Vertigo - The Rise and Fall of Weimar Germany. Chapter 2 When Money Dies
发布时间 2025-02-23 12:20:10 来源
这篇摘自《货币之死》的章节记录了第一次世界大战后德国动荡不安的经济和社会景象，特别关注了1920年代初的恶性通货膨胀及其持久影响。战后初期，德国经济出人意料地迅速复苏，公民们渴望重建他们的生活和事业。报纸上的小广告反映了这种复苏，展示了工作机会和创业努力。
然而，这种复苏是建立在不稳固的基础上的。习惯于印钞票来资助战争的德国政府，继续沿用这种做法，导致通货膨胀呈指数级增长。虽然这最初创造了充分就业并促进了出口，但它摧毁了中产阶级，他们的储蓄和投资化为乌有。政府最初为资助战争而产生的债务，变得几乎一文不值。
失败者是那些辛勤储蓄和投资的人，特别是那些爱国地购买了战争债券的人。他们感到被政府的通货膨胀政策背叛了。相反，包括国家、企业和地主在内的债务人，由于他们的债务在实际价值上缩水而受益匪浅。这导致了一种普遍的感觉，即这个制度是为反对诚实、勤劳的人而设计的。
随着通货膨胀失控，在瓦尔特·拉特瑙遇刺和法国占领鲁尔区后，外国投资者的焦虑加剧，其后果变得更加极端。国家继续印钞票来支持鲁尔区的罢工工人，导致恶性通货膨胀。货币面额达到了天文数字，100万亿马克的钞票成为经济荒谬的象征。
虽然许多人受苦，但少数个人和企业从这场混乱中获得了巨大利益。像雨果·斯廷内斯（Hugo Stinnes）这样的工业家，被称为“通货膨胀之王”，利用外汇利润收购公司，积累了庞大的帝国。这些资产雄厚的个人过着奢华的生活，进一步加剧了那些正在挣扎的人的怨恨。美元成为衡量价值的最终标准，柏林到处都是货币兑换处。黑市猖獗，破产率飙升，贫困变得普遍。
恶性通货膨胀时代也带来了重大的社会变革。传统的价值观被颠覆，节俭变成了劣势，而足智多谋得到了回报。年轻人没有储蓄的旧观念束缚，蓬勃发展，而老年人则难以适应。这促成了一种青年崇拜，年轻人炫耀他们新获得的财富，无视传统规范。
此外，女性的独立性也提高了。恶性通货膨胀摧毁了嫁妆制度，迫使女性变得更加自给自足，从而产生了一种新的解放感。然而，卖淫也增加了，许多人认为这是伴随经济危机的道德沦丧的象征。
该章节以1923年11月恶性通货膨胀的结束作为结尾，这要归功于地租马克的建立和紧缩措施的实施。作为总理，后来又担任外交部长的古斯塔夫·施特雷泽曼，在稳定经济和改善与外国势力的关系方面发挥了关键作用。虽然共和国在“咆哮的二十年代”经历了一段相对繁荣的时期，但恶性通货膨胀留下了持久的伤痕，侵蚀了对政府的信任，并为未来的政治不稳定铺平了道路。恶性通货膨胀结束后所需的道德征服从未实现，德国进入了一个迷茫和不确定的时期。
This chapter from "When Money Dies" chronicles the tumultuous economic and social landscape of Germany in the aftermath of World War I, particularly focusing on the hyperinflation of the early 1920s and its lasting impact. The initial post-war period saw a surprisingly quick economic revival, with citizens eager to rebuild their lives and businesses. Small advertisements in newspapers reflected this resurgence, showcasing job opportunities and entrepreneurial endeavors.
However, this revival was built on shaky ground. The German government, accustomed to printing money to finance the war, continued this practice, leading to exponential inflation. While this initially created full employment and boosted exports, it devastated the middle class, who saw their savings and investments evaporate. The state's debts, initially incurred to finance the war, became virtually worthless.
The losers were those who had diligently saved and invested, particularly those who had patriotically bought war bonds. They felt betrayed by the government's inflationary policies. Conversely, debtors, including the state, businesses, and landowners, benefited immensely as their debts shrunk in real value. This led to a widespread feeling that the system was rigged against honest, hardworking people.
As inflation spiraled out of control, fueled by foreign investor anxieties after the assassination of Walter Rathenau and the French occupation of the Ruhr, the consequences became even more extreme. The state continued printing money to support striking workers in the Ruhr, leading to hyperinflation. Currency denominations reached astronomical levels, with the 100 trillion mark note becoming a symbol of the economic absurdity.
While many suffered, a few individuals and businesses profited immensely from the chaos. Industrialists like Hugo Stinnes, known as the "inflation king," leveraged foreign currency profits to acquire companies, amassing vast empires. These asset-rich individuals lived lavishly, further fueling resentment among those who were struggling. The dollar became the ultimate measure of value, with Berlin overrun by currency exchange booths. The black market thrived, while bankruptcies soared and poverty became rampant.
The hyperinflation era also brought about significant social changes. Traditional values were upended as thrift became a disadvantage and resourcefulness was rewarded. Young people, unburdened by old-fashioned notions of saving, thrived while the elderly struggled to adapt. This contributed to a cult of youth, with young people flaunting their newfound wealth and disregarding traditional norms.
Furthermore, the independence of women increased. Hyperinflation ruined the dowry system and forced women to become more self-sufficient, leading to a newfound sense of emancipation. However, prostitution also increased, seen by many as a symbol of the moral decay that accompanied the economic crisis.
The chapter concludes with the end of hyperinflation in November 1923, thanks to the establishment of the Rentenmark and the implementation of austerity measures. Gustav Stresemann, as Chancellor and later Foreign Minister, played a crucial role in stabilizing the economy and improving relations with foreign powers. While the Republic experienced a period of relative prosperity during the "Roaring Twenties," the hyperinflation left a lasting scar, eroding trust in the government and paving the way for future political instability. The moral conquests necessary after the end of hyperinflation were never reached, and Germany entered a period of confusion and uncertainty.
中英文字稿 
Chapter 2 When Money Dies The dollar is rising, let us fall. Why should we be more stable than our currency? Klausmann. Loser pays all. For most people, the new age started with big hopes. Many people who had emerged from the war unscathed looked for a job and quickly found one. Others simply carried on where they had stopped four years before. Craftsmen, doctors, and owners of small businesses announced their return to civilian life via small ads. The newspapers were full of reports of survival. Back from the field, Dr. Tzukamam, ear, nose and throat. 42 Gornavaldstrasse Back home, Alois Fylshinfet, except all kinds of brick-laying work. Released from military service, I have resumed my consultations, dentist, Carl Feuer, modern tooth replacement specialist.
第二章 当金钱消亡
美元在升值，让我们下跌。为什么我们应该比我们的货币更稳定？Klausmann. 输家承担一切。
对于大多数人来说，新时代带来了巨大的希望。许多在战争中幸存下来的人寻找工作并迅速找到了。一些人只是继续四年前中断的生活。工匠、医生和小企业主通过小广告宣布他们重返平民生活。报纸上满是关于生存的报道。
Dr. Tzukamam，耳鼻喉科，从战场归来。地址：Gornavaldstrasse 42。Alois Fylshinfet回到家中，承接各种砌砖工作。被解除军职后，我已恢复诊疗服务。牙医Carl Feuer，现代牙齿修复专家。
The advertisements proliferated endlessly, and not just the advertisements. Even though the war was lost and in spite of the unrest in the country, the economy revived surprisingly quickly. All over the place, people were making plans, developing business ideas, imagining a new life for themselves. The newspapers' small ad pages were filled with people seeking and finding each other. After four years of mayhem, the economy needed to pull itself together again and establish connections. In the Fosse-Schutz Seitung, manufacturers sought wholesalers offering 2,600 scythes, four wagons of pickling jars, or 10 tons of metal screws. People with ideas sought people with money.
广告无止境地增多，不仅仅是广告。尽管战争已经失败，国家也陷入了动荡，但经济却出人意料地迅速复苏。到处都是人们在制定计划，发展商业创意，想象着新的生活。报纸的小广告版面里充满了人们在寻找和相互找到的信息。经历四年的混乱之后，经济需要重新振作并建立联系。在《福斯-舒茨报》上，制造商寻找批发商，提供2600把镰刀、四车腌菜罐或10吨金属螺丝。拥有创意的人在寻找拥有资金的人。
Large-scale capitalists sought for the exploitation of an extremely profitable import article. Guarantees available. And conversely, money looked for brains. Capitalist seeks lucrative business, cinema, and cabaret included. In the Berliner Taggablat alone, investors often found as many as 30 requests for capital per issue. Silent partner sought with circa 100,000 marks worth of capital outlay for the rational exploitation of profitable invention. Factories sought new functions. Factories seeks businessmen to manufacture its own articles, also takes manufacturing to account. Good location near Frankfurt-Bibra Express train station. Extended storage space for raw materials and connecting platforms for 20 railway goods carriages available.
大规模的资本家们寻求对一种极具利润的进口商品进行开发。提供保证。反过来，金钱也在寻找智慧。资本家在寻找有利可图的生意，包括电影和歌舞表演。在《柏林日报》上，投资者常常在每期中发现多达30个资金需求。寻求拥有约10万马克资本投入的隐形合伙人，以合理开发有利可图的发明。工厂在寻找新的功能。工厂希望商人们制造自己的产品，并且可以承担制造任务。优越的位置，靠近法兰克福-比勃拉快车火车站。提供宽敞的原材料储存空间和可容纳20个铁路货车的连接平台。
Traveling salesman sought manufacturers to take their products on tour. Meanwhile, one manufacturer also sought a long-distance transporter with own convoy. Businessmen sought salespeople abroad, even overseas in Mexico, the Dutch East Indies, or the Portuguese colonies. Germans living abroad sought residents who could use their local knowledge and contacts. Trade even resumed with countries with which Germany had recently been at war. Suddenly, people were speaking French again, in spite of the lasting tensions, and practicing an accent that had been frowned upon during the war.
推销员寻找制造商，希望能把他们的产品带出去巡展。同时，有一家制造商也在寻找拥有自己车队的长途运输公司。商人们在海外寻找销售人员，甚至在墨西哥、荷属东印度或葡萄牙殖民地这样的地方。居住在海外的德国人则寻求能够利用当地知识和人脉的居民。贸易甚至与那些德国最近刚刚交战过的国家重新开始。尽管紧张关系依然存在，人们突然又开始说法语，并练习起曾在战争期间被贬低的口音。
While the Düjada Konyak Company had only recently felt the need to assure consumers that in spite of its name, it was in fact 100% German, French dictionaries were now advertised. Bad pronunciation is an embarrassment, along with foreign language courses. Small ad markets are a true reflection of social needs and opportunities. Someone requested information about the precise location of a grave in Aleppo, seeking the bones of a fallen soldier by the name of Åghen Hünchierger in order to bring them home. In the advertisement below that, a woman asked if anyone had found a moleskin muff that she had lost outside the Philharmonie.
虽然Düjada Konyak公司最近才感受到需要向消费者保证，尽管名称让人误解，它实际上是100%德国的公司，但与此同时，法语词典却开始被推广。不良的发音让人尴尬，就像外语课程一样。小广告市场真实反映了社会需求和机遇。有人请求获取有关阿勒颇一座坟墓的确切位置的信息，以便寻找一位名叫Åghen Hünchierger的阵亡士兵的遗骨，希望能将其带回家。在下面的广告中，一位女士询问是否有人在音乐厅外找到她丢失的鼹鼠皮手套。
Countless companies needed workers, cleaning company directors, and models, sometimes called mannequins, foremen, headclarks, publicists, buyers, drivers. Some people who found such tasks too laborious looked for a capable wife instead, ideally a war widow who now had something to bring to the marriage. Seek dark-complexioned dark-haired lady with cheerful temperament and heart full of love, who will find joy in my five-year-old daughter. As I am keen to boost my business and I am in a position to provide a useful outlay of capital, considerable assets are required, even though I would never marry for that reason. Photograph desirable, I could never be indiscreet.
