Weimar Germany, 1000 mark note, with antisemitic overprint
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 3.375 inches (8.573 cm) | Width: 6.250 inches (15.875 cm)
Creator(s)
- Peter Ehrenthal (Compiler)
Biographical History
The Katz Ehrenthal Collection is a collection of more than 900 objects depicting Jews and antisemitic and anti-Jewish propaganda from the medieval to the modern era, in Europe, Russia, and the United States. The collection was amassed by Peter Ehrenthal, a Romanian Holocaust survivor, to document the pervasive history of anti-Jewish hatred in Western art, politics and popular culture. It includes crude folk art as well as pieces created by Europe's finest craftsmen, prints and periodical illustrations, posters, paintings, decorative art, and toys and everyday household items decorated with depictions of stereotypical Jewish figures.
Archival History
The altered banknote was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016 by the Katz Family.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of the Katz Family
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
German 1000 mark note overprinted with an antisemitic election slogan on the back accusing the Jews of hoarding all the gold, silver, and money, and leaving dreck. It urges people to vote all Jews and Marxists out. The bank note, printed on one side to save money, was issued as emergency currency in 1922, during a period of hyperinflation in the newly formed German republic. The government reacted to the financial crisis by printing more and more money, catastrophically depreciating the currency. This overprinted banknote is one of more than 900 items in the Katz Ehrenthal Collection of antisemitic visual materials.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
German bank note on rectangular offwhite paper in black, brown, green, and purple ink. The face has a double helix background within a geometric patterned frame and an underprint of the denomination 1000 within a scrollwork flourish. Serial letters and numbers are printed on the upper left and right corners; the denomination 1000 is on the left side, and Reichsbanknote Tausend Mark is in the upper center. There are 2 paragraphs of German fraktur text, 4 signatures, and 2 Reichdirecktorium seals with Imperial Eagles. The back has a brown, interlocked geometric background. In the center is an ornate green diamond and scroll shaped design with the denomination 1000 flanked by MARK in large black and green font superimposed on a rectangular, brown, interlocked, geometric background. The note is discolored and slightly creased.
back, overprint, black ink : Das Gold, das Silber und den Speck, / nahm damals uns der Jud' / und liess uns diesen Dreck! Volksgenossen, wie lange wollt lhr / Euch noch von Marxisten und Juden / ausplundern und betrugen lassen? / Keine Stimme den Marxisten u. Judenparteien. / WÄHLT LISTE 1 [The Jew took the gold, the silver and the bacon, and left us shit! People, wouldn't you like to rid yourselves of Jews and Marxists? Vote no for the Marxists and Jewish parties. / SELECT LIST 1]
Subjects
- Inflation (Finance)--Germany--History--20th century.
- Antisemitism--Germany--History--20th century.
- Germany--Politics and government--1918-1933--Money.
- Anti-Jewish propaganda--Germany--History--20th century.
- Financial crises--Germany--History--20th century.
- Elections--Germany--20th century.
Genre
- Exchange Media
- Object