500 000 000 Mark

Zittau's local administrative body — the Amtshauptmannschaft and city council jointly — issued this half-billion Mark note during the most acute phase of the Weimar hyperinflation, when municipal and district authorities across Germany were authorized to produce their own emergency currency, Notgeld, simply to keep commerce moving. By late 1923, the Reichsbank could not print fast enough, and denominations that would have seemed absurd in January were routine by October.

Vereinigte Druckereien P. Gutte was a local Zittau printer, not a specialist banknote house — which is evident in surviving examples, where registration and ink saturation vary noticeably between printings. Signed by Lichten and Zwiegenberger on behalf of the issuing authority.