The 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.
Introduction; Part I. The Politics of Peacemaking 1919–20: 1. German–Russian perspectives; 2. The Baltic German as Auslandsdeutsche; Part II. Trade and Foreign Policy 1920–3: 3. The springboard concept; 4. The politics of provisional trade treaties; Part III. Weimar Revisionism and Baltic Security 1923–33: 5. Randstaatenpolitik; 6. The politics of arbitration: Locarno and the Baltic; Conclusions; 7. Trade, minorities and Ostpolitik; Map; Tables; Abbreviations; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
Overview
The 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' ...