Hyperinflation winners in Germany’s Weimar Republic after WWI:
- Borrowers, such as businessmen, landowners and those with mortgages, found they were able to pay back their loans easily with worthless money.
- People on wages were relatively safe, because they renegotiated their wages every day. However, even their wages eventually failed to keep up with prices.
- Farmers coped well, since their products remained in demand and they received more money for them as prices spiralled.
Hyperinflation losers:
- People on fixed incomes, like students, pensioners or the sick, found their incomes did not keep up with prices.
- People with savings and those who had lent money, for example to the government, were the most badly hit as their money became worthless.
Rebellions
Unsurprisingly, the hardships created during 1923 by hyperinflation led to many uprisings as groups struggled to take power from the government.
- A nationalist group called Black Reichswehr rebelled in September.
- Communists took over the governments of Saxony and Thuringia in October.
- Communists also took over the Rhineland and declared it independent in the same month.
- A fascist group called the Nazis attempted a putsch in Munich in November.
Will the out of control printing of money give America hyperinflation? If so, what will the chaos that ensues in America look like? Boys flying kites of worthless dollars? Or perhaps a new American Nazi party taking over for the American version of Weimar Republic in 2024 when everything collapses?