In August 1938, despite the desperate need for cash, the Finance Ministry had been forced to do without a new loan due to the uncertainty provoked by the Sudeten crisis. The sharp drop in market sentiment made it unsafe for the government to launch a new bond issue. In early October the markets were buoyed, as was the Reichsbank, by the hope that Germany could now look forward to an era of peaceful prosperity. In a surge of optimism, savers, insurance funds and other financial institutions swallowed not
