humcorepictures[1] - In 1923 Germany went through a massive...

In 1923 Germany went through a massive hyperinflation. Being able to pay back the
money they borrowed from other countries depended on them winning the war. That
didn’t happen so they lost everything. Eventually the government began printing money
and as a result the mark was “losing value by the minute” (40). Above there is a woman
stuffing the German mark into her stove to create heat. By this time it was cheaper for her
to burn money than to buy wood to burn. The overflowing of the stove as she stuffs the
bills in shows how little the money was worth. This photo is very highly contrasted which
brings out the brightness of the marks, which is the focal point of the picture. The
collapse of the economy of Germany was the first major blow to the new democracy. The
newspapers and communists who wanted to lower the reputation of the new democracy
probably used this picture because they felt that Germany needed a more secure
government then what a democracy offered. Using this picture as propaganda can lessen
the status of the democracy by showing the money being burned to illustrate how terrible
they let the economy get.

After WWI a new democracy was set up in Germany, and there were of course the people
who opposed it. One of these major groups was the Spartacists. They are a very leftwing
group of the workers and communists of Germany. They formed together to create the
official Communist Party of Germany and wanted to revolt. The soldiers in the photo are
part of the Freikorps, which was formed with what was leftover from the German army.