Germany
After the Cuno Government accepted the British terms wholesale and resolved the Ruhr crisis, what greeted it was neither flowers nor applause, but a merciless dismissal.
It had to be said that this administration's political methods were far too immature. The economy was a complete mess, and politically, things were just as tangled.
When the Ruhr crisis erupted, Germany's major political forces had all been dissatisfied with the government, yet no one had sought to bring it down. The main reason was that no one wanted to be left holding the bag. Now that the situation had stabilized, they immediately moved to overthrow the Cuno Government, which had lost its popular base.
On September 6, 1925, the German Centre Party was the first to strike, denouncing the Cuno Government as muddleheaded and incompetent at home, and as traitorous sellouts abroad. The People's Party, the Social Democratic Party, the Democratic Party, and other political forces soon joined in.
On September 12, strikes broke out in central Germany, demanding that the Cuno Government step down. Within the following week, the strike movement spread across the entire country.
Berlin's trade unions even raised the banner of overthrowing the Cuno Government and establishing proletarian rule. Proletarian political forces rapidly expanded in Germany.
Frightened, all sectors of German society also demanded the Cuno Government's resignation to prevent the situation from worsening further. Abandoned by its supporters, the Cuno Government announced its resignation on October 3.
Gustav Stresemann stepped onto the stage of history. This greatest diplomat of modern Germany changed Germany's previous policies the moment he took office, turning around the nation's perilous situation.
First, he introduced the Rentenmark to ease the havoc wreaked by hyperinflation upon German society and the economy. Because he firmly refused to print more currency, the inflation problem was