无数公司需要工人、清洁公司的主管、模特（有时称为人体模型）、领班、首席文员、公关、采购员和司机。一些觉得这些工作太费力的人转而寻找一个能干的妻子，理想情况下是一位战争遗孀，她能为婚姻带来一些价值。 寻找肤色较深、头发乌黑、性格开朗并充满爱的女士，能够与我五岁的女儿共同快乐生活。 我热衷于发展事业，并有能力提供有用的资金投入，但仍需要相当的资产，尽管我绝不会因为这个原因结婚。 如有照片更佳，我对隐私非常谨慎。
The more open we are, the sooner we reach our goal. Others wanted to settle down comfortably straight away. Twin brothers want to marry into well-run grain business. That sounds a bit direct today, but it might not have been entirely senseless at the time. The war had cost 2.4 million German soldiers their lives and skewed the marriage market in favor of the remaining men. The fact that they were fewer in number made the men look more valuable than they perhaps were. The country took an upturn that surprised the victorious powers. While the mood in France and Britain was darkened by pressing economic concerns, the Germans had full employment, in spite of the fact that they had lost the war, in spite of the reparations imposed upon them.
我们越开放，越早能达到目标。其他人则想立即安稳地定居下来。双胞胎兄弟想娶入管理良好的粮食生意。这在今天听起来有点直接，但在当时可能并非全无道理。战争导致240万德国士兵丧生，并在婚姻市场上使得剩余的男性更具优势。因为男性人数减少，他们显得比实际更有价值。国家的转机出乎战胜国的意料。尽管战争失败，尽管面临赔款的压力，德国实现了充分就业，而此时法国和英国的情绪因经济问题而变得低落。
How is that possible? The answer lay in the printing trade. The Reichspank simply printed out more money. They had become accustomed to this simple method of increasing the money supply during the war. In order to finance the essentially unaffordable battles of attrition, in 1914 they had opted for two strategies. First, they borrowed the money from the German citizens in the form of government bonds. And second, if they were still short of anything, they simply went back to the printing press. In 1913, there had been two billion marks in circulation. In 1919, it was 45 billion. In the meantime, the state had put itself in debt 30 times over, from 5 billion marks to 153 billion. This inflationary practice was commonplace in all the warring nations. An insufficient thought had been given to the question of how the borrowed money might be repaid to the country's citizens and the economy brought under control once the war was over.
这是怎么可能的呢？答案在于印刷行业。德国央行简单地多印些钱。在战争期间，他们已经习惯了这种增加货币供应的简单方法。为了资助那些基本上负担不起的消耗性战争，在1914年，他们选择了两种策略。首先，他们以政府债券的形式向德国公民借钱。其次，如果仍然不够，他们就回到印钞机。在1913年，流通中的货币为20亿马克。到1919年，这个数字变为450亿。同时，国家的债务从50亿马克增加到1530亿，增长了30倍。这种通货膨胀的做法在所有参战国家中都很常见。人们没有充分考虑，一旦战争结束，如何偿还借来的钱给国民，以及如何让经济恢复正常。
All nations were equally convinced that they were going to win the war and that whoever lost would have to pay up in the end. In 1915, Karl Heufrich, Secretary of State in the Treasury, had promised the Germans that they would be able to saddle the losers with this terrible burden after the inevitable victory. The instigators of the war have earned the lead weight of the billions. They can carry it down the decades, rather than us. While the sons were fighting in the fields, their fathers were giving credit to the state. It didn't occur to them for a moment that they wouldn't get the money back. The Frenchies would have to pay up in the form of interest and interest on interest. Their enemies were thinking in exactly the same way. They too acted accordingly to the motto loser pays all when they dictated the peace conditions to the Germans in Versailles.
所有国家都同样确信他们会赢得战争，而输家最终必须偿付代价。1915年，财政部国务秘书卡尔·霍伊夫里希向德国人承诺，在不可避免的胜利后，他们能将这可怕的负担加到失败者身上。战争的挑起者理应背负这些数十亿的沉重负担，他们可以自己承受几十年，而不是我们。当儿子们在战场上厮杀时，他们的父亲们在为国家提供资金。他们从未想过自己拿不回这笔钱。法国人必须通过支付利息和复利的方式来偿还。敌人们也是完全同样地考虑问题。他们在凡尔赛把和平条款强加给德国时，也根据“赢家通吃”的原则行事。
In one of the first instalments of reparation payments for the war damage suffered by the Victor states, Germany was expected to pay 20 billion gold marks. Faced with such rosy financial prospects, the British and the French looked at their books and switched from an inflationary war economy to a thrifty peacetime budget. They cut back on all social spending, saved wherever they could, and relied on money from Germany. The prospect of reparation payments emboldened them to undertake the necessary economic fasting cure. For the Germans, on the other hand, this kind of economic realism was rendered impossible by their hopeless situation. Their mountain of debts was unimaginably huge. The state was still 98 billion marks in the red, even without the victor's demands. With debts on that scale, the very idea of saving was out of the question.
在战争损失赔偿的初期付款中，德国被要求支付200亿金马克。面对如此乐观的财务前景，英国和法国审视了他们的账簿，并从通货膨胀的战时经济转向节俭的和平时期预算。他们削减了所有社会开支，尽可能地节省，并依赖德国的赔款。这种赔偿支付的前景鼓舞了他们开始必要的经济紧缩。而对德国人来说，由于他们的绝望处境，这种经济现实是无法实现的。他们背负的债务山高得难以想象。即使没有胜利国的索赔，国家仍然有980亿马克的赤字。面对如此规模的债务，存钱的想法根本不可行。
On that logic, the coalition governments of the first years of VIMA simply continued with the inflationary policy of the war economy. Instead of weapons, they were now producing social welfare payments. The Social Democrats, the strongest party in the coalition, were under particularly enormous pressure to provide a successful and legitimate government. If they didn't just want to defeat the communists militarily, they had to prove that the revolution had been worth it for the country's citizens. Large-scale social packages, as they would be called today, were pulled together. The social services, grants and work creation measures further inflated the state budget, but for a while, it looked as if the inflation rate might actually fall. State intervention created workplaces. Things looked brighter, particularly for the industrial workforce and for low and mid-ranking clerical workers.
根据这个逻辑，维玛初期的联合政府只是继续沿用战时经济的通胀政策。他们不再生产武器，而是转向发放社会福利。作为联盟中最强大的政党，社会民主党面临着巨大压力，必须提供一个成功且合法的政府。如果他们不仅仅想在军事上击败共产党，就必须证明革命对国家公民是值得的。因此，他们制定了大规模的社会计划（今天我们称之为社会福利）。这些社会服务、补助和工作创造措施进一步增加了国家预算的负担。但一段时间内，似乎通货膨胀率实际上有可能下降。国家干预创造了就业机会，尤其是工业工人和中低层文职人员的情况有所好转。
As the value of the Reichsmag declined, with the printing presses churning out new notes, German products abroad became cheaper. Exports rose. Unemployment fell. In spite of patriotic appeals to their governments, the British and French brought up more than affordable quality goods from Germany in enormous quantities. For now, the fact that the mark was constantly losing value was no concern for people who had no savings. The main thing was that wages were rising to the same extent, or even a bit faster. The mad times of hyperinflation were yet to come. The biggest losers in all of this weren't the have-nots, but the middle class, the savers. The security-conscious members of the cultured middle class had traditionally put any excess income into savings, and now, month by month, they were watching their assets lose value.
随着德国马克的贬值和印钞机不断制造新钞，德国的产品在国外变得更加便宜。出口增加，失业率下降。尽管有爱国的呼吁，英国和法国的大量购买了来自德国的物美价廉的商品。暂时来说，马克不断贬值对那些没有储蓄的人没有影响。主要的是，他们的工资也在同步上涨，甚至涨得更快。疯狂的恶性通货膨胀时期还没有到来。在这一切中，最大的输家不是那些无产者，而是中产阶级和储蓄者。那些注重安全的有文化的中产阶级传统上会把多余的收入存起来，而现在，他们月复一月地看着自己的资产贬值。
To make matters worse, they were the ones who had bought the most bonds and patriotically helped to finance the war. Inflation dramatically devalued the claims they could make on the state. In the end, the 98 billion marks of debt that the state had incurred among its citizens weren't worth much more than a sack of potatoes. Small wonder that everyone who had lent money to the Kaiser in good faith now felt cheated by what was known in many circles as the Republic of the November criminals. What was being played out quite openly was what John Maynard Keynes had recognized in 1919. By a continuous process of inflation, governments can confiscate, secretly, and unobserved an important part of the wealth of their citizens.
情况更糟的是，这些人是购买债券最多的人，他们以爱国的态度帮助资助了战争。然而，通货膨胀大幅度地贬低了他们向国家索赔的权利。最终，国家从其公民那里积累的980亿马克的债务，其价值几乎与一袋土豆无异。难怪那些曾怀着良好意愿借钱给凯撒的人，现在对被称为“十一月罪犯”的共和国满腹牢骚。 正如约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯在1919年所认识到的，这实际上公开展示了政府通过持续的通货膨胀，可以秘密而不被察觉地没收公民财产的重要部分。
A second pillar of the recently affluent middle class also fell away, rental income. Doctors, professors, and senior civil servants regularly boosted their livelihoods with rental properties. For reasons of social policy, however, the new state imposed a rent freeze, which helped tenants to survive during the periods of inflation, but also deprived landlords of an income that they desperately needed. While some employers adjusted their workers' wages to reflect the devaluation of the currency on a weekly basis, the state went in the opposite direction. People who worked for the state came to see their employer as a swindler. It paid their wages every three months in the form of an advance. The higher inflation rose, the faster the prepaid money lost its value.
最近新富的中产阶级的另一个经济支柱也倒塌了，那就是租金收入。医生、教授和高级公务员常常通过租赁房产来增加收入。然而，由于社会政策的原因，新政府实施了租金冻结。这一政策虽然帮助租客在通胀时期得以生存，却也剥夺了房东急需的收入。尽管一些雇主根据货币贬值每周调整工人工资，但政府却采取了相反的方式。政府工作人员逐渐认为自己的雇主是在欺骗他们。政府每三个月才发一次工资，并以预支的形式发放。通胀越高，预支的工资贬值得越快。
As a result, a professor with ten years' service at a university could end up earning half the amount of an unemployed worker simply because unemployment benefit was paid out on a monthly basis. Live for the moment. Inflation was whipping out the ground from under the feet of the very people who saw themselves as pillars of society, and who had for that reason long felt protected by the state. The main beneficiaries of inflation, on the other hand, were debtors. Apart from the debt-ridden state itself, these included business people who had invested in credit, landowners whose farms were heavily in debt, speculators with borrowed capital. They all had cause for celebration. They had only to recalculate their debts into dollars or loaves of bread to see that their burdens were miraculously getting smaller.
由于失业救济金是按月发放的，结果一位在大学服务了十年的教授最终可能只挣到失业工人一半的收入。活在当下吧。通货膨胀正在从那些自视为社会栋梁的人脚下抽走立足之地，他们长期以来一直认为自己受到国家的保护。而另一方面，通货膨胀的主要受益者是债务人。除了负债累累的国家本身，还包括投资于信贷的商人、负债累累的土地所有者和用借来的资本进行投机的人。他们都有庆祝的理由。他们只需将自己的债务重新计算为美元或面包就能看到，他们的负担奇迹般地变小了。
The winners were anyone who lived on tick, the losers, anyone who economized in the traditional way. Honest people were made to look like fools. The conviction was rife among socially conservative citizens that they were living in a republic of rogues. Anyone who was unable or unwilling to speculate, anyone tied to a system of fixed incomes and who had to work their way gradually up established hierarchies quickly came to see themselves as losers. Many senior officials who had easily been able to afford a maid and a gardener before the war now found themselves mowing their own lawns and cleaning their own kitchens. Made servants now demanded the same wages as secretaries and their employers worried about how long they would be able to afford to pay them.
