Chapter 481： Ruhr crisis

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The arrival of 19 years did not make Europe more peaceful, but felt a strong atmosphere of tension at the beginning of the year. Because on January 11, France disregarded the opposition of the United Kingdom and the United States, united with Belgium, and sent troops to occupy Germany’s Ruhr Industrial Zone under the pretext of Germany’s non-fulfillment of its indemnity obligations. This led to the outbreak of the far-reaching Ruhr crisis.

Due to the intense consumption of the war and the needs of the newly added Alsace-Lorraine industry in France, France's domestic raw material reserves, especially coal, are seriously insufficient, and the shortage of funds is still a serious problem. Originally, the French government hoped that the Treaty of Versailles would bring huge indemnities, but because Germany delayed the payment of indemnities on the grounds of inflation.

The French Prime Minister Raymond Poincaré is a hardliner against Germany. As early as the opening ceremony of the Paris Peace Conference, Poincaré gave a speech, denounced the German Empire as "born in unrighteousness and dying of shame."

And he also criticized Clemenceau for making too much concession to England on the Falsai contract. It can be said that he can be regarded as France's toughest politician against Germany.

And when Poincaré came to power in 1922, he declared in the parliament: "The top priority facing France, even with the problem of reparations, Germany has the ability to pay the reparations, and the Allies can force him to pay the reparations in full.

At the London meeting in mid-August, Britain and France did not reach any agreement on the German issue. On the contrary, Poincaré said, “Although France is empty-handed, it is not bound.”

What makes Poincaré so confident is also the reason why France plays a dominant role in the compensation commission.

The Treaty of Versailles stipulated that Germany should pay 20 billion gold mark compensation before May 1, 1921, and set up a compensation committee to solve the problem of total compensation and distribution ratio. The committee is based in Paris and is composed of one representative from Britain, France, Italy, and Belgium (the United States only sent semi-official representatives because it refused to approve the peace treaty). The representative of France is the chairman, and he has the right to make a final ruling with two votes each, so that France is in a de facto leadership position on the issue of German reparations.

In order to prevent Germany from failing to pay the compensation, the Allies reached an agreement in April 1920: If Germany does not pay the compensation, the Allies can take sanctions. In July of the same year, the Indemnity Committee held a meeting with the participation of Germans in Spa, and stipulated the proportion of the amount of indemnity that each country should receive. However, Germany delayed payment. By the beginning of 1921, the payment of 20 billion gold marks was still short of about 12 billion.

So at the London meeting held in March 1921, the Compensation Committee forced Germany to accept the compensation schedule stipulated by the Allied Powers. Germany refused, and the Allied Powers decided to impose sanctions on Germany, and on March 8 they occupied Dusseldorf on the east bank of the Rhine. Seldorf, Duisburg and Ruhr Oort.

In April of the same year, the Indemnity Committee decided that Germany’s total indemnity was 132 billion gold marks (including the 12 billion that Germany had not paid before May 1, 1921).

On May 5, the committee issued a payment schedule and an ultimatum to Germany, requiring Germany to pay 2 billion gold marks and 26% of the value of its exports each year, and required that the 1921 payment must be delivered by the end of May. Compensation of 1 billion gold marks. If Germany does not make a satisfactory answer by May 12, the Allied Powers will occupy the Ruhr.

This led to the downfall of the German Feerenbach cabinet. The Werth cabinet, which replaced it, accepted the total compensation and the payment schedule on May 11, and by August Germany paid the 1 billion gold mark in compensation.

After Germany has paid the above-mentioned indemnity, it intends to delay future payments. In July and November 1922, Germany requested a postponement of the remaining payments on the grounds of the financial crisis. The British government supported Germany's request and proposed a plan to reduce the total amount of compensation and defer payment, but it was firmly opposed by France.

As a result, not only the differences between Britain and France on the issue of reparations intensified, but also the conflict between Germany and France rapidly intensified, and France decided to take military action against Germany.

The Ruhr Industrial Zone is an important industrial zone in Germany. It is located in western Germany, between the Ruhr and Lippe, a tributary of the lower Rhine. Its area is 4,593 square kilometers, accounting for 1.3% of the country's area. The population and cities in the region are dense, with a population of 5.7 million, accounting for 9% of the national population. The population density in the core area exceeds 2,700 people per square kilometer, and there are 24 cities in the region with more than 50,000 people. Regardless of the small Ruhr area, it is the center of the German metallurgical industry. Its coal, pig iron and steel output accounts for more than 80% of Germany's annual production.

