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50 Deutsche Mark
| Issuer | Bank Deutscher Länder |
|---|---|
| Year | 1948 |
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| Composition | Cotton paper |
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| Obverse description | The left portion of the obverse carries a large vignette portrait of an unidentified male figure rendered after a painting attributed to Albrecht Dürer — the sitter has been variously identified as the Nuremberg merchant councillor Hans Imhof or the patrician Willibald Pirckheimer. To the right, a harbour scene occupies the central and right fields, rendered in intaglio and showing a tall-masted sailing vessel at anchor alongside dock workers and waterfront buildings. Denomination numerals '50' appear at upper right and lower left, with the Gothic-script legend 'Fünfzig' repeated centrally and at lower left, and 'DEUTSCHE MARK' set in letterpress below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Banknote über 50 Fünfzig DEUTSCHE MARK BANK DEUTSCHER LÄNDER FRANKFURT AM MAIN 9.12.1948 |
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| Comments |
The Bank Deutscher Länder was established in March 1948 as the central bank of the Western occupation zones — a deliberate Allied construction designed to decentralize German monetary authority and prevent any repeat of the Reichsbank's political capture. This 50 Mark note appeared that same year as part of the currency reform of June 1948, one of the most abrupt monetary transitions in postwar European history: each German resident received an initial allocation of 40 Deutsche Mark, with old Reichsmarks converted at a punishing 10:1 ratio.
Printing was contracted to the Banque de France in Paris — an arrangement that reflects how thoroughly German industrial and institutional capacity had been dismantled by 1948.