There was no straight line leading from reparations to the Ruhr crisis and hyperinflation of 1923. In the spring of 1920 following the defeat of the Kapp putsch, the Goldmark had strengthened against the dollar. Between March and July prices fell by 20 per cent and then stabilized. For a brief moment it seemed as though the Weimar Republic might be on the point of following the rest of the world in a deflationary financial consolidation.
