Economic Developments - The Reparations Issue and the Young Plan

Reparations after the Dawes Plan finished

• Dawes Plan was only ever meant to be a temporary settlement of the reparations issue

• Allied forces remained in occupation of the Rhineland - French wouldn’t agree to withdraw these forces until a final settlement of the reparations issue had been agreed

The Young Plan

• Stresemann - who continued to serve as Foreign Minister after his coalition government collapsed , agreed that the issue should be considered by an international committee, headed by the American businessman Owen Young

What the Young Plan included

• Obliged Germany to continue paying reparations until 1988

• Total reparations bill was considerably reduced - only had to pay £1.8 billion instead of the original £6.5 billion

• However the amount Germany have to pay annually increased

• Foreign control over reparations ended, responsibility to pay reparations was placed solely on the German government

• In return Britain and France agreed to withdraw all troops from the Rhineland by 1930

Oppositions to the Young Plan

• Leader of the right-wing DNVP organised a nationwide campaign against the plan

• Involved other conservative groups - including Hitler and the Nazis

• Campaign group drew up a law - called the ‘freedom law’ which they demanded to by submitted to national referendum

• Involved rejecting the war guilt clause and driving out occupied areas

• A petition was launched in support of the law 0 attracted 4,135,000 signatures - went to a Reichstag debate where the referendum was rejected

• However the fact that 5,825,000 or 14% of the electorate voted for the law was an indication of the depth of support for the right-wing nationalism