50 000 000 000 Mark

Erfurt's municipal administration issued this note at the peak of the Weimar hyperinflation, when German cities and towns were legally permitted — indeed practically forced — to print their own emergency currency (Notgeld) to meet payroll and basic commerce. The denomination, fifty billion marks, was not unusual by late 1923 standards; the Reichsbank's own notes reached far higher before the Rentenmark stabilization in November of that year effectively ended the crisis overnight.

Ohlenroth was a local Erfurt printer, not a specialist banknote firm. The compressed production timescales of that period meant municipal authorities used whoever was available.