On this day: Germany introduces the Rentenmark to curb hyperinflation

On this day, 15 October 1923, Germany introduced the Rentenmark to curb hyperinflation, and it worked. Eliot Wilson tells us more Weimar Germany brings a number of images to mind. There is the gloriously seedy licentiousness of Cabaret. There is the new republic’s fragility (there were 14 chancellors between 1918 and 1933), increasing street violence and the looming foreknowledge of the appointment of that 14th and last chancellor, Adolf Hitler. Then there is hyperinflation. How hyperinflation took hold of Germany Hyperinflation was the curse of the very early years of the new state. Germany had paid for its war machine by borrowing, and by the end of 1918 it owed 156bn Marks. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in June 1919, formally ended the conflict between Germany and the five principal Allied Powers: France, the British Empire, the United States, Italy and Japan. The German delegation had not been involved in the six months of negotiations, but were simply presented with