Maximilian Harden (1861 – 1927) was a major-league journalist and editor in Germany at the time of the First World War. Between 1914-18 he was all-in for a German victory. After the defeat he believed in the democracy that came with the Weimar Republic - but he hated the economic state that his country was forced to endure - and that is what he addresses in this column.
"The dollar, which before the war was worth four marks and twenty pfennigs, will buy at this writing four thousand marks...Even more difficult is the plight of the students whose impoverished relatives cannot afford to send them large sums monthly. The famous physicist, Albert Einstein, has said that justice, 'The great majority of students are so dependent on their earnings that study can only be a secondary occupation'"
Harden, in his second article, which is attached, seems far more irate about the entire post-war situation and Reconstruction in general:
"It is considered an undeniable fact that Germany, of all the great powers, Germany alone was completely innocent of starting the war; and that in absolutely every instance where there was a fair battle with weapons Germany was triumphant, on land and sea, with submarine and in the air; while they were beaten solely through high treason committed behind the ranks by Socialists and other Jews who were bought by the treacherous enemy, were forced into an armistice just when they were on the point of final victory, and were shamelessly betrayed by their perjured representatives at the signing of the Treaty..."
More about German inflation can be read here.
