The German mark (german: Goldmark ;
sign: ℳ) was the currency of the
German Empire, which spanned from 1871 to 1918. The mark was paired with the minor unit of the
pfennig
The 'pfennig' (; . 'pfennigs' or ; symbol pf or ₰) or penny is a former German coin or note, which was the official currency from the 9th century until the introduction of the euro in 2002. While a valuable coin during the Middle Ages, ...
(₰); 100 pfennigs were equivalent to 1 mark. The mark was on the
gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the l ...
from 1871–1914, but like most nations during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the German Empire removed the gold backing in August 1914, and gold and silver coins ceased to circulate.
After the fall of the Empire due to the
November Revolution of 1918, the mark was succeeded by the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
's mark, derisively referred to as the
Papiermark
The Papiermark (; 'paper mark', officially just ''Mark'', sign: ℳ) was the German currency from 4 August 1914 when the link between the Goldmark and gold was abandoned, due to the outbreak of World War I. In particular, the Papiermark was th ...
("Paper mark") due to
hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic
Hyperinflation affected the German Papiermark, the currency of the Weimar Republic, between 1921 and 1923, primarily in 1923. It caused considerable internal political instability in the country, the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, ...
from 1918–1923.
History
The introduction of the German mark in 1873 was the culmination of decades-long efforts to unify the various currencies used by the
German Confederation
The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...
.
[pp 205-218 https://books.google.com/books?id=GrJCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA205#v=onepage&q&f=false] The
Zollverein
The (), or German Customs Union, was a coalition of German states formed to manage tariffs and economic policies within their territories. Organized by the 1833 treaties, it formally started on 1 January 1834. However, its foundations had b ...
unified in 1838 the Prussian and South German currencies at a fixed rate of 1
Prussian thaler =
South German gulden
The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was divided into 60 kreuzer, with each kreuzer worth 4 pfennig o ...
= 16.704 g fine silver. A larger currency convention in 1857 replaced the Prussian thaler with the
Vereinsthaler The Vereinsthaler (, ''union thaler'') was a standard silver coin used in most German states and the Austrian Empire in the years before German unification.
The Vereinsthaler was introduced in 1857 to replace the various versions of the North Ge ...
of g fine silver, equivalent to 1
North German thaler
The North German thaler was a currency used by several states of Northern Germany from 1690 to 1873, first under the Holy Roman Empire, then by the German Confederation. Originally equal to the Reichsthaler specie or silver coin from 1566 until t ...
,
Austro-Hungarian florin
The florin (german: Gulden, hu, forint, hr, forinta/florin, cs, zlatý) was the currency of the lands of the House of Habsburg between 1754 and 1892 (known as the Austrian Empire from 1804 to 1867 and the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy after 1867), ...
s, or
South German gulden
The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was divided into 60 kreuzer, with each kreuzer worth 4 pfennig o ...
.
Unification to this system proceeded further due to
German Unification
The unification of Germany (, ) was the process of building the modern German nation state with federal features based on the concept of Lesser Germany (one without multinational Austria), which commenced on 18 August 1866 with adoption of t ...
in 1871 as well as monetary conventions from 1865 to 1870 expressing a desire to move to the
gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the l ...
.
For this system a new unit ''mark'' was proposed equal to a ''drittelthaler'' or Vereinsthaler, also equal to the Austrian gulden, but decimally divided into 100 pfennig instead of the existing 120 pfennig. Combined with a gold-silver ratio of 15.5, the new mark of g fine silver was therefore equivalent to g fine gold. With 5 billion
gold francs (equivalent to 4.05 billion gold marks) secured from France at the
end of the Franco-Prussian War, the new currency was launched in 1873 in the form of gold 10-mark and 20-mark coins as well as limited legal-tender silver marks and copper pfennigs. The
German Empire's conversion to the
gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the l ...
led to the same being adopted in the rest of Europe and North America, as well as the change in standard in the
Latin Monetary Union
The Latin Monetary Union (LMU) was a 19th-century system that unified several European currencies into a single currency that could be used in all member states when most national currencies were still made out of gold and silver. It was establ ...
from
bimetallism to solely gold.
Despite the
Vereinsthaler The Vereinsthaler (, ''union thaler'') was a standard silver coin used in most German states and the Austrian Empire in the years before German unification.
