Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Hyperinflation In
Germany
- Reparations
- Germany managed to pay off the first 2
billion gold marks of reparations
- Mostly paid in goods, e.g. coal, iron
and wood
- 1922- Germany were
unable to make further
payments
- The allies did not believe this
- Attitudes towards Germany were
still very hostile
- They were accused of trying to 'get
out of' their reparation
responsibilities
- French occupation of the Ruhr 1922
- The Ruhr was Germany's most
valuable industrial area
- French troops took
over iron and steel
factories, coal mines
and railways
- Broke the rules of the
League of Nations
- Weimar Government
ordered passive
resistance
- Ended in violence, and the death of 132 Germans
- 150,000 were
expelled from their
homes
- The striking workers had to be paid
and the people expelled from their
homes had to be looked after
- The Government printed more money
- Caused a further loss of
confidence in the Weimar
government
- Figures and Statistics
- By 1922 a loaf of bread cost 163 marks
- September 1923 bread was 1,500,000 marks
- November 1923- reached a peak of
200,000,000,000 marks
- Dawes Plan 1924
- Set realistic targets for German
reparations.
- Set the figure at 50 million instead of 2 billion
- US government
loaned Germany
200 million
- Impact of Hyperinflation
- Workers were paid by the hour and rushed to
spend money before it became more worthless
- Shopping with
wheelbarrows full of
money
- Pensions became
worthless
- Restaurants did not print menus, as by the time food
arrived the price had increased
- In the winter of 1923 the poor
burned furniture to stop themselves
freezing
- The savings and investments of the
middle classes vanished