Woman burning money in Weimar Germany. In post War War I Germany, Rudolf von Havenstein presided over the single biggest currency debasement in history, but refused to accept responsibility for the debacle.There was something terribly tragic about this deeply well-intentioned man. Not simply a dutiful bureaucrat, he was by all accounts a wonderful human being, to Max Warburg "an extraordinary sympathetic personality, with an unbending sense of duty and honorable character." He was universally admired, kind, principled, and considerate, always living up to the highest virtues of his class. During the war, while most households supplemented their rations by buying under the counter, Von Havenstein not only refused to use the black market, but even donated some of his own paltry bread and meat ration stamps to the poor. In the last year, however, he seemed to have lost his grip on reality—some said that the pressure he was under had made him prematurely senile—and a few mourned his passing.
- Liaquat Ahamed in Lords of Finance on Von Havenstein, German Reichsbank Central Banker, who was "a true gentleman of the old school, kind, courteous, but completely out of his depth." [p. 187, 188, 190]
