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50 Pfennig Goethe and Schiller Series - Goethe, Red Issue
| Issuer | Stadt Weimar (City of Weimar) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1921 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is headed by the bold Gothic letterpress inscription 'NOTGELD DER STADT WEIMAR' in black, beneath which a finely engraved portrait vignette of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe is set within an octagonal frame printed in red, flanked on either side by the denomination '50 PFENNIG' in red numerals and black capitals. The date 'WEIMAR, DEN 1. MÄRZ 1921' appears below the vignette alongside the authorising signatures of the Oberbürgermeister and the Gemeinderat-Vorsitzender, with a validity clause at foot. The printer's imprint 'DIETSCH & BRÜCKNER, WEIMAR' runs in small red type along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | EIN KLEINER RING / BEGRENZT UNSER LEBEN UND VIELE GESCHLECHTER / REIHEN SICH DAUERND AN IHRES DASEINS / UNENDLICHE KETTE. |
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| Comments |
Weimar notgeld from 1921 occupies a peculiar niche — issued during the hyperinflationary spiral that made Reichsmark coinage disappear from daily commerce, but also consciously designed as a collectible. The city leaned hard into its literary associations. Goethe and Schiller were not incidental choices; Weimar had been marketing itself as the intellectual capital of Germany since the 19th century, and the notgeld program extended that into small-denomination emergency currency.
Dietsch & Brückner were a local Weimar printing house, which is unusual — most municipalities contracted larger specialist printers for their notgeld series. Printing locally meant the city retained tight control over the run, and the red-ink variant exists specifically because multiple color issues were produced to encourage collector demand and generate municipal revenue beyond face value.