赢家是那些靠借贷生存的人，而输家是那些按照传统方式节省开支的人。诚实的人被看作是傻子。社会保守公民普遍认为自己生活在一个无赖的共和国中。任何无法或者不愿意去投机的人，任何依赖固定收入且需要通过逐级晋升来改善生活的人，很快就觉得自己成了失败者。许多高级官员以前战争期间可以轻松负担得起管家和园丁，现在却不得不自己修剪草坪、打扫厨房。女佣的工资要求与秘书相同，这让雇主们担心自己能支付多少时间。
From June 1922, the value of the mark against the dollar had fallen monthly by 50%. Early in 1923, it went into freefall. Two developments were crucially responsible for hyperinflation: the withdrawal of foreign investors after the assassination of Valteratanao and another rise, an incredible one this time, in state spending after the French occupation of the Roer. The murder of the foreign minister who was highly respected abroad and always determined to achieve fair play was just one of the many acts of far-right violence. But this attack attracted a great deal of international attention and confirmed many foreign investors in their fear that Germany was turning into a banana republic and was liable to sink into political chaos.
从1922年6月开始，马克兑美元的汇率每个月下跌50%。到了1923年初，汇率开始暴跌。有两个因素对恶性通货膨胀至关重要：一是瓦尔特·拉特瑙被暗杀后外国投资者的撤离，二是法国占领鲁尔区后政府开支的再一次、并且是极其惊人的上升。被暗杀的外交部长在国际上享有很高的声望，并始终坚决追求公平。然而，这次暗杀事件是许多右翼极端暴力行为中的一起，但它却引起了国际社会的广泛关注，也让许多外国投资者更加担心德国会变成一个政治混乱、无法信任的国家。
They became increasingly hesitant to invest even though the falling value of the Reichsmark made economic commitments very enticing. The loss of foreign capital meant the loss of many jobs and further inflated the state budget by raising the cost of social services. With the occupation of the industrial horror in January 1923, inflation spiraled completely out of control. A hundred thousand French soldiers invaded the region on the grounds that Germany had deliberately fallen behind with reparation payments. To reinforce their demands, the French wanted to cut off German industry from its raw materials and redirect the coke, coal, and steel into their own country.
虽然由于帝国马克贬值，使得经济投资变得非常诱人，但他们变得越来越犹豫不决。外国资本的流失意味着许多工作岗位的消失，并通过提高社会服务的成本进一步膨胀了国家预算。随着1923年1月工业地区被占领，通货膨胀完全失控。十万名法国士兵入侵该地区，理由是德国故意拖欠赔款。为了加强他们的要求，法国希望切断德国工业的原材料供应，将焦炭、煤炭和钢铁运往法国。
In spite of brutal attempts at intimidation, however, the workers refused to go to the smelting furnaces or down the mines for the occupying forces. Over a hundred and fifty thousand people, not only workers but officials and office clerks, were violently expelled from the Roer. The rest went on striking or sometimes, with the help of Freikop's members, engaged in acts of sabotage. For a while the German public pulled together as they had during the domestic political truce, Borgfried declared during the war. It was only on the far right that people went on mocking what was known as the policy of fulfilment, an agreement to repay reparations with a view to renegotiating the deal in due course.
尽管遭受了残酷的恐吓，工人们却拒绝为占领军进入冶炼炉或下矿井。超过十五万人，包括工人、官员和办公职员，被强行逐出鲁尔地区。其余的人继续罢工，有时还在自由军团成员的帮助下进行破坏活动。德国公众一度团结一致，就像战争期间国内政治停战时那样。只有在极右翼的人仍然嘲笑所谓的履约政策，这是一项旨在通过偿还赔款来重新谈判协议的政策。
But there was little sign in government of its supposed submissiveness towards the victorious forces. On the contrary, in order to maintain resistance against the occupation, the state went on paying damages to the Roer companies and wages to the approximately two million striking workers. These strikers were known as Künner pensioners, after the acting non-party-aligned Wilhelm Künner, President Iberts, 6th Chancellor. To keep them fed, the government went on printing money for almost nine months in vast quantities.
但是，政府几乎没有表现出对战胜力量的所谓顺从。相反，为了维持对占领的抵抗，国家继续向Roer公司的员工和大约两百万的罢工工人支付赔偿和工资。这些罢工工人被称为"Künner退休者"，这个名字来源于非党派代理人威尔赫姆·Künner，以及第六任总理Iberts。为了让他们有食物，政府在大约九个月内持续大量印钞。
More than five thousand printing works were now churning out notes on behalf of the Reichspank. New bills were constantly being designed to make the money manageable in terms of weight at least, so that people didn't always have to go to the bakers with a wheelbarrow full of notes. In November, a pound of rye bread cost a thousand billion marks. In February 1923, the 100,000 mark note entered circulation. This was followed within eight months by the 50 million mark note, the 200 billion and finally the 100 trillion note. The Germans might not have had much of an idea what was going on, but they could still count, never again were they such masters at calculating numbers with 12 zeros as they were in the autumn of 1923.
超过五千家印刷厂正在为德国国家银行大量印制纸币。为了至少在重量上让货币更容易携带，新的面额设计不断出现，这样人们就不必总是推着装满纸币的手推车去买面包了。到11月，一磅黑麦面包需要花费一千亿马克。1923年2月，十万马克的纸币开始流通。八个月内，五千万马克、两千亿马克，最后是一百万亿马克的纸币相继投入市场。德国人可能并不完全明白发生了什么，但他们仍能数清这些钱。1923年秋天，他们在计算12个零的数字上变得空前熟练，这种能力之后再未达到过。
It took some people a matter of seconds to work out how long they could survive on the trillions they had in their pockets, but the 100 trillion note marked the end. It was the largest denomination ever printed on a German bank note. As if this record had been predicted, the 100 trillion mark note was particularly fine to look at, a masterpiece of the money maker's art. It was truly heart rending that such trouble should have been taken with such a debilitated currency. On the right hand edge of the note, there was a symbol of German culture, Albrecht Dürer's portrait of the humanist Villibite Pilchheimer.
有些人只用了几秒钟时间就算出了他们口袋里的数万亿额度能支持他们生存多久，而这100万亿的纸币标志着一个时代的终结。这是德国印刷过的最大面额的纸币。仿佛预见了这一记录一样，这张100万亿马克的纸币特别精美，是货币制造艺术的杰作。令人感到痛心的是，如此精美的设计却用在了一个如此疲软的货币上。在纸币的右边缘，有一个象征德国文化的符号，那是阿尔布雷希特·丢勒画的唯利比特·皮尔赫海默的人文主义者肖像。
The watermark was a row of thistles, a complicated braiding of lines artfully made the note difficult to forge, but who would have wanted to forge it? This absurd level of accuracy didn't enhance the note's value. According to a widespread story, some thieves stole a whole laundry basket full of money. They threw away the money and kept the basket. The faster hyperinflation rose, the more difficult it became to do business. But many people had become rich and richer, not in spite of hyperinflation, but because of it.
水印是一排蓟花，线条复杂交织，艺术性地使钞票难以伪造，但谁会想伪造它呢？这种荒唐的精确度并没有提升钞票的价值。据一个流传甚广的故事，一些小偷偷了一整筐钱，但他们扔掉了钱，只留着篮子。随着恶性通货膨胀加速上升，做生意变得越来越困难。但许多人却因此变得富有，甚至更加富裕，这并不是尽管有恶性通货膨胀，而是因为它。
Hugo Stinnis, a major industrialist from the horror known as the inflation king, exploited it on a grand scale. Unlike most other classic steel barons, Stinnis was a deft financial juggler, who swiftly converted the profits he had made in foreign currencies into Reichsmacht, to buy companies which were on paper at least, now more valuable than they had been shortly before. When Stinnis died at the age of 54 in 1924, he owned a 1,535 businesses with 3,000 factories and different branches. These included 81 mines, 56 iron and steel works, 57 banks and insurance companies, 37 refineries and oil fields, as well as 389 trading and transport companies.
Hugo Stinnis 是一位重要的工业家，他被称为"通货膨胀之王"，并且在这场经济灾难中进行大规模的投机。与其他经典的钢铁大亨不同，Stinnis 是一位熟练的金融操作者，他迅速将通过外币赚取的利润换成德国马克，用来购买那些在账面上价值显著提升的公司。Stinnis 于1924年去世，享年54岁。去世时，他拥有1535家企业和3000家工厂及不同的分支机构。其中包括81个矿山、56个钢铁厂、57家银行和保险公司、37个炼油厂和油田，以及389家贸易和运输公司。
30 ships sailed under the Stinnis flag between Hamburg and Central America and in the seas around East Asia. There were many businessmen like him on larger and smaller scales, they sold their products abroad and bought up one company after another back home with their increasingly valuable dollars. With this flight into material assets, the important thing was to be even faster than inflation. These new investments allowed them to borrow large sums on the assumption that these would have greatly declined in value when it came to paying them back.
在斯汀尼斯旗帜下，共有30艘船在汉堡与中美洲之间以及东亚附近的海域航行。像他这样的商人在商业中不乏其人，有大有小。他们在国外出售产品，并用日益增值的美元在国内收购一家又一家公司。在这一物质资产热潮中，关键是要比通货膨胀更快。这些新的投资使他们能够借到大笔资金，因为他们假设这些资金在偿还时已经大幅贬值。
Consequently, it was possible to get richer and richer on the never-never, a route from which less credit worthy people were, of course, excluded. Even during hyperinflation things looked good for the asset rich. The cars became sleeker, the magazines glossier, horse racing enjoyed a boom and sailing regattas continued to be held. Many people had a sense that the Social Democratic Republic had become the plaything of a tiny elite. The more cunning among the world to do were joined by a new species, Rafkis and Sheba, spivs and money-grabbers, who put their wealth even more visibly on display.
因此，有些人能够通过分期付款方式变得越来越富裕，而信用不佳的人自然被排除在外。即使在恶性通货膨胀期间，拥有资产的人生活看起来仍然很好。汽车变得更加豪华，杂志的质感更加精美，赛马事业兴旺，帆船比赛也继续举行。很多人感觉到社会民主共和国已经成为一个小精英阶层的玩物。其中一些更狡猾的富人加入了一个新兴的群体——奢侈品爱好者和贪婪之徒，他们更显眼地炫耀自己的财富。
They made huge profits on black market deals and currency speculation. In the afterword to his novel Rafkot and Kor, the best-selling author, Artoa Lansberger, identified the Sheba as a new genus that learned to walk during the war. Someone who goes against the grain, with brushes on his teeth, who soaps himself with whipped cream and makes mincemeat with his razor blade, a gibbon whose arms are as long as his conscience is broad, with a fine-tuned sense and a completely new attitude, who has nothing in common with the people of former times but his language.
他们通过黑市交易和货币投机赚了大笔钱。在他的畅销小说《拉夫科特与科尔》的后记中，作者阿尔托亚·兰斯伯格将“谢巴”认定为一种在战争期间学会行走的新物种。这是一种特立独行的人，牙齿上弄着刷子，用奶油给自己打肥皂，用剃须刀做肉末，就像长臂猿一样，他的手臂长得像他的良知一样宽广，拥有非常灵敏的感觉和全新的态度，除了语言之外，与过去的人们毫无共同之处。
The state of the economy could be read from the dollar exchange rate. The dollar was rising hourly. The new rates were announced at midnight every day, delivering a judgment about the value or lack of it of people's remaining assets. Anyone who had been paid in rice marks had to convert them to a stable currency as quickly as possible. All over Berlin there were dollar booths, glass booths in the middle of the street where foreign currency can be exchanged.
可以从美元汇率中看出经济状况。美元每小时都在上涨。每天午夜会公布新的汇率，传达出对人们剩余资产价值的评判。任何以米市马克支付的人都必须尽快将其兑换成稳定的货币。在柏林各地都有美元兑换亭，那是街道中间的玻璃亭，可以用来兑换外币。
Particularly notable was the way in which deals on the black stock market in Dusodov were conducted. Here on the border with the occupied horror, foreign currencies were exchanged openly in the street, US dollars or French and Belgian francs. On Kaiser Wilhelm Schreiser, the black stock market was formed of a dense knot of people that moved back and forth, whispering exchange rates to each other. Mingling with the crowd of very dubious criminal figures were exhausted women, old men, young lads offering clothes and bedland for sale, wrote the author Joseph Haught, shocked that he was supposed to pay more there for his lunch, 50 billion marks, when he would rather have had a vast and zauacolts standing up in a Berlin bar for 20.
