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Until recently I actually thought that Germany only had one united currency – the Euro.
Now I’ve learned that this has never been the case. …And there is not just one, or two but some two dozen other regional currencies in existence in Germany currently. Especially in southern Germany, Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg those regional or micro currencies are particularly popular.
Some of them have very creative names such as the “Sterntaler” (Star Money), “Kirschblüten”(Cherry Blossoms), the “Lechtaler” and the “Chiemgauer”.
The “Chiemgauer” has its name from a region in southern German and is the most popular regional currency.
This currency was established around the same time (in 2003) the Euro was adopted as national currency. Now, over 7 years later this regional money is accepted in about 600 businesses in the Chiemgau region. In 2008 alone 1,072,818 Euro were exchanged into the Chiemgauer. Regional businesses can even get interest –free loans in this currency.
http://www.der-lechtaler.de/lechtaler-profil.0.html
Could regional currencies replace the Euro?
Not at all. Regional or micro currencies are not in competition with the Euro. The regional currencies are only used to support regional, small business. The exchange rate is 1:1 and there is no interest-bearing value to the micro currencies. In other words you can’t buy stocks, options or shares in “Chiemgauer.” For example: They are not backed by the local or federal government. In fact, if you exchange the regional back into Euro you lose some of its value. The regional money is made to encourage people to spend it in their local businesses, e.g. at their bakery or at their butcher’s around the corner.
This money is only accepted in small regional areas, sometimes just within a town. But it helps to protect jobs and to counteract the growing debt of the local government.
So, what is the reason behind this “monopoly” money?
One major reason is certainly that the Germans had been very proud of their former currency – the Deutsche Mark. It was a strong and historic currency. In the decision to adopt the Euro in Germany, Germans themselves had no say. The German government under Kohl at that time just went ahead, in strong contrast to other nations such as the UK were a referendum turned the Euro down, or Ireland were people voted for adopting the Euro.
A recent poll by Germany’s Ipsos Institute showed that more than half of all Germans still want a return to the Deutsche Mark.
A second reason is also the very deep regional connection of many Germans. Reflected by dialect, traditional costumes and their states’ flags, many people carry a deep pride in their home region. They strongly support regional businesses and efforts to keep things local.
It amazes me that many German language courses haven’t picked this up yet because this development has been going on for many years already. I can think back to my childhood when this trend was already common even though in the written language we still had to use the Genitive.
To become fluent in German is one challenge. But what do you do once you are fluent in German? How do you keep your German language?
Making the decision to learn German is a big step. To learn German successfully you also have to decide among other things which learning tool you want to use as primary German learning tool. Certainly there are countless available e.g., books, CDs, DVDs, German classes, German learning games, language trips etc. Which one of them should you chose? 
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Far more people who started learning German at some point in their lives ended up not speaking it compared to the number of people who have successfully learned it. I don’t want to discourage you. Rather you should evaluate how you intend to learn German. Besides having an idea about how you learn best i.e. what learning type you are, please evaluate the different learning tools to learn German. This will determine your success.
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The doors to the annual German Book Fair in Leipzig just opened. It’s the 2nd largest German book fair after the Frankfurt Book Fair, which is the largest and most important one worldwide. In fact, Germany has a long history in the book industry. Not only that Gutenberg invented the printing in 1440 but also the first book fair in Germany took place around the 15th century. The Leipzig book fair dates back to 1632, when for the first time it had more visitors than the Frankfurt book fair ever before.
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