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| Political Biography: Gustav Stresemann |
(b. Berlin, 10 May 1878; d. 3 Oct. 1929) German; Chancellor 1923, Foreign Minister 1923 – 9 Stresemann was the youngest member elected to the Reichstag in 1908 but, although seen as a rising star of the National Liberals, he lost his seat in the election of 1912. In 1914 he was returned and, due to the absence on war service of the National Liberal Leader Ernst Bassermann, he was able to take over as leader of the parliamentary group. He supported the government's imperialist ambitions and Ludendorff's virtual dictatorship. He rejected the revolution of 1918 and looked for a restoration of the monarchy. These views very nearly ended his political career. By 1920 he had founded the German People's Party which, despite the name, represented only a section of the propertied middle class. In 1920 with 15.1 per cent of the vote it was the third largest party. It saw itself as a bridge between the National Right and the democrats.
Stresemann served briefly as Chancellor and Foreign Minister in 1923 and then under Marx, Luther, and Müller as Foreign Minister. He failed as Chancellor because he proved, too right-wing for his SPD ministers. As Foreign Minister he was more successful. He wanted Germany restored to its frontiers of 1914, but sought to achieve this by patient diplomacy rather than by threats of violence. He hoped to win over the more conciliatory Americans and British against the French in his negotiations. The agreements over the Dawes Plan (1924) and the Young Plan (1929), which regulated German reparations payments in exchange for Allied concessions over the occupation of the Rhineland, were seen as his successes even though they were bitterly opposed by the right in Germany. At Locarno in October 1925 the post-war frontiers between France, Belgium, and Germany were guaranteed. Agreement over the demilitarization of the Rhineland was also reached. The Kellogg-Briand Pact (August 1928) was initially an agreement between the foreign ministers of the USA (Frank Kellogg) and France (Aristide
| Biography: Gustav Stresemann |
Gustav Stresemann (1878-1929) was one of Germany's outstanding diplomats and a leading political figure of the post-World War I Weimar Republic. He championed a policy of postwar reconciliation and cooperation in Europe.
Gustav Stresemann was born in Berlin on May 10, 1878, the son of a small businessman. His involvement in his family's business and the difficulties of small businesses in general influenced Stresemann to study economics and political science at the University of Berlin, from which he received a doctorate.
Stresemann's first job, in a small business, carried him into the arena of liberal politics. In 1902 he founded the Association of Saxon Industrialists, serving as its director from then until 1918. Stresemann entered the Reichstag in 1907 as a deputy of the strongly nationalist, economically liberal National Liberal party. He was reelected in 1914, and his fervent nationalism and extraordinary parliamentary skill quickly earned him the chairmanship of his party in July 1917.
After the end of World War I, during which he had supported the monarchy and an annexationist policy, Stresemann founded the conservative German People's party. As leader of this group, he hoped to reconcile Germany with its former enemies and to regain for his country a position of international respect.
Stresemann became chancellor in 1923 at the height of the postwar inflation. His government lasted only 100 days - from Aug. 13 to Nov. 23, 1923 - but it mastered the inflation and firmly established a new foreign policy of economic understanding with France over the reparations question.
In 1923 Stresemann also became foreign minister, a post he held until his death. Stresemann ended the occupation by French and Belgian troops of the Ruhr in 1924. Against bitter attacks from nationalists he defended Germany's acceptance of the Treaty of Versailles as a reality and as the only realistic starting point for a successful foreign policy. In cooperation with the British ambassador Lord D'Abernon and the French foreign minister Aristide Briand, Stresemann rapidly recaptured a position of international prestige and prosperity for Germany. He then began a gradual revision of the treaty. German reparations were drastically reduced in the Dawes Plan of 1924. The Locarno Pact of 1925, which guaranteed Germany's western borders and reassured France, gained admission for Germany to the League of Nations in 1926, and it left the door open for Stresemann to pursue future border modifications in the East. The removal of Allied controls in the years following permitted Germany to regain much of its freedom as a great power, including the opportunity for clandestine rearmament.
The special cooperation between Stresemann and Briand, the cornerstone of Germany's international diplomacy, earned the two statesmen the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926. However, an agreement to resolve all remaining problems between France and Germany, negotiated by the two diplomats at Thoiry in 1926, failed to survive the growing national opposition in both countries. A further reduction of the Versailles reparations, gained in the Young Plan of 1929, ranks as Stresemann's last success. He died of a stroke on Oct. 3, 1929, in Berlin.
