Thursday, February 23, 2012

The German American Collection, The Album 6













Pictures of middle class comfort? It seems so, but how was that possible. In the last post from this album, there was a beer keg with a 1923 date. 1923 was right in the middle of the German hyperinflation that nearly destroyed the German economy and helped pave the way for the rise of the Nazi party. Take a look on line, and pictures of people pushing wheelbarrows of cash to buy groceries can be found. Yet, this couple look quite comfortable. In the picture of the man, he's looking through an art book, and in the far background there is a very nice house. Two possibilities come to mind. While most German's lost almost everything, German businessmen who did business with other nations, had foreign currency to spend and grew quite wealthy. And the other possibility? With an exchange rate of billions of marks to the dollar, if this family had an American branch, even a small amount of U.S. currency could have kept these people in comfort.

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