The Baltic States and Weimar OstpolitikThe historical and geographical significance of the Baltic Sea as a Russian gateway to the West has sometimes overshadowed its reciprocal significance as a German window on the East, but in the period after the First World War the Baltic was to become of critical importance to a German state then shorn of much international authority. This study shows in detail how the Weimar Republic sought to develop its economic influence in the newly independent Baltic states, to ensure the retention of a vital 'springboard' into Russia after 1918. At one level this book therefore presents a fresh chapter in the chronicle of Weimar-Soviet relations. In addition, however, Germany's highly successful trade policy involved competition with other Western powers, notably Britain, and necessarily had important implications for inter-war international politics: analysis of Polish and French diplomatic intentions in the region leads Dr Hiden to a wider evaluation of the whole relationship between trade and foreign policy in Weimar Ostpolitik. |
Contents
THE POLITICS OF PEACEMAKING 191920 | 1 |
The Baltic Germans as Auslandsdeutsche | 36 |
TRADE AND FOREIGN POLICY 19213 | 63 |
The politics of provisional trade treaties | 93 |
WEIMAR REVISIONISM AND BALTIC SECURITY 192333 | 119 |
The politics of arbitration Locarno and the Baltic | 142 |
CONCLUSIONS | 171 |
Common terms and phrases
active agrarian Akten betreffend politische alliance Allied Powers Auslandsdeutsche Aussenpolitik Auswärtiges Amt Baltic bloc Baltic countries Baltic Germans Baltic provinces Baltic region Baltische baltischen Bank Berlin betreffend politische Beziehungen Bolsheviks border Britain Brockdorff-Rantzau Büro von Staatssekretär Courland Crohn-Wolfgang Deutsche deutschen Deutschland zu Lettland Deutschtumspolitik East Europe Estland Estonia and Latvia European exports Finland Foreign Minister foreign policy foreign trade Freikorps German Balts German community German element German government German minority German-Latvian Germany and Russia Germany's Goltz Grundmann Hinkkanen-Lievonen ibid important industry influence interest Köster Latvia and Estonia Lettland Libau Lithuania Locarno London Maltzan Meierovics Memel memo ment military negotiations Ostpolitik peace Poland political Politik politische Beziehungen Deutschland post-war problem Randstaaten Rapallo treaty Reich German Reichswehr reparations Riga Russia Russland Schiemann Soviet Staatssekretär von Schubert Stresemann talks Tallinn tion trade agreement trade treaty Versailles Wallroth Warsaw Weimar Ostpolitik Weimar Republic Weimar Republic's Weimar-Soviet Winnig Wirtschaftsabkommen
Popular passages
Page 258 - A great opportunity lost? Aspects of British commercial policy toward the Baltic states 1920- 1924 Journal of Baltic Studies 5: 364.