Home › G › Germany (Continued failure to reach any)

Germany (Continued failure to reach any)

1922. Continued failure to reach any satisfactory settlement of the reparations problem retarded Germany's internal recovery and led to increasing external pressure, culminating in January, 1923, in France's occupation of the Ruhr industrial district. In March, 1922, the Reparation Commission fixed the total of Germany's reparations for the year at 720,000,000 gold marks in 720,000,000 gold cash and 1,450,000,000 marks in kind.

Such a payment was declared by Germany to be impossible, but the terms were accepted on May 28th, in time to prevent a threatened extension of French occupation of the Rhineland districts.

The terms included heavy increases in taxation, halting of the issues of paper money, and the general supervision of such financial measures by a Guarantees Committee of the Reparation Commission. Germany's acceptance of the reparation terms was based on the hope of obtaining a foreign loan through the international committee of bankers which met in Paris, June, 1922; but this hope was disappointed, and the bankers' decision was followed by Germany's declaration of her inability to make further payments. A suspension was granted by the Reparation Commission on all cash payments for the remainder of 1922, and a general moratorium was discussed by the Allied premiers in a number of conferences, which, however, came to nothing. France demanded , which, however, came to nothing .

France demanded guarantees, to be secured by control of the Ruhr industrial district, while England objected to any further occupation of German territories unless Germany should default in future payments. On December 26th, by a vote of three to one, the Reparation Commission declared Germany in voluntary default on wood deliveries for 1922, this being followed (January 9, 1923) by a similar_vote in regard to coal deliveries; and on January 11, 1923, France, supported by Belgium and in part by Italy, entered the Ruhr, disavowing all intention of political or military occupation, but acting in support of a mission of control appointed to supervise coal production and distribution. (See Further Reparations.) The financial difficulties of Germany were difficulties of Ge increased by unlimited issues of paper money, leading to the utter collapse of the mark, whose value at the end of 1922 had fallen to about one ten-thousandth of a dollar .

In domestic politics the trend of events was toward the firmer establishment of the Republic. On June 24th, Dr. Walter Rathenau, German Foreign Minister and a leading advocate of Germany's fulfillment of her treaty obligations, was assassinated at Berlin by monarchist sympathizers. Liberals and Socialists rallied to the government and measures were taken for the safety of the Republic, though the monarchist movement remained strong in Bavaria, where organized resistance was made both to the enforcement of the Treaty of Versailles and to all democratic measures of the government at Berlin. A reunion of the two divisions of the German Socialist Party (split since 1917) was effected September 21st, making the new United Social Democrats the strongest political group in Germany. Its program includes the protection of the Republic, a finish fight against communism, reparations relief, but also insistence on the duty of Germany to rebuild the devastated areas of France. In November the three non-Socialist parties demanded the forming of a Great Coalition government under which the Social Democrats would be forced to modify their financial