WEIMAR FOREIGN POLICY Foreign Policy Foreign Ministers in

WEIMAR FOREIGN POLICY

Foreign Policy

Foreign Ministers in early years 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Ulrich von Brockdorff-Rantzau February 13 th 1919 - June 20 th 1919 Hermann Müller June 21 st 1919 March 26 th 1920 Adolf Köster April 10 th 1920 June 8 th 1920 Walter Simons June 25 th 1920 May 4 th 1921 Friedrich Rosen May 10 th 1921 October 22 nd 1921 Joseph Wirth October 26 th 1921 January 31 st 1922 Walther Rathenau February 1 st 1922 June 21 st 1922 Joseph Wirth June 21 st 1922 November 14 th 1922 Friedrich von Rosenberg November 22 nd 1922 August 11 th 1923 Gustav Stresemann August 13 th 1923 October 3 rd 1929 REMEMBER: Instability and difficulty in pursuing a coherent foreign policy because of political system

Foreign Policy during Early Weimar Years • Dominated by the implications of the Paris peace settlements for Europe, and Versailles Peace for Weimar Germany • Revision OR Fulfilment…. or Revision because of Fulfilment? ? • Versailles signed by Foreign Minster Muller • Fulfilment to prove terms needed revision – policy of early governments Signing Rapallo Treaty

German Foreign Policy re: Britain and France – from contrasts to détente • As a result of Germany’s diplomatic isolation immediately post WWI, Weimar politicians initially tried to work towards highlighting the injustice of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, this worsened relations between Germany and the victorious powers of Britain and France • In January 1922 Reparations Committee granted a moratorium on installments of Jan and Feb • Genoa Economic Conference July 1922 another request to defer payments • December default resulted in occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops in January of 1923 • By December 1923, 100, 000 French and Belgian troops in Ruhr • Chancellor Cuno encouraged a policy of ‘passive resistance’ to the occupation – workers striking while government continued to pay their wages – without collecting taxes and unable to use natural resources from the region necessary for fuel and industry government forced to print off ever more supplies of money

How did Weimar survive? • Initial anger re: inflation crisis directed towards French (for occupation of Ruhr) and Allies for reparation burden • Stresemann tackled hyperinflation successfully. Workers were not most severely struck by 1923 crisis – no mass unemployment as in 1929. Employers (like Stinnes) not particularly hostile – in fact some businessmen did very well out of inflation • Extremist forces of both left and right failed to attract much support and were both divided and disorganized • Ebert used article 48 as intended to take firm action against threats to the regime • REVIEW

Under Stresemann Germany’s relations with the victorious powers of Britain and France improved as it adopted a conciliatory stance • Fulfilment • Dawes Plan 1924 extending repayment deadlines • Young Plan 1929 – pay to 1988 a much reduced sum • Improved relations with foreign powers • Locarno Treaty of Mutual Guarantee 1925 – security of borders between Germany, France and Belgium • Locarno Arbitration Agreement with Poland Czechoslovakia • Treaty of Berlin 1926 with Russia • Restored Germany’s international prestige • Germany into the League of Nations 1926 • Receipt of Noble Peace Prize Took a non-belligerent stance Kellogg- Briand Pact 1928 renouncing war as an instrument of policy

Stresemann Successes as Foreign Minister • 1925 Locarno Pact – Treaties • 1926 Invitation to join League of Nations • 1926 The Treaty of Berlin • 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact • 1929 Evacuation of the Rhineland • 1929 The Young Plan

In 1926 Stresemann (and Briand) received the Nobel Prize for Peace

Locarno Pact • Mutual guarantee agreement – of territories drawn at Versailles with France and Belgium • Demilitarization – of Rhineland • Arbitration treaties – with Poland Czechoslovakia

