East German mark

The East German mark (German: Mark der DDR [ˈmaʁk deːɐ̯ ˌdeːdeːˈʔɛʁ] ), commonly called the eastern mark (German: Ostmark [ˈɔstmaʁk] ) in West Germany and after reunification, was the currency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Its ISO 4217 currency code was DDM. The currency was known officially as the Deutsche Mark from 1948 to 1964, Mark der Deutschen Notenbank from 1964 to 1967, and from 1968 to 1990 as the Mark der DDR (Mark of the GDR). The mark (M) was divided into 100 pfennigs (pf).

History

1948

On 18 June 1948 a currency reform was announced for the western zones. Subsequently, on 20 June 1948, the Reichsmark and the Rentenmark were abolished in the western occupation zones due to Soviet counterfeiting of AM-Marks resulting in economic instability and inflation and replaced with the Deutsche Mark issued by the Bank deutscher Länder (later the Deutsche Bundesbank). Because the Reichsmark was still legal tender in the Soviet occupation zone, the currency flooded into the east from the west, where it was worthless. This caused sudden inflation, which caused privately held cash in the Soviet zone to become worthless overnight. As an emergency measure, many thousands of employees in the district offices started to affix adhesive coupons to those reichsmark and rentenmark banknotes for which the owners could prove their origin, up to a limit of 70 ℛ︁ℳ︁ per person. Only such banknotes could be exchanged when the Deutsche Notenbank (the East German counterpart of the Bundesbank) issued the new Deutsche Mark with the subsequent currency reform.

Although the Soviets expressed surprise about the western currency reform at the time, the German Economic Commission, per consultation with the Soviet Military Administration had prepared for this situation.