Abstract

The overall effect of the hyperinflation was not just a decline in living standards but also a severe disruption of the boundaries between social groups. For small pensioners [Kleinrentner] of the so-called Mittelstand, which was made up of civil servants, teachers, shopkeepers, and others, the situation was particularly catastrophic. For a period in 1923, the Sportpalast in Berlin was turned into a marketplace, where people sold off their household porcelain, silver, furniture, and anything else of value.

Economically Distressed Middle-Class Pensioners Sell Family Heirlooms at an Exhbition in the Sportpalast in Berlin (1923)

  • Georg Pahl

Source

Source: Impoverished pensioners selling family heirlooms at an exhibition in the Berlin Sportpalast, 1923. Photographer: Unknown. BA, Aktuelle-Bilder-Centrale, Georg Pahl, image 102-00084, available online on Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_102-00084,_Berlin,_Sportpalast,_Verkaufsausstellung.jpg

Bundesarchiv