General Governorate for the occupied Polish territories (Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete) – puppet state, or more precise colony of the Third Reich. Initially there was an idea to create some sort of local government like in Norway but nobody was willing to participate so Germans created General Governorate with German government and Hans Frank as the Head of State. It has been created on 26 October 1939 by Hitler’s decree and encompassed part of Poland occupied by Germany but not incorporated into Reich proper. Whole setup was illegal from the international law point of view but GG had its own government, bank of issue, currency, postal service and police force.
Initially covered the area of 95.000 km2. From 1 August 1941 so called District Galizien (Polish territories occupied after 17 September 1939 by Soviets and then captured by Germans) has been incorporated into GG increasing its territory to 142.000 km2. This area has been inhabited by ~12 milion people. The capital of GG has been established in the city of Cracow – the seat of government and the bank of issue known as Bank Emisyjny w Polsce (Emmissionbank in Polen). More information about GG currency is available form article about currency on Polish territories: Currency after 1939.
Map of GG (after 1941)
♦ If you want to find out more about GG check also this site: Generalgouvernement.pl
A lot has been written about GG and German occupation but very few sources provide any insight into economic and financial situation of the country. General Governorate floated its own debt instruments – physical bonds are known but beyond that we do not know much about it. I was not able to find any state debt reports and to confirm the number of issues and amount of bonds actually circulated
Bonds were issued in series with maturities ranging from 3 to 5 years. Those which had fallen due before collapse of GG (January 1945) were actually repaid on time. Only those with due dates beyond January 1945 are known as after that date the “issuer” ceased to exist and as it was illegal in the first place there was nobody willing to take responsibility for liabilities incurred by occupiers. But I am surprised that no claims in this respect had been made after the war towards Germany – at least I could not find even a trace of such claims.
Bonds were issued in denominations ranging from 5000 to 1.000.000 złoty and apparently were not intended for wide circulation but were purchased (willy-nilly I suppose) by banks, financial institutions and insurance companies.
1.000.000 złoty 4% 5 year bond