ABSTRACT
The years from 1924 to 1929-30 are commonly described as a period of ‘relative stabilization’ of the Weimar Republic. This is true if stress is laid on the word ‘relative’. During those years unquestionable successes were scored in foreign affairs (though many Germans did not recognize them as such), and progress was made in establishing law and order and consolidating the regime; the economy also revived to some degree. But this stabilization was fragile and superficial, and appears increasingly in doubt as historians devote their attention to the middle period of the Weimar Republic. The impression, on the contrary, is one of a ‘republic of instability’ (Rudolf Morsey) or a ‘history of failure’ (Michael Stürmer) in respect of this very period. During these years, when the pressure of foreign affairs grew easier and internal quarrels were less acute than in the first stormy period after 1918, the Republic did not succeed in consolidating its political and socio-economic system so as to be capable of facing a serious crisis. Although the parliamentary and party system functioned more or less adequately for some years, no stable government emerged; and in economic and social affairs this was the very period during which relations became increasingly embittered, so that tension between hostile camps accumulated to the point of near-explosion.
