There was a time when an average German carried billions of marks in their pockets but could still buy nothing. A loaf of bread cost 200 billion marks. A week’s pension would not buy even a cup of coffee. The mark was freefalling and its value decreasing by the minute. Restaurants stopped printing menus because by the time the food arrived the price had gone up. One guy drank the first cup of coffee at 5,000 marks. The second cup cost him 9,000 marks. The stories from those days were horrifying and amusing at the same time. One boy was sent by his mother to buy two bread buns. He stopped on the way to play football, and by the time he got to the shop, the price had gone up, so he could only afford to buy one. One man set out for Berlin to buy a pair of shoes. But when he got there, all he could afford was a cup of coffee and the bus fare home.

Children playing with German banknotes that were reduced to worthless pieces of paper by the inflation.