Zitate von Gustav Stresemann

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Gustav Stresemann

Geburtstag: 10. Mai 1878
Todesdatum: 3. Oktober 1929

Gustav Ernst Stresemann war ein deutscher Politiker und Staatsmann der Weimarer Republik. Stresemann begann als industrieller Interessenvertreter, war ab 1917 Partei- und Fraktionsvorsitzender der Nationalliberalen Partei und nach der Novemberrevolution und der Gründung der DVP deren Parteivorsitzender. Im Krisenjahr 1923 war er Reichskanzler und danach bis zu seinem Tod in unterschiedlichen Kabinetten Reichsminister des Auswärtigen.

In seine kurze Zeit als Reichskanzler fallen das Ende der Ruhrbesetzung, Umsturzversuche der extremen Rechten und Linken sowie die Stabilisierung der deutschen Währung. Als Außenminister hat er insbesondere zur Normalisierung der Beziehungen zu Frankreich beigetragen. Sein Ziel war es, die außenpolitische Isolierung Deutschlands zu beenden und eine Revision des Versailler Vertrages auf friedlichem Weg zu erreichen. Maßgeblich war seine Mitwirkung unter anderem 1924 beim Zustandekommen des Dawes-Plans oder bei den Verträgen, die während der Locarno-Konferenz 1925 abgeschlossen wurden. Dies trug zur Aufnahme des Deutschen Reiches in den Völkerbund 1926 bei. Im selben Jahr wurde ihm zusammen mit seinem französischen Amtskollegen Aristide Briand der Friedensnobelpreis verliehen.

Zitate Gustav Stresemann

„Man höhnt und spottet über das Frankfurter Parlament in der Paulskirche, man höhnt und spottet über die damalige Revolution. Auch für uns gilt das Wort: Wohl dem, der seiner Ahnen gern gedenkt! Es waren die Ahnen des deutschen Liberalismus, die damals in der Frankfurter Paulskirche wirkten, und jedes Parlament könnte stolz sein, wenn es auf der geistigen Höhe stände, auf der einst das Frankfurter Parlament gestanden hat.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Reichstagsrede vom 26. Oktober 1916, in: Stenogr. Berichte des Reichstags Bd. 308 S. 1819-1823. Zitiert nach: Gustav Stresemann. Reichstagsreden. Herausgeber Gerhard Zwoch. Verlag Bertelsmann Gütersloh, 1972. S. 49

„Great Germany can only be created on a republican basis.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Speech (13 April 1919), quoted in Jonathan Wright, Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 135.

„The spirit of the National Assembly was not our spirit... On that account we stood for and still stand for the old flag of the Reich. On that account we hold fast to the memory of our glorious army and our fleet that we have now passed away, and of the pioneers of German colonisation, whose civilising influence was greater than that of other nations that now dispute our right to any colonial activity.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Speech to the Congress of the People's Party in Hanover (March 1924), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), pp. 346-347.

„When it is a matter of deciding what amount of work might be demanded of the individual, this question concerns not only the people affected, but must be settled for the benefit of the State and on the basis of moral considerations. The admirable thing about the old Germany was that she considered herself as a mediator and held it to be her duty to take into account the interest of the State first of all. The new Germany must have no other task!... We are stripped of power and we must try to regain, little by little and by means of compromises, our rank as a Great Power.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Speech to the People's Party Congress (11 October 1924), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 352.

„I am delighted to inform you that in yesterday's sitting of the Cabinet it was unanimously agreed that your application of last August for authority to return to Germany should be sanctioned in principle... While acquainting Your Imperial Highness of the Cabinet's decision, I cannot forbear expressing my own personal pleasure that this decision was given by the Cabinet on my proposal, and, as I may permit myself to add, as reached unanimously and without objection or criticism, after my statement had been heard.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Letter to the ex-Crown Prince (24 October 1923), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), pp. 328-329.

„The more clearly we express it that the whole weight of our future victories will lie on our enemies, the more, in my opinion, will it tend to shorten the war. We have covered a considerable distance towards peace. The Entente no longer has any possibility of beating us economically. Do they think they can beat us militarily, now that our position in the West has become better that it ever was? If the statesmen of the Entente wanted understanding, they ought to have taken advantage of the situation now, when the Reich Chancellor has offered them the hand of understanding. They are playing a wanton game with their misguided peoples. Let the example of Russia be a warning to them. Russia, which offered us the hand of understanding, could have obtained a good peace of understanding if she had not risked this peace through the arrogance of Trotsky. May this struggle bring us victory, but may it also bring the benefits of this victory for Germany's future.“

— Gustav Stresemann

„There are States with which we are at odds, and which could not be in any case our natural allies... It is thus my opinion that the interests of Germany do not coincide with those of the small Powers.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Diary entry (October 1927), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 412.