So in the face of the military takeover of the French-Belgian coalition forces, German Chancellor Kuno ordered passive resistance. Announcing the cooperation between the different French and Belgian occupation authorities, recalling the ambassador to Paris and the minister in Brussels, and stopping all compensation to France and Belgium. The miners and railway workers in the occupied areas went on strike or slow-down struggle, and all railway and waterway traffic from Germany to France and Belgium was paralyzed.

The French and Belgian occupation authorities have adopted compulsory measures to control the management, production and distribution of coal, prohibit the export of commodities in the occupied areas, and impose coal taxes and other customs duties. All Germans who participated in passive resistance, including their families, were arrested, imprisoned, fined, deported and even executed.

The German government also wrote to the Allied Powers and the U.S. government, emphasizing that Germany will continue to resist passively until normal conditions in the Ruhr and Rhineland regions are restored. The note suggested that the total compensation in Germany was 30 billion gold marks, and part of the compensation was paid by international loans. France believes that the German proposal has no substantive content, and the United Kingdom is also disappointed with the German proposal.

Throughout the summer thereafter, France refused to negotiate despite the British mediation. Due to the loss of the Ruhr heavy industrial zone and the huge subsidies to the occupied areas, Germany's financial and economic difficulties became more and more difficult, and the value of the mark plummeted. In mid-June 19, 100,000 marks exchanged for 1 U.S. dollar, and on August 8, it fell to 0 million marks exchanged for 1 U.S. dollar.

The Kuno government resigned on August 12 in the face of internal and external crises. g. After Strasman succeeded as prime minister, he reformed finance and currency, suppressed the workers' revolution, and announced that he would cease passive resistance from September 26.

He asked several times to negotiate directly with the French government, but France refused, so he supported the coal industry syndicate to negotiate with the international industrial and mining control delegation and the Fabirul District Control Committee.

On November, the two parties signed an agreement stipulating that: the coal industry syndicate will resume delivery of coal and coke to the Allied countries. As compensation in kind for Germany, France and Belgium will receive 18% of the total coal production and 35% of the total coke production; from October 1st Since the coal mined is owned by the coal industry syndicate, for every ton of coal sold, a tax of 10 francs is paid to the Allied Powers.

Through this agreement, France achieved its goal of taking Germany's "production collateral". Attitudes towards the German compensation issue have eased, and the Ruhr crisis is coming to an end. On November 30, the Compensation Commission appointed two expert committees to discuss and resolve the German compensation issue. Among them, the report of the First Committee of Experts on April 9, 1924 (commonly known as the Dawes Plan), was accepted by the Allied Powers and the German government attending the London Conference (July 16 to August 16, 1924), thus temporarily Solved the German compensation issue.

On August 16, France, Belgium and Germany reached an agreement. Within one year of the implementation of the Dawes plan on September 1, the French and Belgian troops will withdraw from the Ruhr and other areas.

In fact, the Ruhr crisis ostensibly was caused by disputes over German-French indemnities, but the underlying cause was the deep insecurity in France and the contradiction between France and Germany. In the eyes of French leaders, given Germany's industrial base, population size, and geographic location, it is easy for Germany to make a comeback. Once the German economy recovers and its armaments are restored, France's nightmare will repeat itself.

Therefore, at the Paris Peace Conference, France strongly advocated weakening Germany, even dismembering Germany, and eliminating Germany's industrial and military capabilities forever. However, this plan was opposed by the United States and the United Kingdom, and President Wilson tried to use the collective security mechanism of the League of Nations to contain Germany to ensure the security of France. However, the United States did not join the League of Nations after the war, which caused France to worry about its own security.

The final outcome of the Ruhr crisis seems to be the ultimate victory for France. In reality, however, the catastrophic chain consequences of this crisis are far more terrible than the indemnity that France has received. First of all, the most direct damage caused by this crisis is that France's international status has been greatly hit.

During the French occupation of Ruhr, the franc also experienced a sharp depreciation due to the crisis. In order to stabilize the economy, France had to borrow a lot like the United Kingdom and the United States. During the negotiations on the issue, the leading power had to be handed over to Britain and the United States, which are interested in supporting the recovery of the German economy.

Another disaster is on the German side. Many veterans, led by Hitler and others, were originally deeply dissatisfied with the Weimar government's series of weak diplomatic measures after the war. The Ruhr crisis is nothing less than an excellent propaganda material for these nationalisms.

It is obvious that the Weimar government’s weakness and passive resistance policies have brought harm to Germany. Although the reconciliation between Germany and France and economic growth made it difficult for these extremist forces to obtain too much support, when society fell into crisis and turmoil , Turning the Ruhr crisis out again was a fatal blow to the Weimar government.