The Papiermark (; 'paper mark') was a derisive term for the Mark (

sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

: ℳ︁) after it went off the gold standard, and most specifically with the era of hyperinflation in Germany of 1922 and 1923. Formally, the same

German mark The Deutsche Mark (; "German mark"), abbreviated "DM" or "D-Mark" (), was the official currency of West Germany from 1948 until 1990 and later of unified Germany from 1990 until the adoption of the euro in 2002. In English, it was typically c ...

was used from 1871 to 1923. Like many countries, Germany departed the gold standard due to the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, and stopped issuing gold coins backed in marks in August 1914. Precious metals rapidly disappeared from circulation, and inflation occurred as

paper money Paper money, often referred to as a note or a bill (North American English), is a type of negotiable promissory note that is payable to the bearer on demand, making it a form of currency. The main types of paper money are government notes, which ...

was used to cover war debts in 1914 to 1918. Still, the papiermark is more associated with the early

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

era, when inflation grew out of control. By the time the mark was retired from circulation and renominated in December 1923, banknotes had amounts in the billions and trillions of marks by face value.

History

From 1914, the value of the mark fell. The rate of inflation rose following the end of World War I and reached its highest point in October 1923. The currency stabilized in November 1923 after the announcement of the creation of the

Rentenmark The Rentenmark (; RM) was a currency issued on 15 November 1923 to stop the hyperinflation of 1922 and 1923 in Weimar Germany, after the previously used Papiermark had become almost worthless. It was subdivided into 100 ''Rentenpfennig'' and ...

, although the Rentenmark did not come into circulation until 1924. When it did, it replaced the Papiermark at the rate of 1-

trillion ''Trillion'' is a number with two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000,000, i.e. one million 1,000,000, million, or (ten to the twelfth Exponentiation, power), as defined on the long and short scales, short scale. This is now the meaning in bot ...

(10¹²)-ℳ︁ to RM1. On 30 August 1924 the Rentenmark was replaced by the

Reichsmark The (; sign: ℛ︁ℳ︁; abbreviation: RM) was the currency of Germany from 1924 until the fall of Nazi Germany in 1945, and in the American, British and French occupied zones of Germany, until 20 June 1948. The Reichsmark was then replace ...

. In addition to the issues of the government, emergency issues of both tokens and paper money, known as ''Kriegsgeld'' (war money) and ''

Notgeld (German language, German for 'emergency money' or 'necessity money') is money issued by an institution in a time of economic or political crisis. The issuing institution is usually one without official sanction from the central government. This ...

'' (emergency money), were produced by local authorities. The Papiermark was also used in the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

until it was replaced by the

Danzig Gulden The gulden, divided into 100 ''Pfennig'', was the currency of the Free City of Danzig from 1923 to 1939. History From 1914 to 1923, Danzig used the German ''Papiermark'' and issued several local 'emergency notes'. Inflation during 1922–23 ave ...

in late 1923. Several coins and emergency issues in Papiermark were issued by the free city.

Coins

During the war, cheaper metals were introduced for coins, including

aluminium Aluminium (or aluminum in North American English) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Al and atomic number 13. It has a density lower than that of other common metals, about one-third that of steel. Aluminium has ...

zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...

and

iron Iron is a chemical element; it has symbol Fe () and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's o ...

, although

silver Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

ℳ︁ pieces continued in production until 1919. Aluminium 1''₰'' were produced until 1918 and the 2''₰'' until 1916. Whilst iron 5''₰'', both iron and zinc 10''₰,'' and aluminium 50''₰'' coins were issued until 1922. Aluminium 3ℳ︁ were issued in 1922 and 1923, and aluminium 200ℳ︁ and 500ℳ︁ were issued in 1923. The quality of many of these coins varied from decent to poor. During this period, many provinces and cities also had their own corresponding coin and note issues, referred to as

currency. This came about often due to a shortage of exchangeable tender in one region or another during the war and hyperinflation periods. Some of the most memorable of these to be issued during this period came from

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

and featured the highest face value denominations on a coin ever, eventually reaching 1-billion-ℳ︁.

First World War issues

In 1914, the State Loan Office began issuing paper money known as ''Darlehnskassenschein'' (loan fund notes). These circulated alongside the issues of the

Reichsbank The ''Reichsbank'' (; ) was the central bank of the German Empire from 1876 until the end of Nazi Germany in 1945. Background The monetary institutions in Germany had been unsuited for its economic development for several decades before unifica ...

. Most were 1ℳ︁ and 2ℳ︁ notes but there were also 5ℳ︁, 20ℳ︁, 50ℳ︁ and 100ℳ︁ notes.

