A Brief Note On Germany Before The Great Depression By Gustav Stresemann

Germany before the great depression had a steadily growing economy that just recovered from hyperinflation during November 1919-1923. Gustav Stresemann, who was the newly appointed minister of finance in August 1923, was an important figure who saved Germany from the verge of collapse and broke the cycle of hyperinflation. He accomplished this by introducing a new currency the Rentenmark which replaced the former Papiermark, as well as adopting the Dawe’s Plan which allowed Germany to regain the industrial region of Ruhr from the French occupation, and the Young plan which temporarily stabilized the economy with US loans. USA was at that time the richest country in the world, with a booming economy, inflating shares and skyrocketing industrial production. Germany also started to redevelop its economy. Everything seemed to being going well for US and Germany. Unexpectedly, only about four years after the government

With the failure of capitalism, the communist parties (the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party) began to grow. They greatly appealed the lower class, who wanted a socialist state where there were no classes and everyone was idealistically equal. People also saw that the effect of the Great Depression was basically nonexistent in the Soviet Union which was governed under a Communist Party. These two parties combined would have a larger supporters than the Nazis, due to the large majority of the lower working class, however they were rivals to each other. The Nazi party, which was also a rapidly growing party, appealed to many of the public as people began to have a better image of Hitler and his party. The Nazis seemed to have toned down their violent ways and began to use politics to win their way to power. Hitler himself described it as: “Never in my life have I been so well disposed and inwardly contented as in these days. For hard reality has opened the eyes of millions of