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The Invasion of the Ruhr 1922

The Invasion of the Ruhr 1922. Problems of Versailles Weimar Germany was horrified with the financial punishment of Versailles . If Germany had paid off the sum of £6,600,000,000, she would have remained in debt to the Allies until 1987 !

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The Invasion of the Ruhr 1922

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  1. The Invasion of the Ruhr1922

  2. Problems of Versailles • Weimar Germany was horrified with the financial punishment of Versailles. • 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. • In 1921, Germany just managed to pay its first installment of 2 billion gold marks. • WeimarGermany 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.

  3. Problems with Payments • In 1922, Weimar Germany could not manage to pay another installment. • 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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. • France was considered one of the League's most powerful members and here she was breaking its own code of conduct.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

  9. 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 hyperinflationset 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.

  10. 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. • 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 1922. The American government also loaned Germany $200 million.

  11. 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. • 1924 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. • Above all, Stresemann gave Germany strong leadership.

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