1923 in Germany

Events in the year 1923 in Germany.

Incumbents

National level

Events

11 January – French and Belgian troops enter the Ruhr in the Occupation of the Ruhr because of Germany’s refusal to pay war reparations, causing strikes and a severe economic crisis.
20 April – Julius Streicher's antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer begins publication.
13 August – The First Stresemann cabinet was sworn in.
15 September – Germany's bank rate is raised to 90% due to hyperinflation. See 1920s German inflation.
26 September:
* Chancellor Gustav Stresemann calls for an end to passive resistance and protests by Germans against the French and Belgian Occupation of the Ruhr.
* The German government declares a state of emergency under Article 48 of the German Weimar Constitution. It will last until February 1924.
October — as part of the German October, German communists scheme to seize power in the Weimar Republic.
6 October – The Second Stresemann cabinet was sworn in.
21 October – A separatist government is formed in the Rhineland Palatinate and is quickly recognized by the French government.
23 October – The communist Hamburg Uprising begins with left-wing extremists' attacks against numerous police stations in Hamburg and the erection of barricades. By the end of 24 October, the uprising was defeated.
9 November – In the Beer Hall Putsch, key members of the Nazi Party and their sympathizers, including Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring and Erich Ludendorff, attempt a coup against the German government. The coup attempt is crushed and fifteen Nazis are killed by the Bavarian Landespolizei. The killed would-be putschists are later designated as the movement's key "blood martyrs". The Blutfahne used during the coup attempt becomes a key artifact of Nazi party mythology.
15 November – The value of the German Papiermark falls to 4.2 mark to the United States dollar causing the German government to issue the Rentenmark as a replacement for the Papiermark to alleviate the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic.
23 November – Gustav Stresemann resigns as German Chancellor after a vote of no confidence from members of the government.
30 November – The First Marx cabinet was sworn in.
1 December – Centre Party member Wilhelm Marx forms a new coalition government becoming the new German Chancellor.
8 December:
* Germany signs an economic treaty with the United States.
* The Reichstag passes an enabling act empowering the government to take all measures it deems necessary and urgent with regard to the state of emergency.

Popular culture

Arts and literature

Hermann Oberth publishes ''Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen''

Art

Max Beckmann made a self-portrait of himself holding a cigarette. The painting is currently housed at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Wassily Kandinsky painted his Composition VIII while he was working at the Bauhaus school of art in Weimar. This completely non-representational work exemplifies his ground-breaking movement toward abstraction.

Births

8 January – Joseph Weizenbaum, German computer scientist
11 January – Ernst Nolte, German historian
16 January – Anton-Günther, Duke of Oldenburg
17 January – Horst E. Brandt, German film director
19 January
* Hellmut Lange, German actor
* Markus Wolf, German head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance
9 February – Heinz Drache, German actor
10 March – Hans Riegel, German entrepreneur
15 March – Willy Semmelrogge, German actor
25 March – Reimar Lüst, German astrophysicist
26 March – Gert Bastian, German politician
22 April – Gero Wecker, German film producer
23 April – Reinhart Koselleck, German historian
23 May – Walter Wolfrum, German World War II Luftwaffe fighter ace
26 May – Horst Tappert, German actor
27 May – Henry Kissinger, German-born United States presidential advisor
2 June – Margot Trooger, German actress
9 June – Gerald Götting, German politician
10 June – Georg Moser, German bishop of Roman-Catholic Church
14 June – Judith Kerr, German-born British writer and illustrator
7 August – Liane Berkowitz, German resistance fighter of the Red Orchestra organisation
26 August – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor
10 September – Uri Avnery, German-born Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement
20 October – Otfried Preußler, German writer
21 October – Erna de Vries, German Holocaust survivor
22 October – Bert Trautmann, German footballer and goalkeeper
4 November – Harry Valérien, German sports journalist
5 November – Rudolf Augstein, German journalist
12 November – Vicco von Bülow, German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer
15 November – Rüdiger von Wechmar, German diplomat
22 November – Hanna Maron, German-born Israeli actress
15 December:
* Uzi Gal, German-born Israeli gun designer, best remembered as the designer and namesake of the Uzi submachine gun
* Inge Keller, German actress
17 December – Jürgen Ponto, German bankier
25 December – Sonia Olschanezky, German-born French Jewish World War II heroine (died 1944

Deaths

1 February – Ernst Troeltsch, theologian and philosopher
3 February – Siegmund Guenther, German geographer, historian and naturalist
6 February – Gerdt von Bassewitz, German playwright and actor
10 February – Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, physicist
11 February – Helmuth von Maltzahn, German politician
22 February – Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen, German composer
23 April – Princess Louise of Prussia
24 April – William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
11 March – Karl von Müller, German German Imperial captain
3 May – Ernst Hartwig, German astronomer
17 May – Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg
21 May – Hans Goldschmidt, German chemist
5 June – Carl von Horn, German general
20 June – Princess Marie of Battenberg, German writer and translator
12 July – Ernst Otto Beckmann, German chemist and pharmacist
4 September – Paul Friedländer, German chemist
29 September – Walther Penck, German geologist and geomorphologist
3 November – Carl Harries, German chemist
9 November – Theodor von der Pfordten, Nazi paramilitary
14 November – Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover
16 November – Guido Herzfeld, German actor
20 November – Rudolf Havenstein, German lawyer and president of the Reichsbank
17 December – Paul von Krause, German politician and jurist