Re: [CTRL] Off the Mark

[Jim Rarey]

It's fascinating that a lengthy article like that could recount the history of the mark without once mentioning its strength was because it was backed by gold. After the war (W.W.II) the Germans did the exact opposite of American advice from economic guru Walter Heller and put the mark on a gold standard.   That, much more than the Marshall plan, was responsible for Germany's resurgence. But then it would be too much to expect the Fabian Socialists to pay tribute to the gold standard, anathema to all spend and elect governments.   Jim Rarey   ----- Original Message ----- From: Euphorian To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 20, 2001 4:43 PM Subject: [CTRL] Off the Mark -Caveat Lector- From http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-2001583315,00.html }}}>Begin WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 19 2001 The deutschemark FROM ROGER BOYES IN BERLIN Obituary for a symbol of German power in the first of an occasional series on Europe's dying currencies THE deutschemark, child of crisis, symbol of German power, is dead. But its faithless consumers barely spared a thought yesterday for the once rock-hard currency as they thronged outside banks to pick up packets of parvenu euros. Dead, but not yet buried: there will be time for mourning in the first two months of next year, when lame-duck marks will be allowed to flutter for a little longer, like an arthritic athlete making a final trot around the stadium. Tears had been expected, but it seems they will flow only when the death certificate has been signed and sealed on New Year's Day. The mark was an adopted child, dreamed up by American economists. The infant currency replaced all the improvisations of postwar occupation: the Allied Military mark, the reichsmark and the blackmarket currency of Chester field and Lucky Strike cigarettes. In 1948 crates of the currency were shipped from America into Bremerhaven and taken across the country under heavy escort. Even then it was a currency that divided rather than united: introduced in the western zones of Germany, it quickly spawned an eastern rival, the ostmark, in the Soviet zone. Yet this foundling, from 1957 jealously protec ted by the Bundesbank, became the apple of the Germans' eye. Its stubborn resistance to politicians, its muscular buying power, its ability to win friends abroad - all this stirred the national pride of the Germans. Fifteen years after defeat in a devastating war, they were becoming Europe's most dedicated package tourists; unloved perhaps, but respected for the weight of their purses. The mark became one of the few national icons of  the West German state. By the 1980s the talk was of mark diplomacy. The currency's strength underwrote Germany's Ostpolitik and was in many ways a substitute for policy. Bundesbank presidents were treated like statesmen, their words nervously monitored by a Europe increasingly dependent on the mark. The clumsy description of Germany as an economic giant and a political dwarf was backhande d recognition that the mark now counted for more than the German Army or German diplomacy. Ultimately, it was the mark that propelled so many East Germans to stampede across the crumbling Berlin Wall. In a few months during 1989-90, East Germany abandoned four decades of Communist propaganda and signed up for c apitalism. The demonstrators chanted: "If the mark does not come to us, we will come to you." The ostmark collapsed, as did much of East German industry. Rundown baroque castles changed hands for a single mark - on condit ion that the purchaser invested millions in restoration work. German unity was the zenith of the mark's career; the mark that had once split the country had brought it together again. Certainly, the mark's prewar ancestor, the reichsmark, must have chuckled from beyond the grave. In the hyperinflation of 1922-23 a dollar could be bought for 4.2 billion marks. The lost war and the heavy reparations imposed by the Treaty of Versailles created chaos. German companies inflated away their debt payments . Inflation galloped up to 1,300 per cent. Wheelbarrows full of banknotes replaced wallets. It became cheaper to burn the notes than buy fuel; rooms were wallpapered with banknotes. This whirlwind inflation influenced sub sequent generations of Germans. Hitler promised sound financial policies, but the main task of his Reichsbank soon became the distinctly unsound financing of war. The modern German has always insisted that the Bundesbank guarantees the stability and security of the mark - in effect to guard it against politicians, be they dictators or simply high spenders. As the Bundesbank became a hollow shell, so anxiety has spread about its successor. How solid is the European Central Bank? Will it listen closely enough to the Germans, who have just lost their emotional anchor? To measure the mark's real achiev ements it is necessary to go back to the first united Germany. It was the 1875 mark - based on the gold plundered from the French - that first created a unified currency out of a jumble of talers and guilders. The idea fo r a single currency uniting the German states arose out of the German Customs Union in 1834; a single market, it was argued, needed a single currency. But it took a bloody war to make Bismarck's coinage a reality and the currency was duly destroyed by war. The mark was born out of the confusion of the Second World War, but was killed in peacetime by the Maastricht Treat y. That represents a kind of progress. History of Germany's currency 1875 The mark becomes the currency of united Germany 1922-23 Hyperinflation. Introduction of the rentenmark 1933 Hitler takes power. Reichsmark used in all occupied territories 1948 June 20 - mark introduced into western zones 1989 Berlin Wall falls. Mark exchanged one-for-one for ostmarks 1991 European leaders agree to a European monetary union and a single currency Click here for BT Business.  Connections that get results. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd. 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