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That is, imo, a very simplistic explanation of what happened in the Weimar republic. The interwar period were complex and convoluted times The military overspe

That is, imo, a very simplistic explanation of what happened in the Weimar republic. The interwar period were complex and convoluted times The military overspend during WWI and draconian terms that the winners impose over Germany destroyed the economy of the country, creating a spiral of hyperinflation[1], both led to an inevitable second conflict, as Keynes pointed in "The Economic Consequences of the Peace" that was written many years before the WWII [1] A great book about Weimar hyperinflation cycle is "When money dies: The nightmare of the Weimar collapse"

brazzy 14y ago
I did not intend or claim to provide a full explanation, just explain one significant factor that is relevant to this topic.
guan 14y ago
However simplistic, it’s hard to deny that in the public understanding of German political history, that’s the generally accepted explanation for political stagnation and crisis in the Weimar Republic. Similarly, the German public understands hyperinflation as leading to the rise of Hitler and the Second World War. There was a genuine and severe hyperinflation crisis in the years after World War I, but the main economic reason for the Nazi ascendance to power in the early 1930s was actually a period of _deflation_ and mass unemployment. The Nazi rise to power coincided with an inflationary policy (Germany exited the gold standard in 1931), in part supported by the Nazis, that decreased unemployment and increased economic growth. This is why it’s kind of funny when the current inflation aversion of German policymakers is attributed to a national trauma about hyperinflation. It’s true that the hyperinflationary period 1919-1923 was deeply painful for Germans and you can understand that they don’t want to repeat that, but surely the consequences of the deflationary period leading to the rise of National Socialism were worse. (That doesn’t mean that Keynes was wrong, but a story that sees hyperinflation leading to WWII is probably too simplistic. It’s more like hyperinflation → gold standard → Great Depression → deflation → Nazis gain more seats → leave gold standard → Nazis gain absolute power.) See http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/06/30/197736/austerity-going-global/ http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/06/30/197736/austerit...

brazzy 14y ago

I did not intend or claim to provide a full explanation, just explain one significant factor that is relevant to this topic.

guan 14y ago

However simplistic, it’s hard to deny that in the public understanding of German political history, that’s the generally accepted explanation for political stagnation and crisis in the Weimar Republic. Similarly, the German public understands hyperinflation as leading to the rise of Hitler and the Second World War. There was a genuine and severe hyperinflation crisis in the years after World War I, but the main economic reason for the Nazi ascendance to power in the early 1930s was actually a period of _deflation_ and mass unemployment. The Nazi rise to power coincided with an inflationary policy (Germany exited the gold standard in 1931), in part supported by the Nazis, that decreased unemployment and increased economic growth. This is why it’s kind of funny when the current inflation aversion of German policymakers is attributed to a national trauma about hyperinflation. It’s true that the hyperinflationary period 1919-1923 was deeply painful for Germans and you can understand that they don’t want to repeat that, but surely the consequences of the deflationary period leading to the rise of National Socialism were worse. (That doesn’t mean that Keynes was wrong, but a story that sees hyperinflation leading to WWII is probably too simplistic. It’s more like hyperinflation → gold standard → Great Depression → deflation → Nazis gain more seats → leave gold standard → Nazis gain absolute power.) See http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/06/30/197736/austerity-going-global/ http://thinkprogress.org/yglesias/2010/06/30/197736/austerit...