Planning your next Berlin walking tour, well then this next Fork and Walk Tour edition will give you some food for thought. At Fork & Walk Tours we’re as much about Berlin history as Berlin food!
It has been another very interesting past few days in Berlin history and the world at large. The legend of boxing and activist Muhammad Ali died. In 1985 Dr Josef Mengele known for his horrible experiments on concentration camp prisoners was found dead floating in the sea at Sao Paolo, Brazil. Also, Frozen foods are sold commercially for the first in 1930. We at Fork & Walk Tours Berlin are another step closer to beginning our Berlin walking tours and filling your stomachs full of tasty local food.
But nearly most significant of all in terms of history, and specifically Berlin history, was the introduction and acceptance by the German Reichstag of the Dawes Plan.
Now, of course, I don’t want to ignore the significance of the passing of the great Muhammad Ali (or our upcoming walking tour and food tour Berlin). Growing up I watched his video replies of his fights and listened and repeated those famous wordy interviews. Ali was iconic on a Sports front and as a representative of Black rights. Those famous fights will always be a sports fan true point of reference. The “Thriller in Manila” and “The Rumble in the Jungle” will be watched over and over again by generations to come.
Berlin history – The Dawes Agreement
Lets get back to true turn in history, The Dawes agreement of 1924. Only 6 years after the end of World War I. Germany was forced to pay huge reparations in the Treaty of Versailles, signed on 28 June 1919. In the document controversially claim the responsibility for causing all the loss and damage during the war. The total amount was assessed at 132 billion Marks, equivalent to 442 billion Euros in 2016. However 6 years later it was seen that Weimer Germany was no in state to pay back the large sums. It went into hyperinflation and it was only going to get worse.
Russia was an ever growing concern for the US, England, Italy and France. They feared communism and the rise of powers in Russia. If Weimer Germany remained weak and broken, this would open the door for German citizens to either turn to Communism and/or Russia‘s imminent entry into a rapidly falling Germany. The Dawes Plan of 1924 represented by the USA, UK, Italy, Belgium and France, was intended to re-float Weimer Germany’s economy in a 4-step process:
- Return the Ruhr to the Germans, which was occupied by French and Belgium troops. This was a large industrial zone, previously Germany’s most economic zone.
- Reparations payments were restructured to make them more German Friendly, by payments basically being reduced
- The restructuring of the Weimer’s national bank, the Reichsbank
- But most significant was the Americans agreement to loan Weimer Germany large sums of money to be invested in the economy. Sounds familiar right…
If we look at history and reference it to current day 2016, we see some startling repeat events. The long-standing Greece bailout and the fear of the EU that a start role-on-effect would occur with other struggling EU countries to pull out of the EU.
Berlin history – Was the Dawes Plan a success?
The Dawes Plan was not exactly a success. 5 years later on 11 February 1929 the Young Plan was drawn up to again, restructuring the reparations. This occurred right before the Wall Street Crash of October 29, 1929, which many say was the main reason behind the January 1933 induction of Adolf Hitler as the Chancellor of Germany. These following events changed the world forever. For today that is all folks. We will approach the development of these events at a later stage.
We look forward to sending through the next update on Fork and Walk Tours Berlin and tell you how much longer you need to wait until you can book your Berlin walking tours until then, keep that belly empty and ready to filled by our delicious sightseeing tour and some intriguing Berlin history!
Until then,
Your team @ Fork and Walk Tours Berlin
Berlin Walking Tours | info@forkandwalktoursberlin.com
