Weimar Threats

... foreign exchanges in order to obtain the required hard currency. The result of this policy was that a spiral of hyper-inflation ensued, resulting in the mark becoming worthless to such an extent that the paper on which the mark was printed was worth more than the note itself. This situation of economic crisis would be expected to produce a detrimental effect on the state of the country politically. However, the contrary is true, the hyper-inflation of 1923 was, in actual fact beneficial to those elements of society intelligent enough to grasp the rare opportunity. Those who were in debt were able to pay off their debts with money that was worth next to nothing, as the more naÏve became desperate and panicked, forward thinking businessmen were able to buy large quantities of real estate, and big businesses exploited the cheap credit and inflated profits in order to create large industrial conglomerates. However, the inflationary spiral did have its losers, those who had made relatively secure investments such as war bonds lost large sums of money as they were paid back in worthless currency, the lower salary workers whose salaries were not adjusted quickly enough to keep up with the raging inflationary spiral, in a similar situation were those who relied on benefit or grants for survival. Then there were those who had little change in their situation such as farmers who managed to get by through bartering and exchanging goods for what they needed, in a similar way the small shop owners exchanged goods for essential items. However, the survival of the Weimar republic during this period was mainly due to the fact that things were not as bad as they seemed on the surface. In actual fact, this period was very positive for the new Republic in many ways, the policy of inducing hyper-inflation through printing hu ...