Source E And Source D example essay topic

458 words
You can see that from the years 1918-1923 the price of a loaf of bread increased from 0.63 marks to 201,000,000,000 marks in less than 6 years. This was due to the fact that the German mark was becoming priceless. This must have meant that if a loaf of bread cost 201,000,000,000 marks then imagine how much money you would have received for your wages! This is what the hyperinflation did to Germany.

In source B this picture tells us that some people were affected more badly by the hyperinflation than others as some Germans took their money and ran. This was mainly due to the fact that some were more affected than others e.g. some Germans had fixed wages whereas others did not. Source C is before hyperinflation and it shows that Germans were desperate not to pay their dept to the rest of Europe for the damage they had done and the Treaty of Versailles. But this was what started the hyperinflation as people thought that Germany was just one big practical joke that didn't want to pay their dept. Source B is drawn by a German whereas Source C is written by a British person. Source C is not 100% useful as it is written as a British view towards the German economy.

This means that the source may not be true as British people hated Germans and were against them. In the source it says, "they are a nation of actors" this means the British thought that Germany was just one big joke as they were trying to make out that they were poverty stricken when in fact they were teeming with wealth. The writer also puts Germany down by saying, "Germans are without a sense of humour". This source was written in 1922 so it was around the time of the hyperinflation so it probably is correct. I think that Source E is more accurate as it states that "Germany simply did not want to pay".

This was 100% correct, as Germans did not want to pay anything towards the treaty of Versailles. Source D does have parts of it which are correct as it says "The currency had lost over one third of its pre war value. This is correct as shown in source A as it shows how much the mark had decreased in price. British historians write source E and Source D so they may be biased against Germany as the British hated Germany. Source D is written in 1972 so it may be more against Germany where as Source E is written more recently so it may be less bias.