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SECTION THREE: REPUBLICAN STABILITY - 1924-1929
Source A
A German commentator on American-German relations in 1924.
Therefore political and economic collaboration with the USA is a worthwhile goal for
Germany… It will not mean much of a temporary basis. On the contrary, it will
mean striving for, and achieving, the involvement of American capital methodically
and to the greatest possible extent in Germany, in private industry in terms of loans to
national and municipal ventures. Germany must deliberately make herself a debtor
nation of the USA. By dint of the economic interest, the political interest of the USA
in Germany will also develop.
(Herbert von Dirksen, May 1925, found in Hitorisches Lesebuch 1914 –1933)
Source B
Extract from the Agreement between the Reparations Commission and the German
Government (Dawes Plan) 9 August 1924.
Being desirous of carrying into effect the plan for the discharge of reparations
obligations and other pecuniary liabilities of Germany under the Treaty of Versailles
proposed to the Reparation Commission on April 9 1924, by the First Committee of
Experts appointed by the Commission – which plan is referred to in this agreement as
the Experts’ (Dawes) Plan - and of facilitating the working of the Experts’ Plan…
The German Government undertakes to take all appropriate measures for carrying
into effect the Experts’ Plan and for ensuring its permanent operation…
Source C
Proclamation by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg, 12 May 1925.
I have taken my new important office. True to my oath, I shall do everything in my
power to serve the well-being of the German people, to protect the constitution and
the laws … In this solemn hour I ask the entire German people to work with me. My
office and my efforts do not belong to any single class nor to any stock or confession,
nor to any party, but to all the German people … My first greetings go to the entire
working population of Germany which has suffered much. It goes to our brothers
outside the German borders, who are inextricably bound together with us by ties of
blood and culture … And it goes finally to our German youth, hope of our future.
History: Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of World War II - 1918-1939 (AH) 60