5 Mark

Bielschowitz — now Bielszowice, absorbed into Ruda Śląska in Upper Silesia — issued this note as an emergency measure in the weeks following the outbreak of war in August 1914, when a sudden contraction of coin circulation hit industrial towns across Germany simultaneously. The municipal authority, like dozens of others in the region, acted unilaterally before any central directive existed for such issues.

The DeNG reference range 25.4–25.9 indicates at least six distinct varieties within this single denomination, likely differing in date, signature combination, or serial format — a density of variants unusual even by the prolific standards of 1914 Silesian Notgeld.