The German Question, Part One Hundred

"Germany's Weimar Republic" Part Three
"The Occupation Of The Ruhr"

(Just for some background, this paragraph and the note is from Part 99) "The Versailles Treaty made Germany responsible for reparations mainly to Belgium and France. When the Germans defaulted on some aspects (mainly timber and coal) of these payments, French and Belgian troops entered Germany in January of 1923 and occupied the Ruhr, the country's main industrial region.*"

Not only were the French concerned about losing the resources from the German reparations, but they feared that if Germany could not be made to comply with this aspect of the Versailles Treaty, the Germans would gradually get out from under other provisions of the treaty. They saw enforcement as imperative. The Germans called for strikes by workers in the Ruhr; thus beginning months of popular resistance to the occupation. Some German workers and organizers of the resistance were killed or arrested,** which only gained Germany sympathy from other parts of the world. The strikes had the further consequence of damaging the frail German economy, as production of many goods used for both domestic consumption and for foreign trade essentially came to a standstill. Escalating German inflation, already on the rise before the occupation, exploded, as the German government, in an effort to meet its obligations, printed money with little or no backing to give it value. While the German currency lost value, so did the value of French money, as without German reparations, other nations feared for the resilience of the French economy.

World War One and its aftermath really began American involvement in European affairs. Influential American leaders and businessmen wanted a stable Europe, including a stable Germany. This very much coincided with Britain's desires. With the tension of the Ruhr occupation escalating, a committee was set up consisting of two members each from France, Belgium, Italy, Britain and the United States. The committee, called the "Dawes Committee," after American Vice President Charles Dawes,*** devised a plan to restructure German reparations in an attempt to assure payment. America provided loans to Germany to help their economy recover and to help guarantee payment of reparations. Germany would collect various taxes to make the payments. The "Dawes Plan," as it was known, established a lowered payment plan for Germany, but with progressively higher payments over a five year period, with the maximum to be reached and continued in year five. In return, the French and Belgians would withdraw from the Ruhr industrial region of Germany (which took place in August of 1925). The Germans signed on the dotted line and Dawes received a shared "Nobel Peace Prize."****

Next: ""The Cost of a Loaf of Bread-Hyperinflation in Weimar Germany" (A "Word History" is below the notes)

* (From Part 99) "The German government claimed it could not meet all reparations. The Belgians and French argued that the Germans were simply playing games to see if the Allies would enforce the reparations' provisions of the treaty. The British and Americans wanted the amount of reparations to be lowered, which only irritated the French that much more."

** It certainly seems that more than a hundred Germans were killed during the occupation, but an exact number is difficult to determine.

*** Dawes, a Republican who was born in Ohio, came from a banking and financial background. He held financial positions in the former administrations of President McKinley and President Harding, both Republicans.

**** The other recipient, British Foreign Secretary, Austen Chamberlain, shared the award because of his work on a series of European treaties (collectively known as "Locarno Treaty" or "Pact"), but he had nothing to do with the Dawes Plan.

WORD HISTORY:
Republic/Public-The main part of this compound goes back to Latin "publicus/poplicus," meaning "about the people." Where Latin got the word is a matter of discussion, with some linguists believing it was a borrowing from Etruscan (see note). The first part goes back to Latin "res," which meant "matter, thing." Some linguists believe this traces back to an Indo European root "re" or "rei," others are not so certain. Regardless, Latin had "respublica," meaning "matter of the people." This gave French, a Latin-based language, "république." It seems to have been borrowed into English at some point during the 1600s. The word "public" was borrowed into English in the 1400s from French "public," which traces back to the Latin forms given above. Other Germanic languages also borrowed the word: German has "Republik" (capital "R," as all German nouns are capitalized), Dutch and Low German have "republiek," West Frisian has "republyk," Norwegian has "republikk," Swedish has "republik," and Danish has "Republik."

NOTE: Etruscan is something of a mystery language, but it was possibly related to some languages of the Aegean Sea area, including "Minoan." Etruscan was spoken in a fairly large part of what is now Italy, but it died out when Latin came to the area, although some of its words were borrowed into Latin.