Gladbeck camp money fund
The Gladbeck camp money fund consists of around 34,000 coins . They were discovered in 2005 in a former prisoner of war camp from the First World War in Gladbeck ( Recklinghausen district ) in North Rhine-Westphalia . The coins were found during renovation work on today's music school (building of the former Prussian mining inspection), where they were in the basement in a walled-up cavity under a staircase.
The coins are so-called storage money . With the money minted for prison camps, which differed from the normal currency , the aim was to prevent any exchange with the outside world and to reduce the risk of flight. In addition to heavily rusted coins that were caked in mortar and dirt, the hiding place contained the yellow and reddish paper rolls with values for the coin rolls and the remains of the transport and storage boxes.
The find expands the knowledge of the living conditions in the Ruhr area at the beginning of the First World War. At that time, 120,000 miners were drafted into military service within a short time . At the same time, the demand for coal and steel increased . To compensate for the labor shortage, prisoners of war were obliged to do labor. In 1915 the mining inspection in Gladbeck built a prisoner of war camp at shaft 5. The number of internees rose from 397 in 1915 to 907 in 1918.
One can only speculate about the reason the coins were hidden. After the end of the war, the prisoners of war were released. The storage fee was collected and kept in the mining inspection. Presumably it was then hidden from the French and Belgian occupiers .
Web links
- lwl.org Exhibition in the Museum Herne