In the treaty of Versailles, the Allies wanted to draft a treaty that would not make Germany resent the other countries, as this situation would possibly lead to another war. Even though the Allies were trying to negotiate the terms in order not to stimulate acts of revenge in Germans, reparations payment exhausted the German economy and the people, and made it possible for the Nazi political party to seize the power.
In the peace talks and after the London Schedule of payments on April 27 1921, the Reparations Commission determined that Germany had to pay 132 billion gold marks in reparations equivalent to 100 000 tons of gold. A gold mark is an amount of gold that the currency could buy before the war. At that time even John Maynard Keynes,
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With the proposal of U.S. secretary of state Charles Evans Hughes, a commission was created to aid the financial situation in Germany. The Reparations Commission wanted U.S. representatives in the new commission, and therefore financial experts, such as Charles G. Dawes or Owen D. Young were suggested. On April 9. 1924, the Dawes plan was announced, which contained recommendation regarding Germany's financial situation. It recognized two serious problems. The Dawes plan addressed the two problems surrounding Germany, by reorganizing the Reichsbank, the German central bank, and to issue new monetary unit - the Reichsmark. According to the plan, the amount of Germany's reparations was determined to correspond to the financial health of Germany, and the plan ensured that it would not hurt the stability of the new monetary currency. However, Germany was only able to pay its reparations by borrowing more money from abroad. The Young plan adopted in 1930 therefore reduced the amount of reparations by further …show more content…
It was reported that shops changed their prices twice a day, because with the money that people could buy goods in the morning, they were not able to pay for the goods several hours later. Another example of the rapidly devaluating mark was that thieves were not stealing paper money, but rather the suitcases carrying the money, leaving the paper money on the floor. Even though people had a lot of banknotes and there was full employment, the economy was very poor with no goods available to buy, resulting in hunger and