在Dusodov的黑市交易方式尤其引人注目。这里靠近被占领的恐怖地带，外国货币在街上公开交换，可以看到美国美元，或者法郎和比利时法郎。在Kaiser Wilhelm Schreiser大街上，黑市交易就像一个密集的人群来回移动，低声互相传递汇率信息。在这些形迹可疑的犯罪人物中，还有一些疲惫不堪的妇女、老人和年轻小伙子，他们在售卖衣物和床上用品。作者约瑟夫·霍特对此感到震惊，因为在这里吃午餐竟然要花50亿马克，而他宁愿在柏林的酒吧里以20马克享用一大杯扎啤。
Anyone who didn't join in with the currency devaluation game slipped into penury. Bankruptcies accumulated and the numbers of unemployed people and beggars soared. They now define the cityscape panhandling in cafes and waiting outside factory gates and office blocks. One outraged Munich beggar threw back a bundle of 100 mark notes. You can keep that crap for yourself. Because many people who are still in work knew how quickly they too might lose their jobs, poverty sheds some of its stigma.
任何没有参与货币贬值游戏的人都陷入了贫困。破产人数不断增加，失业者和乞丐的数量急剧上升。他们现在成为城市景观的一部分，在咖啡馆乞讨，或者在工厂大门和办公楼外等待。一位愤怒的慕尼黑乞丐甚至拒绝了一捆100马克的钞票。他说：“这些垃圾还是留给你自己吧。”因为许多仍在工作的人知道自己也可能很快会失去工作，贫穷不再像过去那样带有耻辱感。
Donation-funded soup kitchens sprang up all over the place. Reporters strolled through the waiting rooms of the starving. Egon Alvin Kish, for example, had himself locked up in a night shelter. Hans Falada brought poverty closer to his readers by having his protagonists rise and fall through the social strata as if in a lift. Social mobility accelerated at a dizzying pace, like everything else during those years. Careers that had been on the rise suddenly took a tumble.
捐赠资助的施粥所如雨后春笋般涌现。记者们走访了那些饥饿者等待的房间。例如，埃贡·阿尔文·基什(Egon Alvin Kish)曾故意把自己锁在夜间庇护所中。汉斯·法拉达(Hans Falada)通过让他的主人公在社会阶层中迅速升降，如同乘坐电梯一般，把贫困感受生动地呈现给读者。在这些年里，社会流动如同其他一切事务一样，以令人目眩的速度加快。那些蒸蒸日上的职业生涯也突然遭遇滑坡。
While there were food riots and grossest shops were looted, some people had enough money to go to the theatre at a cost of two trillion marks. But it was also possible to pay with two eggs. The play, my cousin Edward, by Fritz Friedman Friedrich, was running at the Commudian House in Berlin. The premier coincided with the height of hyperinflation. There has often been a lot of laughter, the local Ansaga reported, but never as much as this. You really can't stop laughing.
虽然当时发生了食品骚乱和杂货店被洗劫，但还是有人有足够的钱去剧院，而票价高达两万亿马克。不过，也可以用两个鸡蛋支付。这时，由弗里茨·弗里德曼·弗里德里希创作的话剧《我的表哥爱德华》正在柏林的喜剧之家上演。首演恰逢恶性通货膨胀的高峰期。据当地的报道，现场常常充满笑声，不过这次的笑声比以往任何时候都多。你真的忍不住笑。
You didn't need much in the way of funds to enjoy inflation. A smart student from Heidelberg made the best of his family's financial collapse. Shortly after the start of hyperinflation, their savings, originally totalling 800,000 marks, had shrunk to a value that was just enough to buy a ticket to Holland. With that money, he travelled to Limburg and worked in the coal mine there until he had saved 50 gilder. Back in Heidelberg, he used the 50 gilder as security for a short-term bank loan, which he soon paid back with devalued money.
你不需要太多资金就能从通货膨胀中获益。一位来自海德堡的聪明学生充分利用了他家里财务崩溃的情况。在恶性通货膨胀刚开始后，他们家原本有80万马克的存款，价值缩水到仅够买一张前往荷兰的车票。他用这些钱去了林堡，在那里的煤矿工作，直到攒了50荷兰盾。回到海德堡后，他用这50荷兰盾作为抵押申请了一笔短期银行贷款，并很快用贬值后的钱还清了这笔贷款。
Then he took out a new loan and so on and so on. In the end, he still had in his pocket the 50 gilders, with which he had financed an entire year of study. Only people relatively uninhibited by traditional ideas of value were capable of that kind of resourcefulness. Anyone who stuck with the old German maxim that begging is better than borrowing soon found themselves facing destitution. Inflation rewarded the resourceful, not the virtuous.
然后他又拿了一笔新贷款，依此类推，依此类推。最后，他口袋里仍然有那50个金登，就是靠这笔巨款，他资助了一整年的学业。只有那些不受传统价值观束缚的人才能够有这样的机智。任何坚持老德意志格言“乞讨好过借债”的人，很快就会面临贫困。通货膨胀奖励了那些足智多谋的人，而不是那些遵循美德的人。
Old people couldn't keep up. Things were easier for the young and quick-witted, who weren't overburdened with traditional notions of thrift. Reliance on past experience was punished with hunger, impulsiveness, with enormous wealth. The journalist Sebastian Haffner, 16 years old in 1923, would recall. In a memoir written in British exile in 1939, he reports on the astonishing transformations in his comrades, only a little older than himself.
老年人跟不上时代。对年轻人和思维敏捷的人来说，生活要容易得多，他们没有被传统的节俭观念所束缚。依赖过去的经验往往会导致饥饿，而冲动则可能带来巨大的财富。记者塞巴斯蒂安·哈弗纳在1923年时只有16岁，他在1939年流亡英国时写下的回忆录中回忆到。他报告说，看着比自己大不了多少的同伴们发生的惊人变化。
The 21-year-old bank director appeared, as did the sixth former who followed the stock exchange advice of his slightly older friends. He wore Oscar Wilde ties, organized champagne parties, and supported his impoverished father. Beneath all this suffering, a feverish, hot-blooded youthfulness, lasciviousness, and a general carnival spirit flourished. Now, all of a sudden, it was the young and not the old who had the money. And it was money that kept its value only for a few hours. It was spent like never before or since, and not on the kind of things on which old people spent money. Inflation fed the cult of youth typical of the Weimar Republic, and confirmed the young in their arrogance and the old in their insecurity. Among affluent school students, it became the fashion to invest pocket money in shares.
21岁的银行董事出现了，还有那位跟随稍微年长朋友建议去炒股的高中生。他系着奥斯卡•王尔德式的领带，组织香槟派对，并支持着他贫困的父亲。在这些辛苦之下，炙热的青春、放纵和一种整体的狂欢精神蓬勃发展。突然之间，拥有金钱的是年轻人而不是老年人。而且这金钱的价值只能维持几小时。它的花费达到前所未有的程度，与老人花钱的方式截然不同。通货膨胀助长了魏玛共和国特有的青年崇拜，并进一步加剧了年轻人的傲慢和老年人的不安。在富裕的学生中，把零用钱投资到股票上成了一种时尚。
The author Georg Hirschfeld described these young people brought up by inflation as world citizens without a world. They laughed their way through terrible pointlessness and want to travel far on the corpses of yesterday. Haffner experienced the effect Hyperinflation had on the life of his father, a senior Prussian officer, and the family in general. On the first of the month when his father's salary arrived, they had to spend the entire monthly allowance on non-perishable goods all at once. The whole family ran back and forth buying up huge cheeses, hams and hundred weights of potatoes. The maid brought the things home in a wheelbarrow. Monthly tickets for the underground were bought the same day before they went up in price again the next. Speed was vital, not least when it came to spending money.
作者格奥尔格·赫希费尔德描述了这些在通货膨胀中成长起来的年轻人，将他们称为没有世界的世界公民。他们嘲笑着度过了无比空虚的生活，想要在昨日的尸体上走得很远。哈夫纳体验到了恶性通货膨胀对他父亲——一位资深普鲁士军官——及其家庭生活的影响。在父亲工资到手的每个月第一天，他们不得不立刻把整个月的津贴全部用来购买不易腐烂的物资。全家忙着来回采购大量的奶酪、火腿和成百上千斤的土豆。女佣用独轮车把这些东西搬回家。同一天，他们还会购买地铁月票，以避免第二天价格再次上涨。花钱的速度非常重要，尤其是在这样的时候。
Quick, get rid of the bills before they become even more worthless. Quick, my wife, here's another 10,000 marks. Buy something with it. It doesn't matter what, a pound of carrots, shirt buttons, the record she wants bananas from me, or a rope to hang ourselves with, but be quick, run fast. With these words, a man in Hans Falada's novel, Wolf Among Wolves, spurs his wife on to keep pace with the currency's devaluation. But money lost value faster than anyone could run. Flight into real goods was almost physically impossible. The pace required to keep up with the hyperinflation meant faster communication in every area of life. In 1923, Siemens came up with a special stock exchange telephone for currency trading, with which companies could conclude their transactions more quickly. While a currency purchase was being negotiated by telephone, the employee could consult the boss on a second line without interrupting the original conversation, an early form of modern conference switching.
快速，把这些钞票处理掉，别让它们变得更一文不值。快，我的妻子，这里有另一万马克。用它买点东西，不管买什么，一磅胡萝卜、衬衣扣子、她想要的唱片或者香蕉，甚至绳子来吊死我们，但要快，跑快点。在汉斯·法拉达的小说《狼在狼群中》中，那个男人这样催促他的妻子以赶上货币的贬值步伐。但是，货币的贬值速度比任何人跑步都快。转向实物几乎在身体上是不可能的。为了跟上恶性通货膨胀的步伐，各个生活领域都需要更快的沟通。1923年，西门子公司开发了一种用于货币交易的特殊股票交易电话，企业可以通过它更快速地达成交易。在用电话协商购买货币时，员工可以通过另一条线路与老板沟通，而不干扰原来的对话，这是一种早期形式的现代电话会议切换。
The experience of the creeping death of money even altered people's neural circuits. There was a widespread sense of unreality, and any kind of monetary transaction put people's nerves on edge. Those undaunted by money's tendency to evaporate were gripped by a weird feeling of boldness, a sense of the impossible, of enormous changes in fortune that lurked behind the new thread-bear reality. There was talk of starving millionaires, an incongruous phrase that captured the ridiculous nature of everyday life. There were people with billions in their pockets and nothing in their bellies. Things were worsening by the day. The only miracle was that not everyone had already hit rock bottom. Friedrich Nietzsche's revaluation of all values was constantly being cited. The whole system of cultural values had gone into decline along with the value of their currency. Parents were worried about their children's morals. Love seemed to be following the example of money.
货币的缓慢衰亡甚至改变了人们的大脑回路。大家普遍感到生活不真实，任何货币交易都让人神经紧张。那些不怕钱消失的人却感到一种奇怪的勇气，觉得不可能的事情也可能发生，巨大的财富变化就潜藏在这摇摇欲坠的现实背后。有人谈论“饿死的百万富翁”，这个矛盾的说法捕捉到了日常生活的荒谬。有些人兜里装着几亿，却肚子饿得空空如也。情况一天比一天糟，唯一的奇迹是并非所有人都已经跌到谷底。弗里德里希·尼采的“价值重估”被反复提及。整套文化价值系统的衰落与货币贬值齐头并进。父母们担心孩子们的道德观，爱情似乎在效仿金钱的例子。
The more its importance was affirmed, the more its value dropped. The young people who learned to love in those days skipped romance and embraced cynicism, Haffner wrote. Older generations have always tended to believe that respectability is on the way out, but now young people themselves believed the same thing. Everyone is a match for everyone. It doesn't matter. This girl is a match for this boy, just as much as the next. The dollar is rising, let us fall. Why should we be more stable than our currency? Millions of underfed, corrupt, desperately lewd, furiously pleasure-seeking men and women twist and stumble away in a jazzy delirium. It was in these terms in his autobiography, The Turning Point, that Klaus Mann, the son of Tormus, described the capital's bohemian crowd into which he had fallen as an 18-year-old.
