GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC

In 1815 32 German states came together to form a federation. In 1871 Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor of Prussia formed the German empire with Wilhelm I at it head. As A result of the first world war the empire disintegrated and the Weimar republic was born. In 1933, economic depression led to Hilter setting up the Third Reich. After the second world war, Germany was split into 4 allied controlled areas and in 1949 the British, French and American areas were set up as the Federal Republic or West Germany, while the Russian controlled area was set up as the DDR or East Germany.
Reunification came in 1990 when East Germany ceased to exist. Germany is on of the main countries of the European Union and Of the Eurozone which came into effect in 2002.

Monetary unit:
1 Deutsche Mark = 100 Pfennigs (1949-2001)
1 Euro = 100 Cents (2002 onward)

The Notes:

The notes above are all pre 1930. the first one, from 1910, is the 1000 Mark note issued from Berlin. the second is a 20 mark note from 1914 - just 5 months before the outbreak of WWI. the 3rd is a 1919, 50 Mark note, this time 7 months after the WWI ended. The last two are the 10,000 mark and 50,000 mark notes from 1922 both from the era of German Hyperinflation. All these notes above are over-sized compared to our modern notes.

the two notes above are from the 1940's. The top one is a 50 Pfennig or 1/2 mark note from 1944, which is during WWII and the bottom one is from 1949, a 10 mark note from the newly constituted West Germany. the 1/2 mark is a small square note about half the size of a modern note whereas the 10 mark note is only marginally smaller than its modern equivalent.

This last two notes are from a specialised section of German notes , they are called Notgeld or emergency money. the first one is a reproduction of a 25 pfennig note from Altenkirchen in 192. Notgeld are best known to be used in Germany and Austria after the first world war. The second one has both front and back shown and is a 25 mark note from Bieldfeld in 1921. The interesting thing about this note is that it is made, not of paper, but of cotton. If you look carefully at the edges you can see the stitching that keeps it together. This one is probably in my top ten of my collection !!