GermanyWho was Gustav Stresemann?
Gustav Stresemann, the son of a Berlin beer merchant, studied economics and became a lawyer for Saxon industrial associations. A National Liberal, he entered the Reichstag in 1907 and led the party from 1917. After the war he founded the German People's Party (DVP). In 1923 he was chancellor for about a hundred days at the head of a broad coalition, and from 1923 until his death in 1929 he served as foreign minister in successive governments. He shared the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize with Aristide Briand.
Political views
Supported an expansion of social legislation as a young Reichstag member, bringing him into conflict with his party's right wing.
Source: dhm.deSupported German annexation aims and unrestricted submarine warfare during the First World War and opposed the Treaty of Versailles.
Source: nobelprize.orgAs chancellor in 1923 ended passive resistance to the occupation of the Ruhr and ended the inflation through a currency reform.
Source: dhm.deNegotiated the 1924 Dawes Plan, which reduced reparations payments.
Source: dhm.deInitiated the Locarno Treaties of 1925, in which Germany, France and Belgium renounced changing their common borders by force.
Source: dhm.deSecured Germany's admission to the League of Nations in 1926.
Source: nobelprize.orgSupported the idea that employers should recognize labour's right to organize and bargain collectively.
Source: nobelprize.org
Legacy
Admirers see Stresemann as the most capable statesman of the Weimar Republic, who stabilized the currency and restored Germany's place in Europe through negotiation rather than force, and the Nobel Committee honored his Locarno policy. Nationalists at the time attacked him for accepting the western borders and reparations plans. Historians also note that he had been an aggressive annexationist during the war, remained a monarchist at heart and hoped to use Poland's economic difficulties to revise its border peacefully in Germany's favour. His early death in 1929, just before the Depression, is often seen as a blow to the republic.
In their words
Locarno may be interpreted as signifying that the States of Europe at last realize that they cannot go on making war upon each other without being involved in common ruin.