Novelist, historian and radio commentator Emil Ludwig (1881 – 1948) recalled the economic catastrophe that ravaged post-World War I Germany as a result of their inflated currency.
"Inflation in Germany really started on the first day of the war in 1914 when the government voted a credit of five billion marks. This was not a loan...I saw the mark, the German monetary unit corresponding to the British shilling or the American quarter, tumble down and down until you paid as much for a loaf of bread as you would have paid for a limousine before inflation started."
