On 22 June 1941, when the war between Germany and the Soviet Union started, the German army also entered Lithuania. Chervonets, rouble and kopeyka were replaced by German money - reichsmarks of 6 denominations that were uniform in all the occupied countries.
They were issued by the Chief Credit Treasury Board of the Reich. This money was different from the Reichsbank’s marks that were in circulation in Germany’s territory. When leaving the occupied territories, army men and officials had to spend the reichsmarks. The money was used to purchase various goods to be transported to Germany. This was how the monetary policy was used to ransack the occupied countries. Besides the reichsmarks, there were also coins of the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the Soviet Union in circulation. Later, due to the shortage of metal that was needed for the war, the occupying authorities ordered to take them out of circulation.
