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Entry 210 of 240Economic

Weimar Hyperinflation

1923 CE/Central Europe/Weimar Germany
Today Germany (the Weimar Republic)Span Weimar Republic · 1919–1933

Crushed by the reparations debt imposed after the First World War, Germany printed money to pay its bills until the currency became a joke — a loaf of bread that cost 250 marks in early 1923 cost 200 billion by November, and workers were paid twice a day to spend before prices doubled again. Savings, trust, and the middle class were wiped out. It was Rome's debased denarius in modern dress — and the ruin it caused helped clear a path for a strongman.

◆ Worth knowingGerman banknotes became so worthless that people burned them for heat, papered walls with them, and gave children bricks of cash to play with — the paper was literally cheaper than firewood.
◆ The mechanismMonetary debasement

A money's intrinsic or backed value is diluted to fund obligations; confidence in it erodes, often into inflation.

Also: Debt / credit cycle · Strongman from disorder · Legitimating-narrative collapse

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