Vossische Zeitung
- The Thoiry Talks
- Seipel–Dinghofer
- No New Control Decisions
The Vossische Zeitung of 23 October 1926 carried three political reports concerning Paris and Vienna. Its Paris service described how the German ambassador von Hoesch met Berthelot of the French Foreign Ministry and then Briand to go over the whole set of questions behind the Thoiry policy, while stressing that neither visit was an official démarche and agreeing with the Paris press that the first talk had been a non-binding general exchange. In a signed column, Karl Lahm wrote that the discredited Christian Social Party was turning back to its old leader Ignaz Seipel, and blamed provincial governors' bank speculation for the anger of the party's peasant voters. A third report relayed a semi-official denial in the Temps that the Conference of Ambassadors had taken any new decisions, but quoted its finding that German disarmament was still incomplete with regard to the police, sales of war materiel and the fortification of Königsberg.
Translation
The Thoiry Talks
Herr von Hoesch, who last evening had a first exchange of views with Berthelot, the Director-General of the French Foreign Ministry, was received today around midday by Briand, with whom he talked in detail about the entire complex of problems that make up the substance of the Thoiry policy. Neither yesterday's nor today's visit by the German ambassador to the Quai d'Orsay had the character of an official démarche, and the Paris press is quite right when it voices the supposition today that yesterday's conversation hardly went beyond a non-binding exchange of views of a general nature.
Seipel–Dinghofer
Its old leader, Dr. Ignaz Seipel, is to help the Christian Social Party rise again from a deep fall. Two years ago he had been forced to resign by the very same provincial governors who, through their failed and dishonourable banking dealings, have brought the party into disrepute. It is not among the townspeople but mainly among the peasants that the Christian Socials recruit their voters. But anyone who goes out into the countryside today hears grim words from the peasants, who have been most grievously disappointed and deceived. They would never have thought it possible that Christian Social leaders, among them men who wear the priest's cassock, would speculate and practise usury with their savings, for their own pockets.
No New Control Decisions
In a semi-official statement, the "Temps" corrects press reports that have been published about alleged decisions of the Conference of Ambassadors, which met on Wednesday. No decisions whatsoever were taken, it says. "The Conference," the communiqué declares, "examined the latest reports that the Inter-Allied Control Commission sends it every 14 days on German disarmament. It established that, according to these reports, in some cases, as had already been established earlier by the Control Commission and the Conference of Ambassadors, disarmament has not been carried out. This concerns in particular the police, the sale of war materiel, the fortification of Königsberg, etc.
Context
The Thoiry bargain behind Hoesch's visits to the Quai d'Orsay
Germany's acceptance into the League of Nations in 1926 was the most notable result of the Locarno treaties, and in the same year the German and French foreign ministers, Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann, met in the French village of Thoiry. There Stresemann pledged material support to stabilize the franc, while Briand agreed to return the Saar Basin to Germany early and to put an early end to the military control and occupation of the Rhineland. This is the 'entire complex of problems' that Ambassador von Hoesch discussed first with Berthelot and then with Briand. A German chronology of the Weimar Republic notes that the scope of the Thoiry resolutions was soon reduced because of objections from both the German and French governments, and that scholars often see Thoiry as both the peak and the endpoint of the Locarno policy. The Vossische Zeitung's insistence that neither visit was an official démarche, and that the first conversation was a non-binding general exchange, describes a stage at which the Thoiry package had not yet become formal negotiations. The chronology does not trace these particular Paris conversations, so what was said in them rests on the paper's own report.
Why the Allies still listed the police and Königsberg as open disarmament cases
The Conference of Ambassadors worked from the reports of the Inter-Allied Commission of Control, whose mandate under the peace treaties went well beyond counting soldiers. The commission was to fix the number of customs officials, local urban and rural police, forest guards and similar officials, and to receive information on the armament of fortified works, fortresses and forts. That is why the communiqué quoted in the article singles out the police and the fortification of Königsberg alongside the sale of war materiel. Findings of non-compliance had concrete consequences: an Allied inspection had found significant violations of the Versailles disarmament provisions, and the Allies' refusal to withdraw their troops from the Cologne region was the indirect trigger for the Locarno treaties. Because Briand had agreed at Thoiry to an early end of military control, the Temps's statement that no new decisions had been taken, while disarmament was still judged incomplete, mattered directly to Berlin. The control commission ceased to function in Germany on 28 February 1927, about four months after this report.
