Emil Kneiß, Satirical Depiction of Food Shortages, c.1918

With the outbreak of WWI in August 1914, the German Reich was largely cut off from foreign imports and had difficulties to maintain its own food supply. Since fertilizers and labour were lacking, agricultural yields dwindled. Many farmers withheld their crops. Food soon became scarce and expensive for the urban population.

As early as in 1915, the authorities therefore began to place the production and delivery of as well as the trade in food under state control. This system of enforced management remained valid until 1924. The supply crisis was managed, but not overcome. Exploding food prices, rationing, soup kitchens, foraging trips and the ubiquitous lack of food determined the everyday life of many city dwellers. Who could afford it, found supplies on the flourishing black market. In the wake of malnutrition, deadly diseases such as tuberculosis and influenza spread. In rural areas, farmers found the state-controlled economy increasingly intolerable.

The inability of the state authorities to deregulate the supply crisis diminished the willingness of the population to endure the last years of the war and helped prepare the ground for the revolution. The end of the war in November 1918, however, brought no end to the supply crisis. It was not until 1924, with the currency reform, that it was possible to return to well-ordered circumstances.

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