Halfway there with the German letters

I plan on publishing the translations when I am done (in my blog), but I am about halfway through translating my great-grandfather's letters from 1922 and 1923 and here's a high level idea of what I have so far.

There are some themes that recur in the three letters that I have translated so far.

1. High inflation - for example the price of a lb. of butter went from 2,000 Marks in January to 8,000 Marks in April to 20,000 Marks in July. Can you imagine living with that kind of inflation and trying to pay your bills, feed your family and so on?

2. Enemies on all side - he talks about the Belgians and French occupying the Ruhr during this time, the Lithuanians taking over a region in the East, the Poles taking over former German territory in Prussia. You read about this in the history books, but it doesn't really tell you the kind of fear people were living in. The writer's mother lived in the Ruhr and he was living in fear that she would be thrown out of her home and have to undertake a long journey to get where he was and that he thought she might be too old to survive the journey. Imagine living in a world where you are surrounded by enemies and fearful of what they might do?

3. Health - both he and his wife were in poor health, especially in the last letter, due to nerves and poor nutrition. Food was so expensive and hard to get at this point that they barely had enough to eat and then he was too sick to work, so how was he going to get enough money to pay for things. I guess we all have health issues, but how many of us have to deal with not even having enough to eat?

You read in the history books about how things were in Germany before the Nazis came into power and the types of events that led up to people accepting the Nazis because they told them what they wanted and needed to hear. Fascinating. And scary.

I don't suppose I'll ever find out how it turned out for them. 1923 is the latest letter. But maybe there's a way to research it. One thing at a time though.

Anybody need somebody who can read old German script?