HISTORICAL DATA-1923:

•  JANUARY:    At about the beginning of this month the rate of exchange in Germany for German currency is 7,000 marks to one U.S. dollar.  (SOURCE:  The Making of the Atomic Bomb, by Richard Rhodes ((paperback)), page 18). 

•  JANUARY:    On Tuesday, January 9 of this year the German government declares that it will be unable to meet its required exports of coal to meet its reparations assessment resulting from having lost the last war.  (SOURCE:  See League of Nations website and chronology here).

•     This January 9 German default on coal deliveries is the  thirty-fourth such failure in the last thirty-six months, and is especially galling to the French because, just last month (December, 1922) the Germans had failed to make good on the delivery of a huge load of timber, even after they themselves had lowered the amount below that which the Reparations Commission had set, based upon a previous German statement of their ability to deliver.

•    On January 11 of this year French forces march into the Rhur industrial area of Germany. This is partly in retaliation for Germany's recent signing of the Rapallo Treaty with the Soviet Union, in which the two countries had cancelled each other's war debts to the other country, and in which the German government gave de jure legal recognition to the Soviet government in Russia. Among other provisions of this treaty, Russia contracts to buy railroad locomotives from the Krupp concern's Essen works.

•     French Premier Raymond Poincare' at this time (January 11, 1923) has made the decision to occupy Germany's Ruhr industrial area only reluctantly, and because the British have already rejected his proposals for more moderate sanctions against the Germans.  (SOURCE:  See Wikipedia article here:).

•     On January 11 of this year in Europe the British government condemns the French occupation of the Ruhr industrial area of Germany.

       Belgium soon joins France in occupying the Ruhr, and they set up an Inter-Allied Control Commission to govern the region. Martial law is proclaimed, and press censorship is instituted.  Private property is confiscated, and eventually 147,000 people are expelled from the area. Italy refuses to take part in this occupation, and England condemns it in a strongly-worded diplomatic note.

       The area occupied by the Franco-Belgian forces is some sixty miles long by twenty-eight miles wide, but it contains 85% of Germany's coal, 80% of its steel and iron production, and the production center for 70% of Germany's marketable goods.

       The German government at Weimar calls for a policy of peaceful resistance to the occupation, and the French and Belgians declare the area to be in a state of seige.

•  JANUARY:   At some time during this month the National Socialist German Workers' Parrty (Nazi Party) newspaper, the Voelkischer Beobachter, which had up to this time been published twice a week, begins a daily publication schedule. This reflects the growing financial security of the Party, and it gives the Party an instrument to spread the Party's doctrines.

•     At about this time (mid-January, 1923) the German mark is valued at 6,750 to one U. S. dollar.  (SOURCE:  ADOLF HITLER  By John Toland Ballentine Books New York  ((paperback))  1977, pg. 131).

•     By about the end of January of this year in Germany, the value of the German mark has dropped to as low as 50,000 to the U. S. dollar, as inflation is proving difficult to control.  (SOURCE:  ADOLF HITLER  By John Toland Ballentine Books New York  ((paperback))  1977, pg. 131). 

•  FEBRUARY

•  MARCH:    At about this time in Germany Frau Helene Bechstein-the wife of a wealthy piano manufacturer-meets Adolf Hitler, and she immediately comes under his spell. She invites the young rabble-rouser to stay at her home when he is in Berlin. She also sets up social affairs where he can meet and mingle with her wealthy friends and associates, and she becomes an important financial backer of the Nazi Party.

      Also at about this time in Germany Frau Gertrud von Seidlitz, who is from one of the Baltic countries, owns shares of stock in a few paper mills in Finland which are quite profitable. She donates money to the Nazi Party, and her contribution, along with other funds, is used to turn the Voelkischer Beobachter into a daily newspaper.

      These donations from wealthy supporters surprise the more proletarian and rougher elements of the Party, but they are unable to challenge Hitler's control.

