25 Pfennig, Stadt Querfurt, 1921 (Madonna and the Rathaus)

Notgeld - "emergency money" - began in 1914 when metal coin vanished into hoards, and by 1920 had become a collector's craze: towns commissioned decorative Serienscheine printed far beyond any local need and sold to collectors, who paid real marks for paper the issuer hoped would never be redeemed.

Querfurt is a small town in what was then the Prussian Province of Saxony and is today Saxony-Anhalt, dominated by its enormous medieval castle - the Burg Querfurt, one of the largest in Germany, several times the size of the Wartburg, with a documented castellum here by 979. The castle was the seat of the lords of Querfurt, who for centuries also held the office of burgrave of Magdeburg, until the line died out in 1496; the town is best known as the birthplace of Saint Bruno of Querfurt (c. 974-1009), the missionary bishop and martyr called the "Second Apostle of the Prussians."

This 25-pfennig note was issued by the town magistrate (Der Magistrat) and dated 24 August 1921. The face is a Gutschein der Stadt Querfurt showing the Madonna and Child set among views of the town; the back shows the Querfurt Rathaus (town hall) with the legend Der edle werte Fried grüne im teutschen Land - an old-spelling wish that "the noble, worthy peace may flourish in the German land," fitting for a country just emerging from war and revolution. The companion piece in the collection is the 75-pfennig note [[notgeld-querfurt-75-pfennig]].