100 Years Ago: 1925 Was a Big Year for Peacemakers

As the new year of 1926 approached, there were a lot of congratulations being passed between the various diplomatic ministries of the participants in the recent World War.  Various actions seemed to have secured a long lasting peace. We know in hindsight that none of those statesmen saw the worldwide Great Depression  a few years in the future or the next big war.  Nevertheless, the accomplishments of the various statesmen and politicians of those days are worth remembering and admiring.

As representatives for all the many individuals determined to see the catastrophe of 1914–1918 not be repeated, I've chosen here to present the Nobel Peace Prize recipients for c. 1925.  There were so many worthy recipients during this period that the Nobel Peace Prizes for achievements in 1925 were spread over three years.

I think it's fitting to remember the peacemakers of a century past, all honored in their time with the Nobel Peace Prize.

• Charles Gates Dawes, United States

Nobel Peace Prize 1925

Charles Dawes received the Peace Prize for 1925 for having contributed to reducing the tension between Germany and France after the First World War.

Dawes's background was as a lawyer and businessman. He came into politics when he headed the presidential election campaign of the Republican candidate William McKinley in 1896. McKinley won but was shot in 1901, and Dawes returned to business life. Dawes did not return to public life until the USA entered World War I in 1917. He was sent to Europe as an officer, and was put in charge of all supplies to the Allies at the front. He was elected vice president of the United States in 1924.

After the war, the Germans resented France's occupation of parts of the country, intended to force them to pay reparations. Tension between the two countries rose. Dawes headed an international committee set up to assess Germany's situation. In 1924, the committee presented the Dawes Plan. Germany was granted American loans enabling it to pay indemnity. In return, France ceased its occupation.

• Sir Austen Chamberlain, United Kingdom

Nobel Peace Prize 1925

Austen Chamberlain shared the Peace Prize for 1925 with the American Charles Dawes. Austen Chamberlain grew up in a family of well-known British politicians. His father, Joseph, was a member of several governments and an eager “empire builder.” His half-brother, Neville, was prime minister when Hitler started World War II in 1939.

Austen Chamberlain studied in France and Germany before entering politics in the Conservative Party. He joined the government in World War I and took part in the peace negotiations at Versailles in 1919. Chamberlain became foreign secretary in 1924 and gave Britain's support when the German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann initiated negotiations in the Swiss town of Locarno aimed at Franco-German reconciliation.

• Aristide Briand, France

Nobel Peace Prize 1926

The French foreign minister Aristide Briand shared the Peace Prize for 1926 with the German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann. They were awarded the prize for reconciliation between Germany and France after World War I.

Aristide Briand pursued a career in the French Socialist Party after having read law at the Sorbonne. He entered the government in 1906 and spearheaded the devolution of France's state church. From 1909 on, he was prime minister for various periods, including during the war.

The war convinced Briand that a peace treaty must not lay the foundations for a revanchist war. He accordingly opposed the harsh treatment meted out to Germany after the war. Briand was also critical of the French occupation of parts of Germany as a means of obtaining war indemnity. In 1925 he signed a reconciliation agreement with Germany in the Swiss town of Locarno. Briand later made unsuccessful attempts to persuade the USA to guarantee France's security.

• Gustav Stresemann, Germany

Nobel Peace Prize 1926

The German foreign minister Gustav Stresemann shared the Peace Prize for 1926 with the French foreign minister Aristide Briand. They were honored for having signed an agreement of reconciliation between their two countries in the Swiss town of Locarno in 1925.

Before entering politics and becoming foreign minister, Stresemann had studied literature, history and economics and worked in business. In 1907 he was elected to the German Reichstag. In the field of foreign policy, he stood out as an eager imperialist who demanded “a place in the sun” for Germany.

During World War I, he supported Germany's annexation of territories from neighboring countries. But with the war going badly, he believed that Germany should sue for peace. He was shocked at the harsh terms accorded Germany at the peace negotiations in 1919 but opposed the idea that Germany should sabotage the peace treaty. Stresemann was prime minister for a short time in 1923, before as foreign minister initiating reconciliation with France.

• Ferdinand Buisson, France

Nobel Peace Prize 1927

Ferdinand Buisson grew up under the nineteenth-century dictatorship of Emperor Napoleon III. He studied philosophy and pedagogy, and moved to Switzerland so as to be able to work, think, and write freely. All his life he was committed to the advancement of democracy and human rights.

After the Franco-German war (1870–71) and the Emperor's fall, Buisson returned to France, where he became professor of pedagogy at the Sorbonne. He took a stand against the anti-Semitism in French society, and in 1902 he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the Radical Socialists. There he also became a spokesman for women's suffrage.

In World War I, Buisson denounced Germany as the aggressor but was strongly opposed to the harsh treatment to which it was subjected after the war. He feared it would lay the foundations for a revanchist war on Germany's part and arranged meetings aimed at Franco-German reconciliation. This work gained him the Peace Prize together with the German Ludwig Quidde.

• Ludwig Quidde, Germany

Nobel Peace Prize 1927

Ludwig Quidde was awarded the Peace Prize in 1927 for his lifelong work in the cause of peace. He shared the prize with the Frenchman Ferdinand Buisson.

Quidde had a doctorate in history but received no official appointments because of his opposition to the German Kaiser. He became a member of the International Peace Bureau and endeavored to reduce the hostility between Germany and France after the Franco-German war.

In 1907 he was elected to the German Reichstag, and later became president of the German Peace Society. During World War I, he spoke against Germany's annexation of territory from neighboring countries, and as a result he was placed under political surveillance. Quidde was disappointed at the harsh treatment of Germany after the war, but continued to work against rearmament and German revanchism. When Hitler came to power, he fled to Switzerland, where he lived for the rest of his life.

Interestingly, no Nobel Peace Prizes were awarded in 1928. Possibly,  it was sensed or detected that movement had started toward another world war.  Although, on the other hand, an award was made in 1930 to U.S. secretary of state Frank Kellogg for having been one of the initiators of the Briand-Kellogg Pact of 1928, prohibiting wars of aggression. While it failed to prevent another world war, it did establish a legal rationale for prosecution of war instigators.

Sources: All the material above was found at the various websites of the Nobel Prize Committee