Der Fuehrer - Hitler's Rise to Power (1944) - Heiden

672 DER FUEHRERvented from freely disposing of their funds within Germany; especiallythe liquidation of their bank deposits was made virtually impossible. Intime there came to be a varied assortment of foreign claims on thedifferent kinds of half or wholly 'blocked' deposits in Germany; theseclaims were traded abroad, bought and sold; they had their prices andrates, which were almost always considerably below their nominalvalue. For it was almost always doubtful whether such a claim couldever be collected; at best, the money could only be used in Germany;and expense, loss of time, and irritation were certain. For all theseclaims against blocked German accounts, the expression 'blocked mark'came into use, and the different kinds of blocked mark became acurrency devaluated by the state, side by side with the pound, the dollar,later — for the second time within ten years — the French franc, etc.The blocked mark repeated, though in a much attenuated form, thedownward course of the German mark after 1919.But only the blocked mark. The German domestic mark was in noway affected by this devaluation; the domestic mark was notdevaluated, wages and prices were subjected to an iron control, andeven in the following years of prosperity, they rose only slightly. Andequally successful was the state control over the real German mark in itsforeign relations. For not only were foreign assets in Germany blockedand controlled, property or claims held by Germans abroad werelikewise blocked. Restrictions on such property had been imposed byBruning's law governing the flight of capital; at one time or anothersuch restrictions had — even in peace — been imposed by almost allcountries; but Schacht's legislation and its mode of operation held aplace by themselves. Germans receiving payments from abroad had todeliver their foreign notes to the Reichsbank which gave them marks inexchange; if they wished to make a purchase abroad, they had to obtainthe necessary sum in foreign credits from the Reichsbank, or rather itsDevisenstelle (foreign draft office); and only if the foreign draft officeregarded the transaction as useful to the German economy did it providethe precious foreign checks. It gave them more readily if the foreigngoods were to be purchased in a country with which Germany had afavorable trade balance — that is, which bought large quantities of