ABSTRACT
The pattern of Weimar Germany’s foreign policy differs markedly from that of her political and cultural life. Most importantly of all, Germany’s frontiers were re-drawn and she was compelled to yield territory to several of her neighbours. Brockdorff-Rantzau, the Republic’s first foreign minister, believed that Germany would be able to play an important role in European reconstruction. In Germany conservatives and monarchists, comprising approximately half the population, were particularly vehement in their opposition; such elements wanted to restore not only the values and institutions of the Empire but also its power and territory. Germany was disarmed and surrounded by enemies, and at least in the 1920s her loss of sovereignty and military power made treaty revision difficult or even impossible. The limitations on Germany’s freedom of action, her dependence on the West and her ability to loosen at least some of the bonds which tied her are all illustrated by the Locarno Treaty of 1925.
