10 Mark 1971, East Germany
in Krause book | Number: 28а |
Years of issue: | 1971 |
Edition: | -- |
Signatures: | no signature |
Serie: | Staatsbank der DDR |
Specimen of: | 1971 |
Material: | Cotton fiber |
Size (mm): | 120,5 х 53 |
Printer: | VEB Wertpapierdruckerei der DDR, Leipzig |
* All pictures marked are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.

Description
Watermark:
Clara Zetkin.
Avers:
Clara Zetkin (née Eissner; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and advocate for women's rights. In 1911, she organized the first International Women's Day - 8 March.
Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany, then she joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and its far-left wing, the Spartacist League; this later became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which she represented in the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1933.
The eldest of three children, Clara Zetkin was born Clara Josephine Eissner in Wiederau, a peasant village in Saxony, now part of the municipality Königshain-Wiederau. Her father, Gottfried Eissner, was a schoolmaster and church organist who was a devout Protestant, while her mother, Josephine Vitale, had French roots, came from a middle-class family from Leipzig, and was highly educated. Having studied to become a teacher, Zetkin developed connections with the women's movement and the labour movement in Germany from 1874. In 1878 she joined the Socialist Workers' Party (Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei, SAP). This party had been founded in 1875 by merging two previous parties: the ADAV formed by Ferdinand Lassalle and the SDAP of August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. In 1890 its name was changed to its modern version Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
Because of the ban placed on socialist activity in Germany by Bismarck in 1878, Zetkin left for Zurich in 1882 then went into exile in Paris. During her time in Paris she played an important role in the foundation of the Socialist International socialist group. She also adopted the name of her lover, the Russian-Jewish leftist Ossip Zetkin, with whom she had two sons, Kostantin (Kostja) and Maxim. Ossip Zetkin died in 1889. Later, Zetkin was married to the artist Georg Friedrich Zundel, eighteen years her junior, from 1899 to 1928.
In the SPD, Zetkin, along with Rosa Luxemburg, her close friend and confidante, was one of the main figures of the far-left wing of the party. In the debate on Revisionism at the turn of the XX century they jointly attacked the reformist theses of Eduard Bernstein.
Zetkin was very interested in women's politics, including the fight for equal opportunities and women's suffrage. She developed the social-democratic women's movement in Germany; from 1891 to 1917 she edited the SPD women's newspaper "Die Gleichheit" ("Equality"). In 1907 she became the leader of the newly founded "Women's Office" at the SPD. She established the first "International Women's Day" on 19 March 1911, launching the idea of it in Copenhagen, in what later became the Ungdomshuset. Zetkin was deeply opposed to the concept of "bourgeois feminism," which she claimed was a tool to divide the unity of the working classes.
During the First World War Zetkin, along with Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Luise Kähler and other influential SPD politicians, rejected the party's policy of Burgfrieden (a truce with the government, promising to refrain from any strikes during the war). Among other anti-war activities, Zetkin organised an international socialist women's anti-war conference in Berlin in 1915. Because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times during the war, and in 1916 taken into "protective custody" (from which she was later released on account of illness).
In 1916 Zetkin was one of the co-founders of the Spartacist League and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) which had split off in 1917 from its mother party, the SPD, in protest at its pro-war stance. In January 1919, after the German Revolution in November of the previous year, the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) was founded; Zetkin also joined this and represented the party from 1920 to 1933 in the Reichstag. She interviewed Lenin on "The Women's Question" in 1920.
Until 1924 Zetkin was a member of the KPD's central office; from 1927 to 1929 she was a member of the party's central committee. She was also a member of the executive committee of the Communist International (Comintern) from 1921 to 1933. In 1925 she was elected president of the German left-wing solidarity organisation Rote Hilfe. In August 1932, as the chairwoman of the Reichstag by seniority, she was entitled to give the opening address, and used it to call for workers to unite in the struggle against fascism.
Recipient of the Order of Lenin (1932) and Order of the Red Banner (1927).
When Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party took over power, the Communist Party of Germany was banned, following the Reichstag fire in 1933. Zetkin went into exile for the last time, this time to the Soviet Union. She died there, at Arkhangelskoye, near Moscow, in 1933, aged nearly 76. Her ashes were placed in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, by the Moscow Kremlin Wall, near the Red Square.
After 1949, Zetkin became a much-celebrated heroine in the German Democratic Republic, and every major city had a street named after her. Even today, Clara Zetkin's name can still be found on the maps of the former lands of the GDR.
