2008, Volume 14, N°2 - Centre d'études et de recherches ...

Book reviews – Comptes rendus – Buchbesprechungen 171
politique. Livrant une étude à la fois courte et foisonnante, le regretté Pierre du
Bois démontre l’intérêt pour un universitaire confirmé de se livrer au difficile
exercice de la synthèse dans un domaine - l’histoire de l’intégration européenne -
où la littérature très spécialisée est maintenant abondante.
Laurent Warlouzet
Assistant (ATER) à l'Université Paris IV-Sorbonne
Jonathan WRIGHT, Gustav Stresemann. Weimar’s Greatest Statesman, Oxford
University Press, Oxford, 2004, ppbck 588 p. – ISBN-10 0199273294 – ISBN-13
978-0199273294 – 42,99 €.
Since the end of World War Two Gustav Stresemann has been the subject of a wide
range of research and scholarly publications in German, English and French. With
the exception of the both magisterial and massive monograph by Christian
Baechler 1 none of them can come up to the biography written by the Oxford
historian Jonathan Wright – both in its sheer length and its rich documentary and
archival base. 2 The author thus was fully prepared to address the major issues
raised by Stresemann’s political biography.
The heart of the debate regarding Stresemann’s achievements concerns the
fundamental political integrity and sincerity of this highly gifted political tactician.
The question is twofold: First, did this ardent imperialist of the time before
Germany’s defeat really become a convert to a diplomacy of international
reconciliation and peaceful change? Secondly, was Stresemann, the former
monarchist, really committed to the parliamentary democracy of the Weimar
Republic? Or was he merely the opportunist that many of his contemporary and ex
post critics saw in him?
Wright is far from denying the discrepancies between Stresemann’s foreign
policy stance before and after 1918: His pre-war hostility vis-à-vis Great Britain as
Germany’s imperial rival “unsurprisingly” (Wright) turned into a radical
annexationism during World War One combined with the underestimation of
America as contributor to the Allies’ war effort. Still, as Wright demonstrates,
Germany’s defeats first during the war and then in 1923 in the Ruhr conflict
convinced Stresemann of the utter powerlessness of his country and the necessity
of observing henceforth strictly non-violent methods for promoting its interests -
which above all meant a revision of the Versailles Treaty. The obvious question
then arises whether Stresemann’s conversion can be judged as a definite one.
Wright is inclined to answer this question affirmatively. In line with previous
historiography he shows that Stresemann’s break with his imperialist past was
1. Chr. BAECHLER, Gustave Stresemann (1878-1929). De l’impérialisme à la sécurité collective,
Presses universitaires de Strasbourg, Strasbourg, 1996.
2. Meanwhile a translation into German has come out: J. WRIGHT, Gustav Stresemann 1878-1929:
Weimars größter Staatsmann, Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart, 2006.