Gustav Stresemann and the revision of the Treaty of Versailles, 1923-1929
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1989
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Abstract
The period of the 1920's is crucial to understanding both the impact of the First World War in Europe as well as the origins of the Second World War. Although practically all of the documents from this period have been subject to historical scrutiny for many years, there is still much disagreement among historians as to the place of the Weimar Republic in both German and European history since 1919. Many historians see the period of the Weimar Republic in a negative light. It is viewed either as a time of respite, in which Germany recovered from the First World War and rearmed for a new campaign of aggression, or as a tragic decade in German history, which never made a difference in the long run. Other historians have taken a more positive viewpoint of the German Republic from 1919 to 1933. They claim that it was a legitimate attempt by responsible Germans to shake off the mistakes of the past and rebuild Germany within a European system based on cooperation and reconciliation. Gustav Stresemann, Germany's foreign minister from 1923 to 1929, was one of the central figures in Germany's struggle to obtain respect and equality among the Powers of Europe after World War One. Unfortunately, much of what has been written about Stresemann paints him either as a "good European" and the champion of peace or as an untrustworthy manipulator whose achievements were obscured by the events which followed after his death. The result is an often biased and unrealistic portrait of Stresemann during the 1920's. It is my intention to re-examine Stresemann's career, but without beginning with the assumption that the Second World War was "inevitable" and without arguing that Stresemann must necessarily be depicted as the antithesis of Hitler. The most important documents which I consulted during the course of this thesis were the English and German editions of Stresemann's private diaries, letters and papers as well as the unpublished and unedited Stresemann papers or Nachlass. Stresemann's papers clearly demonstrate what his aims were during the 1920's and show the extent to which he _ was involved in the revival of Germany as a Great Power in Europe. I am also indebted to various secondary sources for their respective contribution to the ideas developed throughout this thesis, among which were Marvin Edwards' Stresemann and the Greater Germany; Henry Turner's Gustav Stresemann and the Politics of the Weimar Republic; Christoph Kimmich's Germany and the League of Nations; and P.M.H. Bell's The Origins of the Second World War in Europe.
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Bibliography: p. 156-159.
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Citation
Sinclair, B. (1989). Gustav Stresemann and the revision of the Treaty of Versailles, 1923-1929 (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/16796