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 (₰); 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.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 = 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. 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

. 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

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

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 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

banco of the Bank of Hamburg was converted at 1 mark banco = 1.5 Imperial marks. Germany 5 Mark 1904 VF Art Nouveau Banknote

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

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

. For comparison, from 1900 to 1933, the United States adhered to a gold standard as well with the gold dollar 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 coins 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: 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 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

. 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

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 Modern obsolete currencies 1871 establishments in Germany 1914 disestablishments in Germany Art Nouveau works Currency symbols