The Downfall of Money: Germany’s Hyperinflation and the Destruction of the Middle Class (58 page)

 
  
3
   Kessler,
Diaries of a Cosmopolitan
, p. 197.

 
  
4
   See Gomes,
German
Reparations, 1919-1932
, p. 110.

 
  
5
   Figures in Hosfeld and Pölking,
Wir Deutschen: 1918 bis 1929
, p. 106.

 
  
6
   See Conan Fischer,
The Ruhr Crisis, 1923-1924
, Oxford, 2003, p. 40.

 
  
7
   Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 631f.

 
  
8
   Fischer,
The Ruhr Crisis
, p. 35.

 
  
9
   Account of Keynes’s visit, with quote from his address, in
Niall Ferguson,
Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation
,
1897
-
1927
, Cambridge, 1995, p. 358f.

 
10
   See the telegram containing these details sent by Foreign Minister Rosenberg to the German ambassador in Paris for his information, 12 January 1922, in Winfried Becker (ed.),
Frederic von Rosenberg: Korrespondenzen und Akten des deutschen Diplomaten und Außenministers 1913-1937
, Munich, 2011, p. 227.

 
11
   Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 635.

 
12
   Fischer,
The Ruhr Crisis
, p. 86.

 
13
   Ibid., p. 39.

 
14
   Price,
Dispatches from the Weimar Republic
, p. 151.

 
15
   See Koch,
der Deutsche Bürgerkrieg
, p. 334.

 
16
   Price,
Dispatches from the Weimar Republic
, p. 159.

 
17
   
Pörtner
,
Alltag in der Weimarer Republi
k
, p. 188.

 
18
   See the article at the local railway website, http://www.eisenbahn-in-dalheim.de/historie.htm.

 
19
   Gomes,
German Reparations, 1919-1932
, p. 120.

 
20
   Fischer
,
The Ruhr Crisis
, p. 208f.

 
21
   Winkler,
Weimar 1918-1933
, p. 194. Krupp was released after seven months when the Berlin government finally abandoned passive resistance in the Ruhr.

 
22
   Ibid.

 
23
   Ibid. Also Fischer,
The Ruhr Crisis
, p. 169.

 
24
   Koch,
Der deutsche Bürgerkrieg
, p. 339.

Chapter 19: Führer

 
  
1
   Winkler,
Weimar 1918-1933
, p. 81.

 
  
2
   See Winkler
,
Der Lange Weg Nach Westen
, p. 436.

 
  
3
   Koch,
Der deutsche Bürgerkrieg
, p. 334f.

 
  
4
   Kershaw,
Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris
, p. 192.

 
  
5
   ‘“An Army of Revenge”. Munich Fascist Threats’, in
The Times
, 15 January 1923, p. 10.

 
  
6
   ‘Militarism in Bavaria. Fascist Movement Spreading’, in
The
Times
, 22 May 1923, p. 11.

 
  
7
   ‘Aggressive Bavarian Nationalists. Demonstration in Force’, in
The Times
, 11 June 1923, p. 11.

 
  
8
   Text of interview reproduced in Truman Smith and Robert Hessen,
Berlin Alert:
The Memoirs and Reports of Truman Smith
,
Stanford, CA, 1984,
p. 61.

 
  
9
   Quoted in William L. Shirer,
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
, London, 1973, p. 62.

Chapter 20: ‘It Is Too Much’

 
  
1
   See Ernest Hemingway, ‘The German Inflation’, in
Toronto Star
, 19 September 1922, reproduced in William White (ed.)
, Dateline Toronto: The Complete Toronto Star Dispatches, 1920-1924
, New York, 1985, pp. 266
-
9. And for the following quotes.

 
  
2
   See the article by Hemingway reproduced as part of ‘The Hemingway Papers’ at
http://ehto.thestar.com/marks/a-canadian-with-1000-a-year-can-live-very-comfortably-and-enjoyably-in-paris
.

 
  
3
   Quoted in Friedrich,
Before the Deluge
, p. 125.

 
  
4
   ‘Anti-Foreign Movement in Germany. Speculation in Houses’, in
Observer
, 26 November 1922, p. 8.

 
  
5
   ‘That Cheap Holiday in Germany. Berlin Planning a Tax for Foreigners’, in
Manchester Guardian
, 2 May 1922, p. 10.

 
  
6
   ‘Fleecing the Foreigner. Germans Ready for the Tourist’, in
The
Times
, 20 May 1922, p. 9.

 
  
7
   Paul Ferris,
The House of Northcliffe: Biography of an Empire
, London, 1971, p. 265.

 
  
8
   Rates as in
Finanz- und Handelsblatt der Vossischen Zeitung
, 1 March 1923 (evening edition), p. 4.

 
  
9
   ‘Paper Money. The Foreigner in Germany’, in
Manchester Guardian
, 1 March 1923, p. 4. And for the quote immediately below.

