To: NOW who wrote (42726 ) 12/14/2005 2:16:11 AM From: Lee Lichterman III Read Replies (1) | Respond to Yes, the Nazis and communists. -ggg-johndclare.net The impact of hyperinflation within Germany was uneven. Some profited from it. Adroit speculators like the tycoon Hugo Stinnes made fortunes, and industrialists and landowners who owed money were able to pay off their debts in devalued currency. Others were able to escape the worst - those, for example, whose wealth took the form of property or those with goods or skills which could be readily bartered. Initially the working class suffered comparatively little because trade unions ensured that wages kept pace with rising prices, but as 1923 wore on their position deteriorated. The principal losers in 1923, though, were those with cash savings, many but not all of whom were in the middle class (the Mittelstand). Middle-class savers experienced the trauma of seeing the value of their savings completely wiped out. A German landowner bought, on credit, a whole herd of valuable cattle. After a certain time he sold one cow from the herd. Because of the depreciation of the mark, the price he got for it was enough to pay off the whole cost of the herd On the other hand landowners and industrialists came out of the crisis well, because they still owned their material wealth - rich farming land, mines and factories. This strengthened the control of big business over the German economy. Some historians have even suggested that the inflation was deliberately engineered by wealthy industrialists with this aim in mind. However, this accusation is impossible to prove one way or the other, though the currency and the economy recovered remarkably quickly.
