5 Mark

Wiedenbrück's 1921 notgeld issue came at the peak of Germany's municipal emergency currency wave, when thousands of towns printed their own notes to offset chronic coin shortages and, increasingly, to profit from collector demand. The Stadt Wiedenbrück engaged Ad Eßich & Co. of Oldenburg — a regional printer responsible for a considerable volume of Westphalian notgeld during this period — with design credited to O. Nausester, an otherwise obscure figure whose name surfaces only in connection with a handful of these local commissions.

By 1921, the line between functional currency and philatelic souvenir had almost entirely collapsed in the notgeld market. Many such pieces were never intended to circulate at all.