Wright - Gustav Stresemann: Weimars Greatest Statesman

Gustav Stresemann

Portrait of Dr Gustav Stresemann by Augustus Edwin John (18781961), March 1925. Oil on canvas, 43 31. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Fellows for Life Fund, 1926. Courtesy of the artists estate/Bridgeman Art Library,

WEIMARS GREATEST STATESMAN

Jonathan Wright

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Jonathan Wright 2002

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First published 2002

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ISBN 0-19-821949-0

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For Susan
Sadie, Katie and Ben

My interest in Stresemann goes back over twenty years. In this time I have accumulated many debts of gratitude and it is a pleasure to acknowledge them here. I should like to thank first the librarians and archivists who have assisted my work in Britain and Germany, particularly Dr Ludwig Biewer of the Politisches Archiv of the Auswrtiges Amt. I am grateful to Dr Markus Huttner for his expert advice on questions relating to Stresemanns university education and for answering a stream of incidental queries on other matters. I also benefited from the advice of Dr Jan Palmowski on the Wilhelmine period, from the research assistance of Patrick Cohrs and from Hartmut Mayers kind help with the proofs. Dr Karl Gutzler applied his rare skill at deciphering superseded shorthand systems to passages in Stresemanns diaries and papers. I have also benefited greatly from the generous assistance of Professor Peter Krger and for access to the papers in his possession of Stresemanns secretary of state at the Auswrtiges Amt, Carl von Schubert. I am very grateful to Dr Ludwig Richter, who generously allowed me to consult his authoritative study of the Deutsche Volkspartei before publication. I also gained valuable insights from a conference on Stresemann organized by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and Professor Karl Heinrich Pohl in March 2001. Others who have been kind enough to send me material or answer queries include Peter Alter, Herbert Behrendt, Hannelore Braun, Alan Cassels, John Dunbabin, Jrgen Frlich, Richard Grayson, Martin Grossel, Ulrich von Hehl, Gaynor Johnson, Gerd Krger, Walter Mhlhausen, Gottfried Niedhart, Jeremy and Lesley Noakes, Rafal Pankowski, Peter Parsons, Michael Prinz, Hartmut Pogge von Strandmann, Jim Read, Michael Rudloff, Christiane Scheidemann, Richard Sheppard, Brendan Simms, Holger Starke, Ronald Truman, Joachim Wintzer, Peter-Christian Witt, and Clemens Wurm. I have also received much friendly encouragement from successive history editors at Oxford University Press, most recently from Ruth Parr and Kay Rogers, and it is a pleasure to be able to thank them at last in print.

I was fortunate enough to be able to talk about Stresemann both with his elder son, Dr Wolfgang Stresemannwho also allowed me to consult his collection of family papers concerning his fatherand with Professor Theodor Eschenburg, who as a young man had become part of Stresemanns circle and himself wrote perhaps the best critical appreciation of Stresemann as a politician. More recently, Mrs Jean Stresemann kindly allowed me renewed access to the papers and responded willingly to further requests for information.

My work in Germany has been sustained and advanced over the years by many friends and in particular on countless occasions by Albrecht and Lore Tyrell, and Eckhart and Doris Hellmuth.

It is a particular pleasure to acknowledge the support I have received from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, that most generous and friendly of organizations, which it may be noted here was created with the support of the Auswrtiges Amt in 1925, reflecting the interest which Stresemann took in encouraging foreign students to come to Germany. I am also grateful to my college, Christ Church, for its support and for providing me with a congenial climate in which to teach and study, and pupils whose cheerful scepticism has forced me constantly to re-examine assumptions I might otherwise have too easily taken for granted. I should also mention my colleagues in the department of politics and international relations, who have shown great forbearance as successive research assessment exercises have found this book still in progress. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge a special debt to two Oxford colleagues who have recently retired. Anthony Nicholls first guided my interest in the history of the Weimar Republic, and the seminars organized by him and German visitors at St Antonys College have provided an invaluable focus for the study of modern German history. I also owe an enormous debt to Peter Pulzer, who nobly agreed to read and comment on the whole work in draft. He has made many helpful suggestions and saved me from many errorsthose that remain are mine alone. My greatest debt is, as in everything, to my wife Susan who has meant more to me than I can put into words, and to Sadie, Katie, and Ben. This book is also theirs.

J.W.

Frontispiece Portrait of Dr Gustav Stresemann by Augustus John, March 1925

(between pp. 174175)

Plates 18. Stresemann and his family

Plates 918. Stresemanns Career

(between pp. 366367)

Plates 1924. Stresemann in Liberal Caricature

Note: Details of provenance and copyright for the illustrations are given with the captions. I have tried to trace copyright in all cases, but if I have inadvertently infringed in any instance I hope the holders will accept my apologies. J.W.