Five Brothers and a War

Fascism

1,000,000,000,000 100,000,000,000 10,000,000,000 1,000,000,000 100,000,000 10,000,000 1,000,000 100,000 10,000 1,000 100 10 1

GERMANY Value of one gold Mark in paper Marks

1918 1919 1920 1921 1922 1923

There were major adjustments to the valuation of the Mark, for example, in creating the Rentenmarks, which knocked 12 zeroes from monetary denominations. This was accomplished by tying assets to money. Yet, despite their initial viewing of this economic move as being miraculous, to the Germans, there was no light at the end of their tunnel. As they looked into the future, they saw nothing but near slavery to the Treaty of Versailles for themselves and their children. As Hitler began his rise to power, he referred to the economic woes in his manifesto, Mein Kampf (“My Struggle”). Hitler wrote the book in 1924 and 1925. His base premise was that Germany was not to blame for its woes. The blame belonged to others, including the political establishment, as represented by those running the Weimar Republic (and therefore the ones who imprisoned him), the Jews and the communists/Marxists.

nazi germany

Upon the death of Hitler in 1945, the state of Bayern (“Bavaria”) gained copyrights to Mein Kampf . Since then, it has blocked publication, though it is commonly available online. The copyright expires in 2015, meaning that anyone can publish the book from then on.

Five Brothers and a War

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