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The Stresemann Administration
100 years ago, the German Republic of Weimar was in the throes of a legendary hyperinflation. The victorious Allies of WWI had imposed on Germany extremely high reparations payments that it couldn't possibly pay. When it failed to make its payments, the Allies occupied the Rhineland, Germany's industrial heartland, further destabilizing its already-crippled economy. Communist-led coalitions ruled Saxony and Thuringia and attempted to create communist states there. While the extreme left threatened the north, the extreme right threatened the south. Ultra-right parties carried out assassinations of public figures, and the nascent Nazis attempted to overthrow the government of Bavaria.
The second week of November was the low-water mark. November 8th was the date of the attempted Nazi coup in Bavaria, and November 12th was the date the hyperinflation of the mark had gotten so bad that printing was permanently stopped. By that point, the mark was trading at 4,210,500,000,000 marks to a U.S. dollar.
Gustav Stresemann became Chancellor in August of 1923. He introduced a new currency, the Rentenmark, to replace the virtually worthless Papiermark. This would eventually stabilize the economy. He negotiated an end to the strikes in the Rhineland and industrial production slowly but surely got back on its feet. He intervened to break the communist coalitions in Saxony. This last action was necessary, but deeply unpopular with his Socialist allies in the Reichstag. Consequently, his coalition fell apart and he lost the Chancellorship after little more than three months. Nonetheless, those three months had turned the tide and brought the Weimar republic back from the brink of complete collapse.
After being replaced as Chancellor, Stresemann continued as Foreign Minister in subsequent German governments. His many successes there included negotiation the Dawes Plan (which significantly moderated Germany's schedule of payments to the Allies) and the Locarno treaty (which admitted Germany to the League of Nations and ended its diplomatic isolation from the world). Despite multiple strokes, in his dying days he negotiated the Young Plan (a further moderation of Germany's reparations schedule) finally giving up the ghost and dying a few hours after successfully seeing the Young plan ratified.
As a result of Stresemann's many action, Germany was actually seeing significant economic growth in the second half of the 1920s. Popular discontent was down, and both the Communists and the Nazis were fading in power. He's seen by historians as the most positive figure in the Weimar republic. Unfortunately, shortly after his death, the Great Depression began, the extremists got fresh ammunition for their propaganda, and as we all know, the Nazis eventually rose to take power. Stresemann, perhaps fortunately, did not live to see any of this. At the end of his life, conditions were improving rapidly and he must have been able to look back on his record with some satisfaction.
The silver token games are 3-player games on Unification Germany, to represent the 3-way struggle for the nation between moderates, extreme leftists, and extreme rightists.
The gold token games are large escalating games on Hive (CC's largest map) to represent hyperinflation.
Your final score is a product of the two (multiply your score in silver games times your score on gold games.)
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LINK TO NOVEMBER SCOREBOARD
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Settings -- Silver
Map: Unification Germany only
Players Per Game: 3
Game Type: Standard
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Flat Rate
Reinforcements: Unlimited
FOG: YES
TRENCH: NO
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public
Settings -- Gold
Map: Hive only
Players Per Game: 11 or 12
Game Type: Standard
Initial Troops: Automatic
Play Order: Sequential
Spoils: Escalating
Reinforcements: Any
FOG: NO
TRENCH: NO
Round Limit: 20 or 30
Round Length: 24 Hours or 2 Minute Speed
Joinablility: Public
Medal Criteria
4,210,500,000,000 points are required for a medal, and both kinds of token.
Tokens are for wins only.
Each Silver victory is worth 341,992 points.
Each Gold victory is worth 683,983 points.
Your final score is a product of the two (multiply your score in silver games times your score on gold games.)
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Notes
- *No sign-ups required. Monthly Challenge FAQs.
- Games must start between CC Time: 2023-11-06 09:00:00 and CC Time: 2023-11-30 23:59:59 to be considered for the challenge.
- Wins will count until CC Time: 2023-12-31 23:59:59.
- Any issues will be solved by Dukasaur, and His word is final.