Further Reading
Stresemann's papers, collected and screened by his former secretary, were translated and edited in slightly condensed form by Eric Sutton, Gustav Stresemann: His Diaries, Letters and Papers (3 vols., 1935-1940). Although there is no definitive biography of Stresemann, there are several fine, balanced studies. Henry L. Bretton, Stresemann and the Revision of Versailles (1953), emphasizes Stresemann as the skillful manipulator of peaceful diplomacy. Hans Gatzke, Stresemann and the Rearmament of Germany (1954), portrays him as an upright, great statesman and nationalist unabashedly two-faced about German armament. Stresemann's role in German politics is discussed in Henry A. Turner, Stresemann and the Politics of the Weimar Republic (1963). Marvin L. Edwards, Stresemann and the Greater Germany, 1914-1918 (1963), treats the war years. Of the many earlier, favorable accounts of the foreign minister as the "good European," two stand out: Rochus von Rheinbaben, Stresemann: The Man and the Statesman (1929), written with Stresemann's help, and Antonina Vallentin, Stresemann (trans. 1931).
| German Literature Companion: Gustav Stresemann |
Stresemann, Gustav (Berlin, 1878-1929, Berlin), a businessman elected to the Reichstag in 1907 as a National Liberal, played a prominent part in German politics during the Weimar Republic.
In 1917 Stresemann became chairman of the National Liberal party, strongly supporting Hindenburg and Ludendorff in their annexationist plans, and played a part in the intrigues which displaced von Bethmann-Hollweg. After the fall of the monarchy Stresemann founded and led the Deutsche Volkspartei, was a member of the Weimar National Assembly, and was elected to the new Reichstag in 1920. In August 1923 he became chancellor (Reichskanzler) and foreign minister. His government fell in November 1923, but Stresemann remained foreign minister until his death. During this period the Dawes Plan was accepted, the Locarno Pact signed, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations, and agreement for the French and Belgian evacuation of German territory in 1930 was secured (the British had left in 1926). Stresemann's policies were violently attacked by the German right wing, which opposed European co-operation, but he was widely respected abroad, as well as by some of his own countrymen. Since his death his policy and aims have been variously interpreted. Some have accepted him as a former nationalist converted to a European conception, others as a basically unwavering nationalist using the posture of Europeanism as a temporary measure to secure Germany's advancement in an adverse situation.
Stresemann's writings include Von der Revolution bis zum Frieden von Versailles (1919), Reden und Schriften (2 vols., 1926), and the posthumous
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Gustav Stresemann |
Although Stresemann knew of efforts by Hans von Seeckt to evade the disarmament clauses of the Treaty of Versailles, he won the confidence of the Allies. He ended (1923) the passive resistance in the Ruhr district against French and Belgian occupation and obtained the evacuation of the Ruhr in 1924; he accepted the Dawes Plan (1924) and the Young Plan (1929) for reparations; he raised the hope for peace by his part in the Locarno Pact (1925); he renewed (1926) the Rapallo treaty with the USSR; and he had Germany admitted (1926) into the League of Nations with the rank of a great power. His harmonious relation with France's Aristide Briand became one of personal friendship. In 1928, Stresemann signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact. Soon after obtaining his last success, the evacuation of the Rhineland, Stresemann died of the consequences of overwork. His death was, prophetically, considered a calamity by all but the extremist elements in Germany. Stresemann shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize with Briand.
Bibliography
See his Essays and Speeches (tr. 1930, repr. 1968); E. Sutton, ed., Gustav Stresemann: His Diaries, Letters, and Papers (3 vol., 1935-40); biography by J. Wright (2003); studies by H. L. Bretton (1953), H. A. Turner (1963), D. Warren (1964), F. E. Hirsch (1964), and C. M. Kimmich (1968).
| Wikipedia: Gustav Stresemann |
| Gustav Stresemann | |
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| In office August 13 – November 23, 1923 |
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| Preceded by | Wilhelm Cuno |
| Succeeded by | Wilhelm Marx |
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| Born | May 10, 1878 |
| Died | October 3, 1929 (aged 51) |
| Political party | German People's Party |
Gustav Stresemann (help·info) (May 10, 1878 – October 3, 1929) was a German liberal politician and statesman who served as Chancellor and Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic. He was co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize 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. Arguably, his most notable achievement was reconciliation between Germany and France, for which he and Aristide Briand received the Peace Prize.