Post-war issues

Between 1914 and the end of 1923 the Papiermark's rate of exchange against the U.S. dollar plummeted from 4.2ℳ︁ = US$1 to 4.2-trillionℳ︁ = US$1. The price of one gold mark ( mg of pure gold) in German paper currency at the end of 1918 was 2ℳ︁, but by the end of 1919 a gold mark cost 10ℳ︁. This inflation worsened between 1920 and 1922, and the cost of a gold mark (or conversely the devaluation of the paper mark) rose from 15ℳ︁ to 1,282ℳ︁. In 1923 the value of the paper mark had its worst decline. By July, the cost of a gold mark had risen to 101,112ℳ︁, and in September was already at 13-million-ℳ︁. On 30 Nov 1923 it cost 1-trillion-ℳ︁ to buy a single gold mark. In October 1923, Germany experienced a 29,500% hyperinflation (roughly 21% interest per day). Historically, this one-month inflation rate has only been exceeded three times:

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

, 313,000,000% (64.6% per day, January 1994);

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

, 79.6 billion% (98% per day, November 2008); and

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, 41.9

quadrillion Depending on context (e.g. language, culture, region), some large numbers have names that allow for describing large quantities in a textual form; not mathematical. For very large values, the text is generally shorter than a decimal numeric repres ...

% (207% per day, July 1946). On 15 November 1923 the Papiermark was replaced by the

at RM4.2 Rentenmark = US$1, or 1 trillion-ℳ︁ = RM1 (exchangeable through July 1925). During the hyperinflation, ever higher denominations of

banknotes A banknote or bank notealso called a bill (North American English) or simply a noteis a type of paper money that is made and distributed ("issued") by a bank of issue, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commer ...

were issued by the

and other institutions (notably the

Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' (), also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the re ...

railway company). The Papiermark was produced and circulated in enormously large quantities. Before the war, the highest denomination was 1,000ℳ︁, equivalent to approximately £stg48.9 or US$238.09. In early 1922, 10,000ℳ︁ notes were introduced, followed by 100,000ℳ︁ and 1-million-ℳ︁ notes in February 1923. July 1923 saw notes up to 50-million-ℳ︁, with 10-milliard (10¹⁰)-ℳ︁ notes introduced in September. The hyperinflation peaked in October 1923 and banknote denominations rose to 100-

(10¹⁴)-ℳ︁. At the end of the hyperinflation, these notes were worth approximately £stg5.2 or US$23.81.

Weimar Republic (1920–24)

Danzig

The Danziger Privat Actien-Bank (opened 1856) was the first bank established in Danzig. They issued two series of notes denominated in thalers (1857 and 1862–73) prior to issuing the mark (1875, 1882, 1887). These mark issues are extremely rare. Th
Ostbank fur Handel and Gewerbe
opened 16 March 1857, and by 1911 two additional banks (the Imperial Bank of Germany and the Norddeutsche Credit-Anstalt) were in operation.

Issuance of the Danzig Papiermark

The Papiermark was issued by Danzig from 1914 to 1923. Five series were issued during World War I by the City Council (1914, 1916, 1918 first and second issue, and 1919). Denominations ranged from 10₰ to 20ℳ︁. The Free City of Danzig municipal senate issued an additional four post-World War I series of notes (1922, 1923 First issue, 1923 Provisional issue, and 1923 Inflation issue). The 1922 issue (31 October 1922) was denominated in 100ℳ︁, 500ℳ︁, and 1,000ℳ︁ notes. The denominations for the 1923 issue were 1,000ℳ︁ (15 March 1923), and 10,000ℳ︁ and 50,000ℳ︁ notes (20 March 1923). The 1923 provisional issue reused earlier notes with a large red stamp indicating the new (and higher) denominations of 1 million-ℳ︁ (8 August 1923) and 5 million-ℳ︁ (15 October 1923) mark. The last series of Danzig mark was the 1923 inflation issue of 1 million-ℳ︁ (8 August 1923), 10 million-ℳ︁ (31 August 1923), 100 million-ℳ︁ (22 September 1923), 500 million-ℳ︁ (26 September 1923), 5 billion-ℳ︁ and 10 billion-ℳ︁ notes (11 October 1923). The Danzig mark was replaced by the

Danzig gulden The gulden, divided into 100 ''Pfennig'', was the currency of the Free City of Danzig from 1923 to 1939. History From 1914 to 1923, Danzig used the German ''Papiermark'' and issued several local 'emergency notes'. Inflation during 1922–23 ave ...

, first issued by the Danzig Central Finance Department on 22 October 1923.

Note on numeration

In German, '' Milliarde'' is 1,000,000,000, or one thousand million, while ''

Billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: * 1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is now the most common sense of the word in all varieties of ...

'' is 1,000,000,000,000, or one million million.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * *GermanNotes.com (2005). ''German Paper Money 1871-1999''
eBook from germannotes.com
* * * * *

External links

{{Mark Currencies of Germany Economy of the Weimar Republic Modern obsolete currencies Economic history of World War I Currencies of Poland Free City of Danzig 1923 disestablishments 1920s in economic history 1923 in Europe