hyperinflation can wipe out your debt

it can be good for you, if you have property and debt


Many Germans gained from the hyperinflation. People with property were able to ride out the storm, while those with debts or mortgages saw their value disappear and their debt payments effectively end. Businesses were able to borrow money, spend it on new machinery, and then pay back virtually nothing to the banks. Bankruptcies became almost unknown. In 1913 around 10,000 German firms went out of business due to their debts. In 1923 the figure was less than 200. The speed with which Germans had to spend their money meant that demand in the shops was actually higher than before the period of hyperinflation. In response to this companies employed more workers, and unemployment effectively ended by 1923. Banking jobs, for example, rose from 100,000 in 1913 to 375,000 in 1923. Companies opened new factories to supply the high demands of Germans desperate to part with their cash. The German government also benefited in at least one way. During World War I the government had borrowed vast sums to finance the war effort. As the hyperinflation rose, the government saw its debts being wiped out.

*****. A new currency, the Rentenmark, backed by land and property was created. The new government led by Stresemann realised the mistakes made in the past and tried to solve them. Each Rentenmark was exchangeable for 1 trillion old marks with a limit of 2.4 billion Rentenmarks to be issued. The government also cut its expenditure, partly by sacking around 700,000 employees. However, reparations remained a problem.

In April 1924 the US government brokered a deal with Streseman known as the Dawes Plan, a scheme initiated by US republican politician Charles Dawes to help Germany pay off its enormous war debts. This reduced Germany's annual payments to more manageable levels, and arranged for the Germans to receive loans of 800 million gold marks from banks and businesses in the USA and Europe. In August 1924 the Rentenmark was replaced with a new Reichsmark of equal value. The new currency had backing from gold so inspired confidence. Taxes were raised and by 1925 the German government actually had a surplus. The Pact of Locarno (1925) settled the frontiers between Germany, France, and Belgium.

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