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Germany
– Weimar Republic – Oppenheim
Kaiser
Friedrich II – Free City Commemoration Medal
1925 Porcelain Notgeld 63mm (47.60 grams)
Reference: Scheuch 2188 a, n 3
OPPENHEIM SIGILLVM BVRGENSIVM I, King
facing, buildings and square cross atop.
OPPENHEIM AM RHIEN 9125 1225 VERLEIHT KAISER
FRIEDRICH II DAS STADTRECHT, City view, boat
right.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
Oppenheim is a town in the Mainz-Bingen
district of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. The
town is a well-known wine center, being the home
of the German Winegrowing Museum, and is
particularly known for the wines from the
Oppenheimer Krötenbrunnen vineyards.
In 765, the first documented mention of the
Frankish village was recorded in the Lorsch
Codex, in connection with an endowment by
Charlemagne to the Lorsch Abbey. Further
portions of Oppenheim were added to the
endowment in 774. In 1008, Oppenheim was granted
market rights. In October 1076 Oppenheim gained
special importance in the Investiture
Controversy. At the princely session of Trebur
and Oppenheim, the princes called on King Henry
IV to undertake the “Walk to Canossa”. After
Oppenheim was returned to the Empire in 1147, it
became a Free Imperial City in 1225, during the
Staufer Emperor Frederick II’s. At this time,
the town was important for its imperial castle
and the Burgmannen who lived there.
In the 14th century, the town was pledged to
the Electorate of Mainz and beginning in 1398,
it belonged to the territory of the Electoral
Palatinate.
In 1621, the Oppenheim town chronicle reports
a great fire in which the Oppenheim Town Hall
was almost completely destroyed. The Electoral
Oberamt archive, too, was lost in the fire, and
so it was moved to Mainz. [the meaning here is
not clear]
On 14 September 1620, Spanish troops overran
the town in the Thirty Years’ War. The Spaniards
occupied Oppenheim until 1632. In 1688, French
troops overran the town in the Nine Years’ War
(1688–1697). On 31 May 1689, Landskrone Castle
and the town were utterly destroyed by the
French under General Mélac. Until 1797,
Oppenheim remained an Electoral Palatinate
holding. After being in French hands, Oppenheim
passed, in 1816, to the Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt.
It remained Hessian until 1945.
In March 1945, troops of the 3rd Army under
General George S. Patton managed to build a
crossing over the Rhine near Oppenheim and to
occupy it.
Notgeld (German for “emergency money” or “necessity money”) refers to money issued by an institution in a time of economic or political crisis. The issuing institution is usually one without official sanction from the central government. This occurs usually when sufficient state-produced money is not available from the central bank. Most notably, notgeld generally refers to money produced in Germany and Austria during World War I and the Interbellum. Issuing institutions could be a town’s savings banks, municipality and private or state-owned firms. Nearly all issues contained an expiry date, after which time they were invalid. Issues without dates ordinarily had an expiry announced in a newspaper or at the place of issuance.
Notgeld was mainly issued in the form of (paper) banknotes. Sometimes other forms were used, as well: coins, leather, silk, linen, wood, postage stamps, aluminium foil, coal, and porcelain; there are also reports of elemental sulfur being used, as well as all sorts of re-used paper and carton material (e.g. playing cards). These pieces made from playing cards are extremely rare and are known as Spielkarten, the German word for “playing card”.
Notgeld was a mutually-accepted means of payment in a particular region or locality, but notes could travel widely. Some cases of Notgeld could better be defined as scrip, which were essentially coupons redeemable only at specific businesses. However, the immense volume of issues produced by innumerable municipalities, firms, businesses, and individuals across Germany blurred the definition. Collectors tend to categorize by region or era rather than issuing authority (see below). Notgeld is different from occupation money that is issued by an occupying army during a war.
The Weimar Republic (German: Weimarer Republik) is an unofficial, historical designation for the German state during the years 1919 to 1933. The name derives from the city of Weimar, where its constitutional assembly first took place. The official name of the state remained Deutsches Reich (English: German Realm), unchanged since 1871. In English, the country was usually known simply as Germany.
A national assembly was convened in Weimar, where a new constitution for the Deutsches Reich was written and adopted on 11 August 1919. In its fourteen years, the Weimar Republic faced numerous problems, including hyperinflation, political extremism (with paramilitaries – both left- and right-wing) as well as contentious relationships with the victors of the First World War. The people of Germany blamed the Weimar Republic rather than their wartime leaders for the country’s defeat and for the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Versailles. Weimar Germany fulfilled most of the requirements of the Treaty of Versailles although it never completely met its disarmament requirements and eventually paid only a small portion of the war reparations (by twice restructuring its debt through the Dawes Plan and the Young Plan). Under the Locarno Treaties, Germany accepted the western borders of the republic, but continued to dispute the eastern borders.
From 1930 onwards President Hindenburg used emergency powers to back Chancellors Heinrich Brüning, Franz von Papen and General Kurt von Schleicher. The Great Depression, exacerbated by Brüning’s policy of deflation, led to a surge in unemployment. In 1933, Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor with the Nazi Party being part of a coalition government. The Nazis held two out of the remaining ten cabinet seats. Von Papen as Vice Chancellor was intended to be the “éminence grise” who would keep Hitler under control, using his close personal connection to Hindenburg. Within months, the Reichstag Fire Decree and the Enabling Act of 1933 had brought about a state of emergency: it wiped out constitutional governance and civil liberties. Hitler’s seizure of power (Machtergreifung) was permissive of government by decree without legislative participation. These events brought the republic to an end-as democracy collapsed, the founding of a single-party state began the Nazi era.
 Germany, officially the Federal Republic of  Germany is a federal parliamentary republic in western-central Europe. It includes 16 constituent states and covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres (137,847 sq mi) with a largely temperate seasonal climate. Its capital and largest city is Berlin. With 81 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state in the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular migration destination in the world.
Various Germanic tribes have occupied northern Germany since classical antiquity. A region named Germania was documented before 100 CE. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward. Beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation.
The rise of Pan-Germanism inside the German Confederation resulted in the unification of most of the German states in 1871 into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918-1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic. The establishment of the Third Reich in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After 1945, Germany split into two states, East Germany and West Germany. In 1990, the country was reunified.
 In the 21st century, Germany is a great power and has the world’s fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the fifth-largest by PPP. As a global leader in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the world’s third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a developed country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled and productive society. It upholds a social security and universal health care system, environmental protection and a tuition free university education.
Germany was a founding member of the European Union in 1993. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999. Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world. Known for its rich cultural history, Germany has been continuously the home of influential artists, philosophers, musicians, sportsmen, entrepreneurs, scientists and inventors.
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