberal constitutional democracy survived in Germany that is until the disastrous Wall Street Crash of 1929. The years 1924-29 are often described as the ‘Golden Age of Weimar’ because of their stability, economic security and improved living standards compared to previous years. It all started in 1923, when Gustav Stresemann was elevated to the chancellorship. Stresemann and his ministers formulated plans to arrest the hyperinflation crisis by introducing a new currency, the Rentenmark, and fixed its value to gold prices, it replaced the worthless mark. This meant that foreign businessmen could now invest in Germany’s economy; this led to an increase in new factories, industry, building work. Stresemann did many things to improve Germany, making his time in power the golden years.
As the years were known as the ‘golden years’ there was many successes, these include of economic, political and foreign policy success. Stresemann regained trust and respect from other countries by doing many things firstly Adhering to the Treaty of Versailles. Furthermore the foreign policy consists of the Locarno pact 1925, which improved relations with France and Britain. Germany also agreed to respect the borders of France and Belgium. Because Germany recovered their relationship with France, Stresemann was able to withdraw France from the Rhur in 1925, Because of all this Germany was invited to join The League of Nations in 1926, this proved that the country was now back on the international stage. As Stresemann did things to improve Germany, he won the noble peace prize in 1926 because of all of his efforts to improve relations with France.
Moreover there were a lot of successes for Germany between 1923 and 1929, this includes the political successes. As the economy improved, because of Stresemann’s improvements to Germany, extremist parties, such as the national socialist German workers party, declined, this was a good thing for Germany, because many people didn’t like the extremist parties. This also meant that the votes for the democratic parties increased during the ‘golden years’. The SPD, centre party, DDP and DVP all worked well with one another, in coalition governments with extremist such as Nazis only receiving 3% of votes in the 1928 election.
In the ‘golden years’ there was many economic successes, firstly the at the Dawes plan of 1924, reparations were reduced to a first payment of 1 billion marks followed by annual payments of 2.5 billion marks over the next four years, also the Dawes plan of 1924 and America loaning $3000 million to Germany, recovering the industries to the pre-war levels of output and for modernisation of factories to take place. By 1925 Germany’s industrial production had reached 95% of its pre-war level. Germany was gaining their money back very quickly because of the help from America, things such as miners doubled their output of coal therefore receiving double as much as they normal would, also chemical and textiles industries boomed. By 1928 German industries came second in the world just after America, this proved that the loan was a big help to Germany Stresemann really helped Germany by getting the loan. Stresemann restored confidence in the German mark by getting rid of the worthless currency and replacing it with the Rentenmark then the Reichsmark which was permanent, this made money become valuable again. German workers also benefited from the economic boom, wages increased by 12% in 1918 making the German labour force the highest paid in Europe, unemployment never fell below 1 million. The young plan of 1929 reduced the reparations by three quarters from £6.6 billion to £1850 million; this did not need to pay until 1988. Germany is saving a lot of money, the German economy has really improved since Stresemann came to power he improved many things such as living standards, with expansions in house building programmes, improvements in health care and welfare provision, between 1924 to 1931 over 2 million new homes were built. Spending on social services increased by 57% in 1925 it waa spent on things like housing, education, benefits and pensions also parks, concert halls, sports stadiums and road networks all expanded. Berlin made it to the third biggest city after London and New York. Farmers has increased their production during the war but afterwards they were over-producing which meant price drop this was good for the local people who were able to get crops for cheaper because there was more on offer.
However on the other hand the ‘golden years’ weren’t so golden because not everything under the power of Stresemann was a success there was many failures, in economy and political. Firstly in political there were a lot of failures for instance the German people were fed up of weak, coalition governments even though they got along with parties like the SPD, DDP and DVP but the German people disagreed with the coalition governments. General Hindenburg elected president after the death of Ebert in February 1925 from an inflamed appendix but he was 78 years old when he was elected president when he received 14.5 million votes. He was seen by many as a kaiser substitute who provided stability in the face of weak, coalition governments; he wasn’t seen as a very good leader, he was seen as a replacement. Hindenburg’s elections were seen as a blow for the democracy because it opposed the Weimar republic, it believed in rule of a strong leader. This could potentially abuse Article 48. This would not give Germany a good reputation. Then in 1925 the Locarno pact was rejected by the right wing because Germany was seen to be accepting the treaty of Versailles, the right wing would accept the treaty of Versailles.
The economy was also failing because of not every in Germany was a success, in some industries they were not all able to take advantage in the growth in productivity, the heavy industry found it difficult to increase its markets, like steel mills. This meant that they were not benefitting in the growth of the economy they were losing out by a lot. Also other industries were not gaining in the success of the economy. Farmers went into decline during the ‘golden years’, they had to pay increased taxes to fund welfares provision for those in the cities. By 1929 few farms were profitable having to pay high interest payments on debts. Many farmers suffered, even though they were producing a lot of crops, the crops became more worthless and the farmers were losing out, like other businesses, such as shopkeepers, known as the mittlestand also did not see the boom in the ‘golden years’. They could not cope with competition from large department stores, often owned by Jews. The middle class found little joy in this alleged ‘golden age’. Bankrupted by the hyperinflation of 1923, the professional middle classes – managers, bureaucrats, bankers and clerks did not enter the ‘golden age’ in a position of strength and failed to benefit from most of its changes. Many large business owners felt the Weimar republic favoured worker s over employers and were annoyed that high wages were eating into their profits, some people were not getting treated as well they should be, this annoyed many employers and turned them against the Weimar republic. Agriculture employed over 30% of the population in 1925 but only contributed 16% of Germany’s income. This meant many were struggling in the time between 1923 and 1929 known as the ‘golden years’, but the years weren’t as great as some other people experienced. The cheap foreign food imports undercut the expensive German crops; they weren’t getting what they were owned as being exploited out of their goods. In November 1928, the Ruhr Lock-Out took place, where employers who worked in industries such as iron and steel, locked out a quarter of a million workers from their factories to try and force them to accept lower wages. This meant there was finding it hard to cope financially during the economic growth in the ‘golden years’. Lastly a failure was that Germany economy relied heavily on American loans. Stresemann himself said “Germany is in fact dancing on a volcano”. Stresemann was trying to express that fact that if America falls financially so does Germany.
In conclusion I think the time Stresemann was in power was not definitely the ‘golden years’ of Weimar Germany. Even though there were many successes in Germany, there were no foreign policy failures, I think that the failures have more of an impact in Germany than the success did, it was success fall getting Germany out of the financial problem but it was soon to fail. America loaned the money the Germany, then the Wall Street crash happed and the US demanded its loans back but Germany could not pay. By 1932 over six million Germans were unemployed millions became homeless and dependent on charity to survive. There was a growth in support for both left-wing and right-wing extremist parties like the Communist and Nazi Party. The Weimar Republic became extremely unpopular and seemed incapable of pulling Germany out of the Depression. Hitler and Nazi Party did not change their political message but more people were willing to listen to their message now that times were bad. In 1933 Hitler seized power in Germany bringing an end to the Weimar Republic. Overall I felt like the time Stresemann was in power was not the ‘golden years’ and was a failure.

Between 1924 and 1929 the dying German economy was injected with more than $25 billion of foreign money. More than half of this money came from American loans; most of the rest was organised by American bankers acting as intermediaries. The American government and US corporations also provided Germany with financial and industrial expertise. All this support contributed to a surge in German production during the mid-1920s. New factories were constructed or converted, many using newly developed mechanisation and assembly line techniques. The restoration of reparation payments saw France and Belgium withdraw from the Ruhr in mid-1925, freeing up Germany’s industrial resources there.