50 Pfennig Brocken/Brockenwirt

This note was signed not by a banker or municipal treasurer but by Rudolf Schade, the Brockenwirt — the innkeeper of the Brocken summit hotel in the Harz Mountains. That Schade's personal signature carries the redemption obligation tells you everything about how Notgeld functioned at the local extreme: the municipality of Schierke, a small resort village at the mountain's base, was essentially backstopping tourist infrastructure with printed scrip during the currency chaos of 1921.

Appelhans Verlag in Braunschweig produced a great deal of Harz-region Notgeld, and F. Jüttner was a known contributor to their decorative series.