Germany 1923: Hyperinflation, Hitler's Putsch, And Democracy In Crisis, Ullrich - B

                      Nineteen twenty three was postwar Germany's annus horribilis, the year in which just about everything that could go wrong did. Yet somehow the fledgling democracy survived.

                     "On January 11, French and Belgian troops marched into the industrial Ruhr Valley," because  the Germans weren't keeping up with the reparations owed the Allies. The occupation met with universal outrage. Successful German passive resistance led to the arrest of business leaders, including the chief executives of Thyssen and Krupp. In March, thirteen Krupp employees were killed by French soldiers. Soon, German acts of sabotage thwarted shipments to France. The Allies, the German government, management and labor continued to posture and negotiate into the summer, at which point the government's cost of supporting the people of the Ruhr Valley began to accelerate inflation. The government fell in August. Currency devaluation and inflation meant that everything cost a million marks or more. By the middle of 1923, the mark slid from 5000 to the dollar at the beginning of the year to over a million. By November, the exchange rate was 830 billion marks to a dollar. The continuing loss of value was devastating at all levels of society. A lost war followed by revolution and national poverty led many to lose faith in the country. 

                    Gustav Stresemann became Chancellor and Foreign Minister on August 13th. He renounced passive resistance, implemented currency reform, and achieved agreement with the Allies to revisit Germany's ability to pay reparations. When the communists joined in coalition governments in Saxony and Thuringia, the Reichswehr threatened to intervene because of widespread fear of revolution.  The potential for a communist uprising faded when the Comintern withdrew its support. The right, particularly in Bavaria,  continued to call for the end of the republic and the enthronement of a Bismarck-like messiah. The Munich-based Nazis offered up their chairman, Adolf Hitler, as the man who could save Germany. On Nov. 8th at the Burgerbraukeller, which was packed with the political leaders of the community, Hitler fired a shot into the ceiling and declared "the revolution has come..." Hitler and Ludendorf spoke, the crowd sang the national anthem and the Nazi's arrested all Bavarian office holders present at the hall. The Reichswehr and the local police fired on Nazi marchers the following day and ended the putsch. Hitler was arrested two days later. Dreams of a right wing takeover faded.

                  The issuance of new Rentenmarks in November stabilized prices, and began a slow return to some sense of financial normalcy. In the Ruhr, an agreement was reached to turn over 18% of all coal produced to the French. At the end of November, the government fell and Wilhelm Marx formed a new cabinet. Armed with temporary emergency powers, the new government stabilized the country by increasing taxes, reducing the number of civil servants, and  increasing the length of the workday for hourly employees. Consumer goods appeared in the Christmas markets; the worst seemed to be over.

                  In contrast to the major socio-economic problems the country faced, it prospered culturally, as the world of Weimar saw a growing, sophisticated film industry flourish. In the theater world, Berlin eclipsed Paris and London with forty-nine theaters, half of which seated over a thousand. Architecturally, the Bauhaus movement attracted world-wide acclaim.  

                 The beginning of the new year brought cautious optimism to Germany. The Allies, led by the US, realized that a Germany in chaos was in no one's interest, and worked to resolve the debt problems. The US's Dawes Plan established more reasonable terms for the Germany, leading the way to American investment in the country. The French reluctantly agreed to leave the Ruhr in a year. "The postwar era was over, and the path had been cleared for Germany to rejoin the international community as an equal member." The next five years in Germany were prosperous and successful, but they did not last. Reliance on American finance became an anchor after Wall Street crashed in 1929. Politically, the country could not reach consensus and struggled, with the extremists on the right and left always in counterpoint. In the end, Germany succumbed to Hitler because there was not enough belief in or support for democracy.