The money was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2011 by Ron Lenneberg, the son of Carl Werner Lenneberg.
German 100 mark banknote on rectangular watermarked white paper with blue, blue-green, black, brown, and red ink. On the face is a wide blank margin and a blue rectangle with a latticework background with a Weimar eagle and swirled geometric border with diamond overprint. The serial number is a red overprint in the bottom left and top right borders, with a Q (?) in the bottom center. There are scrollwork frames on the left and right side: at the top is a bust of a young man with cap and chin length hair, the Bamberg Horseman; at the bottom are Reichsbank seals. The frames are connected by banners. In the center is the denomination Hundert Mark and German text. The back has yellow, brown, and blue ink. There is a wide blank margin and a rectangle with rectangular cutouts in the center top and bottom edge. It has a latticework pattern of diamonds with beaded borders. The serial number is an overprint on the bottom left and top right border. The denomination 100 is in the 4 corners of the rectangle. In the center is a floral rosette embellishment with a white oval bordered by a band of German text; in the center is the denomination RBD 100 Mark. The note is worn, soiled, and creased.
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overall: Height: 4.125 inches (10.477 cm) | Width: 6.250 inches (15.875 cm)
Weimar Germany 100 mark banknote saved by Carl Werner Lenneberg. This currency was issued by the new democratic government that ruled Germany after World War I (1914-1918), just as they entered a period of hyperinflation that threatened the stability of the county. During the war, Lenneberg was a soldier in the 8th (Rhenish) Foot Artillery Battalion, XVI Army Corps, German Army. In January 1933, Hitler and the Nazi regime took power. Anti-Jewish policies put increasingly harsh restrictions on Jewish life. Werner and his brother Georg were arrested during Kristallnacht, November 9-10, 1938, and sent to Dachau concentration camp. After release, they left Germany on the ill-fated voyage of the MS St. Louis to Havana, Cuba, May 13-June 17, 1939. Upon the ship's forced return to Europe, Carl and George were in the group given asylum in Belgium. In April 1940, they sailed from Antwerp to New York.
Weimar Germany, 100 mark note, saved by German Jewish refugee