Gustav Stresemann

Gustav Stresemann was a German politician who played a key role in the recovery and stabilization of the Weimar Republic after the First World War. He was born in Berlin in 1878 to a middle-class family. He studied literature, history, and economics at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig. He obtained his doctorate in 1900 with a dissertation on the Berlin bottled-beer industry. He worked as a trade association executive and became involved in politics as a member of the National Liberal Party. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1907 and became the leader of his party in 1917. He supported Germany's war efforts and expansionist aims during the First World War, but after Germany's defeat and the fall of the monarchy, he changed his views and founded the more moderate German People's Party (DVP). He also accepted the Weimar Republic as a legitimate form of government, despite his personal preference for monarchy. Stresemann became chancellor and foreign minister of a grand coalition government in August 1923, at a time when Germany was facing political and economic crises due to hyperinflation, social unrest, and French occupation of the Ruhr region. He ended the policy of passive resistance in the Ruhr and introduced a new currency, the Rentenmark, to stabilize the economy. He also sought to improve Germany's relations with its former enemies and to revise the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which had imposed heavy reparations and territorial losses on Germany. He resigned as chancellor in November 1923 after losing the support of the Social Democrats, but he remained as foreign minister until his death in 1929. As foreign minister, Stresemann achieved several diplomatic successes that enhanced Germany's international reputation and security. He negotiated the Dawes Plan in 1924, which reduced Germany's reparations burden and enabled American loans to flow into Germany. He signed the Locarno Treaties in 1925, which guaranteed Germany's western borders with France and Belgium and paved the way for Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926. He also improved relations with the Soviet Union through the Treaty of Berlin in 1926. He participated in the Kellogg-Briand Pact in 1928, which renounced war as a means of settling disputes. He also worked on the Young Plan in 1929, which further reduced Germany's reparations payments and ended the Allied occupation of the Rhineland. Stresemann was widely respected as a statesman both at home and abroad. He shared the Nobel Peace Prize with French foreign minister Aristide Briand in 1926 for their efforts to promote reconciliation and cooperation in Europe. He was also praised for his pragmatic and flexible approach to politics, which enabled him to work with different parties and ideologies. He was a champion of liberalism, democracy, nationalism, and European integration. He died of a stroke in Berlin in October 1929 at the age of 51.