Today is Unification Day in Germany, aka Einheitstag, and I gotta say that I’m super-proud I remembered the word even though I haven’t lived in Germany in more than a decade.
But I’m also super-proud of those dogged Germans, finally paying off their WWI debt. That’s right, today the nation of Germany knows the good feeling that so many Americans have felt since getting their financial acts together in the last two years: Paying off the debt. Of course, their last check is bigger than most of ours: $100 million.
Not to say that Germany was still in debt because it was fiscally irresponsible. It’s just, that World War I thing cost a lot of money… and then there was the Great Depression, which pretty much ruined the value of money all over the world, but especially in Germany. I still recall pictures of Deutschemarks being moved by the wheelbarrow-full — why, though, I’ve forgotten. To buy a loaf of bread, perhaps? In November 1923, the peak of inflation, that cost 200 million DM. So maybe the guy had three wheelbarrows…
The economic depression in 1920s Germany of course set the stage for Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and all the awfulness that brought to Germany and the world… So closing a lingering chapter on this period gets a gold star.
Bonus points to the Marshall Plan, for flooding Europe with money after WWII to try and avoid a repetition of the debt-to-extreme-politics political cycle.
Today, NPR interviews a German journalist about the payment.
And Happy 20th Anniversary, Unified Germany!
