50 Pfennig, Stadt Landsberg in Oberschlesien, 1921 (parachutists over the town)

By 1921 Notgeld had turned from wartime necessity into a collectors' market, and in Upper Silesia the paper also carried politics.

Landsberg in Oberschlesien - today Gorzów Śląski in southern Poland - is a small town in the Olesno (Rosenberg) district, first mentioned in 1241, whose leaping-stag seal appears on the front of these notes. The Treaty of Versailles put the future of Upper Silesia, a region of mixed Polish and German population, to a plebiscite held on 20 March 1921. The region returned an overall German majority while much of the south-east voted Polish, and the disputed result was followed in May 1921 by the Third Silesian Uprising, in which Polish insurgents fought for union with Poland and German self-defence units resisted. Landsberg issued its notes in that spring (dated 24 May 1921) under the line Befreiung v. d. polnisch. Insurgent., the German town's commemoration of its deliverance from the Polish insurgents - wording that reflects the municipality's own point of view.

This 50-Pfennig note shows, on the back, a view of the town with figures descending by parachute over the landscape and a large 50, lettered Oberschlesien / Landsberg. Its companions are [[notgeld-landsberg-oberschlesien-75-pfennig-stadt]] and [[notgeld-landsberg-oberschlesien-75-pfennig-insurgenten]].