100 Deutsche Mark

The Deutsche Notenbank was the central bank of the Soviet occupation zone, and this note — along with the rest of the 1948 series — was issued in direct response to the Western Allies' currency reform of June 1948, which introduced the Deutsche Mark in the western zones. The East followed within days with its own reform, overprinting existing Reichsmark and Rentenmark notes with adhesive coupons before these purpose-printed replacements became available.

Giesecke & Devrient's Leipzig plant, operating under Soviet zone authority, handled production. The firm's main facilities had historically been in Leipzig, so the geography here is less remarkable than the political rupture it now represented — the same printer serving two Germanys moving rapidly in opposite directions.