BERLIN CALENDAR: WHEN GIANTS FALL - DANATBANK AND GERMAN BANK CRISIS OF 1931
Today in Berlin: 13 July, 1931
Imagine you are going to the bank, your bank card ready in the hand, and not only can you not withdraw your money - you can’t even enter the bank itself. These are not completely foreign scenes for many people around the world and for certain generations but it does not change the fact: this is a thoroughly nightmarish scenario.
In the wake of the First World War Germany went through many downs - the chief of them being the hyperinflation which the young Weimar Republic suffered due to the financial haplessness of the Kaiser war politics and its consequences. Once things picked up a bit - October of 1923 brought some badly needed relief and stopped the uncontrolled plummeting of the German mark - a collective sigh of relief went through the nation. The republican Volk could finally live without constant fear of bankruptcy again.
And then came 1929 and the world crisis. The old fears returned. But it was not until some two years later that those fears turned into blank panic.
On this day in 1931 the long brewing rumours about insolvency of Nordwolle, big German wool manufacturer, proved true…