The central question of Taylor's history of Weimar Germany is what happens when we lose confidence in our money? It's one he believes still resonates today, as Europe grapples with a crisis that is both economic and to do with identity: "hard-edged nationalism is back in fashion".
Ninety years ago Germany was spending money it didn't have. Now it's Germany that has the strongest economy, but Taylor argues that its attitude to the crisis is conditioned by the experience of inflation from 1914 to 1924. Weaving together economic history with that of ordinary people, he shows how "the downfall of money proved to augur the downfall of all". A dollar was worth five marks at the end of the war but by November 1923 it was worth 2.2520 trillion marks. A Guardian correspondent had to pay 24bn marks just for alterations to her clothes. Hyperinflation, "that dark, febrile carnival of the German mark", prepared the ground for the failure of the first German democracy and the rise of Hitler. But the "sense of trauma" haunts Germany even today. A powerful account of a frightening episode in European history.
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