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Here are some accounting documents exposed in City Museum of Dresden.
Using them, we can paint a portrait of what appears to be a wealthy upper-middle-class German family living in Dresden during the height of hyperinflation. They appear to be a sophisticated household that maintains certain standards despite the economic chaos.
The family employs household help, as evidenced by payments for "Wäschefrau" (washerwoman) and likely other domestic staff. They can afford to maintain service staff even during hyperinflation.
Then, they purchase cigarettes for someone named Oscar, suggesting they can still afford luxury items and maintain membership in entertainment venues (indicated by "Loge" payments - which refers to theater or opera box seats).
The family apparently used to move around with "Straßenbahn" (streetcar) regularly and bought quality personal care items (Seife/soap) with costs equal to washerwoman.
The interesting detail is the presence of formal business expenses ("Geschäftsgeb") that suggests they might be running a business or managing property. Besides, they maintain multiple business relationships with various named individuals (Krügel, Voss, Brünstein, etc.)
This appears to be a family that, despite the devastating hyperinflation of 1923, managed to maintain a relatively comfortable lifestyle through what was likely a combination of business acumen, property ownership, and established social position. The family held a subscription to the "Dresdner Anzeiger" and was a member of the "Verein Sächsischer Heimatschutz" (Association for Saxon Homeland Protection). Their detailed accounting suggests they were educated and financially literate, trying to carefully manage their resources during an extremely challenging economic period.
What inspired you to focus on Weimar Germany?
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At some point I realized that it is common to refer to Weimar among bitcoiners but they are lacking somewhat factual side. Yes there is great book written by Fergusson but I quickly discovered some other sources, quantitative data and facts. It is well-documented but lacks the show moment. Also it led to really bad societal outcomes. They are scary and exciting simultaneously. Eventually I've started collecting some stuff and thinking about its visual representation. I dug so deep I did even start discovering some German lore that looks very funny in "crypto" context (Money Shitter for example). This is the story.
But of course there are more stories about hyperinflations: read about Zimbabwe or Russia, French revolution, too. All of them have something in common and many things that are different. However it looks like Weimar's have more anecdotes, like this
The single word “no” she told her son, cost 2,446,000 marks. (Guttman)
Sometimes I simply do like create something with old things.
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Awesome! I look forward to reading more of these.
Economic history is one of my favorite subjects.
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