The Baltic States and Weimar Ostpolitik

John Hiden

Cambridge University Press, May 2, 2002 - History - 292 pages

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.

Contents

• II: 1
• III: 36
• IV: 63
• V: 93
• VI: 119
• VII: 142
• VIII: 171
• IX: 199
• X: 205
• XI: 206
• XII: 243
• XIII: 266

Popular passages

Page 258 - A great opportunity lost? Aspects of British commercial policy toward the Baltic states 1920- 1924 Journal of Baltic Studies 5: 364.‎

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Baltic States and Weimar Ostpolitik
• Author: John Hiden
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2002
• ISBN: 0521893259, 9780521893251
• Length: 292 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Baltic States; History / Europe / General; History / Europe / Germany; History / Military / World War I; Political Science / International Relations / General