During the cabinet's tenure, the Reichstag voted in favour of the Dawes Plan, which resolved important issues regarding the reparations payments that the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to make to the Allied victors of World War I.

Following the lapse on 15 February 1924 of the enabling act that had allowed the emergency decrees on which many of the actions of the first Marx cabinet were based, there was no prospect of the Reichstag granting an extension.

Because the need to approve and implement the Dawes Plan, which had been presented in April, would require a government able to act with decision, Marx's first cabinet stayed on until the new Reichstag assembled.

It had been drafted by a committee of experts from the victorious powers of World War I in an attempt to resolve major questions surrounding Germany's payment of reparations.

[4] In spite of the fact that the political right objected to the Dawes Plan because of its limits on German sovereignty, the Reichstag voted 314 to 117 on 29 August to accept it.

The supporters included half of the DNVP party membership,[4] which led to suspicions that they had exchanged their yes votes for promises of cabinet posts.

Marx's attempts to get the DDP to agree to tolerate a cabinet based on the Centre Party, DVP and DNVP also failed.

[6] The economic situation improved considerably in 1924, which was a key factor in the shift of votes from extreme to centrist parties in the election of 7 December.

A final attempt of Marx's to retain a cabinet based just on the Centre and DDP failed, and on 9 January he informed Ebert that he was unable to form a new government.