Were the heavy war reparations on Germany after World War I the main cause of its hyperinflation in 1923?
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The WWI reparations were set in gold marks, and the level of the reparations therefore was actually equivalent to a fixed amount of gold. It wasn't payable in paper marks, the actual currency at the time. It was only payable in currencies that had a fixed exchange rate to gold.
The reason for the hyperinflation is that Germany decided to start printing money to buy foreign currency to pay the reparations with. Essentially, they attempted to buy gold from foreign countries with worthless paper and then give the gold back. This, of course, did not work, and only resulted in hyperinflation and a slow-down of the German economy, therefore making it harder for them to pay the reparations.
Therefore, it is not the reparations that caused the inflation, but the Wiemar Republic's decision to try and get money for nothing.
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After an all-out war like WWI or WWII, the losing side has nothing to speak of left: it was "all-out" and they didn't surrender until every resource was found and used.
If, after such a war, there are no reparations, a country may use pretend assets to "pull themselves up by their bootstraps." An example that comes to mind of the bootstrap approach is Germany using pretend assets of the workers' compensation program to back bonds issued for the Autobahn. They existed only on paper, physically, and in peoples' minds since the depression had them on... reduced tax receipts... and there was no physical pile of money any more than the US Social Security program pile of money.
If no reparations, with foreign soldiers coming up and removing whole factories when payments are missed, one can use the not-quite meaningless paper assets to back the money system and keep the hyperinflation spiral from starting and whipping out of control. It also helps if, after a war, the victors take over things for a time and use their own resources to back it, or make implicit promises to the world of such.
But with reparations, the emperor's clothing status is immediately and painfully obvious and everyone begins doing the apparently very human thing of "I gotta get mine while I still can" (and, of course, raising prices and squeezing for payments is also done to make one's own payments and in doing so keep the system fluid and not stuttering to halts so it is admittedly not all selfish). With no gold to put in a bank showroom to let people realize the system is backed (pretend, actually, but you know...), there's mud for everyone's fins.
And then you get hyperinflation. It's not about the reparations themselves, precisely, as in their existence. It is about stripping anything helpful away ('cause you do have your own problems...) and absolutely destroying any pretense that hope exists. Reparations might be required after and several year period of time and actually work. But not probably the "all the money in the world and then some and right this second" kind that they tried then.
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