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German Notgeld

notes by Charles R. Jansen, Ph.D.

What is Notgeld ?

Notgeld literally mean's "emergency money." It was printed throughout the "emergencies" of World War I, the violent transition to the Weimar Republic, and the hyperinflationary period which came to an end in 1923. Originally issued to replace precious coinage during World War I, Notgeld became a flood of authorized, unauthorized but tolerated, and illegal bills printed during the post-war period of hyperinflation. Although largely worthless -- due not only to the unprecedented scale of inflation, but also to the typically small denominations of Notgeld and its very limited validity of sometimes only a few weeks -- Notgeld was often produced with a very high degree of artistic quality in a remarkable variety of styles.

Notgeld bills were printed in staggering profusion, particularly after World War I when Germanys answer to hyperinflation was printing ever greater amounts of money: "The road to inflation, like the road to hell, is paved with good intentions, and it was to turn 'ill into good' that the German government gave the license to print money . . . . The basic licenses were given in the Financial Laws of August 1914, which . . . [resulted] in the authorization of the issue of emergency money (Notgeld ) and in the relative toleration shown to the circulation of unauthorized emergency money" (Guttmann and Meehan, 1975, pp. 42-43). Notgeld was printed legally by cities and firms in small notes, typically under one Mark. Some 36,000 different notes of this type were published from 3,658 localities. All in all approximately 163,000 issues of all types of German emergency paper money were published (Coffing, 1988, p. 7) for an estimated total face value of over 500 trillion Marks!

How ws Notgeld used?

Morethan merely a means of exchange, Notgeld imagery between 1919 and 1923 offered a vehicle for advertising, propaganda, and regional commentary, as Guttmann and Meehan note: "These notes also served some secondary purposes.... They advertised... local industries by the use of leather, linen or silk as the basic material. One town issued money consisting of leather suitable for soling shoes as a truly inflation-proof kind of currency.... The towns and villages also indulged in a little political propaganda on their notes... And of course they also had the collector in mind..." (Guttmann and Meehan, p. 51). Thus, Notgeld offers a rich, illustrative source of information about Germany immediately after World War I and before the rise of Hitler. Monuments of local pride and politics, German folk-tales and their folk heroes, even jokes in regional dialects depicted on Notgeld all express an uncensored, popular commentary not only on the rapidly shifting political life and rapidly deteriorating economic health of the Weimar Republic, but also on the deeper psychic state of common German people.

Types of Notgeld

Numismatists divide Notgeld into bills of very large denominations, typically hundreds of thousands and millions of Marks (Großgeldscheine) and bills of small denominations, typically in pfennigs (Kleingeldscheine). They further subdivide the Kleingeldscheine into several categories: the original Notgeld printed due to shortages during the early years of the war ("classic" Notgeld), Notgeld printed as a part of the war economy ("Kriegsgeld"), Notgeld produced by municipalities and businesses as German inflation worsened ("Seriennotgeld"), and Notgeld that was supposedly backed by the value of some raw materials or foodstuffs ("Goldgeld"), the last produced between 1923 and 1924 as an attempt to halt inflation.

The largest category of Notgeld is the serial emergency money ("Seriennotgeld") issued principally between 1921 and 1922. Notgeld of this type rarely circulated as money, that is as a means of purchasing. Rather, issuing towns and businesses produced these bills as a means of speculation. Often issued only after the validity had expired, Seriennotgeld was sometimes sold directly to collectors or, if it couldn't be sold outright, it was given on consignment to special dealers who would attempt to convert this worthless currency into money of some value.

Notgeld collecting was very popular in the years right after the war. Indeed, the number of collectors seemed to grow in proportion to the number of emissions. Catalogs of Notgeld and magazines devoted to the collecting hobby began publication in 1919. "By 1920 many communities had discovered that Notgeld was a considerable source of revenue since avid collectors were willing to pay in hard cash for these notes. As a result, the sets became more colorful and attractive, and appeared more frequently.... Smart operators and dealers bought the Notgeld emission rights of some communities, and printed happily ever after. In other cases, Notgeld was used to finance certain projects. Local sports clubs, for example, issued long sets, the sale of which helped to pay for a new playing field or a stadium" (Krause, 1968, p. 45). Of course, given the huge quantities of Notgeld produced, most Notgeld would never acquire very much real monetary value.

Notgeld as a reflection of its times

Historically, Notgeld (both in its existence and its imagery) reflects the post-war economic degradation which impoverished and embittered Germany. "[World War I], the post-war crisis and the effects of the Versailles peace terms were the Main/Index causes of the inflation which began in Germany in 1920. Unemployment, hunger and price rises took hold. By 1 May 1920 food prices had already escalated by comparison with July 1914:

margarine from 1.60 Marks per kilo to 37.50 Marks

butter from 2.72 Marks per kilo to 45.00 Marks

wheat flour from 0.40 Marks per kilo to 2.80 Marks

bread from 0.23 Marks per kilo to 2.37 Marks

. . . . When inflation reached its peak in the autumn of 1923, a million-Mark bank note would not even buy a slice of bread" (Schrader and Schebera, 1988, p. 74).

Politically, Notgeld reveals the deep ideological divisions which became sharper as inflationary woes increased. Compared to the leftward leanings of the Weimar government, the home fronts of the provinces -- where Notgeld was conceived and circulated -- leaned strongly to the right. The sentiments found in Notgelds words and images consoled conservative forces within the Weimar Republic and may have provided some shelter for the right wing judiciary that did little to curb the cycle of political assassinations that marked the early Weimar Period.

Socially, Notgeld played an important role in the period immediately following the Great War. Appealing deeply to a German Romanticism that touted the virtues of hearth and home, Notgeld was instrumental in constructing a reality that insulated German citizens from the remarkable violence of the times while at the same time suggesting ways of coping with the disintegrating social fabric. Indeed, Notgeld exhibits the sort of sentiments which Hitler made central to his image of the Third Reich.

Amid the complexities of transition to a republic and the continually shifting factions that weakened the central government, regional interests and their historical underpinnings reMain/Indexed something of a constant. After 1923, Hitler was able to build his political base in part by playing upon the cultural baggage of German romanticism and regionalism. Speaking of the deeper feeling of Germans during this difficult period, Hardach notes,

The general psychological effect on public opinion was enormous: the only thing one could be certain of was that nothing was certain. Contemporaries pointed out that the German term for currency, "Währung," stems from the word "währen," to last. It would have been surprising if such profound demoralization and total disruption of the social fabric had gone unexploited, since distress invites a deliverer. On 9 November 1923, six days before the mark breathed its last, having been reduced to . . . one-trillionth of its prewar value, Adolf Hitler felt encouraged to make his first bid for power. (Hardach, 1980, p. 28.)

Themes of Blut und Boden, nostalgia for the glorious past, and chauvinisms of all kinds that appear in the words and images of Notgeld provided the reigns that enabled a National Socialism to tug at the hearts and minds of common Germans.

Selected References

Schrader, Bärbel and Schebera, Jürgen. The "Golden" Twenties: Art and Life in the Weimar Republic. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.

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