50 Pfennig Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche des Landesteiles Lübeck

One of the more unusual issuers in the German Notgeld period — a regional Lutheran church body rather than a municipality, savings institution, or commercial firm. The Evangelisch-Lutherische Landeskirche des Landesteiles Lübeck administered the ecclesiastical territory of the Lübeck portion of the old Free City, and issued this emergency currency during the inflationary squeeze of 1921 when small-denomination coinage had effectively vanished from everyday commerce. Printed locally by H. G. Rahtgens, the note was designed by Gröning, whose work appears across several Lübeck-area Notgeld issues of the same period.