WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -With too much printed money in circulation, the value of the German Mark fell. As a result, prices of goods soared. The image of Germans carrying cartloads of currency notes to buy a loaf of bread was widely publicised. This crisis came to be known as hyperinflation.

Detailed explanation-2: -In 1923, at the most fevered moment of the German hyperinflation, the exchange rate between the dollar and the Mark was one trillion Marks to one dollar, and a wheelbarrow full of money would not even buy a newspaper. Most Germans were taken by surprise by the financial tornado.

Detailed explanation-3: -Hyperinflation is a term to describe rapid, excessive, and out-of-control general price increases in an economy. While inflation measures the pace of rising prices for goods and services, hyperinflation is rapidly rising inflation, typically measuring more than 50% per month.

Detailed explanation-4: -The Treaty of Versailles (signed in 1919) and the 1921 London Schedule of Payments required Germany to pay 132 billion gold marks (US$33 billion [all values are contemporary, unless otherwise stated]) in reparations to cover civilian damage caused during the war.

Detailed explanation-5: -The Weimar government was still in a position to get a grip on the economy; instead, it chose to print yet more money in order to pay the reparation debt. By July 1922 prices had risen by some 700 percent, and hyperinflation had arrived. The government had to print million-mark notes, then billion-mark notes.

Detailed explanation-6: -Paper money was continually pumped into the German economy, leading to devaluation and hyperinflation. By mid-1923, the nation’s central banks were using more than 30 paper factories, almost 1, 800 printing presses and 133 companies to print banknotes.