Home » Shop » 1921 TORGAU NOTGELD 4 BANKNOTE SET

1921 TORGAU NOTGELD 4 BANKNOTE SET

$14.50 AUD

Availability: 1 in stock

SKU: 1921TORGAUNOTGELD4BANKNOTESET-D25 Category:
Compare

A very nice complete set of notgeld serienschein from the town of Torgau in Germany.

All four notes in the set are here 5,10, 25 and 50 Pfennig and all are in mint UNC condition.

Lovely colouration in the teal and yellow as well.

An historically famous town which you can read more about under the History tab on this page.

Priced to sell and a great addition to any collection.

SKU

Design

1921 TORGAU NOTGELD 4 BANKNOTE SET / Emergency money / Serienschein
City: Torgau
Country: Germany
Denominations: 5, 10, 25, 50 Pfennig notes
Date: 10 February 1921
Catalogue: Grabowski/Mehl 1331.3a-1/4
Size: 100 mm x 65 mm
Grade: UNC

History

Torgau is a town on the banks of the Elbe in northwestern Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district Nordsachsen.

Outside Germany, the town is best known as the place which commemorates the meeting of US and Soviet forces during the Second World War. This occurred on April 25, 1945, later known as Elbe Day.

Sights include the historic town centre, restored since the unification, a brewery museum, the monument for the meeting of the Russian and American troops on the Elbe and a Russian military cemetery. The early Renaissance Hartenfels castle dominates the town. The chapel was built in 1544 (designed by Nickel Gromann) and combines late Gothic with early Renaissance elements. It was consecrated by Martin Luther on October 5, 1544. Brown bears are still kept in the moat.

The town is the place where during the Second World War, United States Army forces coming from the west met forces of the Soviet Union coming from the east during the invasion of Germany on April 25, 1945, which is now remembered as “Elbe Day”. Units of the American First Army and the Soviet First Ukrainian Front met on the bridge at Torgau, and at Lorenzkirch (near Strehla), 20 miles to the south. The unit commanders met the following day at Torgau for an official handshake. This marked the beginning of the line of contact between Soviet and American forces, but not the finalized occupation zones. In fact the area surrounding Torgau initially occupied by U.S. forces was later, in July 1945, given over to Soviet forces in compliance with the Yalta agreement. After the war, in 1949, a film called the Encounter at the Elbe was released from Mosfilm about this meeting of the two armies.

According to journalist Andy Rooney, who was a correspondent in Europe at the time, the Red Army raided the Hohner accordion and harmonica factory at Torgau at the time. There was nothing surprising about that, Rooney said; armies have been plundering civilian property for ages. What was surprising was that half of the soldiers in the Red Army seemed to know how to play a musical instrument. There was a woman, a singer, who had been held prisoner at Torgau during the war, Rooney said, and the Russians freed her. She gave an impromptu concert in the town square, and the sound of her voice rising above the combined accordions and harmonicas playing in unison was something one would never forget.

You may also like…

Shopping Cart
X