The Vereinsthaler was introduced in 1857 to replace the various versions of the North Ge ...
being a
silver standard
The silver standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is a fixed weight of silver. Silver was far more widespread than gold as the monetary standard worldwide, from the Sumerians 3000 BC until 1873. Following ...
currency, it remained unlimited legal tender for 3 gold marks until it was demonetized in 1908. The
South German gulden
The South German Gulden was the currency of the states of southern Germany between 1754 and 1873. These states included Bavaria, Baden, Württemberg, Frankfurt and Hohenzollern. It was divided into 60 kreuzer, with each kreuzer worth 4 pfennig o ...
of Vereinsthaler was converted to or 1.71 gold marks. The gold-based
Bremen thaler
The Thaler was the currency of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen until 1873. It was divided into 72 ''Grote'', each of 5 ''Schwaren''. While initially identical to the North German thaler before the 1750s, it was the only currency to maintain the ...
was converted directly to the mark at a rate of 1 Thaler gold = or 3.32 marks. The
Hamburg mark
The Hamburg Mark refers to two distinct currencies issued in the city of Hamburg until 1875:
* The Hamburg Mark Banco, a bank money and an accounting unit, and
* The Hamburg Mark Courant, an actual coin.
Each mark is divided into 16 ''schilling ...
courant or currency was converted at 1 mark = 1.2 Imperial marks, and the
Hamburg mark
The Hamburg Mark refers to two distinct currencies issued in the city of Hamburg until 1875:
* The Hamburg Mark Banco, a bank money and an accounting unit, and
* The Hamburg Mark Courant, an actual coin.
Each mark is divided into 16 ''schilling ...
banco of the
Bank of Hamburg
The Hamburger Bank was a public credit institution founded in 1619 by the Free City of Hamburg. It operated independently until 31 December 1875, when it became part of the newly created Reichsbank.
History
The Hamburg City Council made the dec ...
was converted at 1 mark banco = 1.5 Imperial marks.
![Germany 5 Mark 1904 VF Art Nouveau Banknote](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/27/Germany_5_Mark_1904_VF_Art_Nouveau_Banknote.jpg)
From 1 January 1876 onwards, the mark and became the only
legal tender
Legal tender is a form of money that courts of law are required to recognize as satisfactory payment for any monetary debt. Each jurisdiction determines what is legal tender, but essentially it is anything which when offered ("tendered") in ...
s. Before 1914, the mark was on a
gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the l ...
with 2790 marks equal to 1 kilogram of pure gold (1 mark = 358 mg). The term was created later to retrospectively distinguish it from the (paper mark) which suffered a serious loss of value through hyperinflation following World War I during
hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic
Hyperinflation affected the German Papiermark, the currency of the Weimar Republic, between 1921 and 1923, primarily in 1923. It caused considerable internal political instability in the country, the occupation of the Ruhr by France and Belgium, ...
. For comparison, from 1900 to 1933, the United States adhered to a gold standard as well with the
gold dollar
The gold dollar or gold one-dollar piece is a gold coin that was struck as a regular issue by the United States Bureau of the Mint from 1849 to 1889. The coin had three types over its lifetime, all designed by Mint Chief Engraver James B. Longa ...
containing 23.22
grains
A grain is a small, hard, dry fruit (caryopsis) – with or without an attached hull layer – harvested for human or animal consumption. A grain crop is a grain-producing plant. The two main types of commercial grain crops are cereals and legumes ...
or 1.50463 g fine gold; it was therefore worth 4.198 gold marks. The
monetary hegemon of the time when the gold mark was in use, however, was the
pound sterling
Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and ...
, with £1 being valued at 20.43 gold marks.
World War I reparations
Following the ratification of article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles at the conclusion of World War I, the Central Powers were made to give war reparations to the Allied Powers. Each of the defeated powers was required to make payments in eit ...
owed by Germany were stated in gold reserves in 1921, 1929 and 1931; this was the victorious Allies' response to their fear that vanquished Germany might try to pay off the obligation in paper currency. The actual amount of reparations that Germany was obliged to pay out was not the 132 billion marks cited in the London Schedule of 1921 but rather the 50 billion marks stipulated in the A and B Bonds. The actual total payout from 1920 to 1931 (when payments were suspended indefinitely) was 20 billion German gold marks, worth about or . Most of that money came from loans from New York bankers.
Following the
Nazi seizure of power in 1933, payments of reparations were officially abandoned.
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
did not resume payment of reparations as such, but did resume the payment of debt that Germany had acquired in the inter-war period to finance its reparation payments, paying off the principal on those debts by 1980. The interest on those debts was paid off on 3 October 2010, the 20th anniversary of
German reunification.
