I’m no economist or historian, but the case can be made that the poor decisions of the Weimar leadership exacerbated the problem. Some inflation was inevitable, but the post-war government did a lot of damage.

• They stubbornly refused new taxes or loans during the war, instead relying on victory
• They continued to refuse new taxes or loans in the early days after the war
• They delayed and refused economic reform in the early years of reparations that were obviously needed (not just in hindsight)
• They paid their workers to resist the occupation of the Rein by French forces instead of cooperating. To do this they printed a lot of money and effectively put some of their most profitable industries on strike
• They created a new currency pinned to the value of gold, while leaving the old money in circulation (no buy-backs), and never allowed for credit or borrowing against this new currency by private individuals or the government

Basically a failure to act early on caused a snowball effect, and late stage choices worsened the outcome. And all this while the damage to their industry from the war was minor. Neighboring France was decimated and recovered nicely by taking loans, taxes, credit, and investing in their industry and people.

According to some evidence, this was in part purposeful by the Wiemar Republic government to devalue their existing domestic debts and keep their wealthy oligarchs happy.

Again, not a historian or economist, but it’s an interesting part of history to dive into.