Moneta
Registered: August 2005 Location: Arizona USA Posts: 2,365
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This IS the Key date/mm of the 5 Reichmark Hindenburg series of 1935 - 1939. Perfect example, bad photo. 567 K minted. Note: the 1938 E lists as 425K minted but the 39G is valued at more than double in BU, this might be due to silver coinage recall or not all of the 39's were placed in circulation - INFO Please!
Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg was the commander of the German army on the Eastern Front in 1914, and won a decisive victory over the Russians at the battle of Tannenberg in East Prussia. He became a popular hero, and after the death of the Social Democrat president Friedrich Ebert in 1925, he became the candidate of the united parties of the right and was elected president of the young German republic.
Although Hindenburg remained loyal to the Weimar constitution in performing the duties of president, his own sympathies lay with the monarchy, and from 1926 he pursued the idea of a presidential cabinet independent of the Reichstag (the German parliament). In 1930 he realized this plan by appointing Heinrich Brüning as chancellor. After Brüning's dismissal, however, Hindenburg reluctantly permitted Adolf Hitler to advance to the position of chancellor of Germany in 1933. A year later, Field Marshal Hindenburg, the last symbol of the Kaiser's empire, died.
His memory, however, was assiduously cultivated. From 1935, his head appeared on the 5-mark silver coin, and a year later on the 2-mark piece. Right up to the beginning of World War II, this subliminal propaganda suited Hitler, whose declared aim was the rebuilding of Germany's military strength. From 1939, however, no more coins were minted in precious metals, since all metals were needed for the war economy.
The savings of the German citizens were appropriated as well, with a special propaganda measure to help the German war effort: every German was to be able to buy a car through the program called "Kraft durch Freude" (Strength through Joy), if he saved 5 reichsmarks a week. And no fewer than 336,000 loyal Germans started saving up. However, the factory that made the "people's car" (Volkswagen) in Wolfsburg only produced 650 civilian cars; the rest of the money was used for the production of military vehicles.
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