2 Reichsmark - U.S.S.R. Occupation Zone

Austria's provisional postwar government issued this note under Allied occupation authority in 1945, when the country was divided into four occupation zones yet required a unified circulating medium. The Reichsmark itself had been the imposed German currency since the Anschluss in 1938, so this overprinted continuation carried awkward political freight — a republic reasserting itself through notes still bearing the name of the defeated Reich.

The Soviet zone designation is the distinguishing feature of KK 219 specifically, as Allied zone overprints were applied to differentiate circulation areas during the interim period before Austria's own schilling-denominated series could be fully established in 1945.