June marks 20th anniversary of final destruction of GDR banknotes

• Between March and June 2002, KfW destroyed 3,000 tonnes of banknotes no longer recognised as legal tender
• KfW was legal successor to central bank of GDR
• German eBook “The Treasure of Halberstadt” available for free download

It is an unusual anniversary in Germany’s currency history. After the Deutsche Mark was introduced to the wallets and accounts of GDR citizens on 1 July 1990, banknotes of the East German Mark survived for over a decade longer, walled up in an underground storage facility near Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt. It was not until mid-2002 that KfW retrieved the last banknotes from the tunnel system and finally destroyed them. The end of June will mark 20 years since this operation was completed.

After the monetary, economic and social union in 1990, the successor to the central bank of the GDR – Staatsbank Berlin – was responsible for the disposal of the leftover banknotes and coins of obsolete GDR currency. The coins were melted down for metal production and sold to industry. The banknotes, a total of 3,000 tonnes, were stored in underground tunnels in Halberstadt and left to rot. The Staatsbank of the GDR had already done this before with success. The promotional bank KfW was not itself involved in the currency reform, but after Staatsbank Berlin merged with KfW in 1994, KfW became the legal successor and thus the owner of the banknotes stored underground.

Up until 2001, KfW conducted regular inspections at the site in Halberstadt which confirmed the security of the storage location. However, in July 2001 it was discovered that a break-in had occurred which brought to light that, contrary to the assumptions of the Staatsbank, only some of the GDR banknotes had actually decomposed. For security reasons and after several possible methods had been investigated, KfW resolved to destroy the remaining banknotes once and for all.

In March 2002, KfW began to dispose of the GDR banknotes in the underground system at Halberstadt. Once the tunnel walls had been fully broken open, the banknotes – mixed with sand and gravel – were removed by wheeled loaders from the 300-metre-long tunnels. Underground, the banknotes were cleaned from sand and gravel in a drum screen and then stored in containers with 33 m³ capacity each. In total, 298 truck loads were transported to the BKB Buschhaus waste incineration plant where they were finally destroyed. Since the banknotes were removed and incinerated at the end of June 2002, the temptation no longer exists for anyone to make an illegal and dangerous break-in into the underground system near Halberstadt.

Marc Zirlewagen, a historian employed with KfW, compiled the history of the stored GDR banknotes in the e-Book “Der Schatz von Halberstadt” (The treasure of Halberstadt), which is available in German for free download here:
The end of the GDR banknotes: About the Treasure of Halberstadt | KfW Stories