"Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?
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The Dangers of Printing Money
time.com
what, me worry?
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Amid runaway inflation, new bank notes were issued. This, a 50 million mark bill from 1923, was small change compared to the 100 trillion mark notes that were also being printed.
In the years following World War I, Germany took to printing money to help meet expenses. With inflation spiraling and the mark plummeting, things worsened when the French occupied Germany's industrial Ruhr region. Workers, the middle class and pensioners were hit hardest by the crisis by the crisis. Here, the Salvation Army serves hungry Berliners in the dark days of 1923.
Forget toys: with as many as 4.2 trillion marks to the dollar by late 1923, German children played in the streets with worthless money.
With dollars a prized possession, two men trade marks for U.S. currency on a street in Berlin in 1922.
The collapse of the mark made it cheaper to paper a wall with bank notes than to buy wallpaper.
Rocketing inflation in 1922 meant this grocer's cash register had to be emptied regularly, and its contents stored in a tea chest. Workers were known to collect their wages in suitcases, before spending them immediately
German marks might not have bought much back in 1923, but they were useful for lighting the stove. |