      Also at some time in March, 1923 Ernst (Putzi) Hanfstaengl, who had graduated from Harvard University in the United States and whose mother was a United States citizen, gives the Nazi Party a loan of US$1,000.00, which translates into a tremendous amount of marks in the current monetary inflation raging in Germany. This loan is secured by a mortgage on the Party's newspaper, the  Voelkischer Beobachter. Herr Hanfstaengl's family owns an art-publishing business in Munich, Bavaria that is doing quite well at this time

•  APRIL:    At some time early this month Adolf Hitler and his close supporter Ernst Hanfstaengl are driven from Bavaria to Berlin, Germany by Hitler's personal chauffeur, Emil Maurice. Hitler is going to Berlin to raise money for the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazis), to keep the party afloat despite the current inflationary crisis in the country. On their way, they are halted at a roadblock on the outskirts of a town just north of Leipzig by Communist militiamen. Hanfstaengl is able to bluff the party's way past the guards by pretending that he is the owner of a paper-making company from abroad who is on his way to the Leipzig fair, and that his companions are his driver and valet (Hitler). (SOURCE:   ADOLF HITLER  By John Toland Ballentine Books New York  ((paperback))  1977, pp. 137-138).  

•  MAY:    On May 23 of this year U. S. Army Lieutenants J. A. Macready and Oakley Kelly set a new aviation record by flying nonstop from Long Island, New York to San Diego, California in 26 hours and 50 minutes. They fly in an Army T-2 Fokker transport aircraft.  (  SOURCE:  Feature, LONG ISLAND  OUR STORY, NEWSDAY, Saturday, May 23, 1998, pg. Q  A2).

•  JUNE

•  JULY:    On July 6 of this year the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics is formed in Russia.  (SOURCE:  Feature, "Almanac", New York Newsday, Monday, July 6, 1998, page Q  A2).

• JULY:    At some time during this month in Germany, the exhange rate for the German mark falls to 160,000 to the U.S. dollar. People in Germany who have no access to   

•  AUGUST:    On August 2, 1923 President Warren G. Harding dies of a heart attack in San Francisco, California at 7:30 P.M. Pacific Time. The cause of death is given by the New York Times as "a stroke of apoplexy". After having been informed of the President's death, Vice-President Calvin Coolidge took the oath of office as President in Plymouth, Vermont. The oath was administered by his father, a Notary Public. New President Coolidge promised to continue the programs of President Harding, and he asked Harding's cabinet members to stay on to help him in the transition to his own administration.(SOURCE: Reports, "PRESIDENT HARDING DIES SUDDENLY; STROKE OF APOPLEXY AT 7:30 P. M.; CALVIN COOLIDGE IS PRESIDENT" and "COOLIDGE TAKES THE OATH OF OFFICE" both by "Special to the New York Times" Friday, August 3, 1923, page 1--retrieved from the New York Timesmachine at:  https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1923/08/03/issue.html ).

•  SEPTEMBER

•  OCTOBER:    By the beginning of this month in Germany inflation has gotten so bad that it now takes 6,01 4,300 marks to equal the purchasing power of a single mark issued before the start of the First World War.  (SOURCE:  ADOLF HITLER by John Toland Ballentine Books New York  October 1977  ((paperback)), pg. 148).

•  NOVEMBER:    At about this time Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, appoints Alfred Rosenberg to be editor of the Party newspaper, the Voelkischer Beobachter, in Munich, Bavaria. At this time also  Dietrich Eckart, one of the earliest members of the Party and a mentor of Hitler, is seriously ill and near death.                                  

• DECEMBER:    In Washington D.C. Major General John L. Hines, Deputy Chief of Staff  under General Pershing, testifies before the House Appropriations Committee on December 19 of this year. He tells the Committee that the Army needs many more men than the 118,000 for which they had originally asked. The correct figure, he says, is 150,000, as called for by Secretary of War John W. Weeks and Army Chief of Staff Pershing. One of the committee members, surprised at this new request, demands to know when that new number had been decided upon, and General Hines replies that that estimate of the Army's needs is in the Department's regular reports. This leads the committeeman to admit, "I had not seen any of those reports." (SOURCE:  UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II The War Department CHIEF OF STAFF: PREWAR PLANS AND PREPARATIONS by Mark Skinner Watson Historical Division Deparment of the Army Washington, D.C. 1950, page 21).  

