Germany Rises - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 119

Germany came to a stop.” [112] Finally, the government returned to Berlin. When govern-
ment authority was restored, the radical left rose. A red army of 50,000 workers from the
industrial Ruhr Valley marched on Berlin, while the army stood by. For protection, the gov-
ernment called on the Free Corps, an irregular army of ex-officers and unemployed ex-sol-
diers—armed freebooters! The Free Corps, a foretaste of the Nazis to come, had its ori-
gins in the weeks after the armistice. Bewildered soldiers, without jobs or civilian training,
kept their arms and turned their anxiety and anger ( angst ) against those who had stayed at
home, while soldier-patriots fought for German glory and German victory. Objects of pat-
riot scorn were the usual suspects—socialists, Jews, and pacifists, “the mealy-mouthed and
obsequious.” [113] In the fighting that followed, 3,000 died, and to compound the govern-
ment's misery, French soldiers crossed into Germany, claiming that the Versailles Treaty
gave them the “right to oppose resurgent militarism in Germany.” [114]
As the government limped along, its members came to fear the spate of political
murders. Then the crises of 1923 occurred. The Reparations Committee declared Germany
in default on its delivery of timber and coal. French troops entered the Ruhr industrial re-
gion to protect French and Belgian technicians assigned to operate mines and factories for
French and Belgian benefit. With mines and factories no longer producing for Germany
and with its economy at a standstill, inflation soared. To meet its payrolls and to provide
benefits for the needy, in 1923 the government began printing what would soon be worth-
less money. Stories were told of the elderly who withdrew a lifetime of savings from the
bank, and used it to buy a loaf of bread!
It cost more than a billion marks to send a letter from Germany to the United States.
Workers needed wheel barrows to transport their weekly pay. By the end of the year
thirteen figures were required to represent the number of marks that equaled one
American dollar. [115]
Worse was to come in the worldwide economic Depression of the 1930s. The Weimar
Republic completely lost whatever loyalty it had among German voters. Communist
turnout rose. More ominously, by 1932 Hitler's National Socialists (The Nazi Party)
garnered 37.4 percent of the seats in Parliament (The Reichstag). The President of the Re-
public appointed Hitler as Chancellor of the Republic in 1933. And the nightmare years
began.
In the nightmare of the dark
All the dogs of Europe bark,
And the living nations wait,