„We... would nevertheless make it clear that entirely independent political structures are impossible here [in the Baltic]... They cannot lead an isolated existence between the colossi of West and East. We hope that they will seek and find this support with us. The German occupation will have to continue for a long time, lest the anarchy we have just been combating should arise again. We shall have to safeguard the position of the Germans, a position consistent with their economic and cultural achievements... Herr Scheiddemann, said that we have made ourselves new enemies in the world through our push in the East... Had we continued the negotiations, we should still be sitting with Herr Trotski in Brest Litovsk. As it is, the advance has brought us peace in a few days and I think we should recognise this and not delude ourselves, particularly as regards the East, that if by resolutions made here in the Reichstag or through our Government's acceptance of the entirely welcome initiative of His Holiness the Pope, we had agreed to a peace without indemnities and annexations, we should have had peace in the East. In view of our situation as a whole, I should regard a fresh peace offer as an evil. My chief objection is against the detachment of the Belgian question from the whole complex of the question of peace. It is precisely if Belgium is not to be annexed that Belgium is the best dead pledge we hold, notably as regards England. The restoration of Belgium before we conclude peace with England seems to me an utter political and diplomatic impossibility... There is a great difference between the first set of terms at Brest-Litovsk and the ultimatum that we have now presented, and the blame for this change rests with those who refused to come to an agreement with Germany and who, consequently, must now feel her power. We are just as free to choose between understanding and the exploitation of victory in the case of the West, and I hope that these eight or fourteen days that have elapsed between the first set of peace terms in Brest-Litovsk and the second set, may also have an educational effect in that direction.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Speech in the Reichstag (25 February 1918), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), pp. 159-160.

„I hope that you will be in agreement with me when I be you to do everything possible to prevent Hindenburg's retirement. We must under no circumstances bear the responsibility before the bar of history for having overthrown Hindenburg. I feel that even the abdication of the Kaiser would be easier to bear than the retirement of Hindenburg.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Letter to the Chief of the National Liberal Party in Prussia, quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 208, n. 2.

„International indebtedness involves not only the usual slavery of debt, but the interest of the creditor nations in the debtor country.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Article for Zeit (20 April 1924), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 348.

„It is absolutely necessary to strengthen the Government. We must have a Government that in case of necessity will shoot. Germany cannot stand Bolshevism fomenting mischief. There must be shooting. Perhaps we shall bring Noske back— he was a good man, and shot in case of necessity. Even the Majority Socialists agree that order has go to be maintained with vigour.... The truth is the German people cannot stand a President in a high hat. They think he looks peculiar at a review. They must have a military uniform with plenty of orders.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Remarks to Lord D'Abernon (17 October 1922), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 327.

„If one wants to avoid war in Europe for a long time, then one must remove the things which are unsettling to a certain extent, and they include the separation of Germany from East Prussia which in my opinion is unpolitical and is seen as oppressive. But it is not at all an immediate question and certainly not a question of war.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Letter to Rauscher (8 March 1924), quoted in Jonathan Wright, Gustav Stresemann: Weimar's Greatest Statesman (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 269.

„We regard the ultimate aim of our efforts as the establishment of a German popular monarchy.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Interview with The New York Times (4 April 1924), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 347.

„The renunciation of war indemnities, which has been greatly lauded in some quarters here, does not appear to me only in the shining light of the conciliation it will lead to, but, as a citizen, I also see it in the light of the colossal burdens to which Germany will be exposed if this struggle ends without war indemnities.“

— Gustav Stresemann

„We agree to recognise Lithuanian independence on condition that the desire of the Lithuanians for a military convention and a customs, monetary and postal union with Germany, communicated to us some time ago by a Lithuanian delegation, still remains. For to be candid, the idea of full independence for these peripheral countries seems to me to be purely theoretical and impracticable... The whole development of world politics shows that we have not only great and powerful individual countries like Germany on the one hand and Britain and France on the other, but associations of States fighting against each other... I do not believe in Wilson's universal League of Nations, I think that after the peace it will burst like a soap bubble. Great and powerful complexes of nations with hundreds of millions of inhabitants, armies of millions of men and exports amounting to thousands of millions, will be confronting each other. In the circumstances such small fractional nationalities will not be able to exist in complete independence, without seeking to lean on one side or the other. Just as there is no independent Belgium in the sense that it gravitates towards one side or the other, so it is not possible to conceive of a completely independent Lithuania, Balticum or Poland without that provisio.“

— Gustav Stresemann

„Let us celebrate Bismarck's memory by making the great idea of his life, devotion to the Fatherland, the guiding star of our own lives. Each of us in the place where he can do his best work. Each of us is responsible for helping the country rise again to that greatness for which Bismarck, who also knew an Olmuetz, prepared the way.“

— Gustav Stresemann
Speech (1 April 1928), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany. From Defeat to Conquest 1913-1933 (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1945), p. 417.

Zitate von Gustav Stresemann

Gustav Stresemann

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Zitate Gustav Stresemann

„Great Germany can only be created on a republican basis.“

„There are States with which we are at odds, and which could not be in any case our natural allies... It is thus my opinion that the interests of Germany do not coincide with those of the small Powers.“

„International indebtedness involves not only the usual slavery of debt, but the interest of the creditor nations in the debtor country.“

„We regard the ultimate aim of our efforts as the establishment of a German popular monarchy.“

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Franz Müntefering20

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