The Vancouver Numismatic Society
Necessity Money (Notgeld) in 1920s Germany by Peter N. Moogk
During the financial chaos of the early 1920s towns, large and small, local banks, and businesses produced necessity money – really scrip – against their own credit. The notes were printed on both sides of stiff paper and were decorated with expressions of local pride and culture, which included folklore, history, and legends. Texts might use the local dialect. Despite this provincial focus, there was a strong undercurrent of German pride. The notes in the second frame protested the Germany’s territorial losses after the First World War and the division of Schleswig-Holstein between Germany and Denmark proposed by a 1920 plebiscite imposed on Germany. That region in South Jutland had been lost by Denmark after a war with Prussia in 1864. The area had a mixed population of Danish and German speakers. Despite Germany’s defeat in 1918 some communities there were defiantly pro-German, even anti-Danish, as one note shows with Michel (the fictional embodiment of Germany) stamping on a Danish flag. Historical figures also appear on these notes, such as the note with the portrait of the Protestant theologian Martin Luther.
The historical notes in the first panel appealed to me. Apart from the Walpurgisnacht illustration (a springtime festival like Halloween), the others refer to specific events: the radical Anabaptists’ theocracy (which included someone called “Mook”) in Munster city during the 1530s, for example. Past military triumphs were recalled, offsetting the demoralizing defeat in 1918. The town of Sternberg chose to reproduce a 1492 woodcut of an anti-Jewish legend. Jews, it claimed, had obtained a consecrated communion wafer from a priest, and then stabbed it until it bled. The Jews were burned alive for this reputed crime. After the stabilization of currency in Germany, people started to collect notgeld. Communities sold sets of notes for a price above their collective face value. Necessity money on wood, porcelain, silk cloth and linen appeared as novelties. That was the effect of an enthusiastic collectors’ market. Even now, because they are so plentiful, individual notes rarely sell for more than five dollars. The ones printed on unconventional materials fetch a premium. For me, these colourful notes are fascinating evidence of the past political and social history of Germany.
Provisional paper money was produced in Germany before the twentieth century by towns under siege. A shortage of metallic currency usually led to this expedient. In the First World War German towns produced paper scrip in denominations under one mark. At first called gutscheine or geldscheine, these notes became known as kriegsgeld (war money). After the war hyperinflation in 1921-1923 caused an explosion of paper necessity money. The notes of the government’s Reichsbank (state bank) were being issued with values in thousands, millions, and then billions of reichsmarks. In November 1923 production of such banknotes ceased, and, in 1924, they were declared to be valueless. They were replaced by Reichsbank rentenmarks in January 1924. That was a more stable currency, rated at 4.2 new marks to an American dollar.