Convenor: Roman Köster (Historische Kommission, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) 

Venue: GHIL

The Dawes Plan, adopted at the London Conference from 16 July to 16 August 1924, celebrates its centenary next year. Researchers generally regard it as an important step towards stabilising the situation in Germany. It marked the beginning of the "good years" of the Weimar Republic until 1929, before the Great Depression brutally destroyed the improvement of conditions that had been achieved up to that point. However, such a perspective centred on the Weimar Republic fails to recognise that, in the eyes of the negotiators and many contemporaries, the Dawes negotiations were about much more: The complex treaty represented nothing less than an attempt to stabilise the global economy in the long term. After the chaotic post-war period, which many contemporaries saw as a continuation of the world war by other means, the global economy was to be returned to the growth-friendly path of liberal world trade and the global division of labour. The conference is focussing on the Dawes Plan, in order to open up new perspectives on the economic and financial history of the interwar period. At the same time, their significance for the political history of the 1920s will be emphasised.

Conference programme (PDF file)