League of Nations – September 1926

Kellogg-Briand Pact

Stresemann - evaluation • Great European • Germany’s interests best served by becoming part of European order • Locarno pact – introduced notion of collective security providing protection from possible threat of future French action • Nobel Prize – increased Germany’s prestige • Kellogg-Briand pact – appeared to be non-belligerent V • Great German nationalist • Exploiting the international situation to re-establish German hegemony (predominance) • His complete diaries and personal letters reveal his ambitions to readjust the eastern frontiers, recovering Danzig and Polish Corridors and free Germany from foreign presence • Locarno Pact – lost Alsace Lorraine but gained advances on Rhineland evacuation • Raised issue of German minorities in the League

Stresemann at home • Stresemann did not generate real domestic support for Weimar • Germans on right saw fulfilment as capitulation • Locarno only benefitted the French • League of Nations only an enforcer of Versailles • Germany still occupied and disarmed • Referendum against Young Plan

Stresemann and historians • KOLB, Eberhard – considers that his six years in office were ‘astonishingly successful – ‘architect of republican foreign policy’ • WRIGHT, Jonathan – biography of Stresemann – Weimar’s Greatest Statesman • MARKS, Sally – no man in the Weimar Republic did more to destroy the Versailles Treaty • POHL. Karl Heinrich – suggests that Stresemann constructed his biography during his life and that sources he has left need to be viewed critically to find the real ‘Stresemann’ • RUGE. Wolfgang – Stresemann preparing for war like expansion • GATZKE, Hans, W. – considering long-term military action in eastern Europe

Claim • Successfully restored Germany’s international relations while making limited gains in acceptance of his fulfilment policy regarding the Treaty of Versailles.

German Foreign policy re: countries on Germany’s Eastern border • The protection of minorities in Central and Eastern Europe became a deeply controversial and contentious issue for German Foreign Policy in the early years. In this instance, Weimar’s stance was less conciliatory regarding the Eastern European powers, nonetheless, it was arguably not expansionist either • The League was to act as a power guaranteeing minority rights. The minority treaty with Poland was signed on June 28 th, 1919, called The Little Treaty of Versailles • The victorious powers decided that due to significant non-Polish minorities on areas claimed by Poland, the Polish government had to support "total and complete protection of life and freedom of all people regardless of their birth, nationality, language, race or religion" • The so-called Polish Corridor cut off East Prussia from the rest of Weimar Germany's territory while Poland was granted access to the Baltic Sea for reasons of economic survival • Consecutive German governments pursued a double-edged policy of presenting themselves as legitimate guardians of minority rights, while also trying to leave open the door to regain territory in, and influence over, that part of Eastern Europe that had been lost as a result of the war • Historians such as Fritz Fischer have argued that German interest in regaining the territory lost to the East, even during Weimar’s rule, is evidence of a continuity in expansionsit German foreign policy from Kaiser William II to Stresemann to Hitler

Example of Minority controversy • Upper Silesia. The future of the area was also heavily and bitterly contested mainly due to its economic importance since: "23 percent of the total coal output of the German Empire [had been produced]" in the area • Following a plebiscite, Upper Silesia was partitioned into the German (Western Upper Silesia) and the Polish (Eastern Upper Silesia). • Under international pressure, the opposing sides agreed to sign the Geneva Protocol on Upper Silesia (1922). The Polish right to exercise their culture and language freely in Western Upper Silesia was thus guaranteed.

Germany and Russia • During the early years of the Weimar Republic a faction of German foreign policy-makers advocated political and economic cooperation with Soviet Russia • Rapallo Treaty signed by Walter Rathenau Foreign Minister in 1922 established diplomatic recognition and commercial co-operation with Soviet Russia • This was followed by the Treaty of Berlin in 1926

Treaty of Berlin 1926 • With Russia • Continuation of Treaty of Rapallo • Friendship, neutrality incase of attack by another power, no coalition against a third power wishing to damage or boycott • German economic expertise in exchange for Soviet help with rearmament • Treaty Terms

Last Years of Weimar Republic • Versailles terms still dominated policy aims • End of reparations • Hoover Moratorium 1930 • Lausanne Conference 1932 – cancellation • After 1929 foreign policy began to take on a military approach • Territorial claims • Rearmament – secretly with Russian help Bruning Von Papen Schleicher