Gustav Stresemann, Germany (1878-1929)
German statesman and Chancellor (1923), Gustav Stresemann was born in Berlin. Entering the Reichstag in 1907 as a National Liberal, he became leader of the Party, and later founded the German People's Party. After World War I, he supported the new republic and sought to restore Germany's status in Europe. He was briefly Chancellor of the new German (Weimar) Republic, then minister of foreign affairs (1923-9).
By pursuing a policy of conciliation, he was the main architect of the pacts by which it was hoped to build a permanently peaceful Europe. He signed the Locarno and Kellogg-Briand Pacts and secured the evacuation of the Rhineland by foreign troops six years before the appointed date, and negotiated the entry of Germany into the League of Nations (1926). He shared the Nobel Peace Prize for 1926 for his role in negotiating the Locarno Treaty which settled Germany's western borders and ended its isolation.