Gustav Stresemann | |
---|---|
Chancellor of Germany | |
In office 13 August 1923 – 23 November 1923 |
|
President | Friedrich Ebert |
Preceded by | Wilhelm Cuno |
Succeeded by | Wilhelm Marx |
Foreign Minister of Germany | |
In office 13 August 1923 – 3 October 1929 |
|
Chancellor | Himself (1923) Wilhelm Marx (1923–1925, 1926–1928) Hans Luther (1925–1926) Hermann Müller (1928–1929) |
Preceded by | Hans von Rosenberg |
Succeeded by | Julius Curtius |
Personal details | |
Born |
Berlin |
10 May 1878
Died | 3 October 1929 Berlin |
(aged 51)
Political party |
National Liberal Party (1907–1918) German Democratic Party (1918) German People's Party (1918–1929) |
Gustav Stresemann (10 May 1878 – 3 October 1929) was a German politician and statesman who served as Chancellor in 1923 (for a brief period of 102 days) and Foreign Minister 1923–1929, during the Weimar Republic. He was co-laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1926.
His most notable achievement was the reconciliation between Germany and France, for which he and Aristide Briand received the Nobel Peace Prize. During a period of political instability and fragile, short-lived governments, he was generally seen as the most influential cabinet member in most of the Weimar Republic's existence. During his political career, he represented three successive liberal parties; he was the dominant figure of the German People's Party during the Weimar Republic.
Stresemann was born on 10 May 1878 in the Köpenicker Straße area of southeast Berlin, the youngest of 7 children. His father worked as a beer bottler and distributor, and also ran a small bar out of the family home, as well as renting rooms for extra money. The family was lower middle class, but relatively well-off for the neighbourhood, and had sufficient funds to provide Gustav with a high-quality education. Stresemann was an excellent student, particularly excelling in German literature and poetry. In an essay written when he left school, he noted that he would have enjoyed becoming a teacher, but he would only have been qualified to teach languages or the natural sciences, which were not his primary areas of interest. Thus, he entered the University of Berlin in 1897 to study political economy. Through this course of studies, Stresemann was exposed to the principal ideological arguments of his day, particularly the German debate about socialism.