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Stresemann was born in Berlin. He came from middle class origins, as the son of a Berlin innkeeper and beer distributor. He attended the Universities of Berlin and Leipzig, studied philosophy and literature and received a doctorate in economics. He also became a spokesman for his student association.
In 1902 he founded the Saxon Manufacturers' Association. In 1903 he married Käthe Kleefeld (b.15. July 1885 in Berlin; d. 1970 in New York City), daughter of a wealthy Jewish Berlin businessman. At that time he was also a member of Friedrich Naumann's National-Social Association. In 1906 he was elected to the Dresden town council. Though he had initially worked in trade associations, Stresemann soon became a leader of the National Liberal Party in Saxony. In 1907, he was elected to the 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, Stresemann was associated with the left wing of the National Liberals. During World War I, 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.
Stresemann briefly joined the German Democratic Party 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: Deutsche Volkspartei, 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" (that is, the Communists, and also the Social Democrats).
The DVP was initially seen, along with the German National People's Party, as part of the "national opposition" to the Weimar Republic, particularly for its grudging acceptance of democracy and its ambivalent attitude towards the Freikorps and the Kapp Putsch in 1920. By late 1920, Stresemann gradually moved to cooperation with the parties of the left and center — possibly in reaction to political murders like that of Walther Rathenau. However, he remained a monarchist at heart.
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. In the so-called year of crises (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. Hans Luther, who was the current finance minister, 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.
Stresemann's decision to end passive resistance was motivated by his view that Germany had to at least make a good faith effort to fulfill the terms of Versailles. He, like virtually every German, felt Versailles was an onerous Diktat that sullied the nation's honor. However, he felt that by trying to fulfill Versailles' terms, Germany could demonstrate that the reparations bill was truly beyond its capacity.
However, some of his moves - like his refusal to deal firmly with culprits of the Beer Hall Putsch - 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. He remained foreign minister for the rest of his life in eight successive governments ranging from the centre-right to the centre-left.
As Foreign Minister, Stresemann had numerous achievements. His first notable achievement was the Dawes Plan of 1924, which reduced Germany's overall reparations commitment and reorganized the Reichsbank.
His second success was the Locarno Treaties with Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium, signed in October 1925 at Locarno. Germany officially recognized the post World War I 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 signed in April 1926 reaffirmed and strengthened the Rapallo Treaty of 1922. In September 1926, Germany was admitted to the League of Nations 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 in 1926 for these achievements.
Germany signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact 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 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.[1]
Stresemann was not, however, in any sense pro-French. His main preoccupation was how to free Germany from the burden of reparations 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. 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, who was Secretary of Commerce in 1921-28 and President from 1929. This strategy worked remarkably well until it was derailed by the Great Depression after Stresemann's death.[2]
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 and others, he was attacked as a Erfüllungspolitiker ("fulfillment politician").
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".[3] In the same year, while Poland was in a state of political and economic crisis, Stresemann began a trade war 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".[4]
Gustav Stresemann died of a stroke 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. Stresemann's sudden and premature death, as well as the death of his "pragmatic moderate" French counterpart Aristide Briand in 1932, and the assassination of Briand's successor Louis Barthou in 1934, left a vacuum in European statesmanship that further tilted the slippery slope towards World War II.
Gustav and Käthe had two sons, Wolfgang and Joachim Stresemann.
Long Hanborough in Oxfordshire, England, has a small plaque to commemorate his life.
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If the allies had obliged me just one single time, I would have brought the German people behind me, yes; even today, I could still get them to support me. However, they (the allies) gave me nothing and the minor concessions they made, always came too late. Thus, nothing else remains for us but brutal force. The future lies in the hands of the new generation. Moreover, they, the German youth, who we could have won for peace and reconstruction, we have lost. Herein lies my tragedy and their, the allies' crime.—Stresemann, to diplomat Sir Albert Bruce Lockhart in 1929
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| Preceded by Hans von Rosenberg |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 1923-1929 |
Succeeded by Julius Curtius |
| Preceded by Wilhelm Cuno |
Chancellor of Germany 1923 |
Succeeded by Wilhelm Marx |
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