20 000 Mark Henschel and Sohn

Henschel & Sohn is better remembered for its locomotives than its paper money, but during the hyperinflation of 1923 the firm's Henrichshütte ironworks division in Hattingen — a legally distinct operating unit — was authorized to issue its own notgeld to meet the wage demands of workers when the Reichsbank simply could not keep pace with currency requirements. These high-denomination emergency notes were functional payroll instruments, not commemorative pieces.

W. Girardet of Essen was a commercial printing house that handled a significant volume of Ruhr industrial notgeld during this period, which partly accounts for the utilitarian character of the output. The 20,000 Mark denomination places this note in the accelerating phase of inflation before the introduction of the Rentenmark in November 1923 effectively ended the emergency.