Things got worse at the end of the war. A huge amount in reparations was demanded from Germany. The sum to be paid was fixed at £6,600,000 in 1921. Many foreigners thought that Germany would be unable to pay and they began to lose confidence in Germany's currency. It became very expensive for Germany to buy food and raw materials from other countries.
Late in 1922 Germany failed to pay an installment of reparations on time. France replied in January 1923: French troops occupied Germany's main industrial region, the Ruhr. The French were determined to make Germany pay every penny she owed. They wanted to keep Germany weak. A weak Germany meant that France was safe from the threat of attack.
The German government ordered a policy of passive resistance in the Ruhr. Workers were told to do nothing which helped the invaders in any way. What this meant in practice was a general strike. The cost of the government's policy was frightening. All the workers on strike had to be given financial support. The government paid its way by printing more and more banknotes. Germany was soon awash with paper money.
The result - hyperinflation.
There are many descriptions of what it was like to live through these times:
“Bartering became more and more widespread . . . A haircut cost a couple of eggs . . . As soon as the factory gates opened and the workers streamed out, pay packets in their hands, a kind of relay race began: the wives grabbed the money, rushed to the nearest shops, and bought food before prices went up again. A familiar sight in the streets were handcarts and laundry baskets full of paper money, being pushed or carried to or from the banks.”
- Egon Larsen, a German journalist, remembering in 1976
http://www.johndclare.net/Weimar_hyperinflation.htm
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