Part 4/15:
As the war dragged on, Germany’s financial strategy proved unsustainable. By 1917, the amount of money in circulation had multiplied fivefold compared to pre-war levels. The government relied heavily on war bonds to finance its operations, but these measures failed to offset the deficits—leading to a devaluation of the mark and rampant inflation. Critics like banker Hjalmar Schacht later reflected that Germany’s reliance on war bonds transformed private wealth into government obligations, unlike England’s approach of funding the war through taxation, which proved more socially equitable.