100 000 Mark Francke Werke

Francke Werke was a major Bremen engineering firm — manufacturers of heating and ventilation systems — that, like hundreds of German industrial companies in 1923, was forced into issuing its own emergency currency when hyperinflation rendered Reichsbank notes functionally useless before payroll could even be distributed. These corporate Notgeld issues were a practical necessity: workers needed something spendable today, not tomorrow, and central bank supply could not keep pace with the collapsing currency.

Printed locally by Bremer Druckerei A.G., this note would have been redeemable against wages or at company-affiliated outlets. At 100,000 Mark, it was already a mid-range denomination by mid-1923 standards — within months, the same firms were printing billions.