5 Mark

The Deutsch-Südwestafrikanische Genossenschaftsbank — the German South West Africa Co-operative Bank — issued this note in 1914 as the colony was being cut off from regular financial supply lines following the outbreak of war. With German shipping routes increasingly blocked and the South African forces under Botha advancing from the south, local institutions improvised emergency currency to keep commerce functioning. Theodor Seitz, the Imperial Governor whose signature appears here, would surrender the territory to South African forces in July 1915, making this entire issue a product of the colony's final months under German administration.

The series is scarce. Most of the colonial economy collapsed before significant circulation could occur.