How successfully did Weimar governments deal with Germany’s problems in the years 1920-1924 Essay

The Weimar governments were reasonably successful when it came to dealing with Germany’s problems within those four years. The government being taken over by Gustav Stresemann, in August 1923, made a huge, positive difference to Germany. Because of Stresemann, Germany was able to recover a lot quicker with his help. One of Germany’s major problems was hyperinflation. Germany having no more goods to trade, resulted in the government printing more money. There ended up being so much money, but not enough goods to buy with it, so prices and wages went up by a tremendous amount. This made the money worthless. The majority of Germany was ‘rich’. Stresemann dealt with this problem in a very helpful way. He immediately called off passive resistance and ordered the workers in the Ruhr to go back to work. He then burned all of the worthless marks and created, then replaced a new currency, known as the ‘Rentenmark’. The Dawes Plan of 1924 was formulated to take Weimar Germany out of hyperinflation and return Weimar’s economy to some form of stability. The main points of the Dawes Plan were simple in their effort to re-float Weimar Germany’s economy. The first main point of the Dawes plan was to return the Ruhr to Germany so that it was in their full control. Stresemann negotiated to receive American loans under the Dawes Plan, which also renegotiated the reparations bill from the Treaty of Versailles. For example, in 1924, the figure was set as fifty million in British pound sterling, as opposed to two billion of 1922. These were the first issues Stresemann dealt with as Chancellor, and due to his success, it was clear that Germany’s governments were in good hands. Another one of Germany’s problems was the attempts to overthrow the government. Luckily, for the government, they were unsuccessful. Spartacists week in 1919, the Kapp Putsch, and the Munich Putsch are all examples of attacks, from the left and right wing, which failed in the early years of the Weimar Republic. The fact that all of these attacks failed, shows that  Weimar governments were yet again successful, when it came to dealing with their problems. Although Weimar governments had many successes, before Stresemann and under his power, these problems still occurred and it was irresponsible of Weimar governments to allow these problems to get out of hand and out of their control, even if they did manage to recover. For starters, hyperinflation started. That, in itself, is a problem that could have been prevented, which caused major issues for Germany. It took a lot of work to recover from it and having a new currency was a big deal. It was as if a new currency was the only way to recover from that disaster. As well as this, pensioners on fixed incomes and people with savings were the most badly hit as they lost all of their money when the Rentenmark was introduced and the money was not returned to them. There was so much violence to fight against and so many attempts to overthrow the Weimar Republic. This also should have been prevented at an earlier stage. As a result of these attacks, there were deaths and severe injuries which were in the hands of the Weimar Republic, all because groups from the left wing and groups from the right wing didn’t agree with the way the government was running Germany. They could have found a way to avoid so much crime and violence. Another mishap from the Weimar Republic was the fail to pay back the reparations bill from the Treaty of Versailles. Although it was an extremely difficult bill to pay, considering the economic situation in Germany, they still failed. Their failure resulted in the French and Belgian troops going into the Ruhr and Germany couldn’t do much to stop them. In conclusion, Weimar Governments were overall successful when it came to dealing with Germany’s problems. Stresemann’s solutions resulted in Germany’s economy becoming stable again, so they dealt with the issues very successfully.