986 Ch. 24 • The Elusive Search for Stability in the 1920s
power. He hoped that this might clear the way for future Allied conces
sions, namely on Germany's disputed eastern frontier with Poland. Strese
mann convinced both Britain and France to provide loans to help Germany
emerge from the economic crisis.
In 1924, a League of Nations commission, chaired by an American
banker, Charles G. Dawes (1865-1951), extended the schedule for pay
ment of German reparations. The Dawes Plan left the Reichsbank partially
under the direction of an American commissioner who was to oversee Ger
man payments, but it did not lower the amount Germany was expected to
pay. Meanwhile, the United States had reduced the debt the Allies owed it
by percentages ranging from 30 percent (Britain) to 80 percent (Italy).
Still, the Dawes Plan improved relations between the Allies and Germany
and, with the revival of the European economy beginning in 1924, the
reparations issue receded in importance. The Weimar Republic seemed to
find stability as the economy finally began to improve. German industries
became more competitive, and unemployment began to decline.
Stresemann’s discreet and effective diplomacy, now as foreign minister,
paid off. By the The Treaty of Locarno (really five separate treaties), signed
in 1925 between Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy, and Germany, the
signatories pledged to settle all future controversies peacefully and guaran
teed Germany's western borders as settled at the end of the war. At Locarno,
France also signed security treaties with Czechoslovakia and Poland to offset
to some extent the fact that Germany's eastern borders were not guaranteed,
which the German government refused to include in the agreement. Euro
pean leaders and newspapers now began to use the phrase “the spirit of
Locarno'' to refer to a mood of increasing international cooperation. The fol
lowing year, Germany became a council member of the League of Nations in
return for agreeing that it would not seek to alter its western boundaries
with France and Belgium.
Nonetheless, German right-wing parties could never forgive Stresemann
for collaborating with the socialists. The opponents of the republic seemed
almost more vehement in their denunciations of Weimar when it succeeded
than when it failed, for success might generate stability and survival. Even
after what appeared to be a diplomatic victory for Weimar, German elec
tions reflected the renewed strength of the right; the old Prussian warrior
General Hindenburg was elected president upon Ebert’s death in 1925.
The Established Democracies: Britain and FranceBritain and France were, to be sure, not immune from the political tensions
of the post-war period. Britain, in particular, remained a class-segregated
society. Nowhere in Europe was the concentration of wealth so marked as
in Britain. The top 1 percent of the population possessed two-thirds of the
national wealth, and one-tenth of 1 percent owned a third of the land in
England. Education, occupation, dress, accent, the newspapers one read,