The coat of arms of GDR is on top, more to left side.
The national emblem of the German Democratic Republic featured a hammer and a compass, surrounded by a ring of rye. It was an example of what has been called "socialist heraldry".
The hammer represented the workers in the factories. The compass represented the intelligentsia, and the ring of rye the farmers. The first designs included only the hammer and ring of rye, as an expression of the GDR as a communist "Workers' and Farmers' state" ("Arbeiter- und Bauernstaat"). Surrounded by a wreath, the national emblem also acted as the emblem for the East German National People's Army, and when surrounded by a twelve pointed white star, for the People's Police.
When the federated states in East Germany were abolished and replaced by Bezirke, making the GDR into a unitary state, the national emblem came to be used by the regions too. The East Berlin government did not want regional symbols to be used, since they could stir up regional patriotism and movements for independence.
The emblem was adopted as the GDR's national emblem by a law of 26 September 1955, and added to the national flag by a law of 1 October 1959.
The display of the national emblem was for some years regarded as unconstitutional in West Germany and West Berlin and was prevented by the police. Only in 1969 did the West German government of Willy Brandt reverse this policy in what was known as "Ostpolitik".
Denominations in numerals are in lower corners, in words centered.
Revers:
The girl-engineer at the master control console of the nuclear power plant Rheinsberg (KKW Rheinsberg).
Rheinsberg Nuclear Power Station was the second nuclear reactor in East Germany after the Rossendorf Research Reactor, and the first nuclear power reactor in East Germany. It was built close to the city of Rheinsberg on the Stechlinsee. The power station was one of the first generation of demonstration power reactors.
The project commenced in 1956, and construction began January 1, 1960. First criticality followed on March 11, 1966 (the reactor was not pressurized at that time however). Full start-up was on May 9, and commercial power production began on October 11, 1966.
The single pressurized water reactor was of Soviet design - type VVER-210. Gross power of the station was 70 MWe, but 8 MWe was required to run plant systems, so net output to the grid was 62 MWe. Gross power output was subsequently raised to 75 MWe and then 80 MWe as operating experience increased. Cooling water was taken from the Nehmitzsee and by a special discharge channel was discharged into the Stechlinsee. The plant accumulated 130,000 hours of operating time.
Before German reunification in 1990 put an end to operations the power station was shut down due to safety problems. An end-of-life shutdown in 1992 had been scheduled in any case.
Since 1995 the plant has been undergoing decommissioning activities conducted by the company previously operating the plant during its active life (Energiewerke Nord GmbH). Radioactive materials are being moved to a temporary storage facility.
The area is under consideration for either site "greening" or conversion into an industrial complex once the plant has been dismantled. The worst accident occurring at the plant during operation was classified as an INES 2-level event. A tear in tubing in a cooling circuit was noticed quickly and was repaired. In 2011, Deutschlandradio Kultur produced a radioplay about this event. "Rheinsberger Restlaufzeit" combines a fictional story with original sound clips of the former spokesman of the nuclear power plant as he reconstructs the events of 1973.
This banknote is the most feminist bill in the history of Germany. The fact is that it depicts the girl as the operator of the nuclear power plant control. However, after searching of some photographs by enthusiasts in Bundesarchiv, only pictures with men at the master control console were found. None of the photos with a woman was found. (www.leitmedium.de de.)
The inscription on top: "Wer Banknoten nachmacht oder verfälscht oder nachgemachte oder verfälschte sich verschafft und in Verkehr bringt, wird bestraft".
In English: "Who imitates banknotes or falsified or forged or falsified procures and markets it, will be punished."
On left side, again, is the coat of arms of GDR.
Denominations in numerals are in lower corners, in words at bottom, centered.
Comments:
The State Bank of the GDR (German: Staatsbank der DDR) was the central bank of East Germany. It was established on 1 January 1968 from the Deutsche Notenbank and took over the majority of the same tasks.
The State Bank of the GDR was responsible for the administration of the internal account settlement and banking system, the issue of money and control of money circulation within the GDR, administration of the exchange control regulations and settlement of foreign currency accounts with overseas companies and governments (Zahlungsverkehr by transfer). In addition, the bank bought and sold financial securities and administered the purchase, sale and holding of precious metals for foreign exchange purposes.
The state bank was also responsible for the account processing of the state institutions and state enterprises, (Volkseigener Betrieb), having at least one main branch in each of the 15 administrative subdivisions of the German Democratic Republic.
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