其重要性越被肯定，其价值就下降得越多。Haffner写道，在那个年代，年轻人学会了爱，但他们跳过了浪漫，转而拥抱愤世嫉俗。年长的一代总是倾向于认为体面正在消失，但现在年轻人自己也这样认为。对任何人来说，任何人都可以是合适的对象。这没关系。这个女孩和这个男孩配对得一样好，就像下一个一样。美元在上涨，而我们在下跌。为什么我们要比我们的货币更稳定？数百万营养不良、腐败、极度好色、疯狂寻欢作乐的男女在爵士乐的迷幻中扭动和跌跌撞撞。Klaus Mann在他的自传《转折点》中这样描述了他18岁时融入的首都波西米亚人群，他是Tormus的儿子。
And in the Munich district of Schbarbing, things were no better. It was not without reason that the Bavarian Oskamaria Graf, who for a time-organized glamorous parties in return for money, invented the term sexual democracy. The faster money lost its value, the faster people danced. Ecstatic dancing on a busy dance floor dispelled all cares for now. The dance style that went with inflation was the almost rule-free shimmy, which had arrived in 1920. It involved ecstatically shaking the shoulders and hips in a very contemporary-looking way. It was danced in a very tight space with no touching between partners. You could only shimmy as part of a crowd, critic saw it as the end of social dancing, a whirling monument to loneliness. Inflation, new freedom and moral collapse. Otto Dickson-Co, see the Republic as one big brothel.
在慕尼黑的施巴宾区，情况也没有好到哪里去。巴伐利亚的奥斯卡玛丽亚·格拉夫一度以组织奢华派对赚取金钱，他创造了“性民主”这个词，这并非毫无道理。货币贬值的速度越快，人们跳舞的速度也就越快。在拥挤的舞池里狂热地舞蹈，暂时驱散了一切烦恼。与通货膨胀相伴的舞风是几乎没有规则限制的希米舞，这种舞蹈在1920年出现，表现为以一种非常现代的方式狂野地扭动肩膀和髋部。希米舞要求在非常狭小的空间中跳，舞伴之间不接触。在人群中跳希米舞是唯一的方式，批评家认为这标志着社交舞的终结，是孤独的旋转纪念碑。通货膨胀、新的自由与道德的崩溃。奥托·迪克森-科看来，共和国就像一个大妓院。
One of the social dividends of inflation was greater independence for women. It's no coincidence that the locus for this was on the dance floor. The dance hall clean tell now included a type of customer who had never been seen before. Unaccompanied women. Most of these were young shorthand typists and secretaries who visited the clubs alone or with girlfriends. To the puzzled observer from more conservative circles or indeed from the provinces, this type of behaviour was unheard of and seemed dangerously close to prostitution. Many girls came from the provinces to Berlin, eager to breathe the balmy air of freedom. If, as often happened, they didn't find a regular income as quickly as they might have wished, they at least wanted like the famous artificial silk girl in the novel of the same name, Das Kunst-Zyden-Amitian, in German, by Imgad Köin, to enjoy some kind of nightlife glamour, and act like proud, independent women who are their own environment and can switch themselves on like electric light bulbs and no one can get at them through the beam.
通货膨胀带来的社会红利之一是女性获得了更大的独立性。这种转变主要体现在舞池上，这绝非巧合。舞厅的顾客群体中出现了一类从未见过的面孔——独自前来的女性。大多数是年轻的速记员和秘书，她们单独或和女伴一起去俱乐部。对于来自较保守或偏远地区的观察者来说，这种行为闻所未闻，并且看起来似乎与卖淫无异。许多女孩子从家乡来到柏林，渴望感受自由的气息。如果她们没有如愿迅速找到稳定收入，她们至少希望像小说《人造丝姑娘》（德语为《Das Kunstseidenmädchen》，作者是Irmgard Keun）中的角色那样，享受夜生活的魅力，表现得像骄傲、独立的女性。她们是自己生活的主宰，就像电灯泡一样能够自如开关，外界无法通过光束触及她们。
Certainly money played a part in the style with which young women conquered the city's nightlife. During hyperinflation, there was effectively no aspect of life in which money didn't play an important part. Many of these women could more or less find their feet thanks to their new office jobs, but the ones who didn't have that kind of independence in mind and who instead had their eyes set on marriage had their plans scuppered by hyperinflation, which had ruined the dowry system. From rich families elder daughter to simple housemaid, some kind of dowry was seen as an economic requirement for marriage ability. Even many single housemaids had set aside everything they could in order to increase their chances on the marriage market. Now those savings were basically liquidated.
当然，金钱在年轻女性如何征服城市夜生活的方式中起到了作用。在恶性通货膨胀期间，几乎没有哪个生活领域不受到金钱的影响。这些年轻女性中的许多人通过新的办公室工作能够找到自己的定位，但那些没有独立打算、而是把目光投向婚姻的女性，她们的计划却被恶性通货膨胀打乱了，因为这破坏了嫁妆制度。从富裕家庭的大女儿到普通的家佣，嫁妆被视为结婚能力的经济需求。甚至许多单身家佣也尽力储蓄，以增加自己在婚姻市场上的机会。然而，现在这些储蓄基本上都化为乌有了。
The prospect of marriage wasn't completely ruled out. Sometimes love outshone the bride's lack of means, but it had become more unlikely. Many young women saw themselves thrown back on their own devices, forced to recognize a potential for emancipation in the loss of their dowries. They took control of their own fortune and played an active and independent part in the search for a partner. Without a dowry, parents had no say in the matter. The idea associated with the dowry that one was supposed to save oneself for the wedding night was further battered by hyperinflation. Once again, the same principle applied. Saving is pointless. Don't think of tomorrow. All that matters is today.
结合上下文，将其翻译成中文：
结婚的前景并没有被完全排除。有时候，爱情会超越新娘经济条件的不足，但这种情况变得越来越不常见。许多年轻女性发现自己不得不依靠自己的能力，不得不在失去嫁妆的情况下寻找自我解放的可能性。她们开始掌控自己的命运，积极独立地寻找伴侣。没有嫁妆，父母在这件事上没有发言权。嫁妆所关联的新娘必须为新婚之夜保留贞洁的观念，也因为恶性通货膨胀而受到打击。再次地，同样的原则适用：储蓄毫无意义。不要考虑明天。重要的是活在当下。
Just as hyperinflation accelerated all social trends in swirling countercurrents of fresh liberation and new constraints, it also gave an almost explosive boost to female emancipation. Tough and athletic, quick-witted and sparklingly intelligent, the new woman became a new social role model. Starting with the very highest social strata where the fashionable attributes of tennis playing, car driving, and writing counted for a lot, the rebellious daughters fought their way downwards. Praised and photographed a thousand times over in the illustrated magazines, the new woman also impressed the girls who had to earn their money at typewriters in the cities, and in many respects created a hyper-modern type of woman pointing fine to the future, who found her goal in self-determination.
正如恶性通货膨胀在急速变化的解放和新约束的交织中加速了所有社会趋势，它也几乎爆炸性地推动了女性解放。坚韧、活力十足、机敏而聪慧，新女性成为了新的社会榜样。从社会最高阶层开始，在那里打网球、开车、写作等时尚特征备受推崇，这些叛逆的女儿们努力冲破阶级的束缚。她们在插图杂志上被无数次地赞美和拍摄，同时也让那些在城市中通过打字谋生的女孩们感到敬佩。新女性在许多方面塑造了一种超现代的女性形象，她们以自我决定作为自己的目标，预示着未来的趋势。
One of the more regrettable aspects of inflation was the rise of prostitution. It had nothing to do with emancipation but was ideally placed to bring the notion into disrepute. Sudden poverty forced even upper-class women onto the street. Now only amateur's practiced prostitution and in broad daylight, Egon Alvin Kish wrote from Berlin in August 1923. He continued, When I was leaving the cafe yesterday, a woman addressed me and told me that her husband was an interior designer, but that he had no commissions and was ill. Could I go with her? I hadn't even answered when a girl stepped between us and tried to push the woman away. I have fabulous hair in a beautiful body.
通货膨胀带来的一个令人遗憾的现象是卖淫的增多。这与女性解放无关，但严重损害了这一理念的声誉。突如其来的贫困甚至迫使上层社会的女性走上街头。现在，只有业余者在光天化日之下从事卖淫。埃贡·阿尔文·基什在1923年8月从柏林写道。他继续说道，昨天我离开咖啡馆时，一位女士走过来跟我说，她的丈夫是室内设计师，但没有订单，而且还生病了。她问我能不能跟她走。我还没来得及回答，一个女孩就插到我们之间，试图推开那位女士。她说，我有漂亮的头发和美丽的身体。
There was an abundance of information on prostitution in the years of inflation, including tips and travel guides. Today, in Mel Gordon's voluptuous panic, the erotic world of Vima Berlin, one can read about which Berlin street offered which kind of prostitutes, from miners to pregnant women to the disabled. How much of this was factually accurate and how much was lewd and voyeuristic exaggeration widespread even at the time is hard to tell. Prostitutes acted as a handy real-life metaphor to contemporaries who were inclined understandably enough to see inflation as a moral decay in every respect. Left and right outdid one another in their scorn for a society that they saw as selling itself.
在通货膨胀的年代，关于卖淫的信息非常多，包括一些贴士和旅行指南。在梅尔·戈登的书《诱惑的狂热》中，可以了解到柏林的情色世界。书中提到，柏林的各个街道提供不同类型的妓女，从矿工到孕妇再到残疾人。这些信息有多少是准确的，又有多少是夸大的猥亵说辞，当时乃至现在都很难分辨。在那个时代，人们普遍将卖淫视为一个有用的现实隐喻，因为通货膨胀被理所当然地看作是全面的道德堕落。无论是左翼还是右翼，都在指责这个他们认为正在出卖自己的社会。
Prostitutes can hardly have been painted as frequently in any age as they were in the interwar years, usually in a shockingly ugly way. They strapped like greedy seagulls through the paintings of Otto Dix and George Gross, overweight cuckettes in the company of Paunchie Provincials. Others, cat-eyed and sharp-clawed, snuggle up to their black tie and tailored patrons, playing the role of vulnerability. In the watercolours of the painter Jean-Mumman, sarcastic gold diggers, I the dance floor in search of prey. Ferriti and pig-headed faces can be seen in El Frida-Lores-Aveshtlas pub paintings.
在两次世界大战之间的时期，妓女被描绘的频率几乎是空前的，而且通常以令人震惊的丑陋方式出现。在奥托·迪克斯和乔治·格罗斯的画作中，她们像贪婪的海鸥一样游走，与身材臃肿的普通人在一起。还有一些猫眼、尖爪的妓女，依偎在穿着黑色礼服的绅士顾客身旁，扮演脆弱的角色。在让·穆曼的水彩画中，讽刺的淘金女在舞池中搜寻猎物。在埃尔·弗里达-洛雷斯-阿维什特拉斯的酒吧画作中，可以看到头脑简单且如铁一般固执的面孔。
These pictures contained a great deal of social criticism, a love-hate feeling for ugliness, but there was also a subliminal current of contempt for the republic, particularly in the work of George Gross, a mixture of arrogance and revulsion, a degree of disappointed idealism, but also a secret fascination with a perverse, dressed-up as critique. The bad ones were always other people, everyone else was just looking. The prostitute became an essential part of the scene in the 1920s. Many people saw her as the face that lay behind the seductive mask of the new woman. In Alfred Dublin's novel, Bellin-Alexandar Platz, or Fritz Lang's film Metropolis, as the great whore of Babylon, she became the incarnation of the city, the symbol of a capitalism that had ended up in the moral gutter.
