1923 in Germany

Incumbents

National level

• Friedrich Ebert

• Wilhelm Cuno to 12 August, then from 13 August Gustav Stresemann to 30 November, then Wilhelm Marx

  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.
• 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.
• 9 November – Members of the National Socialist German Workers Party, led by Adolf Hitler, fail in a coup attempt to overthrow the Bavarian government in Munich, Germany which is later known as the Munich Putsch or Beer Hall Putsch.
• 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 – Center 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

Births

• 8 January:
• * Joseph Weizenbaum, German computer scientist
• * 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 A. 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
• 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
• 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
• 12 July – Ernst Otto Beckmann, German chemist and pharmacist
• 4 September – Paul Friedländer, German chemist
• 29 September – Walther Penck, German geologist and geomorphologist
• 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