rst move to motivate the poor economy. The general agreement was that the only way to improve the economy was to stabilize the Mark. The idea was to change the Mark to be based on gold as an alternative of industrial assets. They were then able to pay the reparations in Marks instead of gold, which would diminish the Mark. Under the Dawes Plan Germany burrowed a loan from America of 800 million dollars for fixing the economy. Hence, the government with fund upgraded the industries. The coal and iron production soon stared to rise and exports began to increase. Similar to the economy, the political situation was not any good either. The parties were divided by strong beliefs and were not willing to agree on anything. The only united party left standing was the Social Democratic Party, but they had no power. The conditions were causing the people to begin to vote for the conservative parties. Right wing groups began to grow from the people’s frustration. The middle class also began to vote conservative, blaming the Social Democrats for the treaty of Versailles. After 1920 the period of unpopular minority cabinets began. Postwar inflation and Allied demands for reparations contributed to political instability. In January 1923, French and Belgian troops occupied the highly industrialized Ruhr district as a protest against German defaults in reparations payment. The Weimar government responded by asking the Ruhr workers to stop working. In 1923, President Ebert asked Gustav Stresemann, the DVP chairman, to form a new cabinet coalition to resolve the crisisDuring his brief chancellorship (August-November 1923) , he headed the "great coalition," an alliance that included the SPD, Center Party, DDP, and DVP. After his chancellorship ended because of combined opposition from the right and left, Stresemann served as German foreign minister until his death in 1929. The Stresemann era (1923-29) was a period of making peace with the...
