1923 in Germany

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Decades:	1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s
See also:	Other events of 1923 History of Germany  • Timeline  • Years

Events in the year 1923 in Germany.

Incumbents

National level

• President - Friedrich Ebert (Social Democrats)

• Chancellor - Wilhelm Cuno (Non-partisan) (to 12 August), Gustav Stresemann (German People's Party) (to 30 November), Wilhelm Marx (Centre) (from 30 November)

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.^[1]
• 20 April – Julius Streicher's antisemitic newspaper Der Stürmer begins publication.^[2]
• 13 August – The First Stresemann cabinet
  was sworn in.
• 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.
• 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.^[3]
• Rentenmark as a replacement for the Papiermark to alleviate the hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic
  .
• 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 (The Rocket into Interplanetary Space)

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 (died 2008
  )
• 11 January – Ernst Nolte, German historian (died 2016
  )
• 16 January – Anton-Günther, Duke of Oldenburg (died 2014
  )
• 17 January – Horst E. Brandt, German film director (died 2009
  )
• 19 January
  • Hellmut Lange, German actor (died 2011)
  • Markus Wolf, German head of the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (died 2006)
• 9 February – Heinz Drache, German actor (died 2002
  )
• 10 March – Hans Riegel, German entrepreneur (died 2013
  )
• 15 March – Willy Semmelrogge, German actor (died 1984
  )
• 25 March – Reimar Lüst
  , German astrophysicist
• 26 March – Gert Bastian, German politician (died 1992
  )
• 22 April – Gero Wecker, German film producer (died 1974
  )
• 23 April – Reinhart Koselleck, German historian (died 2006
  )
• 23 May – Walter Wolfrum, German World War II Luftwaffe fighter ace (died 2010
  )
• 26 May – Horst Tappert, German actor (died 2008
  )
• 27 May – Henry Kissinger, German-born United States presidential advisor (died 2023
  )
• 2 June – Margot Trooger, German actress (died 1994
  )
• 9 June – Gerald Götting, German politician (died 2015
  )
• 10 June – Georg Moser, German bishop of Roman-Catholic Church (died 1988
  )
• 14 June – Judith Kerr, German-born British writer and illustrator (died 2019
  )
• 7 August – Liane Berkowitz, German resistance fighter of the Red Orchestra organisation (died 1943
  )
• 26 August – Wolfgang Sawallisch, German conductor (died 2013
  )
• 10 September – Uri Avnery, German-born Israeli writer and founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement
• 20 October – Otfried Preußler, German writer (died 2013
  )
• 21 October – Erna de Vries, German Holocaust survivor (died 2021
  )
• 22 October – Bert Trautmann, German footballer and goalkeeper (died 2013
  )
• 4 November – Harry Valérien, German sports journalist (died 2012
  )
• 5 November – Rudolf Augstein, German journalist (died 2002
  )
• Vicco von Bülow, German comedian, humorist, cartoonist, film director, actor and writer (died 2011
  )
• 15 November – Rüdiger von Wechmar, German diplomat (died 2007
  )
• 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 (died 2002
    )
  • Inge Keller, German actress (died 2017)
• 17 December – Jürgen Ponto, German bankier (died 1977
  )
• 25 December – Sonia Olschanezky, German-born French Jewish World War II heroine (executed by German) (died 1944

• philosopher (born 1865
  )
• Siegmund Guenther, German geographer, historian and naturalist (born 1848
  )
• 6 February – Gerdt von Bassewitz, German playwright and actor (born 1878
  )
• Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, physicist (born 1845
  )
• 11 February – Helmuth von Maltzahn, German politician (born 1840
  )
• 22 February – Princess Marie Elisabeth of Saxe-Meiningen, German composer (born 1853
  )
• 23 April – Princess Louise of Prussia (born 1838
  )
• 24 April – William Ernest, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (born 1876
  )
• German Imperial captain (born 1873
  )
• 3 May – Ernst Hartwig, German astronomer (born 1851
  )
• 17 May – Duke Paul Frederick of Mecklenburg (born 1852
  )
• 21 May – Hans Goldschmidt, German chemist (born 1861
  )
• 5 June – Carl von Horn, German general (born 1847
  )
• 20 June – Princess Marie of Battenberg, German writer and translator (born 1852 in France
  )
• 12 July – Ernst Otto Beckmann, German chemist and pharmacist (born 1853
  )
• 4 September – Paul Friedländer, German chemist (born 1857
  )
• 29 September – Walther Penck, German geologist and geomorphologist (born 1888
  )
• 3 November – Carl Harries, German chemist (born 1866
  )
• Theodor von der Pfordten, Nazi paramilitary (born 1873
  )
• 14 November – Ernest Augustus, Crown Prince of Hanover (born 1845
  )
• 16 November – Guido Herzfeld, German actor (born 1851
  )
• 20 November – Rudolf Havenstein, German lawyer and president of the Reichsbank (born 1857
  )
• 17 December – Paul von Krause, German politician and jurist (born 1852
  )