An irascible brilliant man trained as an economist Karl Helfferich became one of Wilhelmine Germany s leading financiers in the years after 1905 During World War I he held a series of important Reich offices and after 1918 became a leading right wing politician in the Weimar Republic As creator of the basic plan to stabilize the mark in 1923 he played a major role in ending the catastrophic postwar inflation John Williamson s biography of Helfferich thus reflects German controversies over the crucial political economic and social issues of the era 1895 1924 e g industrialization colonial development the Bagdad Railway and imperialism unrestricted submarine warfare wartime political reform war aims and postwar financial and foreign policy Originally published in 1971 The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print on demand technology to again make available previously out of print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905