5 Deutsche Mark Gotthold Ephraim Lessing

Issued to mark the 250th anniversary of Lessing's birth, this piece belongs to the long-running West German commemorative five-mark program — a series that consistently chose cultural and intellectual figures over military or political ones, a deliberate postwar policy choice by the Federal Republic. Lessing was selected in part because his 1779 play Nathan the Wise had been weaponized by the Nazis as a target, its author's Enlightenment arguments for religious tolerance made into evidence of Jewish-sympathizing decadence.

The copper-nickel clad nickel composition was introduced to this denomination in 1975, replacing the previous .625 silver standard.