Rathenau becomes the Weimar Republic’s foreign minister …
Years: 1922 - 1922
Rathenau becomes the Weimar Republic’s foreign minister in 1922.
Rathenau seeks reconciliation with the victorious powers, institutes measures toward meeting Germany's reparations obligations, and concludes the Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and the USSR.
The Rapallo treaty cancels Germany's war debt to the USSR, extends to the Soviet government its first diplomatic recognition, and enables Germany to construct and test new weapons secretly in the USSR.
In 1922, Germany signs a treaty with the Soviet regime and Japan, grants Germany’s former China concession, and makes peace with the Chinese republic.
Benito Mussolini seizes power in 1922 and establishs a fascist regime in Italy.
The crushing war reparations placed on Germany’s economy by the Allies prepare the way for the rise of the National Socialist Party, or Nazis, a fascist organization based on the governmental precepts of Italy’s Mussolini.
As inflation has mounted, Germany suspends payment of reparations in 1922.
Nationalist elements in Germany loathe Rathenau both as a Jew and as a representative of the Weimar government.
One of these groups assassinates Rathenau in Berlin in June, 1922.
Outspoken anti-Semite Henry Ford allegedly bankrolls Hitler during this period.
According to a 1922 New York Times article about Hitler, “The wall beside his desk in Hitler’s private office is decorated with a large picture of Henry Ford.
in the antechamber there is a large table covered with books, nearly all of which are translations of books written and published by Henry Ford.” The anti-Nazi Berliner Tageblatt, a German newspaper, calls on the American ambassador to investigate Ford’s funding of Hitler.
Gandhi is imprisoned in 1922 for civil disobediance.
US troops fight Turkish nationalists in Smyrna, 1922.
Turkey defeats the advance of the Greeks.
Modern Turkey, minus its Empire and Sultan, is formed under Mustapha Kemal (Ataturk).