•  DECEMBER:   In the United States of America by the end of this year the total value of real estate permits issued in Los Angeles is over US$ 200 million in then-current dollars; in terms of 2008 dollars, this amount would be US$ 2,531,645,569.62 (approximately). This was a strong increase from the value of such permits issued in Los Angeles in 1919: US$ 28 million. ( (SOURCE: Value of permits is from THE GREAT DEPRESSION  AMERICA IN THE 1930s  by T. H. Watkins  Back Bay Books  Little, Brown and Company New York Boston London ((paperback)) October 2009, pg. 35;  Inflation adjustment based on tables prepared by Robert C. Sahr of the Political Science Department at  Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331-6206--see document here :)          

• (NO SPECIFIC DATE):  At some time during this year, Professor Eduard Huemer testifies at Adolf Hitler's trial in Munich, Germany on charges of treason for allegedly staging the so-called "Beer-Hall Putsch" against the German government. Professor Huemer was Hitler's  French-language teacher in school, and he testifies as to Hitler's character and background. He says that Hitler was gifted, but only for certain things, and he was lacking in self-control. He was argumentative and autocratic. He also had a bad temper. He might have been more successful, academically, if he had applied himself to the tasks more rigorously.

•   (NO SPECIFIC DATE):   At some time during this year also, Anton Drexler, who has been serving as the honorary president of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nazi Party), resigns and leaves the party. His title had been a sop to keep him quiet while Adolf Hitler exercised the true and dictatorial powers within the Party.

•  (NO SPECIFIC DATE):   During this year German industrial production falls to just 55% of what it had been in 1913, before the First World War.  (SOURCE:  THE RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH by William L. Shirer Fawcett Crest Books, New York ((paperback)) 1989, pg. 167).

•  (NO SPECIFIC DATE):   During this year in Germany economic conditions are terrible: soaring inflation and falling industrial production. Many cities and towns throughout the country, as well as some industrial concerns, have taken the drastic step of printing their own "emergency money" to meet their expenses, and the official German Reichsbank cannot refuse to accept such currency as legal money.  (SOURCE:  ADOLF HITLER by John Toland Ballentine Books New York  October 1977  ((paperback)), pg. 148). 

•  

•     In the United States of America in the period from 1919 until the end of this year 1,400 new housing tracts have been laid out in the Los Angeles area of California.  (SOURCE:   THE GREAT DEPRESSION  AMERICA IN THE 1930s  by T. H. Watkins  Back Bay Books  Little, Brown and Company New York Boston London ((paperback)) October 2009, pg. 35).  

•     In the United States of America at some time during this year the  Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (OU) grants its first kosher certification approval to Heinz Vegetarian Beans, allowing the company to display the OU symbol on labels for the beans.  (SOURCE: See About.com webpage on kosher food labels here:).

•  

      In the United States of America the federal government purchases the patent rights to a gyroscopic bombsight which has been developed by the Sperry Gryoscope Company of Brooklyn, New York. as part of the deal  Alexander de Seversky, a Russian emigre aeronautical engineer working for the company, receives US$50,000.00,which is a large sum of money at teh time. He will use the money to start a new company, Seversky Aero Corporation in New York City, New York.  (SOURCE:  P-47 THUNDERBOLT AT WAR by Cory Graff, Zenith Press 2007 ((paperback)), page 10). 

•     By some time during this year, following last year's Naval Treaty which as signed in Washington, D.C., the United States is beginning "to fall beind Japan in the construction of new naval vessels", according to Maurice Matloff and Edwin Snell.  (SOURCE:  UNITED STATES ARMY IN WORLD WAR II The War Department STRATEGIC PLANNING FOR COALITION WARFARE 1941-1942 by Maurice Matloff and Edwin M. Snell CENTER OF MILITARY HISTORY DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY WASHINGTON, D.C., 1990, page 2).