The author takes the Viennese family of Viktor Baur through the turbulent years of World War I, the difficulties of feeding the family when money was worthless after the war, then followed closely by the Depression with so many people out of work.
With all of this going on in Austria, Austrians could look over the border at their German neighbors and see their country improving under Hitler and the Nazis.
Viktor is a successful banker and could see how the German economy was improving and tha.