100918 | GERMANY & FRANCE. Satirical cast bronze Medal.

100918 | GERMANY & FRANCE. Satirical cast bronze Medal. Issued 1923. The Cruelty of the French during their occupation of the Ruhr (60mm, 86.52 g, 12h). By K. Goetz in München.

 

DIE • WACHT AN • DER • RUHR! (the watch on the Ruhr!), head of Marianne left, wearing Phrygian cap with whip tucked behind her ear / DIE • WEISSE SCHMACH • (the white shame), Marianne facing, with head slightly left, strangling a German man by tightening a rope around his neck; AUS PARISER JOVRNAL on banner below. Edge: Minor casting pit, otherwise plain.

 

Kienast 299; cf. Böttcher Coll. 5758. Choice Mint State. Pleasing brown surfaces, with great relief.

 

An analog to the many "black shame" medals of the early 1920's, this piece satirizes the alleged crimes committed by French troops stationed in the Rhineland, with the French occupation as a whole represented by Marianne—the allegory of France—quite brutally strangling a German man.

 

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