Stavenhagen notgeld

This notgeld is from Stavenhagen and has the value of 25 Pfennig. It shows a miller drinking with a French officer. The officer says in German: 'Serviter!' and the miller replies: 'Sett en vor de dor!'. with reference underneath reading' Fritz Reuter, Ut de Franzosentid' The translation is 'Server!' 'Set before the door!', 'Fritz Reuter, During the time of the French Conquest'. This is a scene from the writing of Reuter about life in a Mecklenburg town during the War of Liberation against Napoleon, 1813. This item is known as Reutergeld and is in the reference collection of packaging material which belonged to the designer Charles Hasler. The 'Reutergeld' is a famous Notgeld series named after Fritz Reuter (1810 - 1874), a poet and writer attached to the Northern German province of Mecklenburg. Many of his works were written in the local North German dialect. Notgeld were produced by German towns, villages and municipalities from the end of the First World War until the mid 1920s, when the state bank (the Reichsbank), struggled with wartime metal shortages and post- war hyperinflation. The highly decorative notes soon became collectors items - and still remain to this day. They are double-sided and printed with their monetary value, information about the village, town or province of issue and some colourful illustration.