500 Mark

Eisenach's 500 Mark notgeld from 1922 falls squarely in the inflationary surge that followed Germany's reparations obligations under the Treaty of Versailles. Municipal authorities across Thuringia were issuing emergency currency not because of local financial failure but because the Reichsbank simply could not supply enough small-denomination notes fast enough to keep pace with collapsing purchasing power. Hofbuchdruckerei Eisenach — H. Kahler's printing house — was a local commercial operation, not a specialist banknote printer, which shows in the relatively modest production values common to civic notgeld of this period.

By late 1923, 500 Mark would be essentially worthless, redeemable for a fraction of a pfennig in the new Rentenmark scheme.