Solicitation for the Subscription of War Bonds, 1917

For the German Reich as well as for Austria-Hungary war bonds were indispensable as an instrument for financing war expenditures. Cut off from foreign financial markets, such means of generating funds seemed obvious. The population should not be burdened by taxes, which would only have increased their exasperation with the war.

With a total of nine war bonds, which were raised every six months, the German Reich succeeded in redeeming up to 85% of its military expenditure. For the equivalent of one month's wage of a skilled worker, i.e. approximately 100 Reichsmarks, bonds promising an interest rate of 5% could be subscribed with banks and savings banks throughout the German Reich. A prerequisite for the subscription was, however, that the Central Powers emerged victorious from the conflict. Since this subscription was a kind of bet on the victory of their own troops, the moral pressure to underwrite war bonds remained high until the end of the war.

Due to the enormous importance of the bonds for the financing of the war, they were advertised at great expense. Advertising posters were ubiquitous in the streets of major cities.

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