101456 | GERMANY. World War I uniface cast iron Medal.

101456  |  GERMANY. World War I uniface cast iron Medal. Later casting after the 1914/5 original. Kriegshetze (Warmongering) (50mm, 23.66 g). After L. Gies.

 

KRIEGS HETZE, mob of people holding up two signs and two banners, along with oversized soldier's head in pickelhaube and a raised fist / Rough incuse of obverse. Edge: Numerous filing marks, otherwise plain.

 

Cf. Klose 1.12 (for prototype); cf. The Art of Devastation p. 110, fig. 41 (same). Virtually as cast. Charcoal gray surfaces, with a somewhat burnished iridescence on the reverse. An enchanting later casting of the very rare original.

 

An interesting satirical issue, this design actually caused a bit of a problem for Gies, in that the German authorities viewed it as calling out the German war effort and casting doubt upon those in power who were seen to be "warmongering." All examples of the type at the time were seized, and their ability to circulate among the collecting community was put on hold until 1919 following the conclusion of the war. In an attempt to assure the German authorities, Gies cited the oversized soldier's head to be the German God of War warning the Italians against taking a rash step, and not critical of the war. Whether that was its intended message or made up in order to take the spotlight off Gies, it does, as mentioned in The Art of Devastation, "...make it the only known case in which the stated reason for suspicion of a medal's circulation is a pacifist position" (p. 113). In light of the current landscape within Russia and the suppression of any coverage deemed "unsupportive" of the atrocities in Ukraine, it strikes a direct parallel to this much earlier persecution for an apparent "lack of patriotism."

 

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