Weimar Economy 1918 - 1923

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  • Weimar Economy 1918-1923
    • WWI
      • Spent all gold reserves
      • June 1914 - 6300 million marks
        • Dec 1918 - 33000 million marks
      • End of war - 150 Printing firms with 2000 printing presses running day and night
      • Farm production dropped 20%
        • Industrial output almost halved
          • Made worse by Treaty of Versailles and loss of land
        • Made worse by Treaty of Versailles and loss of land
      • 1918 - Govt owned 150 billion marks
        • Three times that of 1914
      • Industrial output almost halved
        • Most horses and food were sent to the front line
          • K-brot bread made from potatoes, oats and straw were used
        • In one district in Berlin, 90% of all children aged 2-6 were malnourished
      • Social Welfare
        • Schemes to help soldiers
          • Loans
          • Retraining
        • Being looked after by Government
          • 1920
            • 1537000 disabled veterans
            • 1945000 non-disabled veterans
          • 1924
            • 10% of the population were receiving federal welfare payments
            • WWI
              • 768000 disabled veterans
              • 420000 widows
              • 190000 parents of war dead
              • 1020000 children of veterans
        • All payments were paid for by Government loans which mean they were getting deeper in debt
        • Social Legislation
          • May 1920 - Reich Pension Law regulates pensions
            • Pensions for widows / parents of dead soldiers based on their job before the war, not their rank during it
          • Feb 1922 - Labour Exchange Law set up Govt offices to provide training and help to unemployed
            • "People have the right to work"
      • Debts and Reparations
        • Government at first tried to meet payments
        • Tried to renegotiate terms from 1921
        • Until 1924, payments were made in coal, wood and railway carriages for example
      • The Ruhr Crisis
        • See Ruhr Crisis Notes
      • Hyper-inflation
        • 1 May 1922 - Newspaper 1 Mark
          • 1 September 1932 - 100000 Marks
            • 17 November 1923 - 700 Billion Marks
        • Those with goods to sell on the black market made a large profit.
        • 750000 Federal and Regional Government jobs cut
        • Towns and Regions began to create there own "Notgeld" / "Emergency Money"
        • Those on fixed payments from Government lost out as they lost value
        • Head of the Von Lingans family had to sack the staff, close the house, move to Berlin and take up an office job in a factory
      • Living Standards
        • Due to Weimar policies, after the war the standard of living increased
          • Wages and employment rose
        • When hyper-inflation stuck, it fell again
        • Women would take on work such as covering metal buttons with fabric
          • They would get paid by the 50, not by the hour
          • They would normally have to work all day and sometimes all night just to earn any amount of money
        • In 1918, the Govt introduced the 8-hour working day
          • When hyper-inflation struck, this went out the window
            • Workers and employers were happy to extend hours

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