The government used emergency decrees to handle Germany's deep economic problems caused by hyperinflation and large budget deficits.

When the authorization for the economic emergency decrees expired, it faced pressure to repeal many of the measures it had implemented and called for new elections in May 1924.

The Stresemann government resigned following its loss in a confidence vote in the Reichstag on 23 November but remained in office in a caretaker capacity.

[1] Initially, the Centre (including Marx personally) refused to nominate a candidate for chancellor or to take the lead in coalition negotiations.

On 25 November, the President asked former Treasury minister Heinrich Albert to form an independent cabinet, but the idea was vetoed by the parties.

Although the right-wing DNVP was ready for some concessions, they demanded that members of their party be included not just in the national cabinet but also in the Prussian state government.

Rudolf Oeser and Anton Höfle [de] stayed on, with the latter also taking over the Ministry for the Occupied Territories, recently created under Stresemann.

The enabling act of 8 December 1923[3] gave the cabinet wide-ranging powers that made it possible for Marx to complete the currency reform begun under Stresemann's chancellorship with the introduction of the Rentenmark.

[4] The first Marx cabinet maintained the unity of the nation by dealing with Bavaria, the occupied territories and the left-wing uprisings in Thuringia and Saxony.

[4] As Marx said in his government statement of 4 December 1923 when he asked the German people for understanding and the willingness to make additional sacrifices, the question was one of the very survival of the nation as a whole.

The parliament met on 20 February, and several draft laws were presented aimed at undoing some of the government's decrees, notably on taxes, working hours and cuts to the public workforce.

The DNVP in conjunction with the Agricultural League had the largest parliamentary group (105 seats versus the SPD's 100), and demanded to be included in the government in a leading role.

[6] Since the implementation of the Dawes Plan, which was intended to resolve the problems surrounding Germany's World War I reparations, required a government able to act with decision, the cabinet wished to stay on until the new Reichstag assembled.

Coalition talks started on 21 May, but the DNVP refused to agree to the Dawes Plan, which they had labelled a "second Versailles" during the election campaign.