Turn the clock back more than 80 years to 1923, and hyperinflation was at its peak in Germany. Post World War I reparations, coupled with unfavourable economic conditions, ensured that the country was experiencing one of the worst periods of hyperinflation in Europe’s recent history.
It was a scenario that would also provide a gap in the market for the birth of Westfalen AG.
In January 1923, French and Belgian troops occupied the industrial region of Germany in the Ruhr valley, to ensure war reparations were paid in goods like coal rather than the devalued German Marks.
The occupation blocked the supply of welding gases from the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr area), leaving the metalworking industry in Münster and the surrounding Münsterland starved of gas supply.
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