East German Mark (rear)
Officially it was known as the Mark der DDR and colloquially it was just known as the Mark. It was divided into 100 pfennigs (Pf). It was replaced by Deutsche Marks on 1 July 1990. It could not be spent in intershops, instead hard currencies or forum checks had to be used.
It was officially valued by the East German government at parity with the Deutsche Mark, but it was never freely convertible. Visitors to East Germany were made to exchange Deutsche Marks with Ostmarks at this ratio. The black market rate was about 5 to 10 Ms for a DM.
Upon adoption of the Deutsche Mark in East Germany, it was converted at 1:1 for wages, prices, and basic savings. Larger amounts were converted at a 1:2 rate. This was quite expensive for the Federal Republic of Germany government to implement.
Ostmark ("eastern border province") was also an old term for Austria, later revived by the Nazis after the Anschluss of 1938.
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