French Occupation of the Ruhr
France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr in January 1923 over undelivered timber and coal. The reparations commission had declared Germany in default on deliveries in kind, which was technically correct and politically an opportunity: Poincaré wanted the industrial heart of Germany as security and had been arguing for it since 1921. Some 60,000 French and Belgian troops moved into an area producing most of Germany's coal and steel. The German government called for passive resistance. Miners, railwaymen and officials refused to work for the occupiers, and Berlin paid their wages — which meant printing money for the entire output of the Ruhr while receiving nothing from it. The currency, already weak, collapsed completely. A dollar cost about 17,000 marks in January and 4.2 trillion by November, savings and bonds became worthless, wages were paid twice a day and spent immediately, and the middle class that had funded the state by lending to it was destroyed. Some 130 people were killed in confrontations, and separatist movements were encouraged in the Rhineland. Passive resistance was called off in September, the new currency stabilised things within weeks, and the occupation had cost France more in credit and in British and American goodwill than it produced in coal. The Dawes Plan the following year replaced the whole arrangement. Hitler attempted a putsch in Munich in November 1923, in the middle of it, and the Nazi vote in 1924 reached its interwar peak before the currency recovered. Stresemann's decision to call off the resistance is the one that saved the republic and destroyed his own government within three months. He spent the remaining six years of his life negotiating rather than resisting, and the policy is why 1924 to 1929 were the only good years the republic had.
- Year: 1923 CE
- Category: Political
