The consequences of the Great War
1918, Germany lost the war. Facing France and England at Versailles, the country had to pay both nations for the damage caused by the fighting, and the Germans experienced this episode as a deep humiliation.
As the debt was remarkably high, Germany, already in crisis during the war, raised prices and silver lost a lot of value. The people of the country saw the financial problems coming...but at least the debt was paid off.
Inflation
Inflation is a major economic crisis, because it leads to a significant rise in prices, and very often to many financial problems. In an attempt to save their savings, some people - especially the wealthy - immediately sought to invest in valuables. Stefan Zweig tells this episode from the point of view of an antique dealer, robbed by the rich and himself in a vulnerable position. For the others, already modest, the crisis will have taken away everything they owned. As the prices kept rising, the population had become very poor and life was difficult.
When the men went to war in 1914, the families already had little to survive on, and the debt that Germany owed to the enemies was too great. It is for this reason that inflation has lowered the value of the marks.
Industrialization
As in most European countries, mainly Western countries, industrialization developed strongly during the 19th century. This made it possible to enrich some people thanks to economic resources, but the industrial revolution also created the working class, the poorest and the most exploited.
Proletarians, the workers did not stop working for earning little money, and some didn't even have a job, leaving the fields where they had their farm and income before.
The consequences of inflation
Inflation was the consequence of the Great War and the sequel to financial problems that had already preceded it. In 1929, it will be the turn of the Great Depression to come and attack the morale of the Germans.
This series of crises will have seriously affected Germany, exhausted by these financial difficulties, allowing the rise of Adolf Hitler to power. He will easily promise mountains and wonders to the German people, and overcome the Holocaust.