Richard Carr - The Global 1920s: Politics, economics and society

Chaos broke out on New York Citys Wall Street on the afternoon of 29 October 1929. Sweat-drenched men flooded out of the stock exchange, some heading for the church at the end of the block where they huddled together regardless of their faith (or lack of it). Others prayed and wept on the edges of the trading floor in scenes replicated across New York and beyond. Entire fortunes were wiped out that afternoon, symbolically marking the beginning of the period remembered today as the Great Depression, and many more would be lost in the months to come. Rumours began to spread around the country of businessmen committing suicide in the days and weeks that followed the crash and, while sometimes exaggerated, there were documented cases of people taking their own lives rather than face life after being ruined. The dream of the Roaring Twenties had crashed to an abrupt halt on the streets of New York, and the pain would soon spread around the globe. Two years after the crash, the British government would be forced to abandon the gold standard amidst a run on the countrys gold reserves, humiliating the countrys government and further rupturing the interwar world financial system. At the same time, the German government stood on the brink of collapse in the face of skyrocketing unemployment. In 1933, Adolf Hitler would become the countrys Chancellor and bring an end to the democratic experiment of the Weimar Republic.