The heavy reparation payments Germany was forced to pay as a result of the diktat treaty of Versailles, was put in place as a future weakening of the German economy in a revenge of the allied losses. These reparations, to be payed to the allies caused a severe economic dislocation in the early years; an obvious example of this is during the French occupation of the Ruhr'. During 1921 German payments of $50 million put enormous strain on the economy, Germany's request to suspend payments until her economy recovered was rejected, as a result of this the French gained German's main industrial area in January 1923, the Ruhr in an attempt to seize goods from factories and mines. Passive resistance, ordered by the government meant that the German industry of the Ruhr was paralysed, making French attempts a failure, also having catastrophic effects on the German economy. By July 1923 a standstill dollar would buy 160,000 marks, by November the value of the mark was completely worthless, at 4,200,000 million to the …show more content…
The Locarno treaty' in October 1925 was signed to settle issues between France and Germany and the post border between the two, it was significant in an ending to the idea of European winners and losers of WW1. It was this that the anti-republican extremists parties later used to criticise the democracy and gave the army motive to be discontented with the republic government. The positive impact of German national status due to Stressmann's cooperation and his policy of fulfilment is demonstrated in their admission into the League of Nations' in September 1926. It was not long however until the building resentment would contribute to the republics collapse and the end of the Stressmann era, S.J.Lee, expresses that "successful though it appeared on the surface, it was fundamentally