Dr. Rudolf Hilferding, leader of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, addressing a meeting of the Iron Front in Halberstadt, refuted the allegations that he was responsible for the inflation of 1923 as charged by Chancellor Adolph Hitler, in an address delivered last Friday.
“The worst time of my life was in August, 1923, when I took over the Ministry of Finance,” Hilferding declared, “when fifty thousand marks had the value of only five pfennigs. I immediately introduced a gold tax and submitted to the Reichstag the gold mark stabilization plan which the Reichstag adopted and Dr. Hans Luther executed.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.