这些图片包含了大量的社会批判，表达了一种对丑陋的爱恨交织的情感，同时也隐含着对共和国的蔑视，尤其是在乔治·格罗丝的作品中，这种感情混合着傲慢和厌恶，以及某种失望的理想主义，但也夹杂着一种对扭曲、伪装为批判的事物的秘密迷恋。那些糟糕的总是别人，而其他人只是在旁观。 在20世纪20年代，妓女成了这一场景的重要组成部分。许多人认为她是新女性诱人面具背后的真实面孔。在阿尔弗雷德·德布林的小说《柏林亚历山大广场》或弗里茨·朗的电影《大都会》中，她作为大巴比伦的娼妓，成为城市的化身，象征着最终落入道德深渊的资本主义。
In his 1931 moral history of inflation, Hans Ostwald, a tireless observer of Berlin Nightlife, assembled a series of set pieces to form an image of the decadent 1920s. He described how evening after evening, nocturnal strollers met up in the station waiting room of Berlin's Banhoftsaw. Caught off guard by the closing time, they still wanted to spend the rest of the evening, in the stylish way it had begun. In lace and silk dresses, fur coats and tuxedos, the party crowd sat among the few weary travellers who didn't have enough money to spend the night in a hotel bed. The others, guests from Delarica, the Dutch land of the gilder, Russian emigres dripping with jewellery, mingled stars from stage and screen beside cheeky young inflation profiteers, banking apprentices and dollar spivs.
在他1931年关于通货膨胀的道德历史中，汉斯·奥斯瓦尔德——一位不知疲倦的柏林夜生活观察者——通过一系列场景描绘了20世纪20年代的颓废景象。他描述了柏林火车站大候车室里的夜晚情景：每当到了晚上，夜间的漫步者们都聚集于此。就算到了关门时间，他们依然想继续以优雅的方式度过这个夜晚。这群派对客人身穿蕾丝与丝绸的裙子、披着毛皮外套、穿着燕尾服，坐在那些既疲惫又没钱住酒店的旅客中间。其余的还有从德拉丽卡来的客人、佩戴着珠宝的俄罗斯移民、舞台和银幕上的明星，与那些得意洋洋的通货膨胀牟利者、银行学徒和倒卖美元的投机商混杂在一起。
Nearby the heavily made up dregs of the street jostled, most of them underage girls. It produced a noisy, shrieking image that had never been seen before in Berlin, and which has luckily disappeared again since. Does this deeply intertwined confusion of avarice, playfulness, lust for life and superficial pleasure not recall the pictures of nightlife painted by Otto Dix and George Gross? And as if to emphasise the similarity with Dix, the cripple who is an inevitable part of the stereotype appears when Hans Ostwald continues, while the party raged under the railway arch, the war wounded stood outside in the street, offering matches or shoelaces for sale.
在附近，那些浓妆艳抹的街头之辈挤来挤去，大多数是未成年的女孩。这样的混乱场景产生了一种喧嚣刺耳的印象，以前在柏林从未见过，幸好现如今这种情景已经消失。这种错综复杂的贪婪、玩乐、对生活的热情和表面的快乐，难道不让人联想到奥托·迪克斯和乔治·格罗斯描绘的夜生活画面吗？为了强调与迪克斯的相似性，一如既往的刻板形象中的伤残者也出现了。汉斯·奥斯特瓦尔德继续描述，当派对在铁路拱门下狂欢时，那些战争伤残者站在街上，出售火柴或鞋带。
Miserable street corner tarts, strolled around, unable to make enough to get them through the next day, even by giving up their own bodies. The revulsion that many Germans felt at the site of this tumultuous nightlife and party going had also to do with the dubious power of foreign currencies. For the British, the Americans or the French, Germany became a discount sale for prostitution. Some people came especially for the nightlife, particularly Americans, tired of the strict rules of prohibition at home. Others bought their cut price pleasure as an afterthought once they had done their business deals during the day.
街角那些悲惨的妓女们在周围游荡，即使出卖自己的身体，也无法赚到足够的钱来熬过第二天。许多德国人对这种混乱的夜生活和派对感到厌恶，也与外国货币的不确定性有关。对于英国人、美国人或法国人来说，德国成了廉价的卖淫市场。一些人尤其是美国人，对国内禁酒令的严格规则感到厌倦，专门来此享受夜生活。还有些人在白天做完生意后，顺便买些廉价的欢愉。
Germany was on sale in every respect, or that was what many shocked observers thought. Whole hordes of foreign shoppers came to buy up goods and take them away on a grand scale. Under their heading, German export trade, the Berlin Fossechet Zeitung, in October 1923, it was 5 million marks a copy, published two pages of small ads directed at foreign importers, sorted alphabetically by products from A for up-see-builder stickers to Z for Tseitschäldorn, timers. In the city centre alone, foreigners who could afford at best a two-room apartment on the outskirts of town became billionaires when they stepped off the train at Berlin's Anhalter station and rented whole suites at the Excellzia Hotel.
德国似乎在各个方面都在进行甩卖，这让很多震惊的观察者感到如此。大量外国购物者蜂拥而至，大规模地购买商品并带走。柏林《Fossechet Zeitung》在1923年10月的标题下提到德国的出口贸易，当时每份报纸售价500万马克，刊登了两页向外国进口商发布的小广告，这些广告按产品字母顺序排列，从A类的建筑商贴纸到Z类的计时器。在市中心，那些通常只能在城郊租得起两居室公寓的外国人，当他们从火车上下车，抵达柏林的Anhalter车站时，却成了亿万富翁，并在Excellzia酒店租下了整套房间。
Newspapers published shocking depictions of their luxurious lives, glitzy parties, feasts, masquerades, balls, dance parties, at which the lady guests ostentatiously displayed their cheaply purchased pearls and furs. The Viennese journalist Alfred Poga, head of the features section of the left liberal newspaper Denoia Tark, reported from Berlin on the foreigner's bad behaviour, including an American in the dining room of a luxury Berlin hotel practising his habit of whisking egg whites at a provocatively high volume. For 10 or 20 minutes, his spoon strikes the plate, the room shakes with the noise, and the pallid locals keep their heads down. It's as if the noise of victories roaring above their heads. Humiliator journalists wrote about how the foreigners gorghed themselves at copiously laden tables, got drunk on the most expensive champagne, and then availed themselves of the newly unemployed shorthand typists, now known as currency girls.
报纸刊登了关于他们奢华生活的令人震惊的描述：奢华的派对、盛宴、化妆舞会和舞会，在这些场合上，女宾们夸张地展示着她们廉价购得的珍珠和皮草。《新维也纳日报》的左翼自由派记者阿尔弗雷德·波加从柏林报道了外国人的不良行为，包括一位美国人在柏林某豪华酒店的餐厅里以挑衅的音量搅打蛋清。10到20分钟内，他的勺子敲击着盘子，整个房间被噪音震得颤动，而苍白的本地人则低着头。就好像胜利的喧嚣声在他们头顶轰鸣。记者们写道，外国人在满是美食的餐桌上大吃大喝，喝着最昂贵的香槟，然后去找那些刚失业的速记打字员，这些人现在被称为“货币女孩”。
The maelstrom of devaluation seemed to drag down with it everything that had once been cherished and expensive, loyalty and faith, morals, douries, innocence, honour. It all disappeared down the drain of time. In an ecstatic trance wildly shaking to the shimmy in endless columns of now absurd zeros, Germany seemed to be hurtling towards the end like an out of control steam engine, and then it judded suddenly to a halt. The turning point, when 20 fenigs become 120 billion marks. In November 1923, hyperinflation came to an end, not overnight, and not as efficiently stage managed as the 1948 currency reform 25 years later, but the 1923 forerunner of that intervention was effective and halted the decline surprisingly quickly.
贬值的漩涡似乎把过去被珍视和昂贵的一切都拖入了深渊，包括忠诚和信仰、道德、嫁妆、纯真和荣誉。这一切都随着时间的流逝而消失。在疯狂的舞动中，德国就像一列失控的蒸汽火车一样，似乎正极速驶向终点，突然间却猛然停住。转折点出现在当20芬尼变为1200亿马克的时候。1923年11月，恶性通货膨胀终于结束。虽然过程并非一夜之间完成，也不像25年后（1948年）的货币改革那样有序管理，但1923年的干预先例却有效地迅速止住了下滑。
The decision was made by the second cabinet under Chancellor Gustav Strazemann, in the ninth government of the Weimar Republic, which was fast changing driven by the social and economic turbilences of the previous years. One of the engineers of the currency reform was the former bank director, Jarmar Schart, who was appointed Reich currency commissioner in November 1923 and a short time later president of the Reichspank. By establishing a second bank of issue, the Renton Bank, the government sensibly imposed a straight jacket on itself. From now on, the Reichspank and the Renton Bank as the supreme financial authority were able to oppose the printing of new money, according to the wishes of ministers.
决定由魏玛共和国第九届政府的古斯塔夫·施特雷泽曼总理的第二次内阁做出。魏玛共和国受之前几年社会和经济动荡的影响而迅速变化。货币改革的设计者之一是前银行董事亚尔玛·沙赫特，他于1923年11月被任命为国家货币专员，并在不久之后成为国家银行行长。为了更好地管理经济，政府成立了第二家发行银行——租税银行，这相当于给自己上了紧箍咒。从此，国家银行和租税银行作为最高金融机构，有能力按照部长们的愿望反对印刷新钞票。
The Renton mark, as it was known, was first issued on the 15th of November. On that day, a single copy of the Berliner Taggablat cost 50 billion marks. Two days later, the paper was more than twice as expensive. But the crucial innovation was different. At the top of the front page of the daily newspaper where the price always appeared, there was a second number, issue 20 Fennig equals 120 billion mark. It was still little more than a claim, a hope, but it would be fulfilled. The whole secret of the Renton mark was its rarity, strictly protected by the new Renton Bank. The Renton mark was guaranteed by a series of mortgages on agricultural, industrial and commercial real estate. That cover was far from transparent, but the assurance that the sum was limited and controlled by the independent board of the Renton Bank gradually ensured a minimum degree of confidence, without which no national economy can flourish.
伦顿马克（Renton mark），就是这样一种货币，首次发行于11月15日。那一天，一份《柏林日报》要价500亿马克。两天后，报纸的价格翻了一倍还多。但最重要的创新点却不同。日报首页标示价格的地方，多了一个新的数字：20芬尼（Fennig）等于1200亿马克。这虽然只是一种愿景、一种希望，但最终得以实现。伦顿马克的秘密在于其稀有性，这一特性由新成立的伦顿银行严格保护。伦顿马克以一系列农业、工业和商业房地产的抵押作为保障。虽然这种保障方式不太透明，但伦顿银行独立委员会控制下的限量发行逐渐建立起了最低限度的信心，而这种信心是任何国家经济发展的必要条件。
That confidence took hold, even though the end of hyperinflation was as incomprehensible to most Germans as its origins. It was a confidence in credit borrowed from misery, hardly enough in itself to ease the general sense of insecurity. On the 20th of November 1923, the fixed exchange rate was announced. For one trillion in paper marks, the Germans received one Renton mark. The unit betrays the randomness of the measure. The plan was to make it easy for people to calculate. Now they only had to delete 12 zeros from the old currency and they had the sum in new marks. That clearly showed what people had known for a long time. They were poor and their financial assets had gone up in smoke.
尽管德国人大多数人对于恶性通货膨胀的结束和它的起源同样感到困惑，但那种信心仍然建立起来了。这种信心来自于困苦中的信贷，但仅凭这些远不足以缓解普遍的不安全感。1923年11月20日，固定汇率被宣布：对于一万亿纸马克，德国人可以换取一个伦藤马克。这个单位显示出该措施的随意性。计划是让人们能够轻松计算，现在他们只需要从旧货币中去掉12个零，就能得到新货币的数额。这清楚地表明，人们早已知道自己很贫穷，财务资产已经化为乌有。
But the freefall seemed to have been halted, from now on people would have to learn to calculate using small sums and even take care of phoenix. Calculating became easier, but at the same time it was harder to keep an eye on the political situation. The social democrats still emerged from the Reichstag elections in December 1924 as the strongest party, but they were in opposition when the government was formed. A right-wing bourgeois bloc, including the ultra-conservative German National People's Party, the DNVP, formed the government.
