<P> The Taiping Rebellion followed by internal warfare, famines and epidemics caused the deaths of over 100 million and greatly reduced the economy . </P> <P> Following Germany's defeat in World War I, political instability resulted in murders and assassinations of hundreds of political figures . (See: German Revolution of 1918--1919 and Kapp Putsch) Germany's finances were heavily strained by the war and reparations in accordance with the Treaty of Versailles . Unable to raise enough in taxes to run the government and make war reparations, the government resorted to printing money which resulted in great hyperinflation . One book on the hyperinflation, which includes quotes and a few first hand accounts, is When Money Dies . </P> <P> The hyperinflation eventually ended, it cleared government debt at the cost of the citizens' savings . Some believe that the hyperinflation of 1923 has helped fuel the eventual rise of the Nazi party and the rise of Hitler to power in 1933 . Economists, however, tend to attribute Hitler's rise to the Deflation and the Great Depression beginning in 1929 . Paul Krugman concluded that the 1923 hyperinflation didn't bring Hitler to power; it was the Brüning deflation and depression . Before 1929 the Nazi party was actually in decline with less than 3% of votes in the German federal election of 1928 (see election results of the Nazi Party). </P> <P> While arguably not a true economic collapse, the decade of the 1930s witnessed the most severe worldwide economic contraction since the start of the Industrial Revolution . In the US, the Depression began in the summer of 1929, soon followed by the stock market crash of October 1929 . American stock prices continued to decline in fits and starts until they hit bottom in July 1932 . In the first quarter of 1933, the banking system broke down: asset prices had collapsed, bank lending had largely ceased, a quarter of the American work force was unemployed, and real GDP per capita in 1933 was 29% below its 1929 value . The ensuing rapid recovery was interrupted by a major recession in 1937 - 38 . The USA fully recovered by 1941, the eve of its entry in World War II, which gave rise to a boom as dramatic as the Depression that preceded it . </P>

How did investors in the us help produce economic collapse in germany