ABSTRACT
The foreign policy of the Weimar Republic was concerned almost entirely with coming to terms with the new Europe created by the Paris peace settlement. The initial priority was to try to soften the blow of the Treaty of Versailles. Wirth’s administration (1921-22) carried out a policy of partial co-operation, or ‘fulfilment’ concerning the reparations terms, but this did not prevent the French from invading the Ruhr in January 1923. Wirth had more success in his attempt to establish contacts with Soviet Russia, with which Germany signed the Treaty of Rapallo in 1922. This provided for mutual diplomatic recognition and for industrial and commercial co-operation.
