Das Wunder der Rentenmark
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Das Wunder der Rentenmark
Credit and Capital Markets – Kredit und Kapital, Vol. 37 (2004), Iss. 3 : pp. 418–431
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Friedrich Geigant, Hannover
References
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Elster, Karl: Von der Mark zur Reichsmark. Die Geschichte der deutschen Währung in den Jahren 1914 bis 1924, Jena 1928.
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Frommer, Hans/Schlag, Hermann: Die Gesetzgebung über die Rentenmark mit ausführlichen Erläuterungen, Mannheim 1924.
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Schacht, Hjalmar: Die Stabilisierung der Mark, Stuttgart 1927.
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Pohl, Manfred/Schneider, Andrea H.: Die Rentenbank. Von der Rentenmark zur Förderung der Landwirtschaft 1923 - 1949-1999, München 1999.
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Abstract
The Rentenmark Miracle
A mixture of dexterous artifice and return to the principles of monetary discipline formed the success-promising concept applied by the creators of the new money that put an end to the horrific episode of the Great Inflation after the First World War. The Rentenmark’s flair lay in its having been kept on short supply, from which fact it derived its purchasing power from a static point of view and its stability from a dynamic one. In this process, the Rentenmark never managed to obtain the status of a currency, and its bank notes never had the function of legal tender; from international transactions it had even been banned. The legal link between the Rentenmark notes on the one hand and the Goldmark-denominated Rentenbriefe as well as land charges on the other was considered to represent a mass-psychological phenomenon. Nonetheless, through its creditworthiness, the Rentenmark underpinned the disavowed Mark in its last few months, and it managed to defend its position against the Reichsmark for a long period after the funeral hymns had faded away played for it by diverse legal acts.