Western Civilization II / Unit 16 WC2 1511 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Thirty-Two Parties, the Ruhr, Hyperinflation, and Stabilization, 1923 to 1924
Captions available
The idea
Proportional representation seated thirty-two parties, the anchor says. When payments lapsed France seized the Ruhr in nineteen twenty-three; Germany paid the strikers with printed money, and by November a dollar cost four point two trillion marks. Dawes and a new currency stabilized it in twenty-four.
In practice
Million-mark notes as scratch paper.
Where people slip
The anchor's ten billion understates by orders of magnitude.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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