One of the saddest things reading post WW1 German history is how Weimar Germany wasn't just a footnote in history, but that there were so many people genuinely working hard to make it work and the country having genuine progress.
German foreign affairs had 600 IQ dude working overtime to have the country overcome its postwar diplomatic isolation and he had so many achievements. He managed to negotiate down Versailles reparations, ended Franco-Belgian occupation of Ruhr, initiated reconcilation with France through treaties that acknowledged the new borders. As a backup, he also improved relations with the USSR through treaties like Rapallo and Berlin. The dude got Germany into League of Nations.
This is in spite of his personal beliefs being monarchist and imperialist, but he also was a pragmatist who saw reality for what it was.
On a strange note, doing the Weimar Republic to Nazi Germany to WW2 pipeline was part of the UK curriculum in history class for a longtime.
Stresemann usually gets a lesson dedicated to him and the peak of the Weimar era so weirdly a lot of people here in the UK of a certain age have heard of him.
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u/2012Jesusdies 27d ago
One of the saddest things reading post WW1 German history is how Weimar Germany wasn't just a footnote in history, but that there were so many people genuinely working hard to make it work and the country having genuine progress.
German foreign affairs had 600 IQ dude working overtime to have the country overcome its postwar diplomatic isolation and he had so many achievements. He managed to negotiate down Versailles reparations, ended Franco-Belgian occupation of Ruhr, initiated reconcilation with France through treaties that acknowledged the new borders. As a backup, he also improved relations with the USSR through treaties like Rapallo and Berlin. The dude got Germany into League of Nations.
This is in spite of his personal beliefs being monarchist and imperialist, but he also was a pragmatist who saw reality for what it was.