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Heinrich Holtgreve —
Once We All Agree: Part 4

Cash dispensers: the intermediary between plastic and paper

Immaterial money, as the term indicates, has no physical form. One of the few points of contact between account holder and immaterial money is the cash dispenser. It is an intermediary between plastic (bank card) and paper (bank notes). A visit to the Diebold-Nixdorf works in Paderborn, northwest Germany, reveals which steps are needed to complete the finished product.

A cash dispenser is composed of several individual components. At the start of the assembly line, welded bank card readers await their deployment. 
Because this factory produces machines for different clients, this stage is required to install individual software onto the computer. There are 16 grey boxes on this trolley: these are the computers that control all of a cash dispenser’s functions. The correct software is transferred to the computer from each wall terminal. 
In the background: lockers with employees’ work clothing. In the foreground: the casing for a cash dispenser terminal rests on a shelf. 
Self-driving platforms transport the cash dispensers through the necessary assembly stages. 
The first online networked “cashpoint” was installed in the UK in 1972. Before the Apple II came on the market at the end of the 1970s, or the IBM personal computer in 1981, for many people, cash dispensers were the first computer terminal they came into contact with. 
Bank notes are stored in black boxes in the lower section of the cash dispenser. This is where the safe is located. 
The bank card has been entered, the PIN is correct, the required amount has been selected, the cash dispenser begins to rattle. Prior to delivery, not only the software, but the mechanics of every cash dispenser are put through a stress test using test money. 
Standing on short legs and without their casing, the almost human appearance of the cash dispensers becomes visible. 
There is a clear view of the built-in components such as the bank card reader or, right at the top, the grey computer. 
Each bank has its own preferences regarding the design of its cash dispensers. 
According to the German Banking Association, at 58,811, the number of cash dispensers installed in Germany fell for the first time in 2016. 
The safes can be fitted with new cash cassettes at the back of the machines. 
A look into the lorry: the finished cash dispensers are distributed to the four corners of the world from the Diebold-Nixdorf works in Paderborn. 

Heinrich Holtgreve — Once We All Agree

Heinrich Holtgreve uses his camera to visualise money in all its manifestations. He has travelled throughout Germany, seeking out places where money can be found: banks, museums, printers, tax offices, stock markets, fintech companies and even a Bitcoin mine. The idea of assigning value to things has always been a feat of abstract thinking. Holtgreve tries to retrace its development, from primitive practices to coins and paper money, all the way to electronic money. How has the relationship between immaterial and material value changed money? And, how does this transformation influence our lives? With his project, “Once We All Agree”, Holtgreve wants to provide food for thought regarding our relationship with money.

Heinrich Holtgreve has been part of the OSTKREUZ Agency since 2016 and photographs for renowned editors, publishers and agencies nationally and internationally. He lives and works in Hamburg.

Related series

Heinrich Holtgreve — Once We All Agree: Part 1

Heinrich Holtgreve — Once We All Agree: Part 2

Heinrich Holtgreve — Once We All Agree: Part 3

Heinrich Holtgreve — Once We All Agree: Part 5