Locarno: The Forgotten Conference of 1925

Largely forgotten to history, the Locarno Conference of October 1925 was a turning point in the interwar European diplomatic landscape. The conference initiated the re-integration of Germany into the international order and laid the foundations for a more stable international system, even if it did not last for long.

The Locarno Conference was, in a sense, a dividing line between the end of The Great War (World War I), in which Germany was to be relegated to the sidelines of European diplomacy, and a post-Locarno order in which Germany was to be re-admitted into the international order as a central actor in it. 

As a result of the Locarno Conference, Germany became a member of the League of Nations, from which it had been intentionally excluded. Indeed, Germany became a permanent member of the Council of the League of Nations (the parallel of the Security Council of the United Nations).

Germany recognized the boundaries on her western front that had been agreed upon – or imposed on Germany – following the Great War. As far as the frontiers on her eastern front were concerned, Germany refused to recognize them officially, but committed itself to modify them only by peaceful means.