自由落体似乎已经停止，从现在开始，人们需要学会用小额计算，甚至照顾凤凰。计算变得更容易，但同时要关注政治局势却更难了。社会民主党在1924年12月的议会选举中仍然是最强大的政党，但在组建政府时他们处于反对派的位置。一个右翼的资产阶级集团成立了政府，其中包括极保守的德国国家人民党（DNVP）。
The election result reflected real shifts in power. The fact that bankers had gained considerably more power over the government as a result of the currency reform signaled a transfer of political weight in favor of the old elites. They enforced a tough course of austerity. Many civil servants were dismissed and social welfare spending was cut. It was another few months before the economy recovered to a degree that everyone could see. Politically though, the republic did stabilize, albeit with chaos, never very far away. A putch in Munich by Hitler, now the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, Natsunal Zotseilistus Soudoicha Abaita Patai, or NSDAP, was defeated in November 1923.
选举结果反映了实际的权力转变。由于货币改革，银行家对政府的影响力大大增强，这表明政治力量向旧精英的倾斜。他们推行了严厉的紧缩政策，导致许多公务员被解雇，社会福利支出被削减。经济明显复苏还需要几个月的时间。不过在政治上，共和国逐渐趋于稳定，尽管混乱的状况仍然时有发生。1923年11月，希特勒——当时的国家社会主义德国工人党（Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei，简称NSDAP）的领导人——在慕尼黑发动的政变被挫败。
In spite of its twenty victims, it still had a folkloric ring to it, with its beary origins in the smoke-swathed Bergabrochella, and with Hitler's call to march on the sinful Babylon of Berlin, which was halted by police only a few hours later at Odeon's Platz. In the rest of the Reich, the excitement subsided after a day and the Munich disturbances later known as the Beer Hall Putch came to seem like only one uprising among many. A month before, communist putches had been attempted in the states of Thuringia and Saxony as part of the wider plan of the German October, a plan by the Executive Committee of the Communist International to attempt a revolution across the Weimar Republic.
尽管事件导致了二十名受害者，但它依然带有一些民间传说的色彩。这起事件起源于烟雾弥漫的贝尔加布罗谢拉，其中希特勒号召群众向罪恶之都柏林进军，但几小时后在欧德翁广场被警察制止。在其他德意志地区，事件的激动情绪在一天之后就消退了，慕尼黑动乱（后来被称为啤酒馆政变）显得不过是众多起义中的一起。一个月前，作为"德国十月"计划的一部分，共产党在图林根和萨克森州发动了未遂的政变。这个计划由共产国际的执行委员会制定，旨在试图在整个魏玛共和国发动革命。
In Saxony, revolution had only been averted when the Reich government proclaimed a state of emergency and deposed the head of the regional government. Against this background of chaos, Gustav Strazemann, who was Chancellor for three and a half months from August 1923, managed to launch the initial phase of currency reform during his brief time in office. The main reason for this accomplishment was his gift for foreign policy. Currency reform was only possible as the result of a change in the relationship with the victorious powers. Strazemann persuaded the majority of Germans to abandon their passive resistance against the occupation of the Ruhr and convince them to tolerate his intention to seek dialogue with the French.
在萨克森，革命被避免是因为帝国政府宣布了紧急状态，并解除了地方政府领导人的职务。在这种混乱的背景下，古斯塔夫·施特雷泽曼于1923年8月担任总理，在短短三个月内成功启动了货币改革的初始阶段。他取得这一成就的主要原因是他出色的外交才能。货币改革之所以得以进行，是因为与战胜国之间的关系发生了变化。施特雷泽曼说服了大部分德国人放弃对鲁尔区占领的消极抵抗，并让他们接受他与法国对话的意图。
At the same time, he took the French into reducing reparation demands to something approaching a realistic level. When the victorious powers abandoned their impossible requirements, a willingness to engage rationally in economics increased, and with it the chance to break the spiral of hyperinflation through drastic, economising measures. While Strazemann was only Chancellor for those few turbulent months, he was Foreign Minister in the cabinets that followed. He was striking and unforgettable in appearance, unsettlingly large rather staring eyes, a bullish yet sensitive physique. The tree frog, as the centrist politician Matthias Otzberger called him, became the face of a new Germany that was ready for peace.
同时，他让法国降低了赔偿要求，使其接近于一个现实的水平。当战胜国放弃了那些不可能的要求后，愿意在经济上理性对待的意愿增加了，并由此有可能通过严厉的紧缩措施打破恶性通货膨胀的恶性循环。虽然斯特雷泽曼仅在那些动荡的几个月中担任过总理，但他在随后的内阁中担任外长。他的外表给人留下深刻而难忘的印象，眼睛大而有神，体型魁梧却透着敏感。被中间派政治家马蒂亚斯·奥茨贝格称为“树蛙”的他，成为了准备迎接和平的新德国的象征。
Hated by far-right extremists as a compliant Efilungspolitica, literally fulfillment politician, less obstinate political commentators saw him as one of the republic's very few figures capable of achieving integration. Strazemann, the son of a Berlin pub landlord, or Budica, who ran a small wheat beer company, soon became a clerk with the Association of German Chocolate Manufacturers after writing his dissertation on the development of the Berlin bottle beer business, and proved to be a cunning political tactician as well as an inspiring speaker.
被极右翼极端分子视为顺从的"Efilungspolitica"（字面意思是“履行政治家”）的人，少数不那么固执的政治评论员则认为他是共和国少数几个能够实现整合的人物之一。施特雷泽曼（Strazemann），一位柏林酒吧老板（或经营一家小型小麦啤酒公司的Budica）的儿子，毕业后很快成为德国巧克力制造商协会的一名职员，他曾针对柏林瓶装啤酒业务的发展撰写过论文。他不仅是一位精明的政治战略家，同时还是一位鼓舞人心的演讲者。
Having become chair of the liberal Deutsche Faukespartai German People's Party soon after the war, Strazemann became a master at forging coalitions, an art that was looked down upon by most Germans, even though in view of the government's fragmented majority it was urgently needed. Among hardliners, a willingness to compromise was seen not as a virtue but a weakness. Strazemann on the other hand made it his passion. Personally somewhat conservative, he was among the rational republicans who derived a great deal from pluralism even though their hearts really beat for the monarchy.
战后不久，施特雷泽曼成为德国自由人民党的主席，他精于组建联合政府，这是一门当时大多数德国人并不看好的艺术，尽管在政府多数派分散的情况下，这是急需的。在强硬派看来，妥协的意愿不是一种美德，而是一种软弱。然而，施特雷泽曼却将妥协视为自己的热情所在。虽然个人上较为保守，但他属于理性的共和派，从多元主义中获益良多，尽管他们内心深处仍向往君主制。
His forms of communication were as elegant and pragmatic as his clothes. The Strazemann look, striped trousers, black jacket, waistcoat, turned up short collars, replaced the traditional need to switch from business suit to formal evening wear. You could now hurry from office to party without changing your clothes. Strazemann liked to break down hardened attitudes by putting himself in the shoes of his adversary and aligning their perspectives with his own. Familitrists this was seen as high treason.
他的沟通方式就像他的服装一样优雅而实用。斯特拉泽曼风格，条纹裤、黑色夹克、西装背心和翻起的短领，取代了传统需要从商务装换到正式晚礼服的做法。现在，你可以直接从办公室赶去参加派对，而无需换衣服。斯特拉泽曼喜欢通过设身处地为他人着想来打破固有的思维，并将对方的视角与自己的观点对齐。在家庭主义者看来，这被视为严重的异端行为。
Strazemann tacked back and forth between different attitudes and knew how to present himself as an ally to opposing forces. It didn't always go well but he managed to win back trust, loosen the stranglehold of the Versailles Treaty and bring Germany back on the diplomatic stage. Few people thanked him, he explained to his party, I have a sense that we Germans have too little understanding or none at all for what the French call fine gestures. It doesn't come naturally to us at all and it does us great harm internationally. We cannot be polite and lovable without immediately coming under attack from our own people. We cannot practice global politics with the idea that nobody is to associate with those other fellows in any way. It was only when he died of a stroke in 1929 that the whole he left became apparent. More than a loss, a disaster was the headline in the Fosse-Schutzitung followed by four pages of mourning.
施特雷泽曼在不同的态度间来回切换，懂得如何表现出自己是敌对势力的盟友。这并不总是顺利，但他设法赢回了信任，减轻了《凡尔赛条约》的束缚，并让德国重新登上外交舞台。他告诉他的党派，感谢他的人很少：“我感觉我们德国人对法国人所说的‘优雅姿态’的理解太少，甚至根本不理解。这并不是我们天生的能力，而在国际上对我们造成了很大的伤害。我们如果要表现得礼貌和可爱，立刻就会受到自己人民的攻击。我们不能以没人会去和那些其他人打交道的想法来进行全球政治。”直到他在1929年因中风去世，他所留下的空缺才变得明显。《福斯报》的头条称其不仅是损失，而是一场灾难，并用了四页来表达哀悼。
Strazemann embodied the communicative virtues that were threateningly lacking from the Weimar Republic. To that extent he was an exception, a lonely man as the historian Artur Rosenberg rightly said, who had neither a clique nor a mass organization behind him and who was constantly losing the support of his rightward drifting party. Nonetheless, he managed to put the pieces in place for Germany's consolidation. The victorious powers and Germany negotiated a moderate payment plan for reparations, the Doors' Plan, named after Charles Dawes, the American Chair of the International Reparations Commission. This allowed Germany to rejoin the circle of stable and credit-worthy nations. The French withdrew from the Rhine Land, foreign investors gradually returned, and long-term business planning began once more.
施特雷泽曼体现了魏玛共和国中严重缺乏的沟通美德。正因为如此，他是个例外，正如历史学家阿图尔·罗森伯格所说，他是个孤独的人，没有小集团或大规模的组织支持他，而且他不断失去其向右倾斜的政党的支持。尽管如此，他还是成功地为德国的巩固奠定了基础。战胜国与德国协商了一项适度的赔款计划，即道威斯计划，以国际赔款委员会的美国主席查尔斯·道威斯命名。这使得德国重新加入稳健和信用良好的国家行列。法国军队撤出了莱茵兰，外国投资者逐渐回归，长期的商业规划重新开始。
The temporary rent mark could be jettisoned and replaced by the Reichsmark, which was now backed by gold and foreign currencies. From mid-1924, the economy enjoyed another boom, an incredibly powerful one from 1925 onwards. Germany became a member of the League of Nations. In 1926, Strazemann was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, along with his French colleague, Aristide Breand. Hurtling again, but upwards this time. With the end of hyperinflation, the Republic entered a phase of prosperity. The period between 1924 and 1929 forms the core of what has gone down in history as the Roaring Twenties, the Anefol, or the Goldenitz-Fansiger. The upheavals they went through were a phenomenon common to the whole western world, but in Germany they enjoyed a special heyday, a myth that has been endlessly retold and reexamined because of its terrible ending.
临时的租金票可以被抛弃，并由现在有黄金和外币支持的帝国马克（Reichsmark）取代。从1924年中期开始，经济再次繁荣，尤其从1925年起，这次繁荣极其强劲。德国成为国际联盟的成员。1926年，施特雷泽曼和他的法国同事阿里斯蒂德·白兰地一起获得了诺贝尔和平奖。又一次快速发展，但这次是向上发展的。随着恶性通货膨胀的结束，共和国进入了繁荣阶段。1924年至1929年间，被历史称为“咆哮的二十年代”或黄金二十年代的时期形成了繁荣的核心。他们经历的动荡是整个西方世界的普遍现象，但在德国却迎来了特别的全盛期，这段历史因为其悲惨的结局而被无尽地重述和重新审视。
What would it bring, the new money, the new age? On New Year's Eve 1924, by which time the upturn had become impossible to ignore, the Berliner Tagablat drew up a provisional balance sheet. About 50% of what was possible had already been achieved. The leader-writer Erechdombrowski wrote, 50% of pre-war performance, 50% of export, 50% of trade tonnage, and he continued, matters were advancing quickly. With the Zeppelin miracle that surprised America, and with the rotorship that heralds a revolution in energy utilisation, the German spirit has achieved great conquests all around the world. But all of that was still not enough. The article closed with the mysterious words, of greater importance are moral conquests in the world, with those it is best to start closer to home.