How Seipel had fallen in 1924 and returned in 1926
Ignaz Seipel was an Austrian Catholic priest and conservative politician who served as chancellor of the First Republic twice in the 1920s, which explains Karl Lahm's pointed remark about party leaders 'who wear the priest's cassock'. After fierce criticism from his own party and an assassination attempt on 1 June 1924, Seipel resigned on 8 November 1924. Lahm goes further and names the culprits: the same provincial governors who, in his account, later disgraced the party through failed bank dealings. His biography attributes the resignation to criticism from within his own party without naming the governors, so the link between the governors, the speculation with peasants' savings and Seipel's recall is the columnist's argument. What is independently established is the outcome: Seipel became chancellor again on 20 October 1926, three days before this column was printed, with Franz Dinghofer as vice-chancellor, and held office until 1929, a term marked above all by his struggle against the Social Democrats.
What the Greater German partner meant for the question of union with Germany
The headline pairs Seipel with Franz Dinghofer, the former mayor of Linz who in 1919 led the federation of seventeen German-nationalist groups that became the Greater German People's Party. That party called for the unification of Austria with Germany, and from 1921 to 1932 it was the junior partner in coalitions with the Christian Social Party, providing the vice-chancellors in the cabinets of Johann Schober, Ignaz Seipel and Rudolf Ramek. Seipel himself had a different record on the issue. In March 1919 he spoke out against the annexation euphoria of the Social Democrats and Greater Germans, and the League of Nations loan with which he reorganised Austria's finances was obtained when Austria officially renounced annexation to Germany. A Seipel–Dinghofer government therefore joined a party committed to union with a chancellor whose financial rescue rested on renouncing it. In his second term Seipel drew the Greater Germans and the Landbund into an anti-Marxist bloc, and from 1927 the Landbund took over the Greater Germans' place as coalition partner.
Original
Die Thoiry-Besprechungen
Herr v. Hoesch, der gestern abend einen ersten Gedankenaustausch mit dem Generaldirektor des französischen Außenministeriums Berthelot gehabt hat, ist heute in den Mittagsstunden von Briand empfangen worden, mit dem er sich eingehend über den gesamten Komplex der Probleme unterhalten hat, die den Inhalt der Politik von Thoiry ausmachen. Den Charakter einer offiziellen Demarche hat weder der gestrige noch der heutige Besuch des deutschen Botschafters am Quai d'Orsay gehabt, und es ist durchaus richtig, wenn die Pariser Presse heute der Vermutung Ausdruck gibt, daß die gestrige Unterredung kaum über einen unverbindlichen Gedankenaustausch allgemeiner Natur hinausgegangen sei.
Seipel-Dinghofer
Aus tiefem Fall soll der christlichsozialen Partei ihr alter Führer Dr. Ignaz Seipel wieder emporhelfen. Vor zwei Jahren hatten ihn dieselben Landeshauptleute zum Rücktritt genötigt, die durch ihre mißglückten und entehrenden Bankgeschäfte die Partei in Verruf gebracht haben. Nicht unter den Städtern, in der Hauptsache unter den Bauern rekrutieren die Christlichsozialen ihre Wähler. Wer aber heute aufs Land kommt, der hört grimme Worte der Bauern, die aufs schwerste enttäuscht und getäuscht wurden. Niemals hätten sie es für möglich gehalten, daß christlichsoziale Führer, darunter solche, die den Priesterrock tragen, mit ihren Ersparnissen spekulierten und wucherten, für die eigenen Taschen.
Keine neuen Kontrollbeschlüsse
In einer halbamtlichen Auslassung stellt der " Temps " Pressenachrichten richtig, die über angebliche Beschlüsse der Botschafterkonferenz veröffentlicht worden sind, die am Mittwoch stattfand. Es seien keinerlei Beschlüsse gefaßt worden. " Die Konferenz ", erklärt das Communiqué, " hat die letzten Berichte geprüft, die ihr alle 14 Tage die Interalliierte Kontrollkommission über die deutsche Entwaffnung zugehen läßt. Sie hat festgestellt, daß diesen Berichten zufolge in einigen Fällen, wie bereits früher von der Kontrollkommission und der Botschafterkonferenz festgestellt worden war, die Entwaffnung nicht durchgeführt ist. Es handelt sich dabei besonders um die Polizei, um den Verkauf des Kriegsmaterials, um die Befestigung von Königsberg u. a.