Free Republic

RETAIL giant C&A bowed to furious shoppers yesterday and agreed to accept the Deutschmark again in its German stores. More than 60 per cent of Germans want their old currency back rather than the hated euro. C&A will take it in its 185 stores in Germany for a week starting on Saturday. Company spokesman Thorsten Rolfes said: “If customers say please do it longer then we will. “The wish of our customers is the most important thing.” A growing number of German retailers are taking the old currency in the run-up to Christmas. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder banned the Deutschmark as...

THE rest of Germany may be stuck in the economic doldrums but Kropp, a small town in the north, is enjoying a mini-boom following the reintroduction of the D-mark. More than 90 shops and businesses that serve the 6,500 inhabitants of Kropp, in Schleswig-Holstein, have started accepting marks again in a startlingly successful attempt to cash in on an estimated £5.66 billion of the defunct currency still in circulation. Since the experiment began earlier this month, people have been flocking to Kropp in a display of affection for the mark, which, according to one recent poll, two-thirds of Germans wish...