St. Josef Church and Rhine Bridge - Rheinfelden, BW, Germany - Numismatic Photographs on Waymarking.com

From Wikipedia: "Until 1923, the value of the mark deteriorated faster and faster and new money in higher denominations was issued constantly. The central bank could not cope with the logistics of providing the necessary supply of money, and Notgeld (Papiermark) was issued again - this time in denominations of thousands, millions and billions of Marks."

Rheinfelden was one the many cities and regions that had to issue money. This bank note has a denomination of 50,000,000,000 Mark. I could not find the exact issue date, but here every day counts: On October 22 this amount was worth 1.20 US-$, on November 3 only 12 cents and on November 15 1.2 cents were left. This was the date of the currency reform and the new Rentenmark that was issued was worth one trillion (short scale) of the old Marks. The old bank notes stayed in circulation until 1925, because the central bank was not able to provide the necessary amount of new bank notes in time.

The words on the note read: "Rheinfelden. Badens jüngste Stadtgemeinde. Fünfzig Milliarden Mark" (Rheinfelden. The newest city of Baden. 50 billion Marks).

Rheinfelden was founded in 1130 and split into a Swiss and a German part in 1803. The very small German part became a hamlet of the village Nollingen. On October 22 1922 the municipalities of Nollingen, Warmbach and Karsau fusioned, received city right and decided to call the new city Rheinfelden (Baden). So it is one of the oldest and one of the newest cities at the same time.

The bank note depicts the Rhine bridge and the steeple of the church St. Josef in the background.

The bridge was built in 1912, but it replaced an older bridge. The first one was built around 1150 and was the first bridge over the Rhine since Roman times. The church was built 1913 - 1915, but not dedicated until 1921.

To find the correct viewpoint was an easy task I thought at first. I went to the bank of the Rhine at the little park and saw the bridge and the church. But after taking the picture I started to notice some differences. The bridge has three arches instead of two and the church looks a bit different as well. Freedom of artistic expression? Maybe, but the main problem was: this church was in Switzerland (called St. Martin). So I went to the west corner of the island, but there you don't see any church at all in the background. I finally tried a look from the landing stage on the Swiss side, and here it was. The church is much closer on the bank note than in reality, and the whole picture is mirrored. Either this was a mistake while creating the print master or it was done in purpose to hide the fact that the buildings in the foreground are on Swiss soil.

Money Issuing Country: Rheinfelden (Weimar Republic, Germany) Currency: Mark Denomination: 50,000,000,000 Date of Issue: 11/01/1923 Type of Money: Bank note Law and Order: Yes! Relevant Website: Not listed

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Date Logged Log   10/12/2023 Seebär visited it