新货币和新时代会带来什么呢？在1924年新年前夜，此时经济的回暖已经无法忽视，《柏林日报》做了一份临时的平衡表。实现的可能性已经达到了约50%。撰稿人埃雷希·多姆布罗夫斯基写道：达到战前水平的50%，出口的50%，贸易吨位的50%，并继续说，事情正在迅速进展。凭借令美国惊讶的齐柏林奇迹，以及预示着能源利用革命的旋翼船，德国精神在全球取得了巨大成就。但所有这一切仍然不够。文章以神秘的话语结束：更重要的是在世界范围内的道德征服，而这些最好从身边开始。
Moral conquests. The liberal Tagablat saw the young republic as being in a moral vacuum. Leader-writer Dombrowski feared above all that a strengthening of conservative forces might intensify the class struggle once again via unbridled egoism from above. Quivering with excitement that Juncker's large landowners from Prussia and big businessmen would make a grab for power. The purses of the big landowners and heavy industrialists left so thin after inflation are now on the way to being filled once more at the expense of the rest of the population. The article expressed the concern among liberals that after the end of the great coalition of the SPD and the Centre Party, the narrow layer of citizens loyal to the state might be crushed in the conflict between capital and labour.
道德征服。自由派《塔加布拉特报》认为年轻的共和国正处于道德真空之中。主笔唐布罗夫斯基特别担心保守势力的增强可能会通过上层的不受约束的自私再次加剧阶级斗争。他对普鲁士的大地主和大商人觊觎权力表现出极大的担忧。这些大地主和重工业家在通货膨胀后经济状况急剧恶化，而现在，他们的钱袋又可能会以牺牲其他民众利益为代价重新鼓起来。文章表达了自由派的担忧，即在社民党和中央党大联盟解体后，那些忠于国家的少数公民可能会在资本与劳动的冲突中被压垮。
But the concept of moral conquest represented something even bigger than that. Hyperinflation had left an empty uncertain terrain in people's understanding of their own lives, one that needed to be explored, measured or reconquered. Many people felt that this was the case, but they did so in different ways. How was that vacuum to be filled? Theories of salvation were at a premium, obscure theses and conspiracy theories when flying around, clairvoyance boomed along with experiments in psychokinesis, and esotericism. New crazes constantly appeared on the horizon promising miracles out of nothing. Some people expected lasting peace to come from international stamp collecting, others fought furiously for shorthand reform which was bound to revolutionise the notion of efficiency.
但是，道德征服的概念代表着比这更大的意义。恶性通货膨胀让人们对自己生活的理解变得空虚不确定，这片领域需要被探索、衡量或重新征服。很多人感觉到了这种情况，但他们的应对方式各不相同。这个空白将如何填补？救世理论变得炙手可热，晦涩的论点和阴谋论四处流传，通灵与心灵致动实验兴盛不衰，神秘学也随之兴起。各种新潮流不断涌现，承诺从无中创造奇迹。有些人期待通过国际集邮来实现持久和平，另一些人则激烈争论速记改革，认为这将彻底改变效率的概念。
Far Eastern religions were studied, itinerant preachers travelled the land calling for a change in behaviour, for naked bathing, for a national rebirth, a spiritual revolution, a herbal diet and a return to the innermost German spirit. Saints of hyperinflation, such as Friedrich Möklamberti, the messiah of Terengia, collected thousands of young followers in his Neutscher, new flock, moving like the pied piper of Hamlin from town to town, setting up camp wherever they went. Möklamberti's huge wandering commune practised arts and crafts and free love, and gained enormous publicity. Another guru, Louis Hoiser, the saviour of Burningheim, mocked his sinful disciples as travelling toilets and rotting channel houses. But still didn't get rid of them. Robert Mössel identified an inspiring fever as a symptom of the age, one that euphorically heightened the emotions and expectations associated with improving the world.
远东宗教被研究，游历的传教士在各地呼吁改变行为，支持裸浴、民族重生、精神革命、草药饮食，以及回归最深层的德国精神。像弗里德里希·莫克兰伯蒂这样的超级通货膨胀时期的圣人，他是特伦吉亚的救世主，他在他的“纽彻新群”中聚集了数千名年轻追随者，像哈姆林的吹笛人一样从一个城镇到另一个城镇，搭建营地。莫克兰伯蒂的巨大流动公社提倡工艺艺术和自由爱情，赢得了极大的公众关注。另一位精神领袖，路易斯·霍伊泽，燃烧海姆的救世者，嘲笑他的罪恶门徒为流动厕所和腐烂的渠道屋，但仍无法抛弃他们。罗伯特·莫塞尔将这一时期激动人心的狂热视为时代的象征，这种狂热让人们情绪高涨，对改善世界的期待充满激情。
Something went through the thicket of beliefs in those days, like a single wind bending many trees, a spirit of heresy and reform, the blessed sense of an arising and going forth, a mini renaissance and reformation, such as only the best of times experience, whoever entered the world then felt, at the first corner the breath of this spirit on its cheek. The bottomless plunge in the value of money had swept away the last certainties that remained after the abdication of the Kaiser, and the overthrow of the old world. A question mark hung over every tradition, and nothing offered stability apart from the hope associated with the future and large-scale plans. Unrestrained by any kind of certainty, both worries and feelings of joy were wildly overdramatised. A destructive zeal and a feeling of vertigo went hand in hand.
那时候，有一种力量穿过了信仰的丛林，就像一阵风吹弯了很多树木。这是一种异端和改革的精神，一种新生和前进的祝福感受，就像只有最好的时代才有的小型文艺复兴和宗教改革。当时生活在这个世界上的人们，在第一个转角处就能感受到这种精神的气息。因为货币价值的无底下跌，推翻了凯撒退位后的最后确定性，也颠覆了旧世界。每个传统上都挂着一个问号，除了对未来的希望和宏大的计划，什么都不能提供稳定的保障。在没有任何确定性的约束下，忧虑和快乐的情绪都被过度夸大。破坏性的热情和眩晕感同时并存。
The old world is in decay. Its joints are creaking. I want to help to smash it. I believe in the new life. I want to help to build it. Sheared the dancer, Valesca Gert. And how was she going to do that? By dancing, more eccentrically than anything anyone had ever seen before, that too was viewed as a contribution to the changing times. Valesca Gert dances out of the unbornness of the present day, its wild, fantastical and exaggerated sensitivity, an enthusiastic critic wrote in Spott-Embird. The Germans were seized by a profound desire for renewal. It gripped every area of life, and was directed equally at waste management reform, and the renewal of critical epistemology. Everything needed examination, even the structures of thought and feeling themselves, of concepts, of reason.
旧世界正在衰落，它的各个部分都在发出吱吱嘎嘎的响声。我想帮助打破它。我相信新生活，我想帮助建设它。舞者瓦列斯卡·戈特如此宣言。那么她打算怎么做呢？通过跳舞，比任何人以前见过的都更具离奇色彩，这也被视为对改变时代的贡献。某位热情的评论家在《斯波特-恩比尔德》上写道，瓦列斯卡·戈特的舞蹈从当今的未定状态中跳脱出来，展现了其狂野、奇幻和夸张的敏感性。德国人被一种深刻的更新欲望所驱动，这种欲望影响了生活的每个领域，既涉及废物管理改革，也包括批判性认识论的更新。所有事物都需要重新审视，包括思维和情感结构、概念、理性本身。
The impulse towards extreme radicalism lived in everything from barefoot prophets to the religious fervour of the members of the Bauhaus group of designers and architects, from the earth-shaking challenges of psychology and nuclear physics to the logical abysses in the philosophies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger. Rethink the World. Or pull it down. The author, Vofram Eilenburger, accurately described Heidegger as a conceptual wrecking ball. Heidegger was one of many with that particular enthusiasm. The next chapter, which deals with demolition and rebuilding, will show as much. The economy took a powerful upward turn in 1925, but the uncertainty remained. Hyperinflation had erased internal traditions, deleted established certainties in people, and liquidated their collective troves of experience.
从赤脚先知到包豪斯设计师和建筑师们的宗教狂热，从心理学和核物理学带来的震撼挑战，到路德维希·维特根斯坦和马丁·海德格尔哲学中的逻辑深渊，极端激进主义的冲动存在于各个领域。重新思考这个世界，或者将其彻底推翻。作者沃尔夫拉姆·艾伦伯格准确地将海德格尔描述为一颗观念爆破球。海德格尔只是众多对此抱有浓厚兴趣的人之一。下一章将讨论拆除与重建，充分展示这一点。1925年经济发生了强劲回升，但不确定性仍然存在。恶性通货膨胀抹去了内部传统，消除了人们的既有信念，并清空了他们集体的经验宝库。
By laying waste to people's identities, it made room for the various concepts of the new human being. Whatever one imagined the term to mean, one was free to express and imagine it as one wished. So insecure were most people about their experiences that they put up little resistance to even the boldest visions. The decade belonged to the young, to high spirits, to thoughtlessness. They were the ones who had seized their chance during hyperinflation, not older people, with their traditional virtues, such as caution and thrift. As the value of the currency rose, the worth of experience declined. People could no longer rely on themselves, but they had nothing else.
通过摧毁人们的身份，为新的“人类”概念腾出了空间。无论人们对这个词的理解如何，每个人都可以自由地表达和想象它。大多数人对自己的经历感到非常不安，因此即便面对最大胆的设想，他们也几乎没有抵抗。这是一个属于年轻人的年代，充满了活力与轻率。把握住超级通货膨胀期间机会的是年轻人，而不是那些坚守传统美德如谨慎和节俭的老一辈。随着货币价值的上升，经验的价值却在下降。人们不再能够依靠自己，但除此之外，他们一无所有。
When Walter Benjamin looked back on those years in 1933, he dressed up the most important possessions that human beings possess in the language of the stock exchange. Experience has fallen in value, and it looks as if it is about to fall into bottomlessness. With the First World War, a process began to become apparent, which has not halted since then. And there was nothing remarkable about that. Feneva has experience been contradicted so thoroughly as strategic experience by tactical warfare, economic experience by inflation, bodily experience by hunger, moral experience by those in power, a generation that had gone to school on a horse-drawn streetcar now stood under the open sky in a countryside in which nothing remained unchanged but the clouds.
当沃尔特·本雅明在1933年回顾那些年的时候，他用股市的语言描述了人类最重要的财富。经验的价值在下降，仿佛要跌入无底深渊。第一次世界大战使这一过程初现端倪，并从未停止。这并不罕见。从未有哪个时代像这样彻底地否定经验——战略经验被战术战争推翻，经济经验被通货膨胀取代，身体经验被饥饿侵袭，道德经验被当权者践踏。一个在马拉有轨电车上学的一代，如今站在空旷的天空下，面对一个只有云彩未变的乡村。
And beneath these clouds, in a field of force of destructive torrents and explosions, was the tiny, fragile human body. So frail and yet heroic, so falsely humble and falsely modest, the projection of a future that was either gloomy or a bright new dawn. That was how the artists of the Neuys-Achlichkeit, new objectivity movement, painted the new human being, how the communists dreamed of them, the technocrats imagined them, and racists fetishized them.
在这些云层之下，在毁灭性洪流和爆炸的力量场中，是那脆弱渺小的人体。如此脆弱却又英勇，如此虚假的谦卑与虚伪的谦逊，预示着一个或阴郁或光明的新未来。这是新即物主义运动的艺术家们如何描绘新人类的模样，也是共产主义者们梦中的人类，技术专家们所构思的形象，以及种族主义者所痴迷的目标。
The new human being became an edie fix in various styles of clothing and with various kinds of equipment. And the new humans repeatedly divested themselves of everything. Naked gymnastics became the fashion, naked dancing, physical exercise in the open air, inspired by a will to sobriety stripped of all day call, modern human beings wanted to have a sense of themselves in all their vulnerable physicality.
新新人类成了一种潮流，他们穿着各种风格的服装，携带各种装备。而这些新人类不断地抛弃一切世俗的东西。赤裸健身成为时尚，赤裸跳舞和户外锻炼都受到一种追求简单的生活方式的启发。现代人希望通过这种方式充分感受自己身体的脆弱和真实。
The chair that corresponded precisely to this sense of self was about to be invented. The cantilever chair would become the symbol of the age.
与这种自我意识完全契合的椅子即将被发明。悬臂椅将成为这个时代的象征。