a) 6 marker: What impression does the author give you about how Germany responded

to the 1923 invasion of the Ruhr?

The impression that the author gave me about how Germany responded to the 1923
invasion of the Ruhr is Germany will take ‘revenge’ and ‘sabotage’ against the ‘French
Aggression’ in their invasion of the Ruhr. This is shown as the author takes a quote from the
nationalist paper which stated: ‘any great nation that has been driven to despair
has always found the ways and means for its revenge’. All of the quotes above
shows to us that he thinks that Germany has been driven to despair and will take revenge
against the French which has been draining the Germans for invading the last bit of
industrial area of Germany, and he thinks that French deserved the revenge as this quote
was taken from a nationalists newspaper which meant that he was bias towards the
Germans as being the weaker force that has been bullied as nationalists are obviously bias
towards their own country.

b) Explain two effects of the hyperinflation crisis on Germany (8)

One effect of the hyperinflation crisis on Germany is that Reichsmark’s value has been
significantly decreasing due to the mass print of money in Germany at that time. During the
hyperinflation, money became so worth less that kids in street took stacks and stacks of
money just to play with, also households used money to light up stove and even used
money to wallpaper their house. This was a mass problem as money losses it’s value people
would rather trade their items rather than purchasing the goods with money. This was also
a problem as underground black market, stealing and chaos occurred in many places as
hyperinflation carried on. It was devastating for the German government as they haven’t
finished paying their reparations and their income has been cut down from the only
industrial area being taken and inflation carries on, which means that they can’t afford the
reparations, which leads to conflict and war, Germany couldn’t afford having another war.

Another effect of the hyperinflation crisis on Germany is that workers’ wages couldn’t keep
up with the rate of inflation going on in Germany. This was due to the Reichsmark’s value
falls as more money was printed by the Weimar Government, and so causing the cost of
goods rising at a huge amount, and as the cost of the goods keep on rising, the workers
wage rises as well, but the rate of the goods rises so much it then makes the workers or the
not wealthy people not being able to purchase enough goods to survive. This was a problem
due to the fact that people were barely surviving and this then leads to poor health which
means that the workers become less productive and that worsens the economy even more.