Hello to you on this (not) fine Thursday – can we skip the April showers, please?
So, in between spending a bit too much time making silly capcut videos about women’s history (here and here 😝) and navigating the Easter hols, I’m writing a textbook chapter about the economic changes of the 1920s and 1930s. Think: boom, crash and a (not so) Great Depression.
In the chapter, I’m including a case study about Germany. As you are probably aware, the German economy was in absolute chaos after World War Two. Arguably, the biggest problem Germany faced was hyperinflation. Now, I’ve taught German hyperinflation and I’ve read what economic historians think about it, but nothing quite hits you like the primary sources. Here is a brilliant image that I’ve asked the publisher to include in the chapter. Yes, that woman is literally burning money in her stove instead of fuel:
Herstorically speaking, women were impacted by hyperinflation in some interesting ways. Historian Julia Sneeringer sums it up well: “Their domestic work of procuring food and clothing became a frantic race against hourly devaluation.” I’m not suggesting that *only* women did domestic work (obvs), but women were more likely to be the ones who managed the home economy, including the buying of food and managing the budget.
In his 1923 essay, “Overwrought Nerves,” journalist Friedrich Kroner wrote about the women he saw each day in the city’s supermarkets:
“There is not much to add. It pounds daily on the nerves: the insanity of numbers, the uncertain future, today, and tomorrow become doubtful once more overnight. An epidemic of fear, naked need: lines of shoppers, long since an unaccustomed sight, once more form in front of shops, first in front of one, then in front of all. No disease is as contagious as this one. The lines have something suggestive about them: the women’s glances, their hastily donned kitchen dresses, their careworn, patient faces. The lines always send the same signal: the city, the big stone city will be shopped empty again.”
I also found this letter, written by a mother and business owner called Betty Schloem to her son, which is just an amazing piece of social history:
Berlin, October 15, 1923
Dear child,
We have not yet received your second letter. Hopefully, it’ll arrive this week. Conditions have taken a catastrophic turn here. Notice that this letter cost 15 million cash; it will be 30 million beginning the day after tomorrow—and this price will most likely last a mere two days at most. Now you can get things done only with billions. To ensure that next week’s payroll will keep its value, the boys bought dollars on Friday at the (ridiculous!!) exchange rate of 1.5 billion to 1, and they’ll re-sell them on Thursday in order to pay people. For the time being, this week’s pay will be 8 billion, though we’ve had negotiations today because the workers are demanding twice that much. The bread ration card has been done away with, and a normal loaf of bread now costs 540 million; tomorrow, surely twice as much. The streetcar fare is 20 million (tomorrow it’ll be 50!). My God, you probably don’t have faintest notion of this million-fold witches’ Sabbath. You must know that we send women’s magazines to Frau Jacques Meyer. A few days ago, her husband sent us a bank check for over 5 million. When we went to the bank here in Berlin to pick it up, it cost 40 million in transfer fees!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little glimpse into Germany in 1923. It’s time I got back to work.
Before I do, go here to enter the giveaway for a free subscription to my paid content here on Substack. Winner announced on Monday 15th April. You can also drop your comments/suggestions in this form for the Women’s History Masterclass, which I’m in the process of outlining. My heartiest thanks to everyone who has already filled it in 😊
Until next time,
Kaye x