For most Germans, its demise was regrettable. But three years after the Deutschmark was abolished, the currency is to make a surprise comeback in the run-up to Christmas.
The retail and fashion chain C&A announced on Friday that it will accept the mark at all of its 312 stores across Germany. The move has less to do with nostalgia and more to do with hard-headed economics. According to official estimates, Germans still have about 15-billion marks stashed at home, which they so far have failed to convert into euros.
Although Germany is seen in Britain as being pro-euro, the currency is still deeply mistrusted by Germans. They are frequently heard to complain that since the euro was introduced prices have gone up, and link Germany’s economic woes with the mark’s demise.
Many German stores still display goods in both currencies.
”We wanted to offer our customers the opportunity to exchange their D-Marks lying around at home for Christmas presents,” a C&A spokesperson, Thorsten Rolfes, said. ”These are difficult economic times.”
The exchange service will run up to Christmas Eve, he said.
The mark disappeared as a currency on January 1 2002. Surveys show that it is young Germans who have failed to swap their marks rather than the elderly, many of whom still have family memories of the hyperinflation in 1920s Weimar Germany, and of World War II. Germans can still convert marks at a few banks.
The offer comes as finance ministers from the world’s leading industrial countries gather in Berlin ahead of the G20 summit on Saturday.
The ministers are likely to discuss the state of the euro. On Friday, Germany’s Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, described its recent rise against the dollar as ”brutal” and warned that it is damaging EU exports. — Guardian Unlimited Â