The Goldmark; officially just Mark, sign: ℳ) was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914. The Papiermark refers to the German currency from 4 August 1914 when the link between the Mark and gold was abandoned.

Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver. Although the Mark was based on gold rather than silver, a fixed exchange rate between the Vereinsthaler and the Mark of 3 Mark = 1 Vereinsthaler was used for the conversion. Southern Germany had used the Gulden as the standard unit of account, which was worth  4⁄7 of a Vereinsthaler and, hence, became worth 1.71 (1+ 5⁄7) Mark in the new currency. Bremen had used a gold based Thaler which was converted directly to the Mark at a rate of 1 gold Thaler = 3.32 (3+ 9⁄28) Mark. Hamburg had used its own Mark prior to 1873. This was replaced by the Goldmark at a rate of 1 Hamburg Mark = 1.2 Goldmark.

From 1 January 1876 onwards, the Mark became the only legal tender. The name Goldmark was created later to distinguish it from the Papiermark (papermark) which suffered a serious loss of value through hyperinflation following World War I (see inflation in the Weimar Republic). The goldmark was on a gold standard with 2790 Mark equal to 1 kilogram of pure gold (1 Mark = 358 mg). From 1900 to 1933, the United States adhered to a gold standard as well, with the value of the dollar being fixed at a price of approximately one-twentieth ounce (troy weight) of gold (one troy ounce of gold was actually valued at US$20.67). The goldmark therefore had a value of approximately U.S. $0.25. The monetary hegemon of the time when the goldmark was in use, however, was the Pound Sterling, with £1 being valued at 20.43 goldmarks.

World War I reparations owed by Germany were stated in goldmarks in 1921, 1929 and 1931; this was the victorious Allies' response to their fear that vanquished Germany might try to pay off the obligation in papermarks. The actual amount of reparations that Germany was obliged to pay out was not the 132 billion marks cited in the London Schedule of 1921 but rather the 50 billion marks stipulated in the A and B Bonds. The actual total payout from 1920 to 1931 (when payments were suspended indefinitely) was 20 billion German goldmarks, worth about $5 billion US dollars or £1 billion British pounds. Most of that money came from loans from New York bankers.

Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, payments of reparations were officially abandoned. West Germany after World War II did not resume payment of reparations as such, but did resume the payment of debt that Germany had acquired in the inter-war period to finance its reparation payments, paying off the principal on those debts by 1980. The interest on those debts was paid off on 3 October 2010, the 20th anniversary of German reunification.

Banknotes were issued by the Imperial Treasury (known as "Reichskassenschein") and the Reichsbank, as well as by the banks of some of the states. Imperial Treasury notes were issued in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 Mark, whilst Reichsbank notes were produced in denominations of 20, 50, 100 and 1000 Mark. The notes issued after 1914 are referred to as Papiermark.

The Reichsbank (Deutsche Reichsbank) was the central bank of Germany from 1876 until the end of World War II in 1945. The German Empire was created in 1871 and the Reichsbank was founded on January 1, 1876 as a successor of the Prussian state bank.  The Reichsbank collapsed in the same year as Adolf Hitler and The Third Reich in 1945.  Walther Funk, a prominent Nazi and economic affairs minister in The Third Reich was the final president of the bank. 

Prior to its creation, each of the German states issued their own currency. After the creation of the Reichsbank, only four Notenbanken (note banks) – Baden, Bavaria, Saxony and Württemberg continued to exist until 1914. The Reichsbank issued the Goldmark, a very stable currency that was backed by gold, until World War I. After the defeat of Germany in World War I and the economic burden imposed by the payment of the war reparation to the Allies, caused years of unrest and hyperinflation in the era of the Weimar Republic. After The Great War, the German currency issued by the Reichsbank was a papiermarkthat was backed by nothing.

Besides the Reichsbank, some of the states like Bavaria also issued their own banknotes. This striking 100 Mark German Empire banknote (P-S922) was issued on January 1, 1900 by the Bayerische Notenbank.