3. Germany managed to pay the first installment of the reparations bill from the Treaty of Versailles but was unable to pay the next. France refused to believe this, believing that Germany was refusing to pay them. So in January 1923, French and Belgian troops invade the Ruhr (the industrial part of Germany) and took over the coal mines and other areas of natural resources as compensation for the reparations bill. I want my money! If you don’t pay….. I will simply take it from you!
4. The German Government had no real army in which to defend itself therefore it told the German Workers to go on strike. This was called ‘passive resistance’ as the workers refused to work for the French. Over the next six months, violence broke out and 100 Germans were killed. Because the Ruhr was no longer producing any goods for Germany, the country and its workers faced money shortages. The Government tried to solve this by printing more money. However, this created severe problems. Don’t work for the French lads! We’ll print some more money and everything will be fine! Friedrich Ebert (Leader of the Weimar Republic)
5. H Y P E R I N F L A T I O N The effect of printing more money is that it becomes increasingly worthless. Also, prices of things dramatically increased. People were affected in different ways. Wages had to rise and people collected their wages twice a day in wheelbarrows. However, the prices of goods increased much faster than wages. People could not afford simply food supplies like bread and milk. * Price of a Loaf of Bread January 1923 – 250 marks July 1923 – 3464 marks September 1923 – 1,512,000 November 1923 – 201,000,000,000 Some people benefited as they were able to pay off bank loans overnight. However, middle-class people suffered as their savings were worthless.
