Question 8

How successful was the German Weimar Republic in Foreign Policy?

Paragraph One

2 objectives post 1919: restore German sovereignty lost at Versailles; selective recovery of land lost at Versailles
1924-32 Stresemann &successors recovered most of sovereignty lost in 1919
But – no return of territory
World depression post 1929 aided treaty changes
But also assisted in destroying Weimar revisionists and brought Hitler to power
His objectives went well beyond restoring 1914 borders

Paragraph Two

Paragraph Three

German anger that 14 Points advocating peace without vindictiveness had not curbed French demands for reparations and annexations
Conservatives vowed to regain eastern lands even though the Corridor and Posen had Polish majorities
Reason – historic heart of Prussia and by extension Germany
Some senior army officers ready to resume the war to this end
Reluctantly had to accept that signing the treaty was unavoidable
The Republic’s democrats were later vilified for accepting the ‘shameful peace’

Paragraph Four

In fact the democrats were as determined to revise the settlement as were monarchists and other conservatives
Wanted to restore German sovereignty and regain lost land
Accepted that status quo ante-bellum could not be restored
Regarded lost territory of West e.g. Alsace Lorraine as permanently lost
Some Nationalists disagreed
All agreed on recovery of Eastern lands where losses in area and population were largest

Paragraph Five

Poles saw danger to themselves if Germany regained lost sovereignty and was restored militarily
Derived no comfort from France’s post-war exhaustion and loss of morale
Other problems included:
- break up of Habsburg Empire
- lack of Anglo-Russian cooperation
- America’s post-war retreat into isolation

Paragraph Six

Germany hoped to exploit Anglo-French differences
Great Britain urged France to be more flexible to Germany
But France insisted on strict implementation of 1919 settlement and reparations
But even at height of Ruhr crisis (1923) despite her opposition to France’s actions, Great Britain refused to take measures which would have embarrassed French and Belgian forces

Paragraph Seven

At first reparations most contentious issue in German relations with Great Britain and France
Ruhr episode caused collapse of German currency
Ruined middle classes – many already hostile to Weimar
Reparations now reassessed – Dawes Plan (1924) reduced payments
1929 Young Plan level of annuities reduced
After 1924 Germany paid less in annuities than she received in foreign investments

Paragraph Eight

Russo-German Rapallo Treaty 1922 but relations remained ideologically strained
Shared common interests but no close association developed
1925 Locarno Pact gave Germany equality with Western powers
But not her Eastern borders (to dismay of Czech and Poland)
Encouraged Germany to believe modification of these borders was possible
French invested in Maginot Line so was ready to allow allied evacuation of Rhineland by 1930

Paragraph Nine

Such concessions not enough for German opinion
Soon after foreign troops left Germany (July 1930) Nazis won 18.3 % of vote in elections
Bruning’s frustration and impatience seen when he sought an Austro-German customs union in 1931
1932 France forced him to abandon it
Extremist policies were now triumphing in Germany
Weimar, to which Great Britain and France had conceded the restoration of most of Germany’s sovereignty, was soon superseded by the rule of Hitler
His ultimate aims went far beyond restoration of 1914 borders
Wanted lebensraum in Eastern Europe and enslavement of Slav peoples
Anschluss and restoring Posen and the Corridor to Germany, which were ends in themselves for Weimar, were only the beginning for Hitler

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