500 000 Mark Mannesmann-Mulag

Mannesmann-Mulag — the Motoren- und Lastwagen-Aktiengesellschaft founded in Aachen in 1906 — was primarily a truck manufacturer, not a bank. This 500,000 Mark note is Notgeld, emergency currency issued by the company during the hyperinflation of 1923 to pay its own workforce when the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough physical currency to meet weekly wage obligations. Industrial firms across Germany were authorized to issue such scrip, and many did. The watermarked paper was sourced locally; A. Willems & Co., the Aachen printer, handled the production run.