The recovery of the Weimar Republic: 1924-1929

Question 1

What happened to the support for extremist parties?

Answer 1

It decreased dramatically.

Question 2

Who’s leadership helped improve the state of the Weimar Republic?

Answer 2

Gustav Stresemann.

Question 3

Who was Gustav Stresemann? (2)

Answer 3

He became chancellor of Germany in 1923.

He became foreign minister in 1926.

Question 4

What was Stresemann’s general strategy for trying to make Germany stronger than it had been?

Answer 4

Improve Germany’s economy through several means.

Question 5

What did Stresemann do to restore value to money? (2)

Answer 5

Introduced money called the Rentenmark.

Connected the new currency to the value of industry in Germany.

Question 6

What was the 1924 Dawes Plan? (2)

Answer 6

USA banks agreed to give loans to the German Industry to help businesses grow.
Reparation payments were reduced to £50 million per year.

Question 7

How did Stresemann end hyperinflation?

Answer 7

A new national bank connected the money to the gold in the bank.

Question 8

What was the new currency the Rentenmark renamed too?

Answer 8

The Reichsmark.

Question 9

How did Stresemann’s new currency improve the German peoples attitudes towards money?

Answer 9

It made everyone trust the value of it.

Question 10

How did the Dawes Plan help Germany? (3)

Answer 10

Germany’s production doubled between 1923 and 1928.
Employment rates, tax income and trade increased.
People got richer.

Question 11

What was the Young Plan in summary?

Answer 11

Reparation payment was reduced from £6.6 billion to £2 billion.

Question 12

How many more years did the Young Plan give Germany to pay of its reparation payments?

Answer 12

59 Years.

Question 13

Why did Political Extremists hate the Young Plan?

Answer 13

They believed Germany should not be paying the reparations at all.

Question 14

When was the Young Plan introduced?

Answer 14

1929.

Question 15

When was the Dawes Plan introduced?

Answer 15

1924.

Question 16

How did the Nazi’s describe the increased time given for reparation payments in the Young Plan?

Answer 16

‘Passing on a penalty to the unborn.’

Question 17

What good things happened in Germany as a result of the Young Plan?

Answer 17

It allowed the government to lower taxes and spend more money.
The government were able to create more jobs.
Confidence increased in the weimar Republic because the French agreed to leave the Rhineland.

Question 18

When was the Locarno Pact introduced?

Answer 18

1925.

Question 19

What was the Locarno Pact?

Answer 19

A treaty between Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Belgium.

Question 20

What year was Germany accepted into the League of Nations?

Answer 20

1926.

Question 21

When was the Kellogg-Briand Pact introduced?

Answer 21

August 1928.

Question 22

What was the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

Answer 22

An agreement which promised that states would not use war to achieve foreign policy aims.

Question 23

Who replaced Ebert as president after 1925?

Answer 23

Paul Von Hindenburg.

Question 24

Who was Friedrich Ebert? (2)

Answer 24

Former leader in the Kaiser’s army during WW1.

President as of 1925.

Question 25

What did France agree to in the Locarno Pact?

Answer 25

Peace with Germany.

Question 26

What did Germany agree to in the Locarno Pact? (2)

Answer 26

Its new border with France.

The Rhineland would be permanently free from troops.

Question 27

What did the Allies (five powers) agree to in the Locarno Pact? (2)

Answer 27

Troops would be removed from the Rhineland permanently.

To have open talks about Germany’s membership in the League of Nations.

Question 28

Did the Locarno Pact increase or decrease the likelihood of war?

Answer 28

Decrease.

Question 29

Why was Germany now beginning to be seen as a stable and trustworthy country? (4)

Answer 29

Locarno & Kellogg-Briand Pacts.
Dawes and Young Plans.
They were now a stable and democratic country which could now be seen as equal.
They were no longer seen as a country that would aggressively start a war.

Question 30

How did the standard of living improve during this time period? (3)

Answer 30

Unemployment reduced.
Workers wages went up and hours went down.
Housing and education improved.
War veterans were offered help.

Question 31

How much did the unemployment rates change from 1923 to 1926?

Answer 31

2 million to 1.3 million. Decrease of 700,00

Question 32

Why did big business resent the changes in living standards? 1924-1929

Answer 32

Resented their loss of power and profit.

Question 33

Why did the lower middle class resent the changes in living standards? 1924-1929

Answer 33

They thought that the new system favoured the working class, it did not sway in their favour.

Question 34

How did women gain more political freedoms?

Answer 34

They took advantage of the new rights and started to become involved in politics.

Question 35

What did the new constitution state surrounding marriage?

Answer 35

Women had an equal right to men and that marriage was an equal partnership.

Question 36

How did women begin to make progress in the workplace? (2)

Answer 36

The new shopping and service sectors meant that there were many more part-time jobs for women.
Women made more progress in professions such as medicine and education.

Question 37

Despite the progress women were still considered unequal in the workplace, how was this shown? (3)

Answer 37

Women were paid 33% less on average to do the same job, compared to a man.
Women were expected to give up work once they were married.
Few women entered high status professions.

Question 38

What fashions and characteristics represented a more ‘liberal life’ for women?

Answer 38

Financial independence.
New clothing trends, shorter hair, more make-up, more jewellery and revealing clothes.
sexual freedom and smoking.

Question 39

What was art like for people of the ‘Golden Twenties’?

Answer 39

New trends such as expressionism and ‘new objectivism’ aimed to show how people felt and their comments on society at the time.

Question 40

When were the ‘Golden Twenties’?

Answer 40

1924-1929.

Question 41

What was cinema like for people of the ‘Golden Twenties’?

Answer 41

New directors like Fritz Lang created striking new visions of the world, science fiction and horror films.
All together more exciting and more expression and free will was allowed.

Question 42

What was architecture like for people of the ‘Golden Twenties’?

Answer 42

New schools of thought like the Bauhaus movement aimed for new and futuristic designs.

Question 43

Why did different tensions still exist in German society during the 1920s? (Right wing and Left wing) (2)

Answer 43

Left wing parties said that the money spent on the new culture was over the top.
Right wing parties that it was not German and was decadent when money could be better spent on things like education and healthcare.

Question 44

What could both extreme Left and Right wing parties agree on during the ‘Golden Twenties’?

Answer 44

That the decadent spending was ‘over the top.’

Question 45

What was the problem Germany was facing when Stresemann became Chancellor? (2)

Answer 45

Hyperinflation and economical distress.

Question 46

What was different about the Locarno Pact compared to the Treaty of Versailles?

Answer 46

It was not imposed on Germany it was agreed on equal terms.

Question 47

How many countries co-signed the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

Answer 47

61.

Question 48

What power was not in the League of Nations?

Answer 48

USA.

Question 49

How did the USA perceive the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

Answer 49

They saw this as a way to assist in peace.

Question 50

When did Stresemann finally persuade the powers to make Germany a member of the League of Nations?

Answer 50

1926.

Question 51

When was the League of Nations founded, and by who?

Answer 51

End of the first world war by the allies.

Question 52

What was the League of Nations?

Answer 52

An international body where countries discussed answers to problems which excluded resorting to war.