Jennifer Formichelli wrote:
>
>(by the time Hitler rose to power in 1933, for instance,
> I believe that the mark was almost worth less than the paper it was
> printed on).

By 1933 the hyperinflation was a decade in the past. Here was the end of
that period:

http://www.joelscoins.com/exhibger2.htm
In November 15 [1923] a new currency, the Retenmark was introduced. The
Retenmark was theoretically backed by all land and industry owned by the
government. One new Retenmark was worth a Trillion of the old Marks.
Prices stabilized under the new currency, however the wealth of most of
the nation's citizens had been destroyed.

From the same source:


100 Billion Mark, Nov. 3 1923 City of Freital
[Under a picture of that piece of paper]

On November 1 100 Billion Mark would buy 3 pounds of meat.
Bread is 3 Billion Mark a loaf.
On November 15 100 Billion Mark would buy 2 glasses of beer
Bread is 80 Billion Mark a loaf.

-----

By 1923 it was the Great Depression (throughout the advanced capitalist
countries only -- Brazil was doing better than it ever has since) not
inflation that ruled. Prices were plunging -- even, essentially, to
zero. My parents didn't pay off all their grocery bills from the '30s
until the 1950s -- and that was voluntary on their part. Especially
since many of the grocery stores that offered credit in the '30s were no
longer in business.

Carrol