problems after ww1

• the war left 600,000 widows and 2 million fatherless children, by 1925 1/3 of the state budget is going towards pensions.
• 1.5 million german soldiers were returning from war and needed to be reintegrated back into society and demobilised
• the royal navy maintained the blockade of Germany until the TOV was signed, causing 293,000 germans to die from starvation or hypothermia in 1918
• industrial production was 2/3 what it had been in 1913, and only 16% of the cost of the war had been paid
• national income was 1/3 what it was in 1913, german currency had lost 75% of its value, and wages were down 20%
• by 1918, germany had only raised 16% of the war cost through taxation, and they funded the war by borrowing large sums of money from the nationalistic public using war bonds, meaning they were relying on victory to be able to claim reparations
• germany previously were in position to compete with British economic supremacy due to their well-developed industrial base and skilled workforce and natural resources. the war stripped them of this
• prices of basic goods rose by 400% from 1914 to 1918, and the national debt was up to 11.44bn gold marks in 1919 compared to 5bn in 1914