Gustav Stresemann Weimar's Greatest Statesman

by Wright, Jonathan

• ISBN13: 9780198219491
• ISBN10: 0198219490
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-11-28
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Gustav Stresemann was the exceptional political figure of his time. His early death in 1929 has long been viewed as the beginning of the end for the Weimar Republic and the opening through which Hitler was able to come to power. His career was marked by m

Author Biography

Jonathan Wright is a Tutorial Fellow and Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xiii
List of Maps	xiv
List of Abbreviations	xv
Glossary	xvi
Introduction	1	(7)
`The Child is father of the Man': 1878--1901	8	(17)
`A hunger for power': Business and Politics, 1901--1914	25	(41)
The Organization of Manufacturing Industry	30	(11)
National Liberal Politics	41	(25)
`For the greater, freer Germany of the future': War, 1914--1918	66	(45)
War Aims	68	(8)
Unrestricted Submarine Warfare	76	(6)
Constitutional Reform	82	(5)
The Crisis of July 1917	87	(9)
For Victory and Reform	96	(9)
Defeat and Rejection	105	(6)
`We are and remain independent towards the Right and the Left': Accommodation and Opposition, October 1918--June 1920	111	(51)
Lessons of Defeat: October 1918	111	(4)
The Shock of Revolution	115	(2)
A United Liberal Party?	117	(9)
Opposition	126	(2)
Finding the Middle Ground	128	(8)
Anti-Semitism	136	(2)
Independence towards the Left	138	(3)
Independence towards the Right	141	(3)
Preparing for Government	144	(1)
Foreign Policy	145	(4)
The Kapp Putsch	149	(9)
The Elections of June 1920	158	(4)
`The Latchkey to Power': Building a Coalition of the Centre, June 1920--December 1922	162	(40)
Stresemann's Political Strategy	163	(4)
Minority Government	167	(10)
A Stresemann Government?	177	(4)
`Objective Opposition'	181	(10)
The Assassination of Walther Rathenau	191	(4)
Towards the Great Coalition	195	(4)
The Making of a Republican Statesman	199	(3)
`All but political suicide': Ruhr Occupation and Chancellor, 1923	202	(58)
The Ruhr Occupied	202	(10)
Reich Chancellor	212	(1)
The Stresemann Cabinets	213	(4)
The Coalition	217	(1)
The Abandonment of Passive Resistance	217	(3)
On the Brink of Civil War	220	(3)
A Second Chance	223	(3)
Poincare Victorious	226	(5)
The Return of the Crown Prince	231	(2)
Dancing on a Volcano	233	(5)
Intervention in Saxony: The End of the Great Coalition	238	(6)
`I will not give in': Reichswehr Intrigue and Hitler Putsch	244	(7)
An Independent Rhineland?	251	(2)
`In the open battlefield': The Defeat of the Government	253	(7)
`A gleam of light on the otherwise dark horizon': The Dawes Plan and the Road to Locarno, 1924--1925	260	(70)
Appointment as Foreign Minister	260	(2)
Stresemann versus Adenauer	262	(5)
Revision of the Treaty of Versailles	267	(3)
The Dawes Plan	270	(3)
The Elections of May 1924	273	(6)
`I hated all night'	279	(4)
The Fight for the Dawes Plan	283	(3)
The London Conference, July-August 1924	286	(4)
The Drama of Ratification	290	(2)
Disillusionment with Politics?	292	(2)
Membership of the League of Nations?	294	(2)
Bringing the DNVP into Government	296	(5)
The Proposal for a Security Pact	301	(6)
The Election of Hindenburg as Reich President	307	(3)
The Security Pact and the Soviet Union	310	(3)
Revision of the Polish Frontier	313	(1)
Conflict over the Security Pact	314	(6)
Towards Locarno	320	(2)
Soviet Threat of Embarrassment	322	(2)
Stresemann's Goals before Locarno	324	(6)
Locarno and the League, 1925--1926	330	(59)
The Locarno Conference	331	(8)
`These donkeys': The DNVP Returns to Opposition	339	(9)
The Second Luther Cabinet	348	(3)
Deadlock Over Entry to the League	351	(3)
The Treaty of Berlin	354	(5)
Peaceful Revision	359	(6)
Coalition Politics	365	(3)
A Time for Optimism	368	(5)
Entry into the League and Thoiry	373	(10)
`A crisis of the parliamentary system'	383	(2)
Stresemann and Secret Rearmament	385	(2)
`Responsible realpolitik'	387	(2)
Peaceful Revision in the Balance, 1927--1928	389	(54)
Coalition with the DNVP	393	(3)
The Priority of Peace	396	(4)
The Consequences for Peaceful Revision	400	(1)
The Politics of Foreign Policy	401	(7)
The Receding Prospect of Frontier Revision	408	(4)
Evacuation of the Rhineland and Revision of the Dawes Plan	412	(3)
The Kellogg-Briand Pact	415	(3)
The Formation of the Great Coalition	418	(6)
`The tyranny of the Reichstag party'	424	(4)
Foreign Minister of the Great Coalition	428	(15)
1929: Stresemann or Hugenberg?	443	(49)
The Committee of Experts	443	(2)
The DVP and the Great Coalition	445	(9)
The Political System in Crisis: Reflections and Plans	454	(7)
The Young Plan	461	(4)
Protection of Minorities and Frontier Revision	465	(9)
A Franco-German Alliance?	474	(5)
The Hague Conference	479	(4)
Towards European Union?	483	(3)
Preparing for Hugenberg and Hitler	486	(6)
Conclusion	492	(34)
Maps	526	(3)
Bibliography	529	(24)
Index	553