After the transition of Europe to a single currency, manycountries abandoned their monetary unit in favor of the euro. But among the currencies were those whose history numbered several centuries and was closely related to the history of Europe itself. There were, of course, those whose history is not so great, but for many people it is connected with years of financial success and stability. One of the brightest currencies that has experienced ups and downs is undoubtedly the German brand.
The history of the German brand dates back to the endXIX century, after the moment of unification of different German principalities in the German Empire. To be more precise, the gold stamp appeared in 1873, and the Germans, with their inherent pedantry, even calculated the transition from many disparate currencies to a single one. The course was as follows: three silver thalers per stamp.
After the start of World War I, Germany refusedfrom the gold provision of currency and changed the gold mark to paper. This brand is German, perhaps the most unlucky of all during the existence of a single German currency. It was at this time that Germany suffered tremendous upheavals, including unprecedented inflation in the early 1920s of the twentieth century. The denominations of that time were par value of one, five, fifty million. The German brands (photo below) and the entire German people were truly one of the most difficult economic crises of the 20th century. After all, the rate of inflation was 25% per day, that is, prices grew by 3 days in 3 days. With this level of inflation, money really was nothing more than a sheet of paper.
This continued until June 1948, just thenOn the territory of the Anglo-American zone, a new currency, the Deutschmark, was put into circulation. The operation for monetary reform was prepared in strictest secrecy, the banknotes themselves were printed in the USA, and were sent to Germany through Spain. The transition to a new currency sharply depreciated the Reichsmark, which was still used in the zone of responsibility of the Soviet Union. The answer was not long in coming: Berlin was blocked, and finally Germany was finally divided into two states. In fact, the division of Germany occurred as a consequence of the appearance of the Deutschmark. Since that moment the German brand existed both in Western and Eastern Germany.
By the middle of the 50s, the dojmarka model of stability. As studies conducted in the late 1970s showed, in almost 30 years the brand's purchasing power fell by half, which, however, was one of the best results in the world. The dollar fell by 60%, while the pound lost more than 80%. Following the country (in 1990) and the German brand again became one. And the amount of up to 4 thousand eastern stamps could be exchanged at a rate of one to one which, by the way, caused a serious scandal between the German government and the Federal Bank. At the same time, every resident of East Germany, who visited the western part of the country for the first time, received one hundred dojchmarks. However, even this did not shake the German brand. During the last decade of the twentieth century, the German - Deutschmark brand - remained one of the most stable European currencies, successfully competing with the US dollar as a means of saving.
On January 1, 2002, the brand was replaced by the euro.By the way, the historical rate on December 31, 2001: the German mark to the ruble - 13.54. Many Germans reluctantly parted with the national currency, and now a large part of Germany's population hopes for its return.