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

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 Mittlestand, 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.

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Economically Distressed Middle-Class Pensioners Sell Family Heirlooms at an Exhbition in the <I>Sportpalast</i> in Berlin (1923)

© Bundesarchiv
Bild 102-00084
Photographer: Georg Pahl