Gottfried Gabriel: Ästhetik und Rhetorik des Geldes

There have been many discussions about the end of the German mark, both from political and economic standpoints. These however were always concerned with the abstract currency and not with the money in its tangible form as a coin or a bill. For the first time, Gabriel studies the aesthetics of the material and the rhetoric of symbols used. The iconography of German money is traced back to its origins at the beginning of the 19th century from an historico-political perspective and compared to the imagery of the euro. The history of German coins and bills becomes a clear reflection of Germany’s political history with its continuities and disruptions.