Germany Banknotes DDR 500 Mark banknote 1985
State Bank of the GDR - Staatsbank der DDR
Obverse: National Emblem of the German Democratic Republic (National Emblem of East Germany) at right and at upper left.
Reverse: Building of the State Council (Staatsrat) of the GDR, East Berlin & the National Emblem of the German Democratic Republic at left. The State Council (German: Staatsrat), was the collective head of state that governed East Germany (German Democratic Republic), from 1960 to 1990.
Watermark: .
Size : x mm.
Printer: VEB Wertpapierdruckerei der DDR, Leipzig.
German Democratic Republic Mark Banknotes
1971-1985 Issue
Upon adoption of the deutsche Mark in East Germany on 1 July 1990, the East German mark was converted at par for wages, prices and basic savings (up to a limit of 4000 Mark per person, except a smaller number for children and a larger number for pensioners). Larger amounts of savings, company debts and housing loans were converted at a 2:1 rate whilst so-called "speculative money", acquired shortly before unification, was converted at a rate of 3:1. These inflated exchange rates were intended by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany as a massive subsidy for eastern Germany.
5 Mark DDR 10 Mark DDR 20 Mark DDR 50 Mark DDR 100 Mark DDR
200 Mark DDR 500 Mark DDR
National Emblem of the German Democratic Republic - National Emblem of East Germany
The national emblem of the German Democratic Republic featured a hammer and a compass, surrounded by a ring of rye. It was an example of what has been called "socialist heraldry".
The hammer represented the workers in the factories. The compass represented the intelligentsia, and the ring of rye the farmers. The first designs included only the hammer and ring of rye, as an expression of the GDR as a communist "Workers' and Farmers' state" (Arbeiter- und Bauernstaat). Surrounded by a wreath, the national emblem also acted as the emblem for the East German National People's Army, and when surrounded by a twelve pointed white star, for the People's Police.
When the federated states in East Germany were abolished and replaced by Bezirke, making the GDR into a unitary state, the national emblem came to be used by the Bezirke too. The East Berlin government did not want regional symbols to be used, since they could stir up regional patriotism and movements for independence.
The emblem was adopted as the GDR's national emblem by a law of 26 September 1955, and added to the national flag by a law of 1 October 1959.
The display of the national emblem was for some years regarded as unconstitutional in West Germany and West Berlin and was prevented by the police. Only in 1969 did the West German government of Willy Brandt reverse this policy in what was known as Ostpolitik.
After the end of the Communist regime in November 1989, the political progress of die Wende saw suggestions for a new national emblem. The old socialist insignia was not wanted anymore. On 31 May the new, democratically elected parliament (Volkskammer) decided, at a suggestion from the conservative German Social Union party, that all images of the national emblem on public buildings would be removed or covered. There was never a decision made for a new national coat of arms or emblem. One prominent suggestion was an image of a smith remaking a sword to a plough along with the text "Schwerter zu Pflugscharen" (German for "swords to ploughshares", from Isaiah 2:3–4), a well known symbol of peace, but when it was clear that Germany would reunite later the same year, this never was realised. The emblem was never formally abolished but became obsolete on the same moment the German Democratic Republic was dissolved, on 3 October 1990.