Between April 1938 and the end of August, the German stock market had fallen by 13 per cent.106 The Reich, Krosigk claimed, was in the grip of a mounting wave of ‘war- and inflation psychosis’. This ‘psychosis’ was strengthened by the signs of incipient inflation visible throughout the German economy. But above all the state of the markets was a reflection of the fact that the Reich was ‘steering towards a serious financial crisis . . .’, precipitated by a drive to war.
