On the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Rapallo Treaty April 16, Alexander Hartmann, Editor of the weekly Neue Solidarität released this statement (computer translated from the German,) instructive for resolving today’s crisis, by presenting the principle of the common interest among nations for mutual economic development. (https://www.solidaritaet.com/neuesol/2022/15/index.php)
April 14, 2022 (EIRNS)—One hundred years ago, on April 16, 1922, Germany, represented by Foreign Minister Walther Rathenau, and the Russian Soviet Federative Republic, represented by Foreign Minister Georgi Chicherin, concluded the Treaty of Rapallo, in which they agreed to resume diplomatic and economic relations according to the principle of most-favored-nation treatment.
At that time, Germany’s economic livelihood, with the help of the Treaty of Versailles, was to be “destroyed,” in order to keep the Anglo-American financial system alive with the help of reparations payments imposed on Germany. Like Russia today, Russia and Germany were economically “isolated” at that time. Both sides tried to escape this isolation through economic cooperation.
Similarly, there were efforts from German industry at that time, led by the industrialist Otto Wolff, to cooperate with the young Chinese republic then led by Sun Yat-sen, especially in the construction of a Chinese railroad network as conceived by Sun Yat-sen in his writing The International Development of China.
The opportunity for a peaceful way out of the crisis was missed in 1922. Walter Rathenau was assassinated, only two months after the conclusion of the Rapallo Treaty. The attempt to pay Germany’s reparation debts with the help of the money presses, failed in 1923, with the infamous hyperinflation. The German population became impoverished and thus became the plaything of extremist forces. The same forces that had already imposed the Treaty of Versailles on Germany, now helped install fascist regimes in Italy, Germany, Spain and France, paving the way for World War II, which cost the lives of between 60 and 100 million people worldwide, depending on estimates. Economic policies amounted to imposing austerity on the population, while at the same time, beginning the buildup of arms for World War II.
