500-Euro-Schein wird bis Ende des Jahres endgültig abgeschafft

At the end of 2018, the largest euro banknote will be abolished without replacement. Although it remains valid, no new notes are issued and the old ones are gradually withdrawn from circulation. If, for example, a 500 euro note is paid into a bank, the bank forwards it directly to the central bank. As a result, significantly more 200 and 100 notes will have to be printed in the future.

No cash abolition!
The ECB justifies the abolition of the 500s on the assumption that mainly criminal organizations come into contact with the large banknotes. For private households, on the other hand, bills hardly play a role. There is therefore no fear of a general abolition of cash.

New 100 and 200 euro notes from May 2019
The so-called “Europe series”, the second series of euro banknotes to be issued since 2013, will receive new banknotes next year. The 100 and 200 euro notes are given a cosmetic refreshment and are supplemented by additional security features.

evaluation
Whenever more money is involved, e.g. Buying a car, buying a house, a dentist, even repairing a car or gardening already exceeds the sum of 5000 EUR, neither an EC card, credit card or PayPal works. And I get really queasy when I get large amounts, e.g. EUR 50000 via online banking or even worse immediate transfer where neither plausibility checks nor name matching are made and all errors are passed on to me and there is no possibility of return.
I have to pay with cash, should I buy a suitcase now? How bad for the dealers, do they have to get money transporters now? The greatest amount of 500 notes is said to be in the billion dollar cash reserves of the banks, which would otherwise have to pay interest to the ECB for deposits, not with criminals, who have 20s and 50s from drug transactions as a normal denomination.
So all fraud, the abolition is very different than claimed.