Młynarki was the popular name for the currency notes of the General Government ( part of German-occupied Poland) during

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

that were issued by the German-controlled

Bank of Issue in Poland Bank of Issue in Poland ( pl, Bank Emisyjny w Polsce, german: Emissionbank in Polen, also translated into English variously as the ''Bank of Issue'', ''Issue Bank'', ''Issuing Bank'' or ''Emitting Bank in Poland'') was a bank created by Nazi German ...

. They were named after the president of the bank,

Feliks Młynarski Feliks Młynarski (20 November 1884 – 13 April 1972) was a Polish banker, philosopher and economist. Biography Feliks Młynarski was born to Jan Młynarski, a school teacher, and Honorate née Jędrzejowska. He attended a gymnasium in Jarosł ...

History

After the

German invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

and the ensuing occupation, 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 Emp ...

decided not to introduce German currency there, as it did not want to increase the

money supply In macroeconomics, the money supply (or money stock) refers to the total volume of currency held by the public at a particular point in time. There are several ways to define "money", but standard measures usually include Circulation (curren ...

. Various Polish banks and credit institutions were temporarily closed, while some of their assets were nationalized by the German government. Many people lost their savings. On 15 December 1939,

Hans Frank Hans Michael Frank (23 May 1900 – 16 October 1946) was a German politician and lawyer who served as head of the General Government in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. Frank was an early member of the German Workers' Party ...

, the governor of the General Government, an administrative unit for most of occupied Poland, passed a decree creating a new bank, the

(Bank Emisyjny), which began operating in April 1940. The bank was headed by

with the approval of the

Polish government-in-exile The Polish government-in-exile, officially known as the Government of the Republic of Poland in exile ( pl, Rząd Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej na uchodźstwie), was the government in exile of Poland formed in the aftermath of the Invasion of Pola ...

. The official exchange rate was set at zl 2 for RM 1. The exchange system was meant to boost the

German economy The economy of Germany is a highly developed social market economy. It has the largest national economy in Europe, the fourth-largest by nominal GDP in the world, and fifth by GDP (PPP). In 2017, the country accounted for 28% of the euro ar ...

at the expense of the Polish economy. The

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the ...

exchange rate varied between three and four zlotys to one reichsmark.Andrzej Gojski, ''Etapy i cele niemieckiej polityki bankowej w GG. Plany niemieckie wobec Generalnego Gubernatorstwa w latach 1939–1945'', BANK I KREDYT, August 2004
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The most famous of the notes was the 500 zloty note, the ''góral'' ("highlander" or "mountaineer") named after the image of a góral on its front. The note is still popular among currency collectors.

Counterfeiting To counterfeit means to imitate something authentic, with the intent to steal, destroy, or replace the original, for use in illegal transactions, or otherwise to deceive individuals into believing that the fake is of equal or greater value tha ...

of the currency was rampant. The name was also reflected in one of the actions of the Polish resistance, Operation Góral, a 1943 heist in which the insurgents took over a currency shipment then worth over US$1 million. The 500 note was also the standard "unit of corruption"; the minimum bribe that representatives of the occupation authorities required to facilitate the carrying out of illicit activity. In that role, it was immortalised in a popular underground street song in Warsaw, '' Siekiera, motyka''. The currency notes were used exclusively within the General Government but not the

Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany Following the Invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the entire territory of the Second Polish Republic was annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under the German civil administration. The rest of Nazi- ...

. They were withdrawn from circulation between 1944 and 1945.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mlynarki Currencies of Poland Economic history of Poland Poland in World War II Modern obsolete currencies