The Rentenmark and Reichsmark: Post-Crisis Stabilization
In 1923, Germany’s economy was in freefall. The Papiermark, its official currency, had become so worthless that citizens used wheelbarrows to haul stacks of cash for a single loaf of bread. This catastrophic hyperinflation threatened to tear the Weimar Republic apart, erasing savings and plunging millions into poverty. Out of this economic chaos emerged one…