The second Stresemann cabinet, headed by Chancellor Gustav Stresemann of the German People's Party (DVP), was the ninth democratically elected government of the Weimar Republic. It took office on 6 October 1923 when it replaced the first Stresemann cabinet, which had resigned on 3 October over internal disagreements related to increasing working hours in vital industries above the eight-hour per day norm. The new cabinet was a majority coalition of four parties from the moderate left to centre-right.
During its brief time in office, the cabinet successfully introduced the new currency that ended the disastrous period of hyperinflation. It was confronted with the resumption of war reparations payments following the end of passive resistance to the occupation of the Ruhr and faced down potentially separatist state governments in Saxony, Thuringia and Bavaria.
Stresemann's second cabinet resigned on 23 November 1923 after the Social Democrats (SPD) withdrew from the coalition over the government's handling of the separatist movements. After losing a confidence vote in the Reichstag, the cabinet resigned and after a short caretaker period was replaced on 30 November by the first cabinet of Wilhelm Marx of the Centre Party.
Establishment
The first Stresemann cabinet resigned late on 3 October 1923 due to disagreement between the political parties over the extent to which the planned enabling act should give the government the power to change the length of the working day by decree. The grand coalition of the German People's Party (DVP), Social Democrats (SPD), Centre Party and German Democratic Party (DDP) was not replaced by a new configuration that included the right-wing German National People's Party (DNVP), which would have been consistent with the earlier decisions taken by the DVP Reichstag members. Since the majority of the DVP wanted to keep Stresemann in office and it proved impossible to form a different coalition under him, the original parties once again tried to form a government. Hans von Raumer (DVP) and Rudolf Hilferding (SPD) did not return, as demanded by the DVP. Raumer had resigned on 2 October, prior to the whole cabinet's resignation the next day. To replace Hilferding at the Ministry of Finance, Stresemann considered the future Reichsbank president Hjalmar Schacht but had to drop the idea after Schacht's actions during the occupation of Belgium during World War I became the subject of criticism. Hans Luther was then switched from Food and Agriculture to Finance. Von Raumer's successor was Joseph Koeth, an independent ex-officer and head of the former Ministry for Economic Demobilization. , acting Minister for the Occupied Territories, wanted to resign but was persuaded to remain in office. Finally, on 22 October, Gerhard von Kanitz, another independent who was close to the DVP and to landed interests within the DNVP, was appointed to Food and Agriculture.
Members
The members of the cabinet were as follows:
In office
The enabling act that was originally discussed in the first Stresemann cabinet was passed on 13 October. It gave the government the powers to implement by decree the measures it thought necessary to stop the ongoing hyperinflation. The most significant of the measures was the successful replacement of the all but worthless Papiermark with the stable Rentenmark on 15 November 1923. Due to a lack of gold reserves, the new currency was backed by a special forced mortgage placed on all land in Germany used for business or agricultural purposes.
The cabinet had to deal with several crucial issues that threatened Germany's integrity. The most pressing was the occupation of the Ruhr, which was closely connected to the issue of war reparations and a major cause of the economic collapse and hyperinflation brought on by the policy of passive resistance against the French and Belgian intervention.
Stresemann had announced the end of the Ruhr resistance on 26 September, but industrial production did not resume immediately. The second Stresemann cabinet was closely involved in negotiations that resulted in the , a series of treaties signed between November 1923 and September 1924 that ended the ruinous period of work stoppages in heavy industry which had resulted from passive resistance. Since the payments to the occupying nations did not reflect just a resumption of reparation payments but also included compensation for the occupation costs, they were seen as marking the failure of passive resistance and, ultimately, a capitulation by Germany to French demands.