Burdensome reparations imposed after World War I, coupled with a general inflationary period in Europe in the 1920s -- another direct result of a materially catastrophic war -- caused spiraling hyperinflation of the German Reichsmark by 1923. This hyperinflationary period combined with the effects of the Great Depression (beginning in 1929) to seriously undermine the stability of the German economy, wiping out the personal savings of the middle class and spurring massive unemployment.
Such economic chaos did much to increase social unrest, destabilizing the fragile Weimar Republic. Efforts of the Western European powers to marginalize Germany undermined and isolated its democratic leaders and underscored the need to restore German prestige through remilitarization and expansion.
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