The Golden Twenties

(2.5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

In the mid 1920s, the young Weimar Republic was booming. But economic crisis would bring the Roaring Twenties to a screeching halt. In Germany, the crash occurred a full year before the big crash on Wall Street, Holtfrerich explains. In 1928, the United States was still in the grip of stock market fever to such a degree that the American investment so urgently needed in Germany failed to materialize. The Americans were putting their money in stocks instead of lending into the German economy. The effects began to show in the German labor market. Finally, in 1929, the entire world fell deep into crisis. Instead, nothing happened, for tactical reasons. Heinrich Bruning, who was then Chancellor, wanted to prompt the powers that had emerged victorious from World War I to waive the reparations they were owed under the Treaty of Versailles