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The Treaty of Versailles and Subsequent Hyperinflation in Germany: Finding the Culprit (continued) It was not until 1918 that the government and the courts ceased being willfully oblivious to inflation, and commenced open discussions, whereas before, all mention of the word had been censored. By the end of the war, Germany was burdened with a 51.2 billion gold mark domestic floating debt. Industrial production was 56% of its 1913 value, the agricultural yield per hectare fell by 26%, and the cost of living had risen 204%. Prior to the war, 15 million Germans relied on foreign trade for their livelihood and 12 million tons of food were imported annually; thus, the confiscation of her maritime fleet caused massive unemployment and food shortages. While there was still hope of victory, the Deutsche Bank Director Karl Helfferich had advocated imposing an indemnity bill of 150 billion gold marks to defray the debt-ridden nation. All such notions were banished as the Germans were left to shoulder the internal debt by themselves and were left staggering in the wake of an almost equally large reparations sum.  15 
Copyright ©2001-2003, Allegra H., all rights reserved. Please contact me via e-mail if you wish to reproduce this material.
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