 
10
   See Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 534f.

 
11
   ‘Der Schauspielerstreik (Gespräch zwischen Theaterdirektor, Schauspieler und Kritiker)’, in
Die Weltbühne
, XVIII. Jahrgang, Nr 49, 7 December 1922, pp. 601
-
5.

 
12
   See Feldman,
The
Great
Disorder
, p. 536.

 
13
   Ibid., p. 537.

 
14
   Kurt Wolff, ‘Brief an Eulenberg’, in
Die Weltbühne
, XX. Jahrgang, Nr 5,31 January 1924, p. 136.

 
15
   Wehler,
Deutsche
Gesellschaftsgeschichte
, Bd. 4, p. 331.

 
16
   Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 707.

 
17
   Ibid., p. 574.

 
18
   See Wehler,
Deutsche
Gesellschaftsgeschichte
, Bd. 4, p. 331f.

 
19
   See ‘Auszüge aus dem Tagebuch des Konrektors und Kantors August Heinrich von der Ohe aus den Jahren 1922/1923’ at the website
Kollektives Gedächtnis
, http://www.kollektives-gedaechtnis.de/texte/weimar/ohe/inflation1923.htm.

 
20
   See the website of the
Kleingartenverband München
at http://www.kleingartenverband-muenchen.de/fileadmin/Downloads/Chronik%20des%20%20Verbandes.pdf.

 
21
   Figures on garden clubs and egg production in Niehuss, ‘Lebensweise und Familie in der Inflation’, in
Die Anpassung an die Inflation
, p. 252f.

 
22
   Pörtner,
Alltag in der Weimarer
Republik
, p. 404 (Erich Mende). See also ibid., p. 420 (Wilhelm Krelle): ‘We did not need to go hungry. My father often travelled on a Sunday to Rietzel, where my grandfather’s farm was, and then returned with a rucksack full of food.’

 
23
   Wehler,
Deutsche
Gesellschaftsgeschichte
, Bd. 4, p. 277. The process of urbanisation resumed during the ‘golden’ era between 1924 and 1929, only to undergo another reversal during the Great Depression. As the economy recovered after 1933, the exodus to the cities picked up once again, and, despite all the Nazi propaganda about ‘blood and soil’, increased during the Hitler dictatorship at a far faster rate than at any time since the beginning of the century.

 
24
   ‘Life To-Day in Berlin’, in
Sunday Times
, Sunday, 11 February 1923, p. 11.

 
25
   Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 701.

Chapter 21: The Starving Billionaires

 
  
1
   See Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 642f. A lot of experts, including most vociferously Hilferding and Bernhard, had for some time criticised the Reichsbank for refusing to intervene. No currency, they said, had ever collapsed to such an extent with as much gold available as was then contained in the vaults of the Reichsbank.

 
  
2
   Feldman,
The Great Disorder
,
p. 647.

 
  
3
   Ibid., p. 657: ‘Of all those who had ruled Germany since 1918 . . . Cuno was the least suitable person to guide his nation out of the morass. He profoundly misread the political situation and the way in which he could use his powers most effectively.’

 
  
4
   ‘Mark Exchange Chaos’,
in
The Times
, 20 July 1923, p. 11.

 
  
5
   ‘Money & Stocks’, in
Manchester Guardian
, 24 July 1923, p. 11.

 
  
6
   ‘The Death of the Mark’, in
Manchester Guardian
, 27 July 1923, p. 9.

 
  
7
   Heinrich von der Ohe, diary,
Kollektives Gedächtnis
website, as above.

 
  
8
   Quoted in Alexander Jung, ‘Nationales Trauma’, in
Spiegel-Geschichte
4/2009
available online at http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/spiegelgeschichte/d-66214356.html and translated into English as ‘Millions, Billions, Trillions: Germany in the Era of Hyperinflation’, in
Spiegel-Online
(English language edition), 14 August 2009.

 
  
9
   Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 573.

 
10
   Ibid., p. 542.

 
11
   Grosz,
A Small Yes and a Big No!
,
p. 142f.

 
12
   Kessler,
The Diaries of a Cosmopolitan
, 5 February 1919, p. 64.

 
13
   Grosz,
A Small Yes
and
a Big No!
,
p. 101f.

 
14
   Quoted in Hosfeld and Pölking,
Wir Deutschen: 1918 bis 1929
, p. 33.

 
15
   
Pörtner
,
Alltag in der Weimarer Republik
, p. 74.

 
16
   For the story of Celly de Rheidt’s career, see Peter Jelavich,
Berlin Cabaret
, Cambridge, MA, 1996, pp. 155ff.

 
17
   Ibid., p. 158.

 
18
   Article from the
Niederdeutsche Zeitung
, November 1922, quoted in Feldman,
The Great Disorder
, p. 556.

 
19
   Friedrich,
Before the Deluge
, p. 127.

 
20
   Pörtner,
Alltag in der Weimarer Republik
, pp. 101ff.