Such notions had appeared already during the war. There were those who
believed that German Jews were not doing their share to contribute to the war
effort. This prompted the Jewish census of November 1916, an attempt to con-
firm accusations of a lack of Jewish patriotism; in fact, the census proved the
exact opposite. In addition, there were accusations that Jewish industrialists
were engaging in war profiteering.
Those who bought into the claim that a world Jewish conspiracy had
brought Germany down and erected Weimar as a Jewish quisling regime
regarded Walter Rathenau (1867–1922) as proof. Rathenau was a member of
a German-Jewish family who converted to Christianity – the embodiment of
the assimilated Jew who was undermining the strength of the German Volk.
He was appointed Finance Minister of the Weimar regime.
National humiliation was aggravated by the polarization of German poli-
tics during and after the war. During the war, labor strikes undermined the
war effort. By 1917, there had been 500 strikes and 2 million man-hours lost,
alienating the German left from the rest of the German population. The ensu-
ing communist revolution convinced propertied Germans that there was no
reconciling the aims of the left and German nationalism. By 1920, therefore,
the German population was sharply divided between those who favored all
but the most moderate forms of social democracy, and those who vehemently
opposed any manifestation of the political left, including trade unions and
social welfare. The initial coalition government of the Weimar Republic, a
hodgepodge of centrist parties such as the moderate Social Democrats and the
Catholic Center Party, barely represented a majority of German voters. The
weak political center, coupled with the decline of the left, would facilitate the
growth of small right-wing parties, including Hitler’s National Socialists.
The Weimar government, weakened by national humiliation and a polar-
ized electorate, faced the tasks of restoring and maintaining order after the
failed revolution, and resuscitating a once-vibrant economy that had been
devastated by defeat and the postwar settlement. Maintaining order meant
reining in the plethora of paramilitary bands of decommissioned soldiers who
were traumatized by defeat, wary of revolution, and unemployable after the
military was downsized. These bands questioned the legitimacy of the
Weimar government, owing to rumors that its civilian leaders had sold
Germany out by surrendering at a moment of strategic advantage. Their vic-
tims were often Jews, communists, and anyone else they regarded as enemies
of the German Volk.
This paramilitary chaos aggravated and was aggravated by the deteriorating
economic situation. Runaway inflation and widespread unemployment were
endemic until 1933. In 1914, one US dollar was worth 4.2 marks; in 1923,
the dollar was worth more than 1 million marks. Horror stories abounded
about unemployment, impoverishment, and the worthless paper currency that
the Weimar government continued to print. To make matters worse, in 1923
Germany defaulted on a war reparations payment, prompting French and
From renewal to devastation, 1914–45 211