Chapter 87: The Ruhr Crisis
The day after the Ruhr crisis broke out, the headlines of newspapers in all European countries were invariably the same content: Ruhr crisis.
For the Ruhr crisis, all European countries are shocked, and even many people think that the world war is about to break out again, because the Ruhr is the essence of the whole Germany, if the Ruhr is lost, it is equivalent to making Germany cut off children and grandchildren, and it will no longer be strong.
However, the leaders of various European countries know that a world war cannot be fought, and Germany now has no allies in the international community, and its army has only more than 100,000 troops, which is completely unwinnable compared with France's millions of troops. However, the leaders of various European countries have expressed strong condemnation of France, which is now the hegemon of Europe, and has actually committed such a banditry act, maybe one day, France will bully other small countries again.
So, on the third day of the occupation of the Ruhr, the League of Nations began to drive away the French and Belgian representatives.
The German Government also immediately announced the severance of diplomatic relations with France and Belgium, the recall of the ambassador to Paris and the minister to Brussels, the cessation of all reparations to France and Belgium, and the refusal to cooperate with the French and Belgian occupation authorities.
Miners and railway workers in the occupied territories went on strike or sabotage, all rail and water transport from Germany to France and Belgium was paralyzed, and production in the entire Ruhr industrial zone was completely stopped.
Strikes and marches broke out across Germany, and the flames of anger of tens of millions of people were directed mainly at France.
France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr industrial area, mainly because they wanted money, but how did the workers in the Ruhr industrial area get their profits when they went on strike? Therefore, the French and Belgian occupation authorities took coercive measures to control all affairs, funds and minerals in the Ruhr industrial area, and to arrest, imprison, fine, deport and even execute all Germans who participated in the passive resistance, including their families.
The Germans, who had blood in their hearts, started a world war, had already tasted the bitter fruits of defeat, had been taught and punished. Now, why should the French still occupy the Ruhr industrial area?
The Ruhr industrial region is a symbol of Germany's strength, and Germany cannot afford to lose!
Chaos began to rise in Germany, with some people attacking the invading army in the Ruhr, some people passively resisting and silently demonstrating in front of embassies and the German government, and some patriotic people even attacking the French and Belgians in Germany.
Later, many newspapers stated that the ordinary people of France and Belgium also despised the occupation of the Ruhr industrial area by the authorities, and the workers of France and Belgium also went on strike to protest against the authoritarianism of France and Belgium.
What the French government has done has not only met with the reaction of its own people and the people of other countries, but also from the jealousy of Britain and the disgust of the United States.
Now the French army ranks first, the navy ranks second, and the colony area is second only to the British, and if there is a fight with France, the British have no confidence that they will not be able to defend the British Isles.
The Americans emphasized romanticism, but the Americans did not expect that the French, who had always been romantic, would do such an unromantic thing, which greatly disappointed the American civilians.
France, in international prestige, suddenly fell to the bottom.
Britain and the United States intervened and let France, Belgium and Germany start negotiations, but the effect was not great, France and Belgium did not withdraw from the Ruhr industrial zone, and at the same time, the mark plummeted, and German Chancellor Kuno resigned.
…………
Regensburg, Hitler was walking down the street with a headache.
"What! A cabbage is 500,000 marks, why don't you grab it! ”
Ted in Spandau's Three Eagles has a more irritable personality, and when he saw that a cabbage in the vegetable market was sold for 500,000 marks, he couldn't help but be shocked, 500,000 marks, in the past, but many people couldn't get the wealth in a lifetime, enough to be a rich man in any city.
Jonas laughed, took out a letter, and said to Ted, "Show you, this is the letter that the bank director sent me yesterday. ”
Ted took it and looked at it, and it read like this:
We regret to inform you that the Bank is no longer able to manage your deposit of DM 18,000, as the cost of managing this deposit has already exceeded the amount of the deposit itself, and the balance has been adjusted to DM 1,000,000 since the Bank has no small denomination notes to pay. A 1,000,000 mark banknote is attached.
Stamps with a face value of 5 million marks are dotted on the corner of the envelope.
After Taylor saw it, he sighed: "A society where people eat people! ”
Hitler patted him on the shoulder: "Don't be discouraged, we Germans will be able to get out of this predicament together." ”
The country's economy collapsed, cash in hand and bank deposits inflated and depreciated sharply. Hitler was not prepared before, and he used to have more than 5 million cash in his hands, but this time it shrank by more than 4 million.
"The Ruhr is encroached upon, out of the woods? In the future, we in Germany will have to be like Norway and Sweden, which are small regional countries. Taylor shook his head.
Hitler and his entourage continued to inspect the market and found that the situation was not optimistic. The money in the basket weighs more than the grain bought, and some people even push the money in a cart to buy food.
The primitive trade of bartering appeared in large numbers.
The consequences of the Ruhr occupation were catastrophic, the German government had to subsidize the unemployed workers with the already deficit finances, and at the same time had to buy coal and steel from the British.
The unemployment rate has risen to 40 percent, and tax revenues have plummeted.
In order to cope with the crisis and prevent the collapse of the country, 2,000 money printing machines printed large denominations of currency day and night, and a staff member who worked in a bank had an account balance of 372,789,213,912 marks and 5 pfennigs.
But what's the use of having so much money?
Houses, enterprises, machinery, and land were speculated by capitalists at the same time, and the price of a house was tens of billions.
A worker's day's wages need to be pushed by a small cart, but the Mark in the whole cart can only buy two loaves of bread!
This is the consequence of the indiscriminate issuance of money.
The proletariat became more numerous, and for the people of Regensburg, they did not have to worry about housing, but food was a little difficult, and they could only eat one gruel and one loaf of bread a day at the various relief points.
This is true for Regensburg, and the rest of the country is even more dizzy.
"How so? How so? Hitler also did not expect the outbreak of the Ruhr crisis, and the outbreak of the Ruhr crisis made it impossible for the whole of Germany to rise again.
"So how did Germany rise in World War II? And I, what should I do? ”
After returning to the city hall, Hitler separated from everyone else, and walked up to the government building to think.
Unexpectedly, on the roof of the government building, Goebbels was organizing workers to study, Goebbels saw that Hitler's face was wrong, and he was thinking about something, so he ran over and grabbed Hitler: "Mayor, mayor!" Don't think about it, jumping off a building is irrational behavior, and it's not good to scare everyone. ”
"Hey, why am I going to jump off the building, I'm just here to relax." Hitler shook off Goebbels' hand and laughed and cried.
Goebbels was also just joking, he said: "Are you bothered by the collapse of the country's economy? ”
"Not bad." Hitler nodded.
"Let's talk, then."
Goebbels took Hitler to a pergola in the rooftop garden, in April, when the flowers bloomed. The grass is green, the bees are flying, the flowers are blooming, and the rooftop is also a good place to go.