STRESEMANN, GUSTAV 7_-1929), German states man, was born in Berlin on May Io, 1878, son of Ernst Strese mann, a wholesale beer merchant. He was educated at the Berlin gymnasium and at the universities of Berlin and Leipzig, where he studied philosophy and political economy, and became promi nent as leader of the Allgemeiner deutscher Burschenbund. After receiving his doctorate, he entered Saxon industry, first as assistant, afterwards as Syndic. The industry of Saxony was at the time disunited and neglected by the authorities; but Stresemann's energy promoted its union in the Verband siichsischer Industrieller, and its advance to the first place in the great Band der Industriellen for all Germany. The Bund der Industriellen was a keen antagonist of the Zentralverband der deutschen Industrie, the central association of the heavy industry. Stresemann's energy and capacity for organization raised his own association into a position in which it could effectively counter the "heavy industry" and agrarian influences everywhere in Germany. Simultaneously he secured for the finishing industries proper influence in the Saxon Chambers; he himself entered the German Reichstag at the age of 28. His brilliant oratorical gifts and his activity attracted the attention of Bassermann, the leader of the National Liberal party, to which Stresemann belonged. Bassermann and Stresemann were among the leading figures in the pre-war German Reichstag.
War and Revolution.—Stresemann, who became the leader of the National Liberal party in 1917, on Bassermann's death, advocated energetic prosecution of the war, while also urging that Germany should be prepared for peace, if acceptable peace terms were offered her. He was one of the sharpest opponents of Beth mann-Hollweg, whom he reproached with indecision and weakness.
After the outbreak of the revolution and the defeat of Germany, Stresemann tried to unite the forces of Liberalism in Germany, and after the failure of this attempt, founded the German People's party, as successor of the National Liberal party. This party was at first monarchist, but gradually changed to republicanism, as Stresemann himself did. In the Weimar National Assembly Strese mann voted for rejection of the Treaty of Versailles, which he considered intolerable and impossible for Germany to fulfil. The German People's party, led by him, soon, however, entered the Government, left it again a little later, and re-entered it in 1923, after which date the party, through Stresemann, exercised a strong influence over Government policy.
Reconstruction.—When the struggle in the Ruhr (q.v.) was at an end and the mark currency in complete collapse; when sepa ratist movements, supported by France, in the Rhineland, Fascist movements in Bavaria and Communist movements in Saxony and Thuringia threatened German unity, Stresemann took office as chancellor and minister of foreign affairs, at the head of the so called "Grand Coalition," embracing all parties from the Social Democrats to the German People's party. He assumed the re sponsibility for liquidating the battle in the Ruhr, and attempt ing to open up negotiations with France. The basis for this was afforded by the Dawes report. In domestic policy, this ensured the stabilization of the currency which Stresemann carried through with the help of Hilferding and afterwards Luther, as ministers of finance; it paved the way for an international loan for Ger many to restart her industrial life, and fixed Germany's next pay ments, and called for the restoration of Germany's economic sovereignty in the Rhineland.
Stresemann resigned his Chancellor's portfolio when the Social Democrats refused to follow him, on account of the most energetic measures which he took against the Communists in Saxony. He retained the portfolio of Foreign Affairs in the succeeding cabinets formed by Marx, Luther, Marx again, and Muller. On signing the agreement based on the Dawes plan in London, Stresemann succeeded in obtaining the evacuation of the Ruhr and of the towns of DUsseldorf, Duisburg and Ruhrort, under certain conditions.
The peace policy which Stresemann—as Briand explicitly ad mitted—had inaugurated, led eventually to the signature of the Locarno Pact (q.v.), the first attempt to find a European solution on a peaceful basis, which also resulted in Germany's entry into the League of Nations. Stresemann's services in the cause of European peace were recognized by the award of the Nobel Prize. Despite many difficulties, he continued undaunted to work for the further development of peace, and was one of the first to declare his readiness to sign the Kellogg Pact.
Stresemann married Kathe Kleefeld, by whom he had two sons. He died at Berlin on Oct. 3, 1929.
His collected speeches and writings have been issued under the title Stresemanns Reden and Schriften (2 vols.) . See the biography (1928) by Rochus von Rheinbaben (Eng. trans. Stresemann, the Man and the Statesman, 1929). (R. FR. v. R.)