To What Extent Did the Weimar Republic Solve Its Problems by 1929?
To be able to answer this question you would first have to ask yourself what problems Germany faced before this time. Between the years 1919 and 1923 Germany had a lot of problems to deal with: hyperinflation, violent uprisings and the French occupying the Ruhr made it very hard to govern Germany.
Occupation of the Ruhr
With France demanding reparation payments, Germany found in very hard to pay their debts and rebuild their proud nation. France took it upon themselves to recover these payments wherever possible. They invaded the Ruhr, Germany’s most important industrial region and robbed her of her natural resources. This led to a German uprising with many workers resorting to passive resistance instead of violence. Although this may have worked it made Germany poorer as they lost a lot of money as no work was being done.
The Weimar government tackled this problem in 1924 through Gustav Stresemann the foreign minister. He persuaded the triple entente to accept lower reparation payments, (Dawes Plan) this made it easier on the Germans as they had more money to work with and the French could leave the Ruhr so work could continue.
Hyperinflation
Another problem plaguing Germany was hyperinflation. With money running dangerously low German ministers simply printed more. With more money around the value of money dropped and this caused the price of products to rocket and by November 1923 a pair of shoes cost 32,000,000,000,000 marks compared to the 12.00 marks it cost at the beginning of the year. This made the mark virtually worthless, and when entente powers found they were furious and asked to be paid in the dollar because it was an international currency. This again made it harder to pay back the reparations because it was 130,000 million marks to one US dollar.
The Weimar republic got rid of this problem very well, by introducing a new currency that would get rid of the old worthless mark. The Rentenmark was a temporary currency that stabilised the
Occupation of the Ruhr
With France demanding reparation payments, Germany found in very hard to pay their debts and rebuild their proud nation. France took it upon themselves to recover these payments wherever possible. They invaded the Ruhr, Germany’s most important industrial region and robbed her of her natural resources. This led to a German uprising with many workers resorting to passive resistance instead of violence. Although this may have worked it made Germany poorer as they lost a lot of money as no work was being done.
The Weimar government tackled this problem in 1924 through Gustav Stresemann the foreign minister. He persuaded the triple entente to accept lower reparation payments, (Dawes Plan) this made it easier on the Germans as they had more money to work with and the French could leave the Ruhr so work could continue.
Hyperinflation
Another problem plaguing Germany was hyperinflation. With money running dangerously low German ministers simply printed more. With more money around the value of money dropped and this caused the price of products to rocket and by November 1923 a pair of shoes cost 32,000,000,000,000 marks compared to the 12.00 marks it cost at the beginning of the year. This made the mark virtually worthless, and when entente powers found they were furious and asked to be paid in the dollar because it was an international currency. This again made it harder to pay back the reparations because it was 130,000 million marks to one US dollar.
The Weimar republic got rid of this problem very well, by introducing a new currency that would get rid of the old worthless mark. The Rentenmark was a temporary currency that stabilised the