comment on the economic crisis of 1923 and its effect on Gemany
Answers
The birth of the Weimer Republic coincided with the uprising of the Spartacist League on the pattern of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. The Sparta cists founded the Communist Party of Germany. Political radicalisation was heightened by the economic crisis of 1923. As Germany refused to pay the war reparations, France occupied its leading industrial area, Ruhr. Germany retaliated with printing paper currency recklessly. The value of the mark collapsed. Prices of goods soared. There was hyperinflation.
1924–1928 saw some stability, yet it was built on sand.
German investments and industrial recovery were totally dependent on short-term loans, largely from the USA. this support was withdrawn when the wall street exchange crashed in 1929.
by 1932, industrial production was reduced to 40 per cent of the 1929 level. workers lost their jobs or were paid reduced wages
the number of unemployed touched an unprecedented 6 million.
the economic crisis created deep anxieties
the middle classes, especially salaried employees and pensioners, saw their savings diminish when the currency lost its value.
the sections of society were filled with the fear of proletarianisation, an anxiety of being reduced to the ranks of the working class, or worse still, the unemployed