The great inflation, Germany 1919-23

by William Guttmann

product_description

Genres: History, Economics

252 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the book written as background to the famous British film, " The Year Money Went Mad". It contains many references to the shock of high inflation in the UK in 1973, which then rekindled interest in hyper inflation.
Having read every book on German finances between 1912-1932 extant, I think this is the finest book on German hyperinflation ever written. It is erudite, easy to read and well researched. It's great strength is in its diversity of sources and it's depth of analysis. But the jewel of this book is it explains in detail how hyper inflation actually worked. For example, the awesome amount of paperwork required in a pre computerized society to keep records. How money was perceived as worthless, yet hoarded. How people immediately bought anything solid to trade. How the political system became seen as incompetent, since the government created money, but would not stabilize it . The social and behavioral psychology of high prices, which led to a logical form of exciting, instant gratification - insanity. The inability to plan anything of life beyond a few days, since nobody knew if they might afford it. The real story is about the social devastation that hyperinflation caused amongst the poor .... and how the rich got much richer by printing money.
The devil is in the details in history and in this book, there’s lots of ground level detail and less macro political analysis.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gives the history of the Great Inflation in Germany which followed WW1, in which the mark decreased in value a trillion-fold. Guttmann and Meehan (co-authors) explain the causes, including the justifications people gave, the effects on day-to-day life, how people coped or, in some cases, prospered, how it was ended, and the societal changes which resulted, which include the rise of fascism. The authors give both broad overviews and anecdotes about individuals, the latter exemplifying the former. In a couple places, the book refers to then-current economic events (it was published in 1975, when inflation was again in the news); these references failed because later readers would not know the situation. On the other hand, the authors made no mention of other historic mega-inflations and how they compared.

[Otter · Rating 3 out of 5]

germany 1920's, prices change daily, banks have no money, printing presses cann't print enough money. the government spends even more. rent is so cheap that there are no bills small enough to pay it because of rent controls, but people cannot buy enough food to eat