Coins
Coins of denominations between 1 pfennig and 1 mark were issued in standard designs for the whole empire, whilst those above 1 mark were issued by the individual states, using a standard design for the reverses (the , the eagle insignia of the German Empire) with a design specific to the state on the obverse, generally a portrait of the monarch of the kingdom or duchy (and not that of the emperor); while the free cities of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lübeck each used the city's coat of arms. Occasionally
commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins issued to commemorate some particular event or issue with a distinct design with reference to the occasion on which they were issued. Many coins of this category serve as collectors items only, although some countries ...
s were minted, in which cases the obverse and (much more rarely) the reverse designs might depart from the usual pictorial standards. Many of the smaller states issued coins in very small numbers. Also, in general all states' coinage became very limited after the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
began. Well-preserved examples of such low-mintage coins can be rare and valuable. The
Principality of Lippe was the only state not to issue any gold coins in this period.
Base metal coins
* 1 pfennig (
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
: 1873–1916, aluminium: 1916–1918)
* 2 pfennig (copper: 1873–1916)
* 5 pfennig (
cupro-nickel
Cupronickel or copper-nickel (CuNi) is an alloy of copper that contains nickel and strengthening elements, such as iron and manganese. The copper content typically varies from 60 to 90 percent. (Monel is a nickel-copper alloy that contains a minimu ...
: 1873–1915, iron: 1915–1922)
* 10 pfennig (cupro-nickel: 1873–1916, iron and
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc 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 periodi ...
: 1915–1922)
* 20 pfennig (cupro-nickel, 1887–1892)
* 25 pfennig (
nickel
Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...
, 1909–1912)
Silver coins
Subsidiary silver coins were minted in .900
fineness
The fineness of a precious metal object (coin, bar, jewelry, etc.) represents the weight of ''fine metal'' therein, in proportion to the total weight which includes alloying base metals and any impurities. Alloy metals are added to increase hardne ...
to a standard of 5 grams silver per mark. Production of 2 and 5 mark coins ceased in 1915 while 1-mark coins continued to be issued until 1916. A few 3 mark coins were minted until 1918, and mark coins continued to be issued in silver until 1919.
* 20 pfennig, 1.1111 g (1 g silver), only until 1878
* mark or 50 pfennig, 2.7778 g (2.5 g silver)
* 1 mark, 5.5555 g (5 g silver)
* 2 mark, 11.1111 g (10 g silver)
* 3 mark, 16.6667 g (15 g silver), from 1908 onwards
* 5 mark, 27.7778 g (25 g silver)
These silver coins are token or subsidiary currency for the gold mark and are therefore legal tender only up to 20 marks. However, all silver 3-mark s issued before 1871 enjoyed unlimited legal tender status even after the switch-over to the
gold standard
A gold standard is a monetary system in which the standard economic unit of account is based on a fixed quantity of gold. The gold standard was the basis for the international monetary system from the 1870s to the early 1920s, and from the l ...
. This ended with the demonetization of the in 1908 and the introduction of the new subsidiary 3-mark coins.
The 5-mark coin, however, was significantly closer in value to older thalers (and other such crown-sized coins).
Gold coins
Gold coins were minted in .900 fineness to a standard of 2790 mark = 1 kilogram of gold (a mark was therefore about 0.3584 g of gold). Gold coin production ceased in 1915. 5-mark gold coins were minted only in 1877 and 1878.
* 5 mark, 1.9912 g (1.7921 g gold)
* 10 mark, 3.9825 g (3.5842 g gold)
* 20 mark, 7.965 g (7.1685 g gold)
Banknotes
Banknotes were issued by the Imperial Treasury (known as "Reichskassenschein") and the
Reichsbank
The ''Reichsbank'' (; 'Bank of the Reich, Bank of the Realm') was the central bank of the German Reich from 1876 until 1945.
History until 1933
The Reichsbank was founded on 1 January 1876, shortly after the establishment of the German Empi ...
, as well as by the banks of some of the states. Imperial Treasury notes were issued in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 Mark, whilst Reichsbank notes were produced in denominations of 20, 50, 100 and 1000 Mark. The notes issued after 1914 are referred to as
Papiermark
The Papiermark (; 'paper mark', officially just ''Mark'', sign: ℳ) was the German currency from 4 August 1914 when the link between the Goldmark and gold was abandoned, due to the outbreak of World War I. In particular, the Papiermark was th ...
.
Currency signs
In Unicode, the Mark sign is . The Pfennig is .
Notes
References
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:German Mark
Economy of the German Empire
Currencies of Germany
Currencies of Cameroon
Mark
Mark may refer to:
Currency
* Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina
* East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic
* Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927
* F ...
Modern obsolete currencies
1871 establishments in Germany
1914 disestablishments in Germany
Art Nouveau works
Currency symbols