Letter: Germany's debt

IN YOUR report on Germany finally paying its First World War debts (29 September) it is wrongly stated the Wall Street Crash caused German hyperinflation in the 1920s.

German hyperinflation occurred in 1923 as a result of the consequences of paying war reparations. The German currency was then stabilised by American loans under the Dawes plan but this, in turn, created much worse unemployment in Germany than in other European countries following the 1929 Crash when US loans were called in. It was this severe economic downturn that helped bring Hitler to power in 1933, not the hyperinflation as is so often supposed.

W FLOOD

Rowanbank Road

Dumfries