The Invasion of the Ruhr 1922

Problems of Versailles Weimar Germany was horrified with the financial punishment of Versailles.Weimar GermanyVersailles If Germany had paid off the sum of £6,600,000,000, she would have remained in debt to the Allies until 1987 ! By signing the Treaty of Versailles, Germany had agreed to pay the reparations.Treaty of Versailles In 1921, Germany just managed to pay its first installment of 2 billion gold marks. Weimar Germany was allowed to pay in kind (actual materials) as opposed to just cash. Most of this 2 billion was paid in coal, iron and wood.WeimarGermany

Problems with Payments In 1922, Weimar Germany could not manage to pay another installment.Weimar Germany The Allies did not believe this - especially France where anger towards Germany still ran deep. The German government was accused of trying to get out of paying the reparations. This was only four years after the end of the war, and Britain and France still did not trust Germany.

Invasion In 1922, French and Belgium troops invaded the Ruhr; Germany’s most valuable industrial area. The French and Belgium troops took over the iron and steel factories, coal mines and railways.

Invasion Those Germans who lived in the Ruhr and did not do as the French told them to were imprisoned. Food was taken. This action by the French and Belgium broke the rules of the League of Nations - both nations were members but the League was ignored by both countries.League of Nations France was considered one of the League's most powerful members and here she was breaking its own code of conduct.

Response from the German Government The Weimar government ordered the workers in the Ruhr to go on strike and it ordered all people in the Ruhr to passively resist the French and Belgium soldiers. They were not to openly confront the French and Belgium soldiers, but they were not to help them in any way whatsoever. This led to violence and over the next 8 months of the occupation, 132 people were killed and over 150,000 Ruhr Germans expelled from their homes.

German economy suffers The order for workers to go on a general strike may have been patriotic but it had disastrous consequences for Germany as a whole. The Ruhr was Germany’s richest economic area and produced a great deal of wealth for the country as a whole. The huge Krupps steelworks was there. By not producing any goods whatsoever, Germany’s economy started to suffer. The striking workers had to be paid and the people expelled from their homes had to be looked after.

German economy suffers To pay the striking workers and look after the homeless the government did the worst thing possible - it printed money to cover the cost. This showed other countries that Germany did not have enough money to pay for her day-to-day needs. Whatever money which had been invested in Germany was removed by the foreign investors.

Hyperinflation This drop in confidence also caused a crisis in Weimar Germany when prices started to rise to match inflation. Very quickly, things got out of control and what is known as hyperinflation set in. Prices went up quicker than people could spend their money. In 1922, a loaf of bread cost 163 marks. By September 1923, this figure had reached 1,500,000 marks. At the peak of hyperinflation, November 1923, a loaf of bread cost 200,000,000,000 marks.

Hyperinflation proved to many that the old mark was of no use. Germany needed a new currency. In September 1923, Germany had a new chancellor, Gustav Stresemann. Stresemann He immediately called off passive resistance and ordered the workers in the Ruhr to go back to work. He knew that this was the only common sense approach to a crisis. The mark was replaced with the new Rentenmark which was backed with American gold. In 1924, the Dawes Plan was announced. This plan, created by Charles Dawes, an American, set new lower targets for German reparation payments. For example, in 1924, the figure was set at £50 million as opposed to the £2 billion of The American government also loaned Germany $200 million.

This one action stabilised Weimar Germany and over the next five years, 25 million gold marks was invested in Germany by other countries. The economy quickly got back to strength, new factories were built, employment returned and things appeared to be returning to normal. Stresemann gave Germany a sense of purpose and the problems associated with hyperinflation seemed to disappear to 1929 is known as the Golden Age of Weimar. Berlin became the city to go to if you had money. The Nazis were a small, noisy but unimportant party.Golden Age of Weimar Above all, Stresemann gave Germany strong leadership.