"GERMANY BEFORE THE CRASH" was a big heading, red on black, on the front cover of the magazine Stern of Hamburg. There was, to be sure, a question mark after the headline, but it may have caused shivers among those who have read or experienced bad times before. A friend who is given to citing precedents, reminded listeners of the time in the 1920s when inflation went mad in Germany and people had to bring "barrowloads" of notes to buy anything, especially food. And then, after the second World War, he remembered stories of city people scouring the countryside for food, the payment for which had to be in valuables, or the nearest thing useful household articles.
One newspaper correspondent whom he knew, went out into the countryside in South Germany with a friend, a university lecturer. The train to the village of this particular farmer, who had been helpful in the past, was crammed. It was a Sunday. All carried rucksacks or similar containers. Hans, let us call him, explained in lurid detail how hunger made you swell up, made you windy and faint. This farmer was a decent man. He gave value for your contribution, which was usually silver or porcelain or any other object that could be valuable for use or for saving up.
The family had already let go most of the silver, but still retained other goods. As the correspondent (our friend had mislaid the cutting), related it, the farmer gave them a lunch such as the poor German scholar had not seen for a long time. Meat, even. And in return for the valuables, sent him back with a rucksack containing not only the basic potatoes, but even a few eggs and a portion of ham. Perhaps more.
Sunday was the day for many other people to gather and scrounge. Some farmers allowed strangers to pick over the soil, after they themselves had gathered in the crop. There were wild berries to be had and beech nuts, boiled, gave oil floating to the top. And the nuts could be mixed, ground, with flour. When times are too, good, I worry", said our friend in relation to the Celtic Tiger and soaring house prices. "Think I'll get an acre or so and put in spuds."