Weimar Republic Hyperinflation Timeline
Read article and good comments
A bloggers timeline for the deflation:
Lady in 1923 Germany using money for heat from her stove.
- June 24, 1922: 272 Reichsmark (RM) = 1 US dollar
- July 1922: 670 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
- August 1922: 2,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
- October 1922: 45,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
- November 1922: 10,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
- December 30, 1922: 500,000 reichsmarks = 1 US dollar
- February 1923: Reichsbank buys back RM (or reichsmark); stabilizes RM at 20,000 to 1 US dollar
- May 4, 1923: RM 40,000 = 1 US dollar
- June 1, 1923: RM 70,000 = 1 US dollar
- June 30, 1923: RM 150,000 = 1 US dollar
- August 1-August 7, 1923: RM 3,500,000 = 1 US Dollar
- August 15, 1923: RM 4,000,000 = 1 US Dollar
- September 1, 1923: RM 10,000,000 = 1 US Dollar
- Around September 10 to September 25, 1923: Prices reportedly rise hourly in several German cities.
- September 30, 1923: RM 60,000,000 = 1 US Dollar
- November 15, 1923: Rentenmark issued; pegged to the Gold Standard; Rentenmark 4.2 = 1 US dollar; at this time: Old Reichsmark 4,200,000,000 = 1 US dollar.
1 New Rentenmark = 1 billion Old Reichsmark!
Some brief analysis. It took less than one month (June - July 1922) for the RM to lose 2/3rds it's value.
It took 3 months to go from 670 to 40,000. (August - October 1922).
It starts going down to 10,000 but then within a month it's up to 500,000! (November 1922 - December 1922).
It's almost brought back under control by the bank purchasing RM's back, but inflation kicks back in. After June 1923 when it was 150,000 it skyrockets to absolutely absurd levels. Into the millions and finally billions. This is when people start burning the money for fuel in their fireplaces instead of spending it. It takes wheelbarrows of the stuff to buy a loaf of bread! There's a story (who knows how true) that illustrates this point - a man leaves his wheelbarrow of money outside the bakery - goes in to get some bread - comes back out to find that someone stole the wheelbarrow, but left his money on the sidewalk!
It is interesting how the inflation was stopped. A new currency was created that was pegged to the Gold Standard. The old Currency could be traded in for the New Currency. At a ratio of 1 Billion to 1!!!
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