1923+Hyperinflation+crisis

In 1923 the Weimar government said that Germany was too poor to pay the reparations demanded by the Allies in the Versailles Treaty. It stopped the payments. A chain of disasters started. French troops marched into the Ruhr, Germany's richest industrial region. They took over its mins to collect the reparations in coal. The Ruhr workers went on strike and the Weimar government backed them by paying their wages. It printed millions of banknotes to do this. But Germany lacked the real wealth to back the notes. The result was massive inflation. Money lost its buying power. It became so worthless that bakers gave vouchers for loaves to their workers instead of wages. The inflation also wiped out people's savings. Some used bundles of worthless banknotes to light their fires.