100 000 Mark

This note is a product of the Ruhr Crisis of 1923 — when France and Belgium occupied the industrial Ruhr district in January of that year to enforce reparations payments, the German government responded with a policy of passive resistance, funding striking workers by printing money at an accelerating rate. Hyperinflation followed with extraordinary speed, and municipal authorities across the region were forced to issue their own emergency currency — Notgeld — simply to pay wages and allow commerce to function.

The joint issue by three neighboring Ruhr cities is administratively unusual. Bottrop, Gladbeck, and Osterfeld pooled their authority for this series, reflecting both the urgency of the moment and the practical limits of small municipal printing budgets. By the time 100,000 Mark felt like a meaningful denomination, it was already losing that status within weeks.