Dawes Plan
Enacted in 1924, it ended the crisis in European diplomacy that occurred after French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr in response to Germany's failure to meet its reparations obligations.
The Plan set up a staggered schedule for Germany's payment of war reparations, provided for a large loan to stabilise the German currency and ended the occupation of the Ruhr.
Because the Plan resolved a serious international crisis, the American Charles G. Dawes, who headed the group that developed it, received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925.
It established an interim 20 billion Reichsmarks to be paid through April 1920 and left the full details to be determined by an Inter-Allied Reparation Commission.
[1] On 5 May 1921 the Allies delivered an ultimatum to Germany demanding that it accept the London Schedule within six days and threatening to occupy the heavily industrialized Ruhr district if it did not.
[2] Germany made its first payment of one billion gold marks in the summer of 1921 but after that paid little in cash and fell behind in its deliveries of materials such as coal and timber.
[5] Radical right-wing groups instigated a hate campaign against representatives of the Republic that included the assassination in August 1921 of Matthias Erzberger, one of the signers of the Armistice of 11 November 1918, and in June 1922 of Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau.
[5] The Reparations Commission set up the Dawes committee, consisting of ten expert representatives nominated by their respective countries: two each from Belgium (Baron Maurice Houtart, Emile Francqui), France (Jean Parmentier, Edgard Allix), Britain (Sir Josiah C. Stamp, Sir Robert M. Kindersley), Italy (Alberto Pirelli, Federico Flora) and the United States (Charles G. Dawes and Owen D.
[15] Since the clause in the Dawes Plan regarding the German National Railway required a change in the Weimar Constitution and therefore a two-thirds majority in the Reichstag to pass, it was necessary for some DNVP members to vote for acceptance.
British foreign minister Austen Chamberlain shared the prize with Dawes, although his award was for the Locarno Treaties, which dealt with post-war territorial settlements.
