From late 1923, Weimar foreign relations adopted a more collaborative approach. German politicians and diplomats began to realise the importance of rebuilding and improving relationship with other European nations. The most significant contributor to this change was Gustav Stresemann, who served as the Weimar Republic’s foreign minister for more than six years in the 1920s.
Stresemann became foreign minister after four years of tension, confrontation and hostility. The Weimar Republic’s foreign relations, particularly with France and other neighbouring states, had been poisoned by post-war animosity and disputes over reparations and the Ruhr occupation. Though Stresemann had started his political career as a nationalist, he came to recognise that Germany’s fate was inextricably linked to her place in Europe. If Germany could not restore good relations with her European neighbours, the nation would collapse from within or be pulled apart by external forces. In Stresemann’s view, it was essential for Berlin to form an effective working relationship with France, Germany’s most powerful continental neighbour, and the United States, a potential economic partner and benefactor.To achieve this, foreign governments had to be convinced that Germany wanted reconciliation and peace, not confrontation and war.
In mid-1925, Stresemann began exchanging diplomatic notes with the foreign ministers of France and Britain. These notes were less bellicose and more conciliatory than previous communications. They helped the Weimar government to form a productive working relationship with Paris and London. These exchanges led to a five-nation diplomatic conference, held in Locarno, Switzerland, in October that year. This conference culminated in the Locarno Treaties (December 1925) which established the Franco-German and Belgian-German borders and restored normal diplomatic relations between Germany and her former enemies.
