This transformation of money does not accumulate economic value but turns money into a dangerous parasite that suffocates the German society. Furthermore, such a growth that appears without an actor, who would back up the value of the currency, can only lead to the devaluation of that money. Also here the Dadaists’ promise of providing a unique chance of investment is, of course, a mocking, but the bitter truth behind this joke is that it represents the mentality and problem of mere money printing that stood at the center of the hyperinflation. The mere multiplication of money does not increase, but diminishes its value. The rapid and uncontrolled growth of money is the poison and not the cure.

The absurdity of growth is also a recurring motif in Ostwald’s Sittengeschichte, and in this book, which is full of illustrations, one can find a photograph that in a very subtle way reflects on the absurd growth of worthless money that can hardly be measured anymore. The picture shows two children, who hold a one-dollar-note and point towards a seemingly endless stack of bundles of 1000-Mark-notes, which apparently represents the value of one dollar. I would like to argue that these bundles of 1000-Mark-notes resemble the measuring scales that record the fast growth of children in the kindergarten or elementary school, of course, the situation on this picture is inverted.