A NEW AGE

Evening Star, Issue 19856, 3 May 1928, Page 13

A NEW AGE

ANOMALIES IN GERMANY , HONEY LENDER’S HIGH INTEREST > A great financial scandal, affecting the highest circles in Berlin, has called sudden attention to the social state ol post-war Germany, and raised the question whether life in this countiy can really be called normal again, writes the Berlin correspondent of the ‘ Observer.’ An offer of 48 per cent, interest to those who placed their money at the disposal of a certain pawnbroker called forth such a response from the nobility, from landowners of unimpeachable ancestry and from Quarters which had originally suffered by th'o war, that the broker, one Paul Bergman, was able to dispose of a very large sum, and yet pay the extraordinary interest he had promised. It is true that on goods deposited with him he demanded interest amounting to 100 per cent., and actually obtained it, but it is also true that small investors were as ger to bring him their hundreds or gold marks as the Junkers their thousands, so that no party slogan on the singular cupidity of aristocrats can be raised on that account.

Bergtnann was a most ingenious swindler, and forged, many times over, tiic pawn tickets of objects of value which titled ladies ami country squires demanded as security on the sums they lent him. The capital with which he unsuccessfully speculated could not in any case be retrieved entirely, as people who want 48 per cent, for their money como under the German law of usury. ■ The fact that so many presumably intelligent people showed no surprise at the idea of getting a return of 48 per cent, on their money is believed to bo duo to the general disturbance of the put c’s sense of money values during the paper mark period. After billions and trillions a trifle of 48 per cent, seems nothing out of the. common.

By corrupting a certain public official and an inquiry agency, Bergmnnn was able to give those who wanted references the necessary assurance. His scheme for petting rich quickly has ruined many lives and jeopardised many fortunes. Not since the high tide of speculation in foreign currencies have so many million gold marks been involved in a single enterprise. Part of the sum paid by German industrialists for the purchase of the original borne of the Hindenburg family as a present to the President on his eightieth birthday was invested in Bcrgmann’s establishment by the son of the President’s sister-in-law, Major Gerd Von Hindenburg. This fact alone serves <o show how sure was the belief that such interest could be paid—and honourably paid.

Already the shocked voices of economists are being raised in_ protest against such astounding public ignorance of money matters. Germans are saving again, it appears, but they are not. content with the small profits they made before the war. Investigations prove that the most popular form of investment is buying something to show for the money, just as during the worst days of the inflation. Diamonds, Persian rugs, and pictures were the investments of the well-to-do; a stoutlvbuilt summer house, which could bo used at a pinch for bring in, that of the poor.

The trifling •'! pc. eent. of fho savings hank, and the 5 per cent, of the average sound investment do not appeal to this generation, as they did to its fathers a nd mothers, whoso complaints, that the prudent savings of a life lime have boon swept away in a. few years of political upheaval have had an unsettling effect en their children. The younger generation wants to get on in the world, but it wants to do it quickly. Foreigners coming to Berlin for the first time observe curious anomalies. Money has a different value here. Compared with London, luxuries in Berlin are very much cheaper. This includes taxi cabs, theatres, wines, cigars, and tho dnintiesh of faro, which is served'iff the most delicate manner. It is possible io buy caviare, or smoked salmon spread on half a buttered roll, for the equivalent of threepence, and to lunch on potato salad, prepared with rnayoiiaise and two Frankfort sausages, for sixpence. But there is no plate of re st beef for a shilling, nor is there a lunch, with JO per cent, tip, capable of satisfying a man’s appetite under half a crown. There is no twopenny cup of tea, and should coffee ho served at that price it has probably been made of a decoction of acorns, bccchmnst, or some other field product. Young Fnglislmien with normal appetites are beard to declare that eighteen pennyworth of food in London costs just double in Berlin. The national dri..k, beer, is the same price, judging by the relative sizes of the bottle, with England scoring as regards strength and flavour. Such contrasts, of course, apply only to the tourist who does not stay at hotels and live at the regulation international standard.

The fact that emerges front such calculations is that the middle-class German fights a very hard tight for existence on meals which comprise so much thick soup and cabbage of various sorts_ that they definitely fall below the English standard. Rents, still controllel, arc no higher than in England; clothes, of equal quality, are more expensive. The rationalised tram, underground. Metropolitan railway, and omnibus fare—the equivalent of 2td for a whole journey, no reduction being made for any part of the distance—is proving very dear for the average citizen.

Since, taken all round, the cost of amusement is cheaper than the cost of Jiving, (lie belief that money nwv !»■ invested at a safe 